The 7x Mr. Olympia winner Arnold Schwarzenegger has inspired thousands of young bodybuilders throughout his career. Since starting his bodybuilding career at the young age of 14, Schwarzenegger has earned great success and respect in his respective fields.
However, getting inspired by your idol and copying his lifestyle are two different things, with a thin wall of separation. And bodybuilder Tom Platz failed to make the difference. He is popularly known as the Quadfather, and he won the IFBB Mr. Universe title in 1980. He recently admitted to copying Arnold Schwarzenegger in his life, but still couldn’t achieve success.
In his young days, Platz took a train with Schwarzenegger. He started gaining recognition for his leg development, and so he aimed to become another Schwarzenegger in the industry.
Living in California, the quadfather started copying every aspect of his idol’s life, to the extent that he got a blond girlfriend because Arnie had one. He revealed that he started drinking coffee, had hashbrowns for breakfast, and potatoes, as Arnold also did the same. He also trained with him six days a week, twice a day.
However, despite doing everything, Platz ended up becoming “small and fat“. He said, “I got depressed. I did what Arnold did and I got small and fat. […] So I took three weeks off. But I realized, after taking three weeks off and being depressed, I could not keep up with Arnold.” So he decided to take a break from everything and give himself a rest period. When he returned, he started building more muscles very quickly.
Arnold Schwarzenegger mastered every gun stunt for the Terminator
As they say, not everyone can become a legend. Arnold Schwarzenegger has been extremely dedicated in his work, whether it’s bodybuilding, acting, or politics. He realizes the gravity of his position, and he aces it perfectly.
One such instance is from his time shooting for The Terminator movie, released in 1984. Schwarzenegger was doing intense training for the franchise, to the point where he stopped blinking at the gun range while shooting for firing the gun so many times.
Arnold’s role was also quite intense, that of a cyborg assassin from the future. He had to learn all types of gun stunts while making the film. In fact, he practiced gun stunts with a blindfold.
“On ‘The Terminator,’ it was becoming a machine: blindfolding myself until I could do every gun stunt with my eyes closed, and shooting so many rounds at the range that I no longer blinked when my gun fired,” said Schwarzenegger.
While shooting for the second film, Terminator 2, he was practicing the shotgun cocking flip multiple times, and his knuckles started bleeding. All for just two seconds of screen time, he still did not complain even once.