To stand and win on the biggest stage of bodybuilding seven times is not easy. It requires a lot of sacrifice, dedication, and hard work. Fortunately, Arnold Schwarzenegger was not one of those to shy away from training until failure. If there is anything that ‘The Austrian Oak’ has learned from his years of training, it is essential to progressively overload to improve even outside the gym.

Schwarzenegger, who was friends with boxing legend Muhammad Ali, takes a look back at the time when he trained with him. While recalling the incident during his time at the studio of Virgin Radio, he emphasized the importance of embracing pain and progressively overloading your mind as well.

Arnold Schwarzenegger gives insights into the training style of Muhammad Ali

Rightly nicknamed “The Greatest,” Muhammad Ali was a fearless and fast heavyweight boxer. He had an incredible record of 56 wins and only five losses throughout his career. What helped him become a boxing sensation were his grueling training sessions. Schwarzenegger recalls his training with Ali, and Arnold confesses that Ali did not start counting the reps until it started hurting.

“And he said to me, he says, ‘I don’t start counting until it hurts.’ So that to me said everything about his training, because we in bodybuilding, also have such a thing as kind of like, do your reps until it burns,” Arnold revealed during the interview with Virgin Radio.

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Continuing further, Schwarzenegger pointed out how this is important to implement outside the gym, too. He has talked about this generation getting mentally weaker previously as well. Adding to this, he suggested progressively overloading our minds to achieve perfection.

‘The Austrian Oak’s genuine life advice 

It is extremely important to embrace pain and difficulties in life to get better and improve yourself. Schwarzenegger realized early in life that torturing your mind is essential for growth. “This is not just in bodybuilding; in order to really grow and to go to perfection, is you have to go through the pain period, and you have to go through the torture, but the mind is the same way,” Arnold added.

Concluding his point, he stated, “The more we take our mind through torture, and the more you can sustain punishment, and the more misery can sustain, the stronger you will get, the stronger your character will get.”

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Apart from the similarity that Arnold and Muhammad Ali had in their training, both athletes rose from difficult times and paved their way to success despite the tough times. It is time we start training our minds, too. What are your views on this? Let us know in the comments.