“With Him Being Very Negative…”: Lou Ferrigno Unveiled the Truth About His Relationship With His Dad in the Docudrama Pumping Iron in 2019

Legendary bodybuilder Lou Ferrigno is one of the most respected bodybuilders in the history of the sport. He was then the youngest bodybuilder, 23, to qualify for the Mr. Olympia competition in 1974. Moreover, he is the only bodybuilder to win Mr. Universe consecutively in 1973 and 1974. However, Ferrigno never managed to win Mr. Olympia, but he was rated very highly in bodybuilding.

Ferrigno became a bodybuilder at quite a young age. However, back at home, he didn’t have a smooth relationship with his father. Even though his father was spotted with him in the 1977 documentary ‘Pumping Iron’, Ferrigno revealed the hate-love relationship between them in an interview in 2019.

Lou Ferrigno revealed the truth behind the father-son relationship

Lou Ferrigno had an incredible life journey. He hadn’t it smooth, but a contrast of highs and lows. Ferrigno was bullied and ignored by his schoolmates all the time. As a result, he decided to become his own protector by getting his muscles pumped and pursuing bodybuilding. In addition, he didn’t even had a very friendly relationship with his father as well.

As he explained, “My father and I had a love and hate relationship. My father had a tremendous work ethic, but we never trained together. We only trained for Pumping Iron. He did the best he could and he had a great physique himself. I wanted to grow up and emulate his physique and go on to be the best I could be in life.”

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When asked if the Pumping Iron scenes with his father were scripted or if they had something to do with reality in their relationship. Ferrigno replied, “Well I just loved bodybuilding and nothing could stop me. And with him being very negative, and when Pumping Iron came along it was for the movie. And that’s why in the making of Pumping Iron it portrayed what really happened behind the scenes. The guy did the best he could but I just wanted the world to know that I did not have the perfect relationship with him.”

Why did Ferrigno make a comeback in 1992?

Lou Ferrigno’s father had a kind of authoritative relationship with him. He used to convince him what he decided to do for Lou. Similarly, several times during the competitions, Lou couldn’t do his best training because he couldn’t properly focus on his training. Ferrigno had to compete several times without his will and just to please his father.

Ferrigno said, “And that is why later on I came back to competition 17 years later: not to please him, not to please anybody else, but to please myself. It was very similar to the Mark Spitz situation, with his father.”

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Lou Ferrigno revealed all this in an interview in 2019. To some extent, his father pushed him for success, but he found it hard to please him sometimes. Eventually, he competed for himself, to please himself rather than please his father or anyone else. And that gave him a sense of satisfaction.