“Something that I’ve done since I was a little kid was workout in the morning,” Arnold Schwarzenegger told Entertainment Tonight in 2023. “I remember when my father said, ‘You cannot have breakfast first, you have to earn it. You have to do 200 sit ups and push-ups.’ So that’s how I grew up.” He grew up in Thal, Austria, where, the Arnold Schwarzenegger Museum says, “He spent his childhood and youth with his family”; “On Arnold Schwarzenegger’s birthday, July 30, 2011, the house was handed over to its new purpose as a museum.”
“He was 18 and serving a mandated year with the army in his native Austria in the mid-1960s when he snuck out of camp for the Junior Mr. Europe contest in Germany, Schwarzenegger told a meeting of TV critics,” the Associated Press reported in 2012. “He won the contest but also earned two or three days in the army jail, Schwarzenegger said.” Then “His army superiors ended up supporting his bodybuilding efforts, he said: They created a makeshift gym for him and helped him get the food he needed to pack on 25 pounds of muscle in a year.”
“At age 20, Schwarzenegger became the youngest person to win the Mr. Universe title,” the California State Library says. He kept winning: “In 1980 he came out of retirement to win again … That year he won the Mr Olympia title for the seventh time,” Guinness World Records says. Films and the governor’s office followed: “As governor, he was nicknamed ‘The Governator,’ a derivative of his ‘Terminator’ movie role,” and “Schwarzenegger was sworn in as the 38th Governor of California on November 17, 2003,” the state library says; his term ran until 2011.
Decades later he was asked why he still trains. The Digital Fix, which published the exchange on May 12, 2022, wrote that he had spoken “about why he still trains in the gym every day.” Born on July 30, 1947, he was 74. His answer went back to breakfast: “for the same reason as why I’m having breakfast today. I’ve had breakfast today, I had breakfast 10 years ago, why am I still having breakfast?” And then: “Exactly. It’s the same with training. Training is such a big part of my life. It’s that simple. Nothing will ever change until I die.”
A year later, at 75, he told Entertainment Tonight: “I’m now addicted to working out every day … I just have to get my one-hour workout in and then some bike riding.” The boy who had to earn his breakfast never stopped earning it.
Fact check
The facts and where they come from
- As a boy, he couldn’t eat breakfast until he had done 200 sit-ups and push-ups. Entertainment Tonight, in his words: “something that I’ve done since I was a little kid was workout in the morning”; “I remember when my father said, ‘You cannot have breakfast first, you have to earn it. You have to do 200 sit ups and push-ups.’ So that’s how I grew up.” 12
- His name is Arnold Schwarzenegger. California State Library: “Born: July 30, 1947.” 4
- “You cannot have breakfast first,” his father said, by Arnold’s account. “You have to earn it.” Entertainment Tonight: “I remember when my father said, ‘You cannot have breakfast first, you have to earn it.’” The Arnold Schwarzenegger Museum, in his childhood home in Thal: “On Arnold Schwarzenegger’s birthday, July 30, 2011, the house was handed over to its new purpose as a museum.” 17
- In the army at 18, he snuck out of camp to enter Junior Mr. Europe. The Associated Press (NBC Bay Area): “He was 18 and serving a mandated year with the army in his native Austria in the mid-1960s when he snuck out of camp for the Junior Mr. Europe contest in Germany, Schwarzenegger told a meeting of TV critics.” 3
- He won, and got two or three days in army jail. The Associated Press: “He won the contest but also earned two or three days in the army jail, Schwarzenegger said.” 3
- His officers ended up building him a gym. The Associated Press: “His army superiors ended up supporting his bodybuilding efforts, he said: They created a makeshift gym for him and helped him get the food he needed to pack on 25 pounds of muscle in a year.” 3
- Then he became the youngest Mr. Universe, at 20. California State Library: “At age 20, Schwarzenegger became the youngest person to win the Mr. Universe title.” 4
- He won Mr. Olympia seven times, then became the Terminator and governor of California. Guinness World Records: “In 1980 he came out of retirement to win again … That year he won the Mr Olympia title for the seventh time.” California State Library: “As governor, he was nicknamed ‘The Governator,’ a derivative of his ‘Terminator’ movie role”; “Schwarzenegger was sworn in as the 38th Governor of California on November 17, 2003.” 54
- Decades later, at 74, he was asked why he still trains. The Digital Fix (May 12, 2022): he spoke “about why he still trains in the gym every day.” California State Library: “Born: July 30, 1947.” 64
- “For the same reason as why I’m having breakfast today,” he said. The Digital Fix: “for the same reason as why I’m having breakfast today. I’ve had breakfast today, I had breakfast 10 years ago, why am I still having breakfast?” 6
- “Why am I still having breakfast?” The Digital Fix: “I had breakfast 10 years ago, why am I still having breakfast?” 6
- “It’s the same with training.” The Digital Fix: “Exactly. It’s the same with training. Training is such a big part of my life.” 6
- “Nothing will ever change until I die.” The Digital Fix: “It’s that simple. Nothing will ever change until I die.” 6
- The boy who had to earn his breakfast never stopped earning it. Entertainment Tonight (May 2023, at 75): “I’m now addicted to working out every day … I just have to get my one-hour workout in and then some bike riding.” 16
Sources
- Arnold Schwarzenegger Explains How His Dad Made Him ‘Addicted’ to Working Out (Exclusive) (May 22, 2023) Entertainment Tonight
- Why was Arnold Schwarzenegger not allowed to eat breakfast as a child? (quoting Entertainment Tonight) Gulf News
- Schwarzenegger says sports zeal landed him in brig (August 3, 2012) The Associated Press, on NBC Bay Area
- Governors of California: Arnold Schwarzenegger California State Library
- Longest time between Mr Olympia titles Guinness World Records
- Arnold Schwarzenegger explains why he still goes to the gym at 75 (May 12, 2022; archived copy) The Digital Fix
- History of the museum Arnold Schwarzenegger Museum, Thal
Notes
His father’s rule is told here only in Arnold Schwarzenegger’s own words to Entertainment Tonight (2023). They don’t say whether he meant 200 of each, so the Short and this page keep his words as he said them. Nothing else about his family is used.
His age in 2022: The Digital Fix’s headline says 75, but it published the exchange on May 12, 2022, and the California State Library gives his birth date as July 30, 1947, so he was 74, as the Short says. The interviewer isn’t named here, as in the Short.
The army: the Associated Press gives only “the mid-1960s” and “in Germany” for the contest, and his own account of “two or three days” in army jail; retellings that give more detail are not used. “His officers” is the Short’s word for the Associated Press’s “His army superiors.”
“The youngest Mister Universe ever” is the Short’s reading of the California State Library’s “the youngest person to win the Mr. Universe title.” Where he was born: the California State Library says Thal and the museum says Graz, so this page says only that he grew up in Thal.
Arnold Schwarzenegger is alive. Only his bodybuilding, film and public record, published reporting and his own published words are used; nothing here goes into his politics, his family beyond his father’s rule as he has told it, or his private life.
Pictures: no free photo shows his childhood, his army years or the 2022 interview. Arnold Schwarzenegger is at Gold’s Gym before the 1975 Mr. Olympia, filmed by the Pumping Iron crew (Harry Chase, Los Angeles Times), and in a portrait on October 16, 1984 (Mary Frampton, Los Angeles Times; both from the Los Angeles Times Photographic Collection, UCLA Library); addressing veterans aboard the USS Midway Museum in San Diego as governor on June 3, 2010 (US Navy photo by MC2 Eva-Marie Ramsaran); at the Arnold Sports Festival in Columbus, Ohio, on March 6, 2011 (Steve Fauer); at San Diego Comic-Con on July 18, 2019 (Gage Skidmore); and in Vienna on June 16, 2026 (Alex Halada / European Union, and Bernhard Holub). His childhood home in Thal, now his museum, and the bronze statue of him in front of it were photographed on August 23, 2020 (Danuše21); the statue is a statue, not a photo of him. His star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame was photographed on June 21, 2019 (Steven Lek). The other people in these photos are not named.
Photo credits
The archive photos in this story
The photographs and illustrations in this story are in the public domain or shared under open licenses; each one is credited below with its license. Tap one to enlarge it, or follow the link to its Wikimedia Commons page for the full record. The narration, captions and graphics in the Short are our own; its music and sound effects are credited below.
Music and sound effects
Music: Schumann, Kinderszenen, Op. 15: No. 1 'Of Foreign Lands and Peoples' (Musopen, public domain); Mussorgsky, Pictures at an Exhibition: IV. Bydlo (piano) (Musopen, public domain); Dvorak, Symphony No. 9 'From the New World': II. Largo (Musopen, public domain).
Sound effects: Freesound, CC0.
