Thomas, El Paso Texas

Arnold Schwarzenegger gets brutally honest about what it feels like to watch the body that once made him “Superman” slowly change with age. 🥲 “It’s fun in another way because I kind of smile because every day I do look, you know, in a mirror and I say, ‘Yep, you suck.’ Look at this body. Look at the pectoral muscles that used to be firm and perky and kind of like really powerful with a station in there, now they’re just hanging there. I mean, what the hell is going on here? You know, it’s sad also because as I said to people, it’s one thing to see yourself get older and more and more out of shape, but most of the people are not, never have been in shape. So what does it mean, ‘getting out of shape’? They’ve always looked at the shitty body, so therefore it gets shitty as time goes on. It’s just when you have been hailed for years as this supreme body, you know, and you have the definition, and you see the veins coming down your abs, and you see veins on top of your chest, oh, you were Superman. I know, you see all this stuff, and now you cut and you roll the clock for about 50 years, and now you’re standing there and you don’t see that anymore. So that’s kind of like, ‘Wow,’ you know. I never ever thought about that when I was like 30 years old or 40 years old that this is going to happen.” — Arnold Schwarzenegger There’s something unusually human about hearing Arnold Schwarzenegger talk about aging this way. This is a man who spent decades being celebrated for having one of the most impressive physiques in the world, yet even he has to confront the reality that the body eventually changes. What makes the clip powerful is that he isn’t pretending he loves every part of getting older. He admits that it sucks. But underneath the humor and frustration is a much deeper realization: you eventually have to accept your humanity, even if you once felt like Superman. That’s a lesson that goes far beyond bodybuilding. Time changes all of us, and learning to accept that may be one of the hardest parts of getting older.