Golden Era Motivation 1

Some motivation from the Golden Era of bodybuilding

Back in 2021, I wrote a series of email blasts for a friend of mine who had started a fitness company. The emails were called “Golden Era Motivation,” and they were basically intended to provide some… well, motivation using stories, examples and wisdom from the Golden Era of bodybuilding. I wrote ten in all. I thought it would be a good to get these up here lest they disappear forever. I’ve also had a lot of requests for more classic bodybuilding content.

In this first part, I’ve given you three doses of motivation: on Arnold and Chet Yorton’s legendary meeting at the 1966 Mr Universe; on Chet Yorton’s brush with death that put him on the path to bodybuilding greatness; and on Tom Platz’s approach to nutrition.

More to come!

1. ARNOLD AND CHET

Arnold and Chet Yorton posing off at the Mr Universe in London

What happens when things go seriously wrong? Take a leaf out of the young Arnold’s book: be ruthlessly honest about the nature of your failure, identify what you need to do – and then do it! Truth and hard work are the antidotes to almost any problem.

In his book, Education of a Bodybuilder, Arnold describes the 1966 Mr Universe in great detail, because it was one of the most formative experiences in his early career – even though it was one of the most humiliating.

Fresh off his victory in the Mr Europe, the 19 year-old Arnold Schwarzenegger had good reason to be confident of victory in that year’s Mr Universe too. The young Arnold was already well on his way to becoming the most famous bodybuilder in the world, boasting enormous muscularity – including 20+ inch arms – which until that point was largely unseen in the bodybuilding world.

Arnold’s confidence was at a high until the day of the contest, when in the lobby of the hotel where the first round of the competition was to be held, he encountered the American bodybuilder Chet Yorton. Arnold knew that the American bodybuilding magazines had been heralding Chet as the clear favourite, but until now had hadn’t quite realised why.

Chet wasn’t just big. He was tanned, with great definition and vascularity. He just had an air about him: of ease, confidence and energy. Others have described him as looking like a thoroughbred horse or a big cat. Arnold knew this man was the champion, even before he had stepped on the stage with him – and so, it seems, did Chet.

On the first night, although Arnold was showered with applause by the small audience in the closed judging session, when he stood next to Chet on the stage for the pose-offs he felt, in his own words, like ‘uncooked bread dough’. Whereas Yorton had everything – size, definition and vascularity – Arnold, had only the first and none of the rest.

Compared to most of us in Europe, Chet Yorton and the other Americans were like special creations of science. Their bodies seemed totally ready – finished, polished. Mine was far from finished. I had just come to London with a big, muscular body.

The second day, the public posing round in the Victoria Palace Theatre, was just a re-run of the first. Although Arnold won massive applause for his sheer size and boisterous enthusiasm before the large public audience, what hope he could summon was dashed as soon as Chet took to the stage after him.

Arnold marvelled at Chet’s posing routine, at all the little tricks he knew to display his muscles to the best possible effect, at the confidence and almost machine-like precision with which he moved between each pose. Everything about the man said, “I am the champion” – just as Arnold had felt the day before in the hotel lobby.

Of course, Chet won. One of only three men – along with Sergio Oliva and Frank Zane – to best Arnold, the Austrian Oak, in competition. He retained the moniker of ‘the Oak Slayer’ for the rest of his life.

So what did Arnold do? Go off and cry in a corner? Blame the judges? No, Arnold displayed a striking level of maturity, poise and honesty. He looked at himself in the mirror in as unflinching a manner as he could, identified his weaknesses and then worked incredibly hard to address them.

This included being humble enough to approach Chet directly and ask what it was that he had been doing to produce such a marvellous physique. Arnold learned about the value of performing higher repetitions, whereas his focus had been on heavy weights for low repetitions to build his famous size.

This was the beginning of a total rethink for Arnold. No aspect of his routine, from exercise selection to diet to posing, went unscrutinised.

Arnold wasn’t bitter about the defeat. No, he was grateful. It showed him his weaknesses in the clearest possible focus and allowed him to become a better bodybuilder. The rest of the story hardly needs telling.

And that gratefulness continues to this day. When Chet Yorton died in November of last year, Arnold was among the first to lead the tributes to his erstwhile opponent and to thank him for what had happened.

So, boy and girls, be like Arnold. Not in the obvious way most people want to be like Arnold (although that’s fine too, obviously). Be honest with yourself about your limitations. And be grateful for occasions when they are exposed – because, with the right attitude, they are also occasions to grow in the best ways possible.

2. Chet’s Inauspicious Start

Chet Yorton

Good morning! Last week I talked about Arnold’s loss to Chet Yorton at the 1966 Mr Universe and how it spurred the young Austrian on to become the Arnold we know and love (and sometimes hate, as well). But did you know that Chet Yorton, by rights, shouldn’t have been walking, let alone competing on a bodybuilding stage that night?