quotations about bodybuilding
Most injuries involving the Iron come from ego. I once spent a few weeks lifting weight that my body wasn't ready for and spent a few months not picking up anything heavier than a fork. Try to lift what you're not prepared to and the Iron will teach you a little lesson in restraint and self-control.
HENRY ROLLINS
Details Magazine, January 1993
Bodybuilding is like a bank, you get out what you put in with interest. Half hearted attempts net mediocre results in bodybuilding.
STEVE DAVIS
Achieving Total Muscularity
If a man achieves victory over this body, who in the world can exercise power over him? He who rules himself rules over the whole world.
VINOBA BHAVE
attributed, Political Thinkers of Modern India
What I'm against is a sport that rewards mass for the sake of mass to the exclusion of all other physical properties of the physique. In other words, there comes a point where, if you keep adding muscle mass, the human body loses its beauty, shape and form. That's what I'm against.
LEE LABRADA
interview, BodyBuilding, Aug. 11, 2014
People often ask me about the "secret" of building a great physique. There is no secret. It takes hard work and dedication. More specifically, it takes stringing together many, many days of hard training, good eating and proper rest.
RON HARRIS
Iron Man Magazine, August 14, 2012
Discipline is the bridge between your bodybuilding goals and bodybuilding success.
FELICITY LUCKEY
attributed, Great Minds Think It
The iron never lies to you. You can walk outside and listen to all kinds of talk, get told that you're a god or a total bastard. The Iron will always kick you the real deal. The Iron is the great reference point, the all-knowing perspective giver. Always there like a beacon in the pitch black. I have found the Iron to be my greatest friend. It never freaks out on me, never runs. Friends may come and go. But two hundred pounds is always two hundred pounds.
HENRY ROLLINS
Details Magazine, January 1993
Bodybuilding is something that requires far more commitment than nearly any other sport or pastime I can think of. Anybody can meet up with their softball league a couple times a week and play with the boys while throwing back a few beers and call themselves an athlete, but to legitimately call yourself a bodybuilder means that everything you do from the moment you wake up to the time you go back to sleep needs to serve your bodybuilding goals.
RON HARRIS
Real Bodybuilding: Muscle Truth from 25 Years in the Trenches
People only see the results. They don't see the endless hours spent in the gym; working, sweating, screaming.
ARNOLD SCHWARZENEGGER
attributed, Gymaholic
Most champions are built by punch the clock workouts rather than extraordinary efforts.
DAN JOHN
attributed, Bigger Leaner Stronger
Bodybuilding is like modeling for drug users. Steroids are the heart of bodybuilding. Without them, the carnival wouldn't exist.
TRUTH SEEKER
"10 Weird and Nasty Things About Bodybuilding That People Rarely Talk About", Natty or Not, September 13, 2018
Modern bodybuilding is ritual, religion, sport, art, and science, awash in Western chemistry and mathematics. Defying nature, it surpasses it.
CAMILLE PAGLIA
Sex, Art, and American Culture
The good bodybuilders have the same mind ... that a sculptor has. If you analyze it, you look in the mirror and you say, okay, I need a bit more deltoids ... so that the proportion's right, and ... you exercise and put those deltoids on, whereas an artist would just slap on some clay on each side.
ARNOLD SCHWARZENEGGER
Pumping Iron
When you have a well developed body and you're confident, you see people bending your way, wanting to be on your side, wanting to do things for you.
ARNOLD SCHWARZENEGGER
Arnold: The Education of a Bodybuilder
Everybody wants to be a bodybuilder, but don't nobody want to lift heavy a** weights!
RONNIE COLEMAN
attributed, Generation Iron, May 30, 2014
Train insane or remain the same.
JILLIAN MICHAELS
attributed, Planet of Success, December 12, 2018
Bodybuilding is not just about physical training with weights to change how you look. It's about mind, body and spirit together in union so that everything grows, not just your muscles.
SERGE NUBRET
interview, BodyBuilding, January 22, 2019
On the surface, the lifestyle of a bodybuilder does seem tedious and repetitive, but it's that endless repetition that makes us able to craft physiques that others can only dream of.
RON HARRIS
Iron Man Magazine, August 14, 2012
I have seen Mr. Apollo
Uproot trees with his bare hands
I have seen Mr. Apollo
Bodybuilding man
BONZO DOG DOO DAH BAND
"Mr. Apollo"
I've made many good friends in bodybuilding, though there are few I'd trust to oil my back.
LEE LABRADA
FLEX, Nov. 1988