Arnold Schwarzenegger is getting candid about how his self-esteem has taken a toll as he gets older.
During an interview on “The Howard Stern Show” Wednesday, the former bodybuilder opened up about how he has struggled to come to terms with his changing body after being in such great shape in his youth.
“I kind of smile because every day I do look in a mirror and I say, ‘Yep, you suck,’” the seven-time Mr. Olympia winner told host Howard Stern.
“I look at this body … look at those pectoral muscles that used to be firm and perky and really powerful with a striation in there. Now they’re just hanging there. I mean, what the hell is going on here?”
While Schwarzenegger, 76, knows most people deal with the same existential crisis, he argued that they don’t know what it’s like to go from “Superman” to an average man.
“It’s one thing to see yourself get older and more and more out of shape but most of the people have never been in shape. So what does it mean getting out of shape?” he said.
“When you’ve been hailed for years as this supreme body, and you have the definition and you see the veins coming down your abs, and you see veins on top of your chest and then … you roll the clock 50 years and you’re standing there and you don’t see that anymore,” Schwarzenegger continued.
Although the “Terminator” actor admitted that he looks better than the “majority” of people his age, he still isn’t satisfied.
“I never, ever thought about that when I was 30 years old or 40 years old that this [was] going to happen,” he added. “It just sucks.”
Schwarzenegger says everything changed for him after he had open heart surgery at 50, leaving him feeling like “damaged goods” for the first time.
“That was the first time where I felt kind of vulnerable,” the “Predator” star said. “Where all of a sudden the doctor says, ‘You shouldn’t lift that heavy anymore.’”
Aside from changing his workout routine, the former governor of California also switched up his diet, limiting himself to two meals a day.
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“I have breakfast and dinner,” he revealed. “I don’t have lunch because the system just slows down and it just doesn’t burn off the stuff that well anymore.”
Despite the challenges, Schwarzenegger says he is not “upset” because “there is nothing [he] can do about it.”
“The bottom line is I’m 76 years old,” he said. “I’m full of energy. I’m full of enthusiasm. I’m as enthusiastic and as excited as I was when I was 30 years old.”
“I just always see mountains in front of me to be climbed and so as long as I see those mountains I keep my enthusiasm and excitement and that fire in my belly to keep climbing and climbing and climbing.”
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