55 Popular Bodybuilding Quotes from Famous Bodybuilders
Bodybuilders are amazing athletes! They are the definition of the word “fitness” and “determination.” The evidence can be seen in how they transform their bodies into massive chunks of muscles.
Bodybuilding Quotes from Famous Bodybuilders
For anyone who is starting their own fitness journey to becoming the next “Arnold Schwarzenegger,” here are 55 popular bodybuilding quotes from real-life hulks that can motivate your training!
1. “A bodybuilder is a sculptor who carries with him his own material.” — Serge Nubret
2. “As your bodybuilding aims become higher, obviously you have to work harder, until, believe it or not, you are performing from 20-30 sets of both biceps and triceps three workouts per week.” — Reg Park
3. “At the end of the day it’s not a weight contest, it’s a visual contest. And it doesn’t matter what you say you weigh, if you don’t look that big then you don’t look that big.” — Dorian Yates
4. “Being negative and lazy is a disease that leads to pain, hardships, depression, poor health and failure. Be proactive and give a damn to achieve success!” — Phil Heath
5. “Believing in myself and not to be afraid of taking any risks. I have to be better than the average person to succeed. That’s why I chose bodybuilding. If I became a world champion, if I could win admiration from my peers, I could do anything.” — Lou Ferrigno
6. “Bodybuilding is an art, your body is the canvas, weights are your brush and nutrition is your paint. We all have the ability to turn a self-portrait into a masterpiece.” — Kai Greene
7. “Bodybuilding is much like any other sport. To be successful, you must dedicate yourself 100% to your training, diet and mental approach.” — Arnold Schwarzenegger
8. “Bodybuilding is not only a sport but first an ART.” — Serge Nubret
9. “Bodybuilding is the closest we have to the fountain of youth.” — Lee Labrada
10. “Bodybuilding isn’t 90 minutes in the gym. It’s a lifestyle.” — Lee Priest
11. “Bodybuilding saved my life because I overcame the nerd stage. I got picked on. I was fascinated with power, and then I decided to take that direction because I knew that it would make me feel good about myself.” — Lou Ferrigno
12. “Bodybuilding should be fun because you get a feeling of satisfaction which is very hard to explain. A bodybuilder knows when he pumps up his muscles it means growth. The muscles grow. So, therefore, he knows when he pumps up well, that is progress. And that satisfies him because he feels the progress in his body. Therefore the pump feels good. It’s actually the best feeling a bodybuilder can have. It’s a difficult thing to explain. Like sometimes we joke around and we get a good pump and we say you have to admit that a good pump is better than coming. Somebody off the street wouldn’t understand that, but sometimes a pump is the best feeling you can have.” — Arnold Schwarzenegger
13. “Don’t be scared to lift heavy! You won’t get huge and bulky, you’ll just get amazing.” — Jessie Hilgenberg
14. “Each workout is like a brick in a building, and every time you go in there and do a half-ass workout, you’re not laying a brick down. Somebody else is.” — Dorian Yates
15. “Everybody wants to be a bodybuilder, but don’t nobody want to lift heavy ass weights!” — Ronnie Coleman
16. “Get over it people, I work my ass off.” — Phil Heath
17. “I always say to myself right before a tough set in the gym, Ain’t nothin’ to it, but to do it.” — Ronnie Coleman
18. “I don’t believe in bodybuilders using steroids. If a man doesn’t have enough male hormones in his system to create a nice hard, muscular body, he should take up ping pong.” — Steve Reeves
19. “I don’t do this to be healthy; I do this to get big muscles.” — Marcus Ruhl
20. “I don’t eat for taste, I eat for function.” — Jay Cutler
21. “I’m the strongest bodybuilder who ever lived, I think…” — Franco Columbu
22. “I’ve made many good friends in bodybuilding; though there are few I’d trust to oil my back.” — Lee Labrada
23. “If I have to die tonight, if this weight is going to kill me tonight, so be it! I’m dying where I wanna be…” — Kai Greene
24. “If you don’t follow a good nutritional plan, you’re bodybuilding with one arm behind your back.” — Shawn Rey
25. “If you’re capable of sending a legible text message between sets, you probably aren’t working hard enough.” — Dave Tate
26. “Intensity builds immensity.” — Kevin Levrone
27. “It took me 20 years of hard training to get the physique I have today. What you need is what I had – belief in yourself.” — Branch Warren
28. “Just like in bodybuilding, failure is also a necessary experience for growth in our own lives, for if we’re never tested to our limits, how will we know how strong we really are? How will we ever grow?” — Arnold Schwarzenegger
29. “Many bodybuilders sell themselves short. Erroneously attributing their lack of satisfactory progress to a poverty of the requisite genetic traits, instead of to their irrational training and dietary practices, they give up training. Don’t make the same mistake.” — Mike Mentzer
30. “My definition of a sport is that it’s a physical activity that involves competition. Since bodybuilders certainly train and then compete, we are certainly a sport.” — Arnold Schwarzenegger
31. “Never underestimate the power of wide-grip pull-ups to develop width and size.” — Ronnie Coleman
32. “Nobody picks on a strong man.” — Charles Atlas
33. “Professional bodybuilding is a sport of total dedication. You must dedicate every aspect of every day to the attainment of your goals if you want to succeed. It is not enough to merely go to the gym to “work out.” You must put all of your concentration and focus on each rep, on each set, on each exercise to have a successful workout.” — Nasser El Sonbaty
34. “Rule of thumb: Eat for what you’re going to be doing and not for what you have done. Don’t take in more than you’re willing to burn off.” — Lee Haney
35. “Sell yourself short on nutrition and you’re selling yourself short on maximizing your physique development.” — Ernie Taylor
36. “Stimulate, don’t annihilate.” — Lee Haney
37. “Strength does not come from winning. Your struggles develop your strengths.” — Arnold Schwarzenegger
38. “Thank God for pure natural strength.” — Ronnie Coleman
39. “The best activities for your health are pumping and humping.” — Arnold Schwarzenegger
40. “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
41. “The last three or four reps is what makes the muscle grow. This area of pain divides the champion from someone else who is not a champion. That’s what most people lack, having the guts to go on and just say they’ll go through the pain no matter what happens.” — Arnold Schwarzenegger
42. “The muscle and the mind must become one. One without the other is zero.” — Lee Haney
43. “The road to nowhere is paved with excuses.” — Mark Bell
44. “The single biggest mistake that most beginners make is putting 100% of their effort into the positive (concentric) part of the rep, while paying no attention to the negative (eccentric) segment.” — Dorian Yates
45. “The truth is, I’ve been the Hulk my whole life.” — Lou Ferrigno
46. “There are no shortcuts—everything is reps, reps, reps.” — Arnold Schwarzenegger
47. “Thoughts become things.” — Kai Greene
48. “To be a champion you must act like one, act like a champion.” — Lou Ferrigno
49. “To be successful in bodybuilding you have to be a good observer.” — Frank Zane
50. “Training gives us an outlet for suppressed energies created by stress and thus tones the spirit just as exercise conditions the body.” — Arnold Schwarzenegger
51. “Wait ‘till they see these arms in Africa. They look big enough to me.” — Lou Ferrigno
52. “What we face may look insurmountable. But I learned something from all those years of training and competing. I learned something from all those sets and reps when I didn’t think I could lift another ounce of weight. What I learned is that we are always stronger than we know.” — Arnold Schwarzenegger
53. “When you love something as much as I love bodybuilding you don’t have to do much extra to push yourself, it just happens. There were some tough times and when those came up I just used my mental strength to push through knowing that my mind controlled everything.” — Ronnie Coleman
54. “When your arms are bigger than your head, something is wrong.” — Steve Reeves
55. “You get as big as possible from becoming as strong as possible. When I started lifting I went into the gym with that ‘how much can I bench, curl, squat, and deadlift’ attitude. That’s when I discovered how fast my strength could increase, and it made me crazy intense to get even stronger.” — Kevin Levrone
Final Thoughts
Bodybuilding is not just about heavy lifts and large lumps of muscles. Bodybuilding is discipline, willpower, perseverance, strength and a 100% positive attitude towards your goal.
It is not easy to achieve the bodybuilding physique that everybody wants and dreams of, but with the right push and motivation, you are halfway there.
Resources:
How To Get Big Biceps In 30 Days: The Complete Workout
Sarah Guerrero
A self-taught artist, Sarah loves anything that has a unique aesthetic appeal and everything from her home to her work desk carries a stamp of personal taste. When she’s not busy at her desk job, she loves to pen her thoughts down and often engages in creating mood boards inspired by nature, fashion, culture, and art.
