M&F Editor in Chief, Shawn Perine talks shop with Arnold Schwarzenegger during the photo-shoot for this month’s highly anticipated Muscle & Fitness issue. For the complete story, and more pictures of “The Austrian Oak” be sure to get your copy of Muscle & Fitness this month.
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Shawn Perine: When we were doing this shoot you kept things moving, pushing us all along. Arnold Schwarzenegger: I never had much patience for any of the kind of setups, or special lighting, or anything like that. When you have natural lighting coming in from the windows or a skylight, you pretty much get away without having to use all the lamps and all the other stuff. You can’t get any better than sunlight. It’s an honest light and you’re letting the people see exactly what it is, rather than lighting it up with special lights. Even when Artie Zeller would sometimes try to bring in lights I would say “I’m not having any part of it. I will not pose for you. I will do muscle poses with lights, but not exercise poses. You’ve got to try to grab the shot while it’s happening. If I’m doing T-bar rowing with seven plates, I’m not going to hold that pose for you. If I’m doing dumbbell curls I will sit closer to the window for you,” I’d say, “But I’m not going to wait for you to set up a strobe light, because it isn’t going to happen.”And that was always kind of the atmosphere. He would be running around like he was going to have a nervous breakdown any second. It would be like 14 days out from the Olympia and he would see me all pumped up, and this was his chance and he felt like I was not giving him the appropriate amount of time. But with photographers, you can never give them the appropriate amount of time, because they’ll always want to get an extra little lamp, or a spotlight for your eyes, that no one really cares about. So, it’s the same thing we went through at this shoot as back then. The best shot we took was against the brick wall, with the natural lighting. Or that photograph there on the bench, where it was just the lighting from outside. SP: It’s real, and people like to see what’s really going on in a gym shoot—not something that’s staged.
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SP: It’s real, and people like to see what’s really going on in a gym shoot—not something that’s staged.AS: When you look back at those pictures from 40 years ago photographers of today would say “Oh, but there are sweat stains on the tank top!” But it’s fine. Believe me, no one is going to look at those photos and complain, “Oh Jesus Christ! Arnold is sweating?!” No one is going to say that! They’re not going to complain that the shirt is spotty, or the shorts are ripped, or the lifting belt is greased, and it’s not as clean looking as they would have wanted it for a photoshoot. Or the hair is sweaty and wet.All those things were complaints photographers would have, including Artie Zeller, but we would never fix any of it. But then we would do studio shoots with Jimmy Caruso, and that was posing, and for that we had all the lights and everything, and that was fine.
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SP: That being said, if you could go back in time and adjust your training, is there anything you would do differently?AS: No. I think there would be some machines that I would use in addition, like the rear delt machine. And there’s the pullover machines that Cybex has, which Nautilus developed. That machine came pretty late in my competitive career—like 1973, 1974. But man, I would like to have had that machine in 1962, when I started working out. It would have been fantastic. I mean, we did the heavy dumbbell pullover across the bench. And we did heavy barbell pullovers. But I think the way the pullover machine is designed, it gives you the ability to actually isolate more of the muscle, and I remember in ’74 and ’75 I really improved my serratus and intercostals because of that machine, and also my ribcage. So, I think there are machines like that, and the rear deltoid machine, and different calf machines that allow you to attack the calves from different angles, that are great.
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Arnold poses for the October 2013 Muscle & Fitness cover.
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Muscle & Fitness EIC Shawn Perine works with The Governor to get the shot just right as photographer Dustin Snipes looks on.
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Arnold is at home on a preacher curl bench as he is in his own living room.
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The idea here was to get Arnold’s triceps to pop, just as they did when he wielded a sword in ‘Conan’. It worked.
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Perine and Schwarzenegger are discussing climate change here. Really.
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This candid from the cover shoot clearly shows the kind of condition Arnold was in for our shoot.
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Iron Fitness in Santa Monica hosted the shoot. It’s a great gym worthy of a visit next time you’re in SoCal.
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The shoot took place July 31st, 2013—one day after Arnold’s 66th birthday. We celebrated with carrot cake at R+D Kitchen in Santa Monica.
M&F Editor in Chief, Shawn Perine talks shop with Arnold Schwarzenegger during the photo-shoot for this month’s highly anticipated Muscle & Fitness issue. For the complete story, and more pictures of “The Austrian Oak” be sure to get your copy of Muscle & Fitness this month.
Shawn Perine: When we were doing this shoot you kept things moving, pushing us all along.
Arnold Schwarzenegger: I never had much patience for any of the kind of setups, or special lighting, or anything like that. When you have natural lighting coming in from the windows or a skylight, you pretty much get away without having to use all the lamps and all the other stuff. You can’t get any better than sunlight. It’s an honest light and you’re letting the people see exactly what it is, rather than lighting it up with special lights. Even when Artie Zeller would sometimes try to bring in lights I would say “I’m not having any part of it. I will not pose for you. I will do muscle poses with lights, but not exercise poses. You’ve got to try to grab the shot while it’s happening. If I’m doing T-bar rowing with seven plates, I’m not going to hold that pose for you. If I’m doing dumbbell curls I will sit closer to the window for you,” I’d say, “But I’m not going to wait for you to set up a strobe light, because it isn’t going to happen.”
And that was always kind of the atmosphere. He would be running around like he was going to have a nervous breakdown any second. It would be like 14 days out from the Olympia and he would see me all pumped up, and this was his chance and he felt like I was not giving him the appropriate amount of time. But with photographers, you can never give them the appropriate amount of time, because they’ll always want to get an extra little lamp, or a spotlight for your eyes, that no one really cares about. So, it’s the same thing we went through at this shoot as back then. The best shot we took was against the brick wall, with the natural lighting. Or that photograph there on the bench, where it was just the lighting from outside. SP: It’s real, and people like to see what’s really going on in a gym shoot—not something that’s staged.
SP: It’s real, and people like to see what’s really going on in a gym shoot—not something that’s staged.
AS: When you look back at those pictures from 40 years ago photographers of today would say “Oh, but there are sweat stains on the tank top!” But it’s fine. Believe me, no one is going to look at those photos and complain, “Oh Jesus Christ! Arnold is sweating?!” No one is going to say that! They’re not going to complain that the shirt is spotty, or the shorts are ripped, or the lifting belt is greased, and it’s not as clean looking as they would have wanted it for a photoshoot. Or the hair is sweaty and wet.
All those things were complaints photographers would have, including Artie Zeller, but we would never fix any of it. But then we would do studio shoots with Jimmy Caruso, and that was posing, and for that we had all the lights and everything, and that was fine.
SP: That being said, if you could go back in time and adjust your training, is there anything you would do differently?
AS: No. I think there would be some machines that I would use in addition, like the rear delt machine. And there’s the pullover machines that Cybex has, which Nautilus developed. That machine came pretty late in my competitive career—like 1973, 1974. But man, I would like to have had that machine in 1962, when I started working out. It would have been fantastic. I mean, we did the heavy dumbbell pullover across the bench. And we did heavy barbell pullovers. But I think the way the pullover machine is designed, it gives you the ability to actually isolate more of the muscle, and I remember in ’74 and ’75 I really improved my serratus and intercostals because of that machine, and also my ribcage. So, I think there are machines like that, and the rear deltoid machine, and different calf machines that allow you to attack the calves from different angles, that are great.
Arnold poses for the October 2013 Muscle & Fitness cover.
Muscle & Fitness EIC Shawn Perine works with The Governor to get the shot just right as photographer Dustin Snipes looks on.
Arnold is at home on a preacher curl bench as he is in his own living room.
The idea here was to get Arnold's triceps to pop, just as they did when he wielded a sword in 'Conan'. It worked.
Perine and Schwarzenegger are discussing climate change here. Really.
This candid from the cover shoot clearly shows the kind of condition Arnold was in for our shoot.
Iron Fitness in Santa Monica hosted the shoot. It's a great gym worthy of a visit next time you're in SoCal.
The shoot took place July 31st, 2013—one day after Arnold's 66th birthday. We celebrated with carrot cake at R+D Kitchen in Santa Monica.
