Edel Coffey: Finding hope and wisdom in Arnold's Pump Club

Arnold Schwarzenegger in Terminator: Dark Fate - the real-life Arnold's podcast inspires Edel Coffey

I seem to have ventured into an unlikely niche interest. Can I even call it an interest if I don’t actually partake? 

Maybe 'enthusiast' is a better word for my implausible interest in bodybuilding. 

It’s been creeping up on me over the last while, as I inexplicably found myself following more and more bodybuilding Instagram accounts. 

Perhaps it has something to do with ageing, I thought, maybe a sense of fear or loss or grief about my own body’s fading abilities or tone. 

Or maybe it’s just a fascination with the incredible potential bodies hold ( … if I could just get it together).

My favourite account is @trainwithjoan, a 77-year-old woman who transformed her health by agreeing to let her daughter, @yourhealthyhedonista, a 50-something professional bodybuilder, train her. 

You might think that bodybuilding Instagram accounts would be offputtingly unachievable, depressing in how distant their bodies are from my actual body but actually, I find them to be really empowering corners of the internet, places that focus on the importance of hard work, grit, consistency, achieving big goals through small gains (regular readers of this column will know I’m a fan of this principle), and believing in yourself. 

Plus, they all talk about the ability to start from where you are now, no matter your age, your weight, your personal history, or your abilities. So it’s inclusive too. What’s more positive than that?

It was in this context that the Arnold Schwarzenegger documentary, Arnold, on Netflix, piqued my interest. 

Reader, believe me when I say I never thought a one-time cybernetic organism would become my mentor of choice but over the last month, I’ve found myself listening to daily motivational podcasts by none other than Arnold Schwarzenegger, the ‘Terminator’, ‘Conan’ himself. 

There was just something intoxicating about Arnold’s story of growing up in an idyllic Austrian village (albeit with a tyrannical father), and how his obsession with bodybuilding led him to Muscle Beach LA, Hollywood, and finally to the governor’s office in California.

Edel Coffey. Picture: Bríd O'Donovan

Now in his 70s, Arnold has created a podcast, a newsletter, and a fitness app, as well as a forthcoming book. Arnold’s Pump Club, as it is called, might on the surface be about pumping iron, but it’s also about pumping up people’s confidence. 

Think of it as GOOP if Gwyneth was a ripped action-movie hero and former bodybuilder (although now that I think of it she kind of is).

Schwarzenegger himself says his ‘Pump Club’ is designed to be a “positive corner of the internet” and this attitude of applying a positive mindset is one that can be adapted and applied to all areas of our lives. 

Coincidentally, I came across a woman called Mildred Kirschenbaum, who turns 100 this August. 

She went viral with a video giving advice on how to live a long and happy life. Her key piece of advice? “Change your attitude. Look at the positive side of life.” 

Arnie and I might be at different stages of our lives, and at different ends of the fitness scale, but his advice and experience on his daily podcast offers a lot of wisdom and inspiration. 

You might think that someone like Arnie, a Hollywood superstar, and record-breaking bodybuilder, is an unrealistic role model to get you motivated if you find it hard to even get out of bed but listen to what Arnie says about setting goals.

“I don’t want you to set insane goals. I want you to start tiny because I want zero chance of failure. I don’t want your mind to be able to say, ‘See, I told you that you couldn’t do it’. Because if that part of your mind wins, then I lose, and, more importantly, you lose. We don’t want that.”

He believes in writing your goals down, even ones as small as ‘I will train for five minutes a day’ or ‘I will do five squats next to my bed’. 

This, he says, comes from the period of time where he had to have heart surgery when just walking 10 steps was a dauntingly huge achievement. So he knows what it’s like to start from scratch. 

“Don’t worry that it seems small,” says Arnie. “Right now, we are just showing your mind that you can do it. Once you start to feel unstuck, we can make your goals bigger.”

The podcasts are just a few minutes long — “We know you’re busy,” Arnie says — but over time, I am finding they are having a really positive impact. 

The subtitle of Arnold’s Pump Club is ‘Lift Up The World’ and that seems to be the aim of the show too — to build people up, help them believe that they can achieve realistic goals, and encourage them to attempt things they never thought they could achieve, whether that’s an intimidatingly large bicep or your childhood dream of growing your own food.

Even if you’re just an armchair bodybuilder like me, there’s a lot of wisdom and hope to be found in this positive little corner of the internet and I’ll take it wherever I can find it.