If you rest, you rust. Arnold Schwarzenegger took his mantra for workouts seriously when he underwent surgery.

Speaking to Men’s Health last October, Arnold Schwarzenegger opened up about the injuries he sustained throughout his career, chronic joint pain, muscle tears, and mounting physical setbacks.

However, what was the scariest of them all was his hip replacement, which he had back in 2002.

“If it is a shoulder replacement or hip replacement, I remember when I got my hip replaced, I was working out again in no time. And that very same winter, I was skiing again. So, uh the the idea is that you fix whatever the problem is, so you can go back to your regular life and um enjoy your life.”

And it's not the first time Schwarzenegger has put for this as a solution. He believes staying active is key. Back when he was competing, he took ballet lessons for movement. After his retirement, skiing has been a big focus.

“When you compete, you have no choice. It's like saying to a car racer … 'The risk is that you get k*****.' How do you avoid that? … If you want to race, if you want to be number one, you've got to go and take the risk,” said Arnold in his conversation with USA Today.

For Schwarzenegger, after a slew of surgeries, including open-heart surgery, valve replacement, and more, Schwarzenegger has come out stronger, returning to sports every single time.

And Arnold Schwarzenegger has some advice on how to stay fit for a long time

For the new lifters, Arnold has a simple piece of advice: take a look back and understand what your goals are. Not everyone needs to train for Mr. Olympia. People lifting for overall health and well-being shouldn’t stress themselves by overtraining.

"If you want to work out for health and fitness, then I would recommend warming up really well. And then, if something hurts, you stop, don't get any heavier," he says.

He further added, “But there are sometimes pains that you just have to say, 'OK, no pain, no gain. I've just got to grind through it.' And that's what I did. … I've gone through physically a lot of punishment, but I don't regret it."

Written by

Suryakant Das

Edited by

Siddharth Shirwadkar