Arnold Schwarzenegger spent 2.5 years retraining his muscles to wield a sword for Conan. When it comes to hard work and learning new things to master his character or persona, either on-stage or off-stage, Schwarzenegger never thinks twice. And that's why he is considered one of the greatest not only in bodybuilding but also in Hollywood.

One of Schwarzenegger's lessons from his experience is how he learned to handle a sword for the movie Conan the Barbarian under the guidance of a Japanese sword master.

On June 13, The Howard Stern Show posted a YouTube video featuring Schwarzenegger. In the video, when the host brought up the topic, he noted that Schwarzenegger was unable to swing the sword properly because of his developed muscles.

In response, the Austrian Oak said, “Well, I had to practice. And so what I did basically is I worked for two and a half years. With a Japanese sword master. uh with Yamazaki. And he taught me, and he basically just explained to me that the body has to be retrained. He says your body has been trained for strength and uh for show.

But not for swinging a sword really fast or for doing certain sports. He says so you have to retrain the muscles, and we did it systematically.”

And that training helped Schwarzenegger become a master swordsman. He not only handled and swung the sword properly on set but also performed many of the sword scenes while riding a horse. As Schwarzenegger said,

“So I became a master and with the sword, with the dagger, with axes…. and but it was all training. It was hours and hours of training.”

Kiyoshi Yamazaki Kaicho was an overseas chief instructor and president of Japan Karate-Do Ryobu-Kai. This is an organization committed to the instruction and promotion of classical Japanese karate.

He not only helped Schwarzenegger with the 1982 release Conan the Barbarian, but he also trained the 7-time Mr. Olympia for his roles in Conan the Destroyer, released in 1984, and Red Sonja, released in 1985.

On August 28, 2023, when Yamazaki died, the Austrian Oak paid tribute to the master.

While for the first Conan movie, Schwarzenegger had admitted to going through intense training, the actor also admitted to losing nearly 33 lbs.

The Price of Authenticity: Why Arnold Schwarzenegger Shed 33 Pounds

While news of the sequel to Conan the Barbarian, titled King Conan, is in the making and Schwarzenegger himself has agreed to reprise his character, the bodybuilder admitted to losing 15 kg, or nearly 33 lbs, for the original movie.

He once told Men’s Journal, “I had just won the Mr. Olympia competition for the seventh time in Sydney, Australia. And literally two months later, we’re on set filming Conan the Barbarian. The director, John Milius, came to the competition. And told me he wanted me to be less cut because he didn’t think it looked natural for the period.

So for those two months, I changed the way I was training and my diet to become more rounded. I wanted to look like a man who’d gotten his muscles from hard work in the world and not from very specific, organised training in the gym. I made the adjustments I needed to make. Milius was very happy, and I looked exactly the way he wanted.”

The transformation was not easy, and with the help of the late Franco Columbu for 18 months, the Austrian Oak lost 15 kg and reached around 12% body fat.

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Written by

Supradeep Dutta

Edited by

Ashvinkumar Patil