What happens when the youngest son of 7-time Mr. Olympia Arnold Schwarzenegger starts critiquing himself like a pro? After gaining knowledge from former Mr. Olympias, the 28-year-old bodybuilder has made an admission that has redefined his bodybuilding journey.

On April 13, GQ posted a recent interview with Joseph Baena, in which he discussed his training, bodybuilding journey, and other topics.

In response to a question about his training period between the New Year, when he decided to enter bodybuilding, and now, the Called to Duty actor revealed that his training is building on the foundation he already had. He said, “Like I mentioned, I’ve been lifting weights for the last eight some odd years now, and have been learning so much through not only my father, but also the other great athletes and trainers in Gold’s Gym in Venice.

[I’ve been] meeting some of the other old Mr. Olympias, like Phil Heath, Jay Cutler, chatting with Hany Rambod, you take little bits and pieces, tips and tricks, and you incorporate that all into the training program. Thankfully, I learned how to look at myself and my physique very objectively and say, these are my weak points.”

He also admitted, “I know what my weak points are, I know what my strengths are, let’s build on that. Let’s try to highlight the strong points and bring up the weak points. That’s how I made this training program for myself.”

However, he not only started the journey alone, but he also motivated some of his friends by sharing his training program, and some of them joined him and are already in great shape.

He said, “They joined me for the training every once in a while, but even doing it themselves, it’s been really special to see not only my own transformation, but the transformation of the people around me. It just really goes to show what your own discipline can do for your environment and the people around you.”

Although he is now a pro bodybuilder, he admitted that he had no idea how quickly the transformation could be achieved.

Baena added, “I saw myself when I started after the holidays, I looked like a little bit of a doughboy. I had zero abs, there were no cuts in the legs, and nothing was showing. I felt like I was very far behind.

But again, it’s so surprising what your body can do if you have the discipline and really just do the same thing every day and dedicate yourself to your goal.”

And that discipline has earned him gold medals at two consecutive professional bodybuilding competitions.

The youngest son of Schwarzenegger won 3 gold medals at the NPC competition at the end of March, including:

• The Men’s Open Body Heavy Weight Class
• Men’s Classic Physique True Novice
• Men’s Classic Physique Novice

And within a week, on April 4, he won another gold medal in the classic physique division at the 2026 INBA Iron Gladiator competition.

While Schwarzenegger Jr. admitted that he worked on his weakest points to reach this peak, he also revealed how it feels to see such tangible results.

Arnold Schwarzenegger’s Son Opens Up on His Feelings of Achievement

In the same interview, when the interviewers started talking about his feelings after achieving success, Baena said it was super satisfying.

He added, “That’s the thing with bodybuilding—your hard work, you wear it every day. It’s on you. You can see it. That’s part of the reason why I love it so much; you can see everything that you’re doing firsthand right in front of you. I think it’s very special.”

However, to achieve these tangible results, Baena had to work hard.

According to him, the basic outline for such competitions was a five-day split, which included:

• Push and biceps on Monday
• Pull and triceps on Tuesday
• Legs on Wednesday
• No weight and only cardio on Thursday
• Upper body movements on Friday
• Lower body movements on Saturday
• Sunday was for complete rest

He added, “I’m doing cardio about five days a week as well. That’ll be Monday, Tuesday—I don’t do cardio on Wednesdays on leg days—but I’ll do it on Thursdays and Fridays. On the lower body day, I’ll just get my steps in.”

So, Schwarzenegger Jr. not only took inspiration from the former Mr. Olympia but also worked hard to implement those ideas.

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Written by

Supradeep Dutta

Edited by

Ashvinkumar Patil