Arnold Schwarzenegger

This appears in the current issue of Men's Fitness, along with an interview and workout from me. - Arnold

Ever since my mentor, Joe Weider, started this magazine 25 years ago, it has stayed true to his vision of inspiring men to lead healthy and fit lives by sharing the best and latest health and fitness information. Each issue is packed with tips and research that can help any man become the best version of himself. But somehow, despite the magazine in your hands and all of the other great resources available, America is not headed in a healthier direction. This issue looks at the State of Fitness in America, and you will see by reading it that we are going the opposite way. If you listen to all the excuses, you’d think Americans get fatter and fatter because they don’t have time to be healthy. You might have picked this magazine up in an airport to flip through on a flight. Or maybe you grabbed it at the newsstand to read on the bus. But when you get home, when you decide to hit the couch instead of the gym, or when you stop at the drive-through instead of cooking dinner, will you offer that familiar refrain: “There’s not enough time in the day”?

I hear it all the time, and it’s a myth. There’s always enough time. Believe me, if you don’t find the time today, you’re losing exponentially more time down the line. It’s simple math: Subtract a little now, or subtract a lot later.

Years ago, I met Pope John Paul II and asked him about a story I’d read that I thought had to be a misprint, about his working out every day. I was wrong. He told me about waking long before the crack of dawn to train. That day, I decided the excuse of having no time was dead. And believe me, from shooting 16-hour days with director Jim Cameron to negotiating the budget of the eighth-largest economy in the world, there have been a lot of times that I wanted to say, “There’s not enough time.” But then I envision the Pope cranking out crunches and pushups in the Vatican before sunrise.

While I was finalizing my book, Total Recall, out this October, I asked my fans on Twitter and Facebook what they wanted to hear from me. The top answer—and it wasn’t close—was to explain my rules for success. I don’t want to give too much away, but here’s one: The day has 24 hours. Taking one hour to focus on your health means giving up only 4% of your day.

But I won’t even ask for that much. Start with 1%. Pledge to spend 15 minutes each day on your health—I’ll show you how in my program on page 90, which you can scale to fit in any time slot from 15 minutes to an hour. As you progress, the time you devote to fitness will undoubtedly go up, but I’m asking you for only 1% now.

Let’s make this our crusade. Ask your friends and family to join you. Whenever you hear someone you care about complain about time, ask them if a longer, better life is worth 1%.

I had a great time working on this issue as the guest editor, and if we can persuade our friends, family members, and those in our social networks to drop the excuse about time, that would be the perfect 25th anniversary present for Men’s Fitness. So let’s do it.

Thank you for reading, and thank you for joining my fight for 1%.

I also want to extend a very special thank-you to Michael De Medeiros for working closely with me throughout the making of this issue and to Sean Hyson, for a fun interview that ranged from the state of American health care to the promise of eating whole pies and staying lean.

I’m back,

Arnold Schwarzenegger

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