Schwarzenegger may have used old ploy

Arnold Schwarzenegger appears to have muscled his way into the governor's race using an old bodybuilding strategy that once rattled his he-man contenders.

The "Total Recall" star psyched out the competition and even those in his own party -- remaining coy for weeks and allowing suspense to build over his candidacy -- then dropping a bombshell on "The Tonight Show With Jay Leno."

His handlers, political reporters and analysts were certain right up to Wednesday's announcement that he wasn't running.

Decades ago, Schwarzenegger sat atop the bodybuilding world with six consecutive Mr. Olympia titles, and many said psychological manipulation helped him achieve those goals.

The "Pumping Iron" documentary, starring Schwarzenegger, exposed those techniques, which might have been at work this week.

"He was very capable at psyching people out, those he was competing against. He's just a strong personality," Schwarzenegger friend and bodybuilder Dave Draper said Thursday.

There's an undercurrent of insecurity in the bulk-and-braun subculture, and the always-confident Schwarzenegger toyed with those insecurities, Draper said.

"He was more secure and confident," said Draper, who now runs a gym in the Aptos area near Santa Cruz. "He had a way of domineering the situation around him."

Schwarzenegger, now 56, took up weightlifting in Graz, Austria, at age 15. He came to the United States when he was 21 and two years later was the world's top bodybuilder. From 1970 to 1975, he won the Mr. Olympia contest six consecutive times.

Schwarzenegger was known to walk past a fellow bodybuilder and feign sympathy over a pulled muscle or other defect -- real or imagined -- that would erode his competitor's self-confidence.

"He'd say, 'You're not looking so good,' that kind of thing. He would always take the lead before they even got on the stage," Draper said.

His goal was to demoralize challengers, who would lose composure or focus. Schwarzenegger would then cruise to the championship.

"Whether he played the game or not this time, well, I don't know. I don't think it was manipulation. I thought it was 50-50 he would run, even yesterday," the 61-year-old Draper said. "I think he will make a great governor."

Schwarzenegger summed it up in his 1977 autobiography, "Arnold: The Education of a Bodybuilder."

"I knew I was a winner. I knew I was destined for great things. People will say that kind of thinking is totally immodest. I agree. Modesty is not a word that applies to me in any way," he wrote.