 |
Schwarzenegger offers parenting advice at Arnold Sports FestivalDate: 04.03.2007
Posted by: Anabolic Info Team United States
COLUMBUS, Ohio - The morning after watching his namesake bodybuilding competition, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger pined Sunday for the days when muscle-bound bodies were smaller but more flexible, suggesting that modern athletes too often emphasize mass over physique.
But even in a roomful of bodybuilders, Schwarzenegger preferred to use most of his time dishing out advice on how to be a better parent.
Schwarzenegger's 45-minute question-and-answer session on the final day of his Arnold Sports Festival has become an annual ritual in which the governor takes a break from answering political queries.
Among the news: The governor may need his travel passport more than previously thought. He said Sunday that he'd like to return to Thal, Austria, his hometown, in response to one fan's description of a recent vacation visit there. Schwarzenegger's only visit to Austria as governor came in 2004, when he attended a state funeral for the Austrian president.
Such a trip would add to an already busy international itinerary, as the governor has tentative plans to visit Canada and India on trade missions later this year.
While Schwarzenegger mostly fielded specific questions about training Sunday at the Veterans Memorial, he turned his answers into broader political messages. The crowd of 300 fans was filled with parents who grew up watching Schwarzenegger as a bodybuilder and actor.
One man lamented that he couldn't get his daughter and stepdaughter, both 13, to exercise, because his wife wasn't interested in having them work out. Schwarzenegger turned marriage counselor, using his own experience with California's first lady, Maria Shriver, and their four children.
"First of all, let me tell you, I've learned one thing when you raise a family, and that is, it's absolutely crucial to be in sync with your wife," Schwarzenegger. "Because otherwise, the children figure out so quickly how to split the team apart. It's all about divide and conquer. They figure it out quicker than anyone else. I've seen it in my house."
The governor then told the man that he should have his daughters join a sports team and rid his house of soda.
"That's what we do," Schwarzenegger said. "We have taken all the sodas out, all the soft drinks out, because really, it kills kids.
"It's that simple. It's just really damaging for their health."
When another man said he saw few children playing outside anymore, Schwarzenegger lamented that parents, because of their work demands, do not have enough time to supervise their kids after school. The governor told parents to turn off their children's computers and never allow them to close their bedroom doors. He said that without supervision, children get involved with gangs after school or get their advice from rock music rather than from their parents.
"Whereas, when I grew up in Austria, we didn't have anything, no money, but my parents were home all the time," he said. "So there was someone there saying, now, first you do the homework before you go out and play. And if I would say, `No, I don't want to do it,' whack, she would be hitting me with the yardstick and I would have no choice. ... I hated it, but today I look back and say, thank God, I had a mother like that that was that strict.
"I'm not saying you should whack your kids," he added, "but I'm saying there's got to be someone there. And if for some reason or another, you can't, then you've got to send your child to a school where they have after-school programs."
Earlier this year, Schwarzenegger was open to a proposal to ban spanking of young children despite his experience as a child. The bill by Assemblywoman Sally Lieber, a Mountain View Democrat, has since been watered down to prevent specific forms of physical punishment on children younger than 3.
For all the parenting advice, the governor did say a few things related to bodybuilding. Though he has reduced his workouts since breaking his leg skiing in December, he told the crowd that he typically exercises each morning for 30 to 45 minutes on a cardiovascular machine, while lifting weights three to five times per week in the evenings at the Capital Athletic Club in Sacramento.
The fact that Schwarzenegger uses a public gym fascinated Court Bull, 42, a bodybuilder from Edgeville, S.C., who asked the governor about his workouts.
"That's amazing to me, because a lot of my friends who are top amateur bodybuilders or pros, they can't train during the day because you go to train, and you've got to concentrate, and you've got to focus in on it," Bull said. "They have to go after hours to train."
Bull also said he found it interesting that Schwarzenegger chose to talk mostly about raising children.
"It really wasn't about, hey, you know, how many carbs do you take in, and all of those sorts of bodybuilding questions," Bull said. "That's what this crowd knows him for, but it got more into obesity and how to be a good parent."
Still, the governor did use the session to make observations about modern bodybuilding. He said the sport has seen progress in a few years after changing scoring rules to reward posing and symmetry rather than size. But he still sees competitors with bodies too big to control for posing purposes.
Schwarzenegger did not mention steroids once Sunday, though he had said earlier in the weekend that he would like to see strict across-the-board drug testing in competition. He also estimated Saturday that drugs may be responsible for 10 percent of the extra mass on some bodybuilders.
"As you could see yesterday, there were still some bodybuilders still there on stage that couldn't flex a muscle on their body longer than three seconds," he said. "They do a shot, you know, and then they just go off to the next thing. But they never could stand long enough so you could get a mental picture of their body."
|
© Anabolic Info
|
|
 |
