Actor’s Determination to Get Fit for ‘Terminator 6’ Filming
Arnold Schwarzenegger wants to give hope to people facing medical recovery challenges by sharing his own story. The Terminator actor talked about a heart surgery mishap on his podcast, Arnold’s Pump Club. He explained that during his third open-heart surgery, right before filming for Terminator 6 was supposed to begin, his doctor made a critical error that nearly took his life.
During a procedure that was supposed to be simple, where doctors planned to replace a heart valve by going in through his groin, something went wrong. It turned into a major operation, and Arnold Schwarzenegger got really scared. He explained that he woke up suddenly, and the doctors told him they made a mistake. They accidentally poked through the heart wall, causing internal bleeding. They had to quickly open him up to save his life, as he shared in a video on his podcast’s YouTube channel.
Even though things didn’t go as expected, the actor understood that he had to keep moving forward. He found himself in a difficult situation and realized he needed to focus on finding a way out of it. It was a matter of changing his approach and mindset.
His initial objective was to leave the hospital, and to achieve that, he had to stand up and start walking again. He shared videos of himself while in the hospital, where he can be seen taking his first steps down a corridor with the help of slipper socks and an Oxygen cart for support. He mentioned that he took small steps at first, then gradually walked further, and sometimes asked his friends to motivate and encourage him along the way.
His medical team was worried about him developing pneumonia, so he made sure to walk every day to exercise his lungs. He had a strong desire to exercise, leave the hospital quickly, and resume his training. He needed to be in good shape to move, run, lift, and perform fight scenes for his work.
His plan worked, and just three months later, he was back to filming. He attributes his success to his positive mindset, clear goal-setting, and the support he received from friends who motivated him. He emphasized that we can’t achieve everything on our own and appreciated his friends’ help in keeping his spirits high.
“I was completely healed and ready to go when I began filming Terminator 6,” he finished.
Fortunately, he was in excellent health when he decided to confront the city of Los Angeles about the problem of unfixed potholes and take action on his own.