Barack Obama To Get Body-Building Help From Arnold Schwarzenegger

Barack Obama to get body-building help from Arnold Schwarzenegger
By Tom Leonard
Last Updated: 12:01am GMT 24/11/2008


Barack Obama: mainly free weights, 50lb overhead dumbbell extensions, 80lb calf rises, 45-minute gym sessions six days a week. Michelle Obama: cross-training, a mix of strength and cardio exercises usually involving weights, treadmill and stair-stepper, 90-minute sessions three times a week.

The President-Elect gyms six times a week

How do we know? Because the intimidating details of the First Couple-Elect's workout schedules have been dug out by an admiring US media and relayed to a similarly impressed nation.

I worry that the consensus among American and European fans about the Obamas' wonderfulness may not survive the increasingly lurid revelations about their devotion to the gym.

In London, such behaviour would generally be regarded as borderline sociopathic. A British politician need only be photographed on a bicycle to denote a man of action.

Over here, a newspaper can report that Obama has a resting pulse of 60 and not feel that it needs to tell readers whether that is good or bad. Few need to be told what such gym-honed body adjectives as "ripped", "pumped" and "buffed" mean either.

And now Arnold Schwarzenegger has revealed that he and Obama have been talking serious weights and possible job opportunities.

The California governor and former bodybuilding champion's jibes during the campaign about "scrawny" Obama seem to have struck home. Arnie says the President-Elect intends to build a huge gym in the White House and wants his help in "bulking up".

No more skinny Mr Nice Guy, just two ripped dudes with troops to pull out and bad guys still to nail in Afghanistan. The boys on the weights machines may be whooping, but it sounds ominous.