Arnold Schwarzenegger is in recovery after undergoing a surgical procedure to get a pacemaker.
On Monday’s episode of his Arnold’s Pump Club podcast, the 76-year-old shared that he underwent surgery to have a pacemaker implanted.
“I have some personal news to share. Last Monday, I had surgery for a pacemaker and became a little bit more of a machine,” he announced.
Despite admitting that opening up about his health so publicly “goes against so much of my upbringing in Austria,” he said he wanted to be transparent given so many have shared with him their own heart health stories and by sharing his story it gives “them courage and hope to deal with their own” and “it only feels right to talk about this.”
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“First of all, I want you to know I’m doing great! I had my surgery on Monday, and by Friday, I was already at a big environmental event with my friend and fellow fitness crusader Jane Fonda,” he continued, praising Fonda as someone who is “healthy” and “looks fantastic.”
“Nobody would ever have thought I started the week with a surgery. I want to thank my whole team at the Cleveland Clinic. All of the doctors and nurses took amazing care of me and made the surgery as painless as possible,” he added.
The surgery was prompted by some scar tissue from Schwarzenegger’s previous procedures, he said, which made his heartbeat irregular and he went to get a full check-up every year. “That’s life with a genetic heart issue. But you won’t hear me complaining,” he said.
Schwarzenegger credited his being “diligent and staying in touch with my doctors and listening to them” for him being in the healthy condition he’s in today. He then shared that his mom did not get the valve replacement surgery and died in 1998.
“I had my valves replaced for the first time in 1997, which required open heart surgery. They told me both valves would last 12 to 15 years,” he reflected. He then went in for surgery to get both replaced again in 2018 and 2020. After his surgeries, he said he would check in “all of the time” with his doctors to share his heart rate information from home and that they would advise when a pacemaker was needed.
After going in for a normal checkup at the beginning of March when headed to the Arnold Sports Festival, Schwarzenegger said doctors did “a full series of tests” to monitor his heart. He said that “all the extra work your heart does” from having an irregular heartbeat “wears you out.” He added, “If could be honest with you I struggled with those 16-hour days at the Arnold Sports Festival.”
Schwarzenegger’s doctor later told him that based on his results, he needed to get the pacemaker, especially given he was going to film season two of FUBAR. “Monday I went under and got my new machine part installed,” he said.
“I can’t do my serious training in the gym for a while, but I will be 100 percent ready for FUBAR next month,” he shared.
“I could have kept it a secret. But I know that we have more than 750,000 subscribers now on the daily newsletter. … I know a lot of you are probably dealing with your own health challenges and I want you to know you aren’t alone,” he said. “And if you’re putting something off out of fear, I hope I inspire you to listen to your doctors and take care of yourself.”
