Arnold Schwarzenegger's son, Joseph Baena, has officially emerged as a bodybuilding champion. On Saturday, March 28th, the 28-year-old shared a post on Instagram, revealing his triumphant victory in multiple categories at the NPC Natural Colorado State competition. He triumphed in the Men's Open Body Heavy Weight Class, Men's Classic Physique True Novice, and Men's Class Physique Novice.
"Mission Accomplished!" he wrote alongside several captivating photos of himself flexing onstage during his bodybuilding debut. Just days after spending time training and receiving invaluable tips from his dad at Gold's Gym in Venice Beach, Calif., Baena celebrated his maiden victory.
The 78-year-old Terminator star began his training journey at the same gym after relocating to the United States in the 1960s. Since then, Schwarzenegger has been widely regarded as one of the greatest bodybuilders of all time, having won the Mr. Olympia title seven times and Mr. Universe five times before he retired from competition in 1980.
As Baena follows in his father's footsteps, he opened up about his journey in a July Instagram post. "People sometimes forget that I used to be chubby in high school," he wrote. "I was cut from my basketball and soccer team because I couldn't keep up with the other kids."
"Thankfully, swim team didn't have tryouts and completely changed my life forever," he added. "That was my introduction to fitness and training."
In a previous interview with PEOPLE in 2022, Baena revealed that he used to be bullied by his classmates for his weight – even those he considered friends. "I was bullied when I was a kid, in elementary and middle school," he said. "I just felt like an outsider in high school at the beginning." He further explained that he was "really overweight from the end of elementary school into the beginning of high school."
"It was my closest friends that were the ones that bullied me the most and made fun of me for being overweight and all these kind of things," Baena continued. "So, that was really a big struggle for me in finding myself and creating that ambition to change my weight and my physique."
