“Los Angeles, 2029 AD. The machines rose from the ashes of the nuclear fire. Their war to exterminate mankind had raged for decades…”
So begins The Terminator, the 1984 sci-fi action flick whose titular character proved the defining role of Arnold Schwarzenegger’s Hollywood career. Now the actor, former professional bodybuilder, and two-term governor of California is back with a new directive—in a reality not that incredibly far off from the one in which he played a time-traveling cyborg assassin.
After all, we’re fewer than 50 months from 2029, AI has woven its way into everyday life, and Schwarzenegger is joining the C-suite at a Fortune 500 medtech firm that manufactures smart knee implants and completed the world’s first robotic-assisted shoulder replacement surgery. He’s Zimmer Biomet’s inaugural chief movement officer.
“We know that ‘you rest, you rust.’ And as soon as you start getting inactive and you start sitting around and lying around, that’s the beginning of looking toward your death, as sad as it sounds,” Schwarzenegger tells Fortune. “Every medical study, every fitness study indicates that the more we move, the more we walk—just taking a walk after lunch, taking a walk after dinner, after breakfast, or just walking around casually—will help you.”
The seven-time Mr. Olympia champion adds, “You don’t have to be a competitive athlete in order to really make this happen.”
In 2024, mankind is hardly on the verge of extermination. On the contrary, we’re living longer, healthier lives. The average additional life expectancy of 65-year-olds was 18.9 years in 2022, up from 18.4 in 2021, according to the Administration for Community Living. Life expectancy at birth jumped from 76.4 to 77.5 years in that timeframe.
People 65 and older represented 17% of the U.S. population in 2022 and are projected to account for 22% by 2040. To realize that estimate, baby boomers like Schwarzenegger, 77, will have to keep their aging bodies moving.
“For 50 years I’ve been doing this, encouraging people to exercise because I know how good I always felt,” Schwarzenegger says. “I know how good I feel now when I go to the gym—the first thing I did this morning was get up and go down to the gym.”
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Schwarzenegger: Don’t let pain, aging impede physical fitness
As CMO, he aims to support and inspire people around the globe to stay or become physically active, as a means of nurturing their health and wellness. Given his own artificial hip and Zimmer Biomet’s focus on orthopedic innovation, Schwarzenegger’s new role includes promoting joint health.
“Having had injuries and wear and tear, and body part replacements, joint replacements, and all of those things, there’s more stuff that’s artificial in my body than you can think of,” he says. “I feel like the Terminator in real life.”
Though Schwarzenegger’s body has been put through the ringer over the decades, he’s maintained his physical quality of life and wants others to be able to do the same. Growing older shouldn’t mean living with joint pain, he says, praising Zimmer Biomet’s commitment to restoring movement.
“I’m there to inspire people, to say, ‘Hey, I’ve gone through it and I probably will go through some more replacements in the future. I’m not worried about it. I want to encourage you to do the same thing,’” he says.
As far as Zimmer Biomet president and CEO Ivan Tornos knows, his company is the first to establish a CMO. It’s a role he hopes will start a movement, pun intended.
“We’re representing a transformation,” Tornos tells Fortune. “We want to talk about something much bigger than a product, which is a need for people, as they get older, to do something about the pain that comes with aging, the pain that comes with being active.”
Schwarzenegger was an obvious choice to pump up active agers worldwide, Tornos says. “You want to terminate your pain? Bring in the Terminator.”
How much exercise do older adults need?
Sit less, move more is the mantra of the Physical Activity Guidelines for Americans, published by the Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion. They recommend people 65 and older incorporate balance training into their exercise routines, in addition to these weekly guidelines for all adults:
- 2 days of muscle-strengthening activities
- 150–300 minutes of moderately intense aerobic activity or 75–150 minutes of vigorous aerobic activity
Older adults should be as physically active as their health allows, the guidebook suggests.
“I always recommend to people to exercise and to get with the program,” Schwarzenegger says, “because it’s the only thing that is going to extend your joy for life and your quality of life.”
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