{"id":16737,"date":"2026-03-30T17:41:52","date_gmt":"2026-03-30T17:41:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/worldbodybuildingnews.com\/?p=16737"},"modified":"2026-03-30T17:41:52","modified_gmt":"2026-03-30T17:41:52","slug":"how-joseph-baena-overcame-bullying-to-win-bodybuilding-contest","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/worldbodybuildingnews.com\/?p=16737","title":{"rendered":"How Joseph Baena Overcame Bullying to Win Bodybuilding Contest"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<p>Arnold Schwarzenegger&#8217;s son has won his first bodybuilding competition.<\/p>\n<p>The former Mr. Universe&#8217;s offspring Joseph Baena &#8211; who he has with his former housekeeper Mildred Patricia Baena &#8211; clinched first place in a number of categories at the NPC Natural Colorado State competition, including the Men\u2019s Open Body Heavy Weight Class, Men\u2019s Classic Physique True Novice and Men\u2019s Class Physique Novice, and also came second in Men\u2019s Classic Physique Open Class C.<\/p>\n<p>Joseph, 28, shared several photos from his bodybuilding debut on Instagram and wrote: \u201cMission Accomplished! [gold medal emoji]<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;NPC Natural Colorado<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Men\u2019s Open Bodybuilding Heavy Weight Class &#8211; 1st [gold medal emoji]<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Men\u2019s classic Physique True Novice &#8211; 1st [gold medal emoji]<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Men\u2019s Classic Physique Novice &#8211; 1st [gold medal emoji]<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Men\u2019s Classic Physique Open Class C &#8211; 2nd [silver medal emoji] (sic)&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Terminator star Arnold began his career as a bodybuilder and won Mr. Olympia title seven times and Mr. Universe five times, but gave up competing in 1980.<\/p>\n<p>Joseph hasn&#8217;t always been in good shape and previously admitted he was dropped from his high school sports teams because he couldn&#8217;t &#8220;keep up&#8221; with his peers.<\/p>\n<p>He wrote on Instagram in July: \u201cPeople sometimes forget that I used to be chubby in high school. I got cut from my basketball and soccer team because I couldn\u2019t keep up with the other kids.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSwim didn\u2019t have tryouts thankfully and completely changed my life forever. That was my introduction to Fitness and training.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>And Joseph has previously told how he was bullied because of his weight when he was young.<\/p>\n<p>He told People magazine back in 2022: &#8220;I was bullied when I was a kid, elementary, middle school, and not really in high school, but I just felt like an outsider in high school at the beginning.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I was really overweight from the end of elementary school into the beginning of high school.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;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.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;So, that was really a big struggle for me in finding myself and figuring out and creating that ambition to change my weight and my physique.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><script src=\"https:\/\/1079ishot.com\/rest\/carbon\/api\/scripts.js?mver=27&#038;gver=10&#038;bid=34&#038;urls[]=https%3A%2F%2Fbtloader.com%2Ftag%3Fo%3D5642230212591616%26upapi%3Dtrue&#038;urls[]=https%3A%2F%2Fcdn.p-n.io%2Fpushly-sdk.min.js%3Fdomain_key%3DEQUjXov4ydYYrzLMMOT5QZdSwy5dThlKIHag&#038;urls[]=https%3A%2F%2Ftownsquare.media%2Fpublic%2Fresources%2Fjs%2Fpubcid.min.js&#038;urls[]=https%3A%2F%2Fplatform.twitter.com%2Fwidgets.js&#038;urls[]=https%3A%2F%2Fapis.google.com%2Fjs%2Fplatform.js&#038;urls[]=https%3A%2F%2Fconnect.facebook.net%2Fen_US%2Fsdk.js&#038;urls[]=https%3A%2F%2Fassets.pinterest.com%2Fjs%2Fpinit.js\" type=\"text\/javascript\" async defer data-osano=\"ESSENTIAL\"><\/script><br \/>\n<br \/><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/1079ishot.com\/ixp\/478\/p\/arnold-schwarzenegger-s-son-joseph-baena-wins-first-bodybuilding-competition\/\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Arnold Schwarzenegger&#8217;s son has won his first bodybuilding competition. The former Mr. Universe&#8217;s offspring Joseph Baena &#8211; who he has with his former housekeeper Mildred Patricia Baena &#8211; clinched first place in a number of categories at the NPC Natural Colorado State competition, including the Men\u2019s Open Body Heavy Weight Class, Men\u2019s Classic Physique True [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":662,"featured_media":16738,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[155],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-16737","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-npc"},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.3 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>How Joseph Baena Overcame Bullying to Win Bodybuilding Contest - World Bodybuilding News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/worldbodybuildingnews.com\/?p=16737\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"How Joseph Baena Overcame Bullying to Win Bodybuilding Contest - World Bodybuilding News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Arnold Schwarzenegger&#8217;s son has won his first bodybuilding competition. The former Mr. Universe&#8217;s offspring Joseph Baena &#8211; who he has with his former housekeeper Mildred Patricia Baena &#8211; clinched first place in a number of categories at the NPC Natural Colorado State competition, including the Men\u2019s Open Body Heavy Weight Class, Men\u2019s Classic Physique True [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/worldbodybuildingnews.com\/?p=16737\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"World Bodybuilding News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-03-30T17:41:52+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"BANG Showbiz\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"BANG Showbiz\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/worldbodybuildingnews.com\\\/?p=16737#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/worldbodybuildingnews.com\\\/?p=16737\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"BANG Showbiz\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/worldbodybuildingnews.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/50c58af9e6d62e131b3158b2cac3dc82\"},\"headline\":\"How Joseph Baena Overcame Bullying to Win Bodybuilding Contest\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-03-30T17:41:52+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/worldbodybuildingnews.com\\\/?p=16737\"},\"wordCount\":392,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/worldbodybuildingnews.com\\\/?p=16737#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/worldbodybuildingnews.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/03\\\/attachment-imgjpgaw1hz2vzms8ymdizlzazlzixlze2nzkznzewnjbjcm9wcgvkmjqwmhgxntywlmpwzyyxmdawjjy1ma.jpg\",\"articleSection\":[\"NPC\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/worldbodybuildingnews.com\\\/?p=16737#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/worldbodybuildingnews.com\\\/?p=16737\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/worldbodybuildingnews.com\\\/?p=16737\",\"name\":\"How Joseph Baena Overcame Bullying to Win Bodybuilding Contest - 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