We’ve all had a bad day at the gym, but it’s not often Arnold Schwarzenegger comes to your rescue. Which is exactly what happened to teenage weightlifter (and Reddit user) GnashBrowns – yep, for realz.

Feeling completely embarrassed, I put the bar and the weights in their place, and left with my head hanging low

After the inexperienced 19-year-old posted about other gym-goers laughing at him in a fitness forum on reddit, Arnie stepped in and posted back. The teenager explained how he’d taken a couple of tumbles while doing squats and deadlifts, only for other gym users to snigger.

“That hurt more than falling down,” wrote the gutted teen. “Feeling completely embarrassed at this point, I put the bar and the weights in their places, and left with my head hanging low.”

Not one to let things lie, the actual Terminator strode in onto the web-community thread with some confidence-boosting tips.

“You should be proud that you weren’t afraid – not embarrassed that you failed,” Arnie replied. “You could have made excuses not to walk in the door, but you didn’t. You knew it would be hard, and it would be uncomfortable, and it might be awkward, and you did it anyway. That’s courage.”

The last guy I rooted for broke a world record in the deadlift. You have more in common with him than you think

Referring to Brit record breaker Eddie Hall, who smashed the world title earlier this month at Arnie’s own annual sports festival, he said: “The last guy I rooted for broke a world record in the deadlift. You have more in common with him than you think. He started out lifting just the bar, too.”

Here’s Arnie cheering on Eddie ‘definitely-not-a-failure’ Hall deadlifting a whopping 462kg in Australia a couple of weeks ago

GnashBrowns (whose real name remains unknown) has since come back to edit his thread, and he’s sounding resoundingly upbeat, saying:  “My story has national attention. There is absolutely no way I can fail now!”

Yep. No skipping leg day when Kalidor‘s watching.