I've not read Arnold's autobiography but out of interest what are you referring to? If you are talking about his use of steroids etc (which I'm assuming is covered in the book?) then that isn't really cheating since in the case of professional bodybuilding since the sport is untested. There are federations that test and in that case using PEDs is cheating but in an untested federation, it's considered fair game.

Obviously, there are legal implications around the use of PEDs since many substances are illegal however I'm separating that out for this purpose.

I'm not referring to that, because at that time it was even legal.

For example what he did was looked at what parties the jury members went, and then go there and socialize with them. So they already knew him personally before going on stage. Or mess mentally with competitors, lie to them etc. Or when he was on stage with another bodybuilder for the final poses, acted as if he was about to leave the stage, the other one left, and then Arnold actually stayed and did a few more poses.

Maybe not all really illegal, but his book has lots of cases where he describes how he mentally messes or lies to people to get an advantage over them. That's how you win. Very good book if you have time to read it.

He even went to a ballet teacher to improve his poses. This guy did everything to get to the top, very inspiring.

It's been on my list to read for while now, I'll take a look.

Some of it, albeit in lighter sense is covered in document Pumping Iron. Great watch, I have more respect and disgust for him at the same time after seeing this.

But yeah, if you want to win at all costs, you start cutting corners, moral and others. Otherwise somebody else with even less moral approach will and will roll over you. Most giants got to the top by being like that (Gates, Jobs, Trump, pick anybody). There are no nice guys in top business, politics or any other power games.