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Today’s Health Upgrade
From broken to breakthroughs
Does your brain change on social media?
The kidney disease study that might change how you think about protein
How to overcome your nerves
Pump Club Success Stories
From “Broken” To Thriving
Real People. Real Stories. Real Limits Overcome. You Can Do It Too.
Arnold promised we would share stories of amazing turnarounds from The Pump Club community to help you believe that anything is possible if you’re willing to bet on yourself. This is an unedited response.
My name is Elise, I’m 63 years young (can’t be true, but it is). I’m a retired aerospace executive that ran a company and a degreed engineer. After two major surgeries, I came here pretty broken in mind and body. My core was gone instantaneously from the surgeries.
From someone that did 300 situps with a plate, I could only barrel roll out of bed. From someone who did 2 triathlons, was a gymnast and diver, I could barely walk 100 yards after surgery and my balance was shot. I had worked myself almost literally to death.
Sleep was an inconvenience of about 4 hours a night due to stress and jet lag. My resting heart rate was in the 80s. My cholesterol was off the charts. I had gained 20 freaking pounds.
I was not me anymore. I didn’t recognize myself in the mirror. I hurt every damn day. It was sucking out my spirit.
MDs were telling me to adjust to a “new normal” and to “act my age” now. F- that! I just couldn’t accept that.
I found this app, and it’s been a life changer.
I started this about 2 years ago and have put in the reps religiously, except when sick.
I love the coaching sessions of @nicolai @jenwiderstrom and comeback stories of @adam. The success stories of @ketch and people like @peggysue @benriley @jamesrice @emmamichaelsen @ameliefillion @agentanita @joedillon68 @rps @supernaut77 who acknowledge and inspire me to be my best self. My numbers speak for themselves:
Cholesterol down 116 points without drugs
Down 10 pounds (more to go)
Resting heart rate 48-62 bpm
Running rate down from 160 to 135 bpm
Sleep 7 hours a night
I deadlifted 150 pounds in front of @arnold 🤯
BUT here is what I really got back:
I hiked to potato chip rock, did the Narrowns in Zion, Grand Canyon rim trail, Bryce Canyon.
I skied again after 5 year hiatus
I won 3rd place in a 5K and have 6 runs this year.
I’m going to Machu Picchu to walk the Inca Trail
I can play the piano for 30 minutes without back pain.
Thanks, Arnold, village, and team, mostly for giving me back my joie d’vivre.
Want to turn around your health? Join the app, enjoy 7 free days, and experience the difference in the positive corner of the internet.
Mental Health
What Three Years of Brain Scans Revealed About Social Media
Almost every social media app is built around one behavioral mechanic: the unpredictable reward. Sometimes you check, and nothing happened. Sometimes there are 47 likes. That uncertainty is the point. It’s the same psychology that makes slot machines hard to put down.
A three-year study wanted to know what that mechanic does to a brain that's still being built.
Kids who checked social media daily showed different brain development in regions tied to social reward and attention.
Researchers tracked children over three years using annual brain imaging sessions. Starting at ages 12 to 13, students reported how often they checked Facebook, Instagram, and Snapchat, and then were divided into habitual checkers (at least once daily) and non-habitual checkers. Each year, researchers scanned their brains as the kids anticipated social feedback from peers, measuring activity in regions that govern emotional processing, motivation, and cognitive control.
Habitual checkers showed lower neural sensitivity in the brain's social reward regions. Over three years, that sensitivity increased while non-habitual checkers moved in the opposite direction. The trajectories diverged.
The researchers aren’t completely sure why this happens. It could reflect conditioning: brains becoming more reactive to social feedback, hungrier for the signal. Or it could be an adaptation to a noisier social environment. The lead researcher noted the increased sensitivity "may promote future compulsive social media use," but also "could reflect a possible adaptive behavior."
For parents, this doesn't require banning everything. It's about disrupting the checking loop.
And, it might be a sign that it’s a good idea to delay access to social media until at least 14 years of age.
If your child is on social media, and even for yourself, it’s likely helpful to build phone-free windows into the day: meals, mornings, and the hour before bed. If phones are present, change the environment: notifications off, face down, out of the bedroom at night.
Health
The Kidney Disease Study That Might Change The Way People Think About Protein
Most people who've heard "go easy on protein, it stresses your kidneys" never stopped to ask where that idea came from. The answer matters a lot.
The warning was based on research in people with advanced kidney failure. It's been applied, ever since, to nearly everyone else. But new research might even suggest that the recommendation could be outdated.
A study following more than 8,500 older adults for up to 10 years found that higher protein intake was associated with significantly lower risk of death, including in people with early-stage kidney disease.
Researchers pooled data from three national cohorts of people with chronic kidney disease (stages 1-3). Contrary to the long-standing myth, eating 1.4 grams of protein per kilogram of body weight daily, versus 0.8 g/kg, was associated with a 27% lower mortality risk over the decade.
For adults without kidney disease, each 0.2 g/kg increase in protein intake is associated with a 15% reduction in the risk of premature death.
Both plant and animal protein showed protective associations. Plant sources appeared slightly more protective in the kidney disease group, likely because of the fiber, minerals, and lower acid load that accompany them. The lesson isn't to abandon one for the other. It's to make sure both are consistently on your plate.
The reason isn't complicated. Protein maintains muscle. Muscle maintains everything else: immune function, metabolic resilience, and the capacity to recover when illness arrives. When older adults under-eat protein out of caution, they lose muscle faster, become frail sooner, and face a narrower margin when health challenges become real.
And to be clear: muscle is built by resistance training first and foremost. And then protein supports the process.
One important exception: this study excluded people with advanced kidney disease (stages 4–5), who still require individualized guidance from their medical team and might require lower protein intake.
For everyone else, if some version of the kidney warning has been quietly sitting in the back of your head, the evidence says the cost of eating too little protein is almost certainly greater than the risk. Most adults need 1.2 to 1.6 grams per kilogram of body weight daily. Getting toward the higher end of that range, especially as you age, is now looking like one of the most defensible choices you can make.
Instant Health Boost
How Elite Athletes Can Help You Manage Nervousness More Effectively
Before a big presentation, a tough conversation, or any moment where something matters, most people try to talk themselves out of the nerves. But that might be the wrong goal entirely.
Elite athletes don't experience less pre-competition anxiety than their less experienced peers. They interpret the same physical symptoms as helpful rather than harmful, and that reframing is a learnable skill.
Researchers tested elite athletes to understand how they manage anxiety. Many people believe that anxiety is something you need to eliminate. But the research discovered something else entirely.
Elite athletes and non-athletes reported similar anxiety. The gap wasn't in how much they felt; it was entirely in what they believed those feelings meant.
Elite athletes were significantly more likely to label a racing heart, tight chest, and heightened mental alertness as signs they were ready. Non-elite swimmers, feeling the exact same sensations, were more likely to read them as signs that something was wrong.
The scientists believe it comes down to perceived control. When athletes feel their anxiety symptoms are within their influence, they tend to see them as useful. When they feel helpless against the sensations, the same physiological state becomes a threat. Same body chemistry, completely different story.
And before you tell yourself, "Well, elite athletes are wired differently," subsequent research found that imagery, goal-setting, and self-talk can actually shift how people interpret their anxiety.
So the next time nerves show up before something you care about, try interpreting the anxiety as a sign of readiness. That's not forced positivity. It's a skill three decades of research says you can build.
Better Today
Take any of these tips from today’s email and put them into action:
1. Doctors Told Her to Accept a "New Normal." Two Years Later, She Was Running Races and Hitting Deadlift PRs in Front of Arnold.
After two major surgeries left retired aerospace executive Elise unable to walk 100 yards, with a resting heart rate in the 80s, cholesterol requiring intervention, and 20 pounds of unwanted weight, her doctors advised her to accept a "new normal." Instead, she spent two years in the Pump Club app and changed her life: cholesterol down 116 points without medication, resting heart rate now 48–62 bpm, sleep extended from 4 hours to 7, 10 pounds lost, and 150 pounds deadlifted in front of Arnold Schwarzenegger at age 63.
2. Three Years of Annual Brain Imaging Found That Daily Social Media Use Shifts How Adolescent Brains Develop Social Reward Sensitivity
A 3-year longitudinal study using annual brain imaging tracked children from ages 12–13 and found that habitual daily social media checkers — those using Facebook, Instagram, or Snapchat at least once daily — showed a pattern of increasing neural sensitivity in brain regions governing social reward and attention, while non-habitual checkers moved in the opposite direction over the same period. The researchers noted the diverging trajectories could reflect conditioning — brains becoming more reactive to social feedback — or adaptation to a more socially dense environment. For parents, the practical implication isn't a blanket ban: it's disrupting the checking loop by creating phone-free windows at meals, in the morning, and before bed, and reconsidering whether social media access before age 14 serves the child.
3. Eating Less Protein to Protect Your Kidneys May Be Doing the Opposite of What You Think
A 10-year study of more than 8,500 older adults with early-stage chronic kidney disease (stages 1–3) found that eating 1.4 grams of protein per kilogram of bodyweight daily — compared to the standard 0.8 g/kg recommendation — was associated with 27% lower mortality risk; in adults without kidney disease, each 0.2 g/kg increase in daily protein was linked to a 15% reduction in death risk. The long-standing caution against higher protein intake was originally derived from research on people with advanced kidney failure and has been broadly applied to populations for whom that evidence was never validated. Both plant and animal protein showed protective associations in this study, with plant sources showing slightly stronger results in the kidney disease group, likely due to accompanying fiber, minerals, and lower acid load. For most adults, especially those over 50, where muscle loss accelerates, the evidence now points to 1.2 to 1.6 grams per kilogram of bodyweight daily — with resistance training as the foundation — as one of the most defensible longevity choices available.
4. Research Found That Anxiety Reframing — Not Anxiety Reduction — Is What Actually Separates High Performers From Everyone Else
Research on elite athletes found that they report pre-competition anxiety levels similar to non-elite athletes. The performance gap comes entirely from perceived control: elite athletes are significantly more likely to interpret a racing heart, tight chest, and heightened alertness as readiness signals, while non-elite athletes experiencing identical physiological states are more likely to read them as signs that something is wrong. The same body chemistry can produce either a performance asset or a performance threat, depending on the story the athlete attaches to it, and subsequent research spanning three decades has confirmed that imagery, goal-setting, and self-talk can reliably shift that interpretation in people who aren't elite athletes. The practical application is direct: before anything high-stakes, the goal isn't to eliminate nerves; it's to recognize that their presence means you care, and that a body preparing to perform and a body under threat feel identical until you decide which one it is.
The Positive Corner of The Internet
About Arnold’s Pump Club Editorial Standards
We do things a bit differently here, starting with transparency.
The Content: All APC emails are researched, written, and fact-checked by the APC editors (see bottom of the email), with written contributions from Arnold (noted with “Arnold’s Corner”). Links take you to original studies (not second-hand sources).
Does AI play a role? Not for the primary content, but it is used in two ways. The main items are original content written by the APC team. The summaries at the end are AI-generated based on the human-written content above. We also use an AI tool to review our interpretations of the research and ensure scientific accuracy. We don’t assume AI is right, but we use technology to hold ourselves accountable.
Yes, we have partners (all clearly noted). Why? Because it allows us to keep the APC emails free. We first test products, and then reach out to potential partners who offer ways to help you improve every day. The bar is set high, and to date, we have turned down millions in ad deals. (Example: we will not partner with any non-certified supplements or those without evidence in human trials). If we won’t buy the product, we won’t recommend it to you. And if there’s no evidence it works, then there’s no place for it here.
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Publisher: Arnold Schwarzenegger
Editors-in-chief: Adam Bornstein and Daniel Ketchell
