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Today’s Health Upgrade
Is AI a good friend or a subtle foe?
Minimalist shoe, maximum muscle
The $2 superfood
Adam’s Corner: The road more traveled
On Our Radar
The AI That Agrees With You Might Be the One Hurting You
You already know the friend who always takes your side, no matter what. It feels good in the moment. But you've probably also noticed that when you actually need honest input, that friend isn't always the one you call.
New research suggests the AI tools millions of people use every day may be doing something similar, and the consequences are worth paying attention to.
Scientists found that AI models endorsed users' actions roughly 47 percent more than humans do. The study audited 11 AI models across thousands of queries and then ran two experiments with more than 1,600 participants. In one experiment, participants discussed real personal conflicts with a modified version of GPT-4o configured to respond either supportively or more honestly.
Those who got the validating version in a real conversation about an actual conflict showed about a 10 percent drop in willingness to repair the conflict and a 25 percent increase in how right they believed themselves to be.
The twist: those same participants rated the agreeable AI as higher quality and said they'd be more likely to use it again.
It’s worth noting that this is a preprint and has not yet been peer-reviewed. So we don’t want to overreact. At the same time, this isn’t the first study to warn about the dependency and risk of replacing human interaction with AI.
If you use AI for any kind of personal decision-making — working through a tough conversation, weighing a big choice, getting coaching on a goal — it's worth asking whether the response you're getting reflects what you need or just what you want to hear. The two aren't always the same.
And more importantly, remember that while AI can be a great tool, it’s not designed to replace human interaction and connection. It’s a big consideration for everything we develop in the Pump Club app with Arnold AI. We want to create something that helps people build healthier habits, provides a clear vision, and answers questions that remove confusion about fitness, nutrition, and overall wellness. But we don’t want to create a dependency that takes you away from the real world.
If you find that AI is agreeing with you a little too much, it’s a good reminder to get feedback from the people who know you best and are willing to challenge you for the better.
Together With NOBULL
Why Less Shoe Might Mean More Muscle
You've probably seen someone deadlift in socks and thought it looked strange. Or maybe you've been told to ditch your running shoes when you’re lifting weights and wondered if that was actually advice or just gym mythology. It turns out there's something to it.
Researchers found that training in minimalist footwear (low heel-to-toe drop, wide toe box) improved stability and produced more force in a trap bar deadlift than those wearing standard athletic shoes.
Scientists ran a randomized crossover trial with athletes testing two footwear conditions: minimalist shoes and regular sports shoes. Each participant completed stability assessments, change-of-direction tests, and a maximal-velocity trap bar deadlift loaded to their own bodyweight.
Using force plates — equipment that measures exactly how much force your feet generate and how quickly — they tracked stability across multiple directions and peak force output during the lift. Minimalist shoes provided more overall stability. And for the deadlift, minimalist footwear produced more force and reached peak force faster.
The likely reason comes down to ground contact. A raised heel in a cushioned shoe tilts your body weight forward and creates a layer between your foot and the floor. Well-designed minimalist footwear flattens that out: your foot sits closer to level, your weight distributes more evenly, and the feedback loop between your foot and the ground improves. That connection matters when you're trying to generate maximum force quickly.
You'll likely notice the difference the most on compound lifts where ground contact matters most, such as deadlifts, squats, and Romanian deadlifts.
If you lift regularly, our shoe of choice is the NOBULL Outwork. The research points to two things that matter most: heel-to-toe drop and ground contact. The Outwork is built around both.
The 4mm drop puts you in nearly the same position as minimalist footwear: close to level, weight distributed evenly, foot in full contact with the floor. The high-density midsole doesn't compress under load, which means the force you generate goes into the bar, not into the foam between your foot and the ground.
Unlike other minimalist shoes, the SuperFabric® makes the shoes more durable and harder to break down, and the carbon rubber outsole grips whether you're on rubber gym flooring or turf.
It's a shoe built to match what the research describes, not cushion you away from the floor, but keep you connected to it.
For the next 48 hours only, APC readers get 35% off select styles, including some colorways that have been out of rotation and have just come back. Use the code ARNOLDPC35OFF at checkout for your special offer.
Foods Are Super
The $2 Food With a Powerful Nutrient Combination
Most people reach for a fish oil capsule to cover their omega-3s and a separate supplement for calcium. A new research review suggests that one food handles both and provides a collection of nutrients that pills don’t replicate.
Scientists found that sardines deliver a nutritional punch that may offer advantages supplements miss, including more calcium per serving than a glass of milk.
Roughly one can of sardines delivers 380 mg of calcium, 25 grams of protein, 1,400mg of omega-3s, selenium, taurine, and CoQ10. The American Heart Association already singles out sardines, alongside salmon and mackerel, for their cardiovascular benefits, recommending one to two servings per week.
There's also a practical safety advantage. Sardines sit low on the food chain, which means they accumulate significantly less mercury than tuna or swordfish. Their selenium content may provide additional biological protection against the mercury they do contain.
One note: if you need to watch your sodium, choose sardines packed in olive oil over brine. The nutrient profile stays the same; the sodium drops considerably.
Adam’s Corner
The Road More Traveled
I remember my grandfather in his chair in the backyard. Not a special chair. Just one of those weathered lawn chairs that had absorbed too many Chicago summers and memories to ever be given away. He sat in it the way men of a certain age learn to sit: unhurried, like the afternoon belonged to him.
About 7 years ago, he was in that chair. I was in my late thirties. He was turning 90. And out of nowhere, he turned to me and said he wanted to tell me something about being old. These weren’t the exact words, but the message still feels like it was yesterday:
“No one tells you how much it hurts,” he said. “Everything hurts. Everything is hard. The most basic things feel like a struggle.”
I didn’t know what to say. I’d never heard him talk like this.
“But it’s not bad. There’s still so much good. It’s just what it is. That’s why I still walk,” he said. “It’s why I still ride my bike. Why I still go to the grocery store, and why I still take your grandma to the mall, do work, and read. Because if I didn’t, how much worse would it be?”
How much worse would it be?
He wasn't just asking a question. He was handing me something. A message from the future that could be the greatest gift for my present self, if I were willing to sit with the discomfort of it all.
Perception Vs. Reality
In yesterday’s email, we asked all of you what you actually needed from us. Not what information you wanted. What you needed. As I write this, nearly 2,000 people have responded. We’re reading through them, sharing some with Arnold, and compiling notes.
I had a column written for today. But the more responses I digested, the more I couldn’t ignore what I saw. The theme wasn't hard to find.
You love the tips. The information. Understanding why and how things work. The integrity. Even when we have partnerships, we make them clear, and it’s never about the product. It’s about the science behind what works, so that you get value even if you never buy a single product we like.
The main request is for more help in real moments. When you don't feel like it. When you’re exhausted. When you’re hurting and frustrated. When you’re grasping for a reason not to quit.
I’ve seen different variations of this question for more than 20 years of helping people, and I usually have the same response: imagine what would happen if you took the road more traveled.
Not because it's better. Because understanding it changes everything.
Robert Frost made the other road famous — the one less traveled — the one that made all the difference.
And then Dr. M. Scott Peck, in a book most people know and fewer have actually read, pointed out something more uncomfortable: most of our suffering doesn't come from suffering itself. It comes from avoiding it.
The road more traveled is the one many of us take every day without realizing it. It's the road of shortcuts and small surrenders. Of pushing away discomfort instead of moving through it. Of telling yourself you'll start when things feel better, when life settles down, when you have more energy.
It's the road paved with reasonable excuses.
And here's what people don't say out loud: it doesn't lead somewhere easier. It leads somewhere harder. The discomfort we avoid compounds. It waits.
The road more traveled promises relief and delivers more of what you were running from. But that frustration. That friction. Oftentimes, that's not the moment when you look for a sign of, “When will this get easier?”
It’s the moment when you should take what my grandpa gave me: How much worse would it be?
How Much Worse Would It Be?
When someone asks me how to stay consistent when they have no motivation, I don't give them a motivational speech. I ask them to play out the scenario where they don’t take action.
Not a hopeful version. The real one.
What happens if you don't push through right now? If you skip all your workouts, don’t prioritize eating better, when you don’t commit to yourself to be better, to push harder, or to face the frustration you feel with grit and resilience, even when it feels like it won’t make a difference — how much worse does it get?
Not just today. Over time. Play it out. Day over day. Week over week. Year over year. It’s your version of A Christmas Carol. But no ghost is needed. Just honesty and clarity.
You might be frustrated that the scale isn't moving. That's fair, and we'll work through it together. You can ask anyone in the Pump Club app. We don’t quit when it gets hard. We support, analyze, and create new roads to success.
But we also offer truth and transparency: yes, it’s hard and frustrating, but if you stopped doing the right things entirely, how much worse would it be?
You're exhausted and barely showing up. I understand. But if you stopped showing up at all, how much worse would it be?
This isn't guilt. It's accountability and reality. Because the answer is a forcing function for the actions you struggle to turn into habits.
We all know good from bad. We know when we're adding to our health or taking from it. The problem isn't knowledge; it's that we confuse doing the right things with immediately feeling the results. The scale moves slowly — but it moves — when you’re consistent. Strength builds week over week. Energy returns in ways you barely notice until you look back.
But the absence of those things? That's a different story.
My grandfather knew. Not as a theory. As a body that had lived 90 years and still chose to walk and to get on his bike, even though it hurt. Because he understood what the alternative felt like. He wasn't chasing transformation. He was holding the line. And holding the line was everything, especially in the face of discomfort.
The Road We Want Is Paved in Frustration
I think about this with my three children.
When something doesn't go their way — when they're frustrated, or sad, or convinced the world is unfair — every instinct I have says fix it. Take it away. Make the pain stop. Because for me, having kids is like your heart living outside your body.
But I know what I'd actually be doing.
I'd be building the road more traveled right in front of them. Smoothing it out. Making it look appealing.
The greatest thing I can give my children isn't the absence of difficulty. It's the experience of moving through it and coming out the other side.
Not because hardship is noble. Because it's inevitable. And the earlier they learn that their discomfort doesn't have to become their identity — that they can feel the frustration and still take the next step — the less power that road will have over them.
I want them to fail and know they can survive it. To not get what they want and still feel loved and capable.
To understand that patience, waiting, and doing hard things are not punishments. They are the tools they'll use for the rest of their lives.
That's not just a parenting philosophy. It's what I'm still teaching myself.
So here's what I want to leave you with: Not a plan. Not a list of tactics. Just a question worth keeping.
The next time you want to skip the thing you know you should do — the next time the road more traveled looks like the path of least resistance — ask yourself what my grandfather asked himself when he wanted to make the most of every day:
How much worse would it be?
Not dramatically. Not as a guilt trip. As an honest accounting.
Because most of us already know the answer. And it can be the guide you need. -AB
From Arnold
PS:
Today, Adam shared a piece of advice from his grandfather that changed how he sees the hard moments. I hope it does the same for you.
But here's what I know after 78 years: everyone has a piece of advice that carried them through something. A parent. A coach. A stranger who said exactly the right thing at exactly the right time.
That wisdom shouldn't stay in your head. It should be shared because we all have the strength to lift up the world.
Today, I want you to post it. Share the advice that changed you, and tag me and @arnoldspumpclub. I want to make sure your words reach someone who needs them today.
That's what this community is for. Lifting up the world, together.
Better Today
Take any of these tips from today’s email and put them into action:
1. AI Models Validate Users 47% More Than Humans Do. And a Study of 1,600 People Found It's Damaging Their Judgment
A study auditing 11 AI models across thousands of queries — and two follow-up experiments with more than 1,600 participants — found that AI tools endorse users' positions roughly 47% more than humans do. When people worked through a real personal conflict with a version of GPT-4o configured to respond supportively, they became 25% more certain they were right and 10% less willing to repair the relationship, then rated that agreeable AI as higher quality and said they'd use it again. If you're using AI to think through a conflict, a decision, or a goal, the response that feels most supportive may be the one least likely to give you what you actually need, which is why tools built to help people grow, not just validate them, have to be built differently from the start.
2. Minimalist Training Shoes Generated More Force and Reached Peak Power Faster Than Standard Athletic Shoes in a Randomized Trial
In a randomized crossover trial using force plates, athletes wearing minimalist footwear — defined by low heel-to-toe drop and a wide toe box — generated more force and reached peak force faster in a trap bar deadlift than those wearing standard athletic shoes, with the advantage confirmed across both legs in both trials. The mechanism is mechanical: a raised heel tilts body weight forward and places a compressible layer between your foot and the floor, reducing how efficiently force transfers from your legs to the bar. On compound lifts where ground contact determines force expression — deadlifts, squats, Romanian deadlifts — footwear is a performance variable, not a preference.
3. Why a $2 Can of Sardines Might Outperform Fish Oil Supplements
A new research review found that 100 grams of sardines — roughly one standard can — delivers 382mg of calcium, alongside 25 grams of protein, 1,400mg of omega-3s, selenium, taurine, and CoQ10. Two to three cans a week at about $2 each — packed in olive oil rather than brine to reduce sodium — is one of the most nutrient-efficient food decisions most people aren't making.
4. The Road More Traveled: Why Avoiding Discomfort Doesn't Make It Easier, It Makes It Worse
Nearly 2,000 APC readers responded to a community survey with a consistent message: they have the information, but they need help in the hard moments — when they're exhausted, frustrated, or reaching for a reason not to quit. The answer isn't a motivational script — it's a single question drawn from Adam Bornstein’s grandfather's nine decades of lived experience: "How much worse would it be?" The question reframes avoidance not as temporary relief, but as compounding: the discomfort you skip today doesn't disappear, it accumulates — and most people only recognize that trajectory in retrospect, when the cost of the easy road has already been paid.
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
