Are Certain Types Of Exercise Better For Your Brain?

Welcome to the positive corner of the internet. Every weekday, we make sense of the confusing world of wellness by analyzing the headlines, simplifying the latest research, and offering quick tips designed to make you healthier in less than 5 minutes. If you were forwarded this message, you can get the free daily email here.

Today’s Health Upgrade

• Monday motivation

• How to sweat your way to a sharper mind

• Workout of the week

Arnold’s Corner 
Monday Motivation

This weekend was pure inspiration.

It was the Arnold Sports Festival in Columbus, Ohio.

More than 200,000 people came together to celebrate fitness.

We saw the greatest bodybuilders battling it out on stage. We saw the world’s strongest men deadlifting over 1,000 pounds. We saw powerlifters and Olympic weightlifters setting new records. We saw gymnasts, ballroom dancers, cheerleaders, arm-wrestlers, axe throwers — literally every sport you can imagine.

There was something for everyone. Because I believe that fitness truly is for everyone.

And when this many people come together, motivation is completely contagious. Everyone finds a way to push beyond their limits.

Together, we are stronger. Together, we can lift up the world.

I was inspired over and over and over again.

I have always told all of you that I am not a self-made man. I am the product of a lot of help. This weekend, we saw everyone realize that they are stronger when they are being pumped up, inspired, and coached by others.

You might expect me to share a video of Thor’s unbelievable deadlift over 1,000 pounds or all of Mitchell Hooper’s great lifts or Derek Lunsford hitting his poses.

I know you can all see that all over the internet, so I want to share something else that inspired me.

All of the members of our Pump app came together over the weekend, meeting each other and pumping each other up in the Pump Club lounge. They also worked with my fantastic team — Adam, Jen, Nic, and Ketch — to refine their form on their lifts, and then they set out to push their limits and hit deadlift personal records.

We had people who had never trained with anything but their bodyweight or dumbbells suddenly deadlifting twice their bodyweight. We had more advanced lifters break their previous bests by over 100 pounds. 

I saw videos of some of them deadlifting 510 and even 600 pounds. These are normal people like all of you. They aren’t the world’s strongest men and women!

One of our members, April Austin, is a perfect example that I think might inspire many of you even more than the strongest people in the world.

I remember a year or two ago in the app, April was talking to us about struggling to get her knee to the ground with lunges. She’s 61 years old. I told her this normal. We shared videos to help her and people like her. I told her you don’t get better overnight, but if you just keep going, you will be stronger than you would have ever thought possible. You just can’t give up.

Well, guess what? April showed up to the Pump Club lounge and decided to deadlift.

She deadlifted 290 pounds!

This was incredible. And she wasn’t alone! More than 50 people lifted more than they ever thought possible, while they all cheered each other on.

But the best part about this wasn’t her fantastic lift. It was that the next day, I got to meet April and congratulate her, and she didn’t tell me she was happy and that was enough for her.

She told me she’d let me know when she lifted 300 pounds.

All of you can learn from April. She never gave up when lunges were hard. She kept going. She didn’t try to do it alone — she surrounded herself with a great community in the village and amazing coaches with my team. And now, she’s stronger than almost any woman her age, she feels great, and she has a mission to be better every single day.

That’s what fitness is all about. It is not about where you start. It is about where you can go if you just shut up that voice in your head that tells you to quit when a lunge is hard or a push-up is too much.

That’s what this weekend is all about.

Thousands of people pumped each other up and pushed beyond what they thought were their limits.

In case you need any more inspiration, here is a video of PR after PR from the Pump village.

I hope to see all of you there next year, finding your community to build you up, terminating your limits, and finding your true strength and power!

Health
Sweat Your Way To A Sharper Mind

We’ve told you that low-intensity exercise like walking can do more for your health and longevity than most assume. But sometimes, slow and steady isn’t enough.

A new study suggests that if you want a healthier brain, your best bet is to push your body with higher intensity a few times per week.

Researchers analyzed the impact of different intensities of aerobic exercise on the release of neuroprotective myokines, which are proteins released by your muscles that can influence brain health. These myokines, such as brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) and irisin, support neuroplasticity, cognitive function, and can protect against neurodegenerative diseases.

They found that higher-intensity aerobic exercise is more effective at boosting neuroprotective myokines than low-intensity exercise.

The increased muscle contractions, metabolic stress, and oxygen demand of high-intensity exercise might be the mechanism that leads to the greater release of these protective proteins.

The latest review primarily focused on animal models, but other studies suggest similar benefits in humans. 

Another recent study found that high-intensity exercise can significantly improve long-term memory, learning ability, and decision-making.

The study compared low-intensity exercises like balance and stretching, medium-intensity exercises like a brisk walk, and high-intensity exercises like sprinting. After six months, the high-intensity group was the only exercise group that showed changes to the hippocampus (the part of your brain involved in memory and learning).

Impressively, the six months of high-intensity training delivered benefits that still showed up five years later.

If brain health is a priority, workouts that push you beyond low-intensity movement could be beneficial. While any movement is good, incorporating moderate-to-high-intensity aerobic exercise—such as interval training or sustained vigorous efforts to put you between 75 to 85 percent of your maximum capabilities—could help maximize the brain-boosting effects of exercise.

Fitness 
Workout Of The Week

Every week, we provide a different workout to help you challenge your body, strengthen your brain, and make you healthier.

Many of you have requested a “build your own” workout template for busy days. If you find yourself short on time, use this template to take two exercises and turn them into a full workout. 

How it works

1. Select an upper body and a lower body exercise.

2. Use a weight you could perform for 8 reps on each exercise (likely a different weight for each movement).

3. Perform five reps of the first exercise, and then five reps of the second exercise (remember, it’s a weight you can lift 8 times with good form). 

4. Then, do three reps of the first exercise, followed by three reps of the second. Finally, do four reps of the first and four reps of the second. In total, you’re completing 12 reps of an exercise you would normally do for 8 reps. That’s one round.

5. Rest for 3 minutes, then repeat another 1 to 3 times, depending on your workout experience or time. The more experience (or time), the more rounds you perform.

You can perform this workout two to three times per week, with at least one day of rest between workouts. This workout can be adapted to any two exercises and equipment, whether a dumbbell, barbell, or kettlebell, or you load up a heavy backpack or rucksack.

Potential Exercise Pairings

• Squat and overhead press

• Split squat and rows

• Deadlift and bench press

• Step-up and pullup

• Inverted row and bodyweight squat

• Pushup and lunge

Give it a try and start your week strong!

—

Publisher: Arnold Schwarzenegger​

Editors-in-chief: Adam Bornstein and Daniel Ketchell