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Today’s Health Upgrade
Do you lose it when you don’t use it?
Better than collagen (and much cheaper)
Advice from Arnold
Do You Lose It When You Don’t Use It?
Lifting weights and eating protein get all the attention, but there might be a missing piece of the muscle-building equation that you didn’t expect.
Researchers have found that walking makes it easier for your body to maximize the benefits of protein.
The researchers were interested in a concept known as “anabolic resistance,” which is the idea that your body gives your muscles the middle finger when you’re too inactive. After exercise, your body uses protein to help with recovery. The protein you eat is broken down into amino acids (the building blocks of your cells), and they are used to help repair, grow, and strengthen your muscles.
In the study, people who sat for 7.5 hours during the day — compared to those who got up to take a 2-minute walk or did 15 bodyweight squats every 30 minutes — absorbed fewer amino acids and had lower levels of protein synthesis (the process of turning protein into muscle).
If you want your body to work with you (instead of against you), movement is medicine. Set a reminder on your phone to get up and move every 1 to 2 hours. And remember, it doesn’t have to be long. In the study, all it took was 2 minutes to make a difference.
Number of the Day: 20 Years
Want to look 20 years younger? You don’t need a social media filter, expensive creams, or collagen to make it a reality. Research suggests exercise can shave decades of aging from your skin.
Scientists took skin samples of people in their 60s with "average" skin health. Those participants performed two workouts per week for 30 minutes, pushing themselves at a moderate intensity. Just 12 weeks later, their skin was biopsied, and the inner and outer layers of their skin looked like that of someone more than 20 years younger and — in some cases — as much as 40 years younger.
What’s going on? Exercise acts like the fountain of youth for your skin (and your mind and body).
Exercise might help prevent aging by controlling blood sugar and minimizing oxidative stress (both of which make you look your age). But the age-reversing magic might result from a special protein created by your muscles called IL-15, which powers your skin’s mitochondria. When you exercise, and your heart beats faster, more IL-15 is produced, which could revitalize the quality of your skin so it looks younger.
Advice From Arnold
Let’s talk about training partners.
I have always been a fanatic about training with friends. From my earliest days with the weightlifting team in Graz, training has been a social experience.
Some people who watch Pumping Iron for the first time say to me, “All of you guys in the gym were preparing to compete against each other, but you were all friends and were helping each other. What’s the deal with that?”
I get it. In most sports, competitors don’t train with each other leading up to championships, so it’s a little strange to most people.
But I love it. Bodybuilders don’t do it as much these days, but all the professionals who compete in our Arnold Strongman Classic train together.
What people don’t realize is that if I help one of my competitors get stronger and stronger, that person is going to push me more and more in the gym. I’ll have a tougher competitor, but I’ll also have a stronger training partner and a lot more fun while working out. If he’s strong, he’ll push me for more reps and more weights, and I’ll improve faster. That’s why I always loved training with Franco. He was so strong and so funny that we were always lifting each other up.
And that’s the beauty of a training partner: you don’t just lift weights. You lift each other.
I love reading your messages about how much this daily email is helping you. Now I want all of you to try to find someone else you can lift up. You might immediately have someone in mind. You might be thinking, “Arnold, I don’t have any friends who train, what the hell am I going to do?”
I’ll tell you what you are going to do. Remember how we’ve focused on little wins like walking more or doing 10 minutes of squats? Find a friend and invite them to join you. If you live in a new town and don’t know anybody, you’ve got two choices: find a new friend, or make an old friend a FaceTime training partner.
Just like I incentivized you to commit to your daily routine and mark off your wins every day, I’m giving you an incentive. Find a training partner to join our fitness crusade, and get them to join you as a Pump Daily subscriber. We will pick five of you who add a friend as a subscriber, and you’ll receive a personalized, signed copy of my Encyclopedia of Bodybuilding.
To enter, see the link at the bottom of this email.
You guys are doing fantastic, and I am proud of every single one of you! I can’t respond to all of you but know that I see your messages, and they inspire me. Keep crushing your routines, and get out there this week and lift somebody else.
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Lift your friends up, get a personalized, signed copy of my Encyclopedia of Bodybuilding
Help me with my fitness crusade and recruit new members. Share your referral link and if 2 people sign up for The Pump Daily, you’ll be entered to win a personalized, signed copy of my Encyclopedia of Bodybuilding. Five winners will be selected.
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PS: You have referred [RH_TOTREF GOES HERE] people so far
