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Today’s Health Upgrade
Arnold's Monday Motivation
The Anti-Aging Secret
Workout Of The Week
Want more stories from Arnold? Listen to Arnold's Pump Club podcast. It's like the daily newsletter, but with additional narration and thoughts from Arnold. You can subscribe on Apple, Spotify, Google, or wherever you listen to podcasts.
Arnold’s Monday Motivation
I’ve seen so many tweets from you guys about what you’ve achieved since you subscribed — how you couldn’t do a push-up when you started reading these emails, and now you can do 25 push-ups. Or how you did one of our 15-minute workouts with 15-pound dumbbells and now you use 30 pounds, or how you can play with your kids for longer.
I love it. You’re all learning what the “progress” in “progressive resistance” means!
It means that every day, every week, you’re just a little bit better than the week before. Day to day, or even week to week, it might not seem like much. But it’s like a snowball rolling down a hill. One day, after a few months, you look back and realize all of those tiny improvements grew into life-changing wins.
You’re never going to achieve all your goals or solve all your problems in a day. Progressive resistance, in the gym and in life, just means that each day you can be 1 percent better than the day before. Even if you struggle to get out of bed. Getting out of bed today is a win that helps you get to the kitchen tomorrow. And that win helps you get out the front door the day after, walk ten steps the day after that, and on and on until one day you’re walking 10,000 steps, and you can’t imagine how you came this far.
This week, I want you to really focus on enjoying all the ways you’ve made progress and continue to make progress. Whether it’s walking farther, playing with your kids for longer, lifting more, or anything else — just notice when you’re improving. Enjoy it. Celebrate it
Because 1 percent better every day seems small, and you might not even notice it if you don’t try. And then, one day, you look back and realize how far you’ve come.
The Anti-Aging Secret
A little bit of sweat might be the skincare solution you didn’t realize you needed.
Recent research suggests that the best way to have more youthful skin might be a consistent workout routine.
In the study, participants performed 16 weeks of either aerobic workouts or weight training. The scientists found that both forms of exercise resulted in skin improvements, such as better skin elasticity, dermal structure, and skin tone.
Exercise is likely so effective because does so much more than burn calories and build muscle. Both cardio and weight training help an inflammatory response that defends your skin against the natural aging of the cells in your skin. And, while supplementation gets all of the hype, exercise can also help increase your natural production of collagen, which is a key protein that supports healthier skin.
And for the record, you don’t need to train like Mr. Olympia to see the benefits. Both groups trained twice per week. The people doing cardio trained at a moderate intensity (about 65 to 75 percent of their maximum heart rate) for 30 minutes and performed a 5-minute warmup and cooldown. And the weight training group performed a 6-exercise full-body workout consisting of 3 sets of 10 reps each.
Workout of the Week
This was such a fan-favorite in The Pump app, that we had to share it here.
We talk a lot about making workouts that fit into your life. And you guys ask for workouts you can do while traveling. Daniel was recently short on time, so he grabbed his ruck pack, put a 30-pound weight in it, and then did an amazing workout.
If you don’t have a ruck pack, you can put a few books in a backpack. Load up your backpack and then give it a try.
How to do it: Perform this workout as a circuit, which means you'll do one set of each exercise. For each exercise, you’ll perform 8 reps. Do all reps of the first exercise, then with as little rest as possible, move to the next exercise. Continue this until you complete all 7 exercises. Rest for 1 to 2 minutes, and then repeat the circuit again.
Stiff legged deadlift
Bent-over row
Clean
Front squat
Press
Curl
Overhead triceps extension
If you want to see what the workout looks like in action, Daniel filmed himself doing "the backpack workout."
If you’re a beginner: aim for 2 to 3 rounds.
If you’re intermediate: perform 4 to 5 rounds.
If you’re advanced: complete 6 to 7 rounds.
Give it a try, and let us know what you think!
