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Today’s Health Upgrade
Big Announcement
The 200-calorie trick
Workout of the week
Big Announcement
I’ve told you about my show, FUBAR, coming on Netflix, but I’ve had to be a little secretive. Everywhere I go, people ask me when I’m going to do another big action comedy like True Lies. When Nick Santora sent me the script for FUBAR, I knew this is exactly what my fans have been asking for, and I’m so pumped to FINALLY share more with you.
We have a big announcement today, and I asked Netflix if I could share it with my newsletter subscribers before anyone else. They love you as much as I do, so naturally they said yes.
I hope you’re as excited as I am that you’re going to be the first people in the world to watch this video:
That’s right. You can watch FUBAR globally on Netflix on May 25th. Click here to add it to your list.
Monday Motivation
You might be wondering, what the hell does a TV show have to do with fitness and motivation? Well, first of all, I was just excited to share it with you. But the more I thought about it, the more I realized it has everything to do with fitness and motivation. Let me tell you why.
I turned 75 in the middle of filming FUBAR in Toronto. It was 4 months of 12-14 hour days and nights. On good days, I left my hotel at 6 in the morning and got back at 7 or 8 at night. On bad days, I left my hotel at 6 at night and got back at 7 or 8 in the morning.
On weekends and during my lunches on set, I checked in with Daniel and my team to keep up with my other projects and the work we’re doing at the Schwarzenegger Institute. I couldn’t travel to my annual anti-pollution summit, the Austrian World Summit, in Austria in June because of our filming, but Netflix and the production kindly let me use the set to deliver my speech (you can watch it here) live from Toronto to Vienna. In order to open the summit, I left my hotel at 1:30 in the morning and started speaking at 3.
My friends and family kept checking in to ask if I was doing OK. At first, I felt a little bit like they were treating me like an old man, until I sat back and looked at my schedule. It was a lot! But my answer was still: I’m not OK, I’m fantastic.
Don’t get me wrong. Whether it was 9 in the morning or 10 at night, whenever I finally got to my bed, I was exhausted and I fell asleep immediately. But it was a good exhaustion, and wonderful sleep. Even though I am at an age when some people are well into retirement (never gonna happen), I woke up every day ready to do the work. That’s because I was living two of the lessons I always share with you guys.
First, I’d done the reps. By keeping my routine of training every day in the lead up to filming, and then not giving it up once we started, whether I was shooting nights or days, my body was ready for the work of running around, jumping from explosions, and punching bad guys. As a matter of fact, there was one day that I did something I’ve never done in my life. I rehearsed an action sequence 27 times, because this director wanted it in one shot without cutting, and it involved 12 people. Rehearsing that much might seem crazy, but I loved it - it made the whole scene automatic so I wasn’t stressing about trying to remember my moves. And by relentlessly practicing my lines for 2 months before I arrived and then again every day when we drove to set, my mind was ready to do almost everything on autopilot.
I say almost everything because TV is wildly different than movies, and it becomes impossible to have everything memorized with the changes; there were times where we’d be shooting parts of 3 different episodes in one day. Those days, I didn’t know all my lines for the first time in my career (besides the time DeVito snuck pot into my cigar)! But I didn’t feel frantic or schvitzy because I had the foundation of all of the practice I’d done, so I only had to worry about the new stuff, not the old stuff that I’d already made automatic. Doing more reps meant less worries.
Second, I had my vision in front of me. I knew why I was doing all of this. This is exactly the type of project my fans have been demanding for years now. Anytime I felt a little tired, I would just think about how happy I’d make them when they finally got to see the final episodes. With my summit in Austria to terminate pollution (which kills 7 million people a year, so if that doesn’t keep me focused on solutions, what would?) and my other work, I also know exactly why I’m doing it. It sucked that I couldn’t travel to be there in person, but I wasn’t going to let that ruin my vision. I was going to do whatever it took, even it it meant waking up in the middle of the night like a lunatic, to make the people attending in person know that I’m 100% behind the conference. Knowing that all of this work was not just for its own sake, but working toward my visions, made it feel like it wasn’t work at all. When I hit my pillow every night with sore knees or shoulders, I slept easy because I knew I was fulfilling my purpose.
So that’s how this all relates to fitness and motivation. If you know your vision - the why you’re doing what you’re doing - and you do the reps ahead of time to really prepare for it so that you can minimize stress when it is time to perform, you can do almost anything. Even if you’re a 75 year old Schnitzel.
An Apple A Day
Eating apples might do more than keep the doctor away, it could also keep your hunger at bay.
We were recently asked if there was any substance to the old saying. Upon digging, we learned that the phrase dates back to the 1860s, when the Welsh used to say, ‘Eat an apple on going to bed, and you’ll keep the doctor from earning his bread.” They didn’t know it then, but there’s science behind the saying.
Research suggests that apples help lower cholesterol and could assist in preventing strokes.
And, eating apples might be one of the easiest ways to cut calories. Researchers found that eating fruit — apples in particular — prior to a meal helped people eat about 200 fewer calories. And that might be understating the fruit’s fullness effects. In the study, the participants ate peeled apples, meaning they missed out on the skin, which holds most of the fiber and reduces hunger.
Not into apples? Drinking about 16 ounces of water before a meal can also help curb your hunger.
Workout of The Week
Note from Adam: Becoming a dad many years ago changed my perspective on fitness. I still love leaving my soul in the gym, but taking care of my kids and managing my businesses (and these daily emails) means it's harder to block off time. But that doesn't mean I don't make fitness a priority. I found new ways to adjust and be efficient. Now, I leave longer workouts for the weekend, and during most weekdays, I create tough workouts that don't take long to finish but force me to work harder and with more intensity.
Here’s a perfect example: a workout you can do in 15 minutes (or less). You might feel like you were in the gym for hours by the time you're done. The best part: this routine requires minimal equipment and no “technical” exercises mean this is simple to perform. But, as Arnold says, don’t confuse simple with easy.
The Workout: Perform 1 set of each exercise for 30 seconds. Once you complete each set, catch your breath, and repeat again. Try to complete 4 to 6 rounds in less than 15 minutes.
Exercise 1: Overhead farmer’s walk (hold dumbbells overhead and walk slowly and in control)
Exercise 2: Alternating dumbbell lunges
Exercise 3: Renegade row (pushups + alternating rows)
Exercise 4: Goblet squat (hold at the bottom for 3 seconds)
Note: If you don’t have any dumbbells, load up a backpack with a few books. You can do the overhead farmer’s walk by grabbing the straps and holding the book overhead. Wear the backpack while doing lunges and the Goblet squat. Instead of Renegade rows, simply wear the backpack and perform pushups.
Give it a try, and let us know how it goes!
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