The Coffee Filter Test

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Today’s Health Upgrade

• Monday motivation

• All it takes is one

• Jumpstart your week: Coffee filters, washing produce, and standards

• Workout of the week

Arnold’s Corner
Monday Motivation: What Are You Waiting For?

If you’ve been part of Arnold’s Pump Club for a while, you know how I feel about waiting for January 1 to set a big vision. And if you’re new, I don’t believe in waiting for anything to happen. You must go after what you want, and that starts with a clear vision.

I love that so many of you set big goals and visions on January 1, but many of you probably haven’t checked in. So let’s do a little progress report.

Three-quarters of 2024 are almost behind us. Have you moved closer to your goals? Has your vision become a little bit more real?

I have seen big dreams from so many of you, and I love it. That’s where it all starts.

I hear from people who want to lose weight, from people who want to learn languages, from people who want to start a fitness routine, and from people who want to read more.

Some of you tell me you want to be more present with your family, lose 30 pounds, eat more vegetables, or wake up earlier.

I love hearing from so many people about how you just want to be a little better every day. It’s the best part of having a daily newsletter with almost a million members of this little village.

But now it’s time to get real. You have had almost 8 months of 2024 to work on your vision.

How is it going? Are you kicking ass and doing what you wanted to do? Or are your wants still just wants?

Be honest with yourself. It’s OK. You aren’t alone if you haven’t accomplished what you wanted so far.

But before you get down on yourself, you’ve got a little more than four months to turn the ship around and start doing instead of wanting.

You need to be brutally honest. What’s held you back from what you wanted to do?

Look in the mirror.

Thousands of people are also looking in their mirrors right now, realizing they’re holding themselves back.

Yes, I know your schedule might be busy, your family might have needs, and your boss might be working you to exhaustion.

But you knew all those things when you said you wanted to do what you aren’t doing now.

The reality is change is unbelievably hard. Our minds and bodies love the comfort of the status quo.

Change requires the discomfort of doing things differently. It requires doing things in a way you aren’t familiar with.

If you think it’s going to be all fun and games, you’re in for a rude awakening.

But you set the goal. You wanted it. So right now, not January 1, and not the first of the month, I want you to recommit.

What can you do for 5 or 10 or 30 minutes every day for the next 4 months to get you closer to your vision? Because that’s what it takes. That’s the difference between success and failure.

And it’s time to realize success is within reach if you choose to commit. It’s time to stop wanting and start doing.

All It Takes Is One

The rules of exercise are rapidly evolving. If you think you need to live in the gym to change your health dramatically, you’re underestimating how well the human body responds to a little resistance. 

New research found that just one day of weight training per week is enough to jumpstart significant improvements to your body. 

Scientists studied what happens when untrained adults between 30 and 60 commit to six weeks of low-dose strength training. Unlike many complicated, long workouts, the participants performed just five sets of five reps of a lower body exercise — and that was it. 

After only six weeks of training, the researchers found improvements in the following:

✅Leg press strength
✅6-minute walk test time
✅Body fat
✅Muscle 
✅Strength-to-body weight ratio
✅Sit-to-stand test

Despite the short workouts, the participants increased their quality of life and desire to continue exercising. 

Often, the worst way to start a program is by making it so complicated and hard that it’s difficult to build a habit. Instead, if you want to create positive behavioral change and a routine that lasts, make it so easy that it’s hard to fail. 

Establishing consistency will positively affect your body, and then it’s easier to add more time or complexity to your routine (if you want). But even just one day per week, you’ll see tremendous differences, which can be the first domino leading to other healthy habits. 

If you need a place to start, try the “workout of the week” below.

Only 24 Hours Remain…

Jumpstart Your Week

Not All Coffee Is Created Equal (The Coffee Filter Test)

There’s no shortage of research suggesting that coffee is good for your health. But how your coffee is prepared might be a matter of more than just taste preferences.

Research suggests that unfiltered coffee might increase your LDL cholesterol, which could increase the risk of cardiovascular disease. 

Unfiltered coffee contains more diterpenes, a compound that can break down your body’s natural ability to process and remove cholesterol from your blood. An observational study of more than 500,000 people found that unfiltered coffee was associated with higher mortality than filtered coffee, and filtered coffee was linked with lower mortality than no coffee.

This doesn’t mean you can never drink unfiltered coffee. But, if you want to be on the safe side, make sure most of the coffee you drink passes through a filter, and you should be covered. 

A heads up: many forms of cold brew are not filtered, so you might want to double-check before you order the popular drink. 

Food Science: When To Wash Your Produce

Washing your fruits and vegetables is a good idea—but don’t be too eager to clean them. When you wash your produce before storing, at best, the extra moisture can cause your food to spoil faster. At worst, the pre-washing can lead to bacterial growth. Instead, simply store your food and then wash it before you are ready to cook or eat. 

Together With Momentous
What’s Your Standard?

If there’s one thing we can promise you about the supplement industry, 99 percent of brands set a standard you would disapprove of.

How do we know? Thanks to an act passed in 1994, supplements don’t undergo the same rigorous testing from the FDA as foods or medications. And that loophole is abused in ways you wouldn’t believe. Of all the products on the market, approximately 99 percent of supplements don’t invest in third-party certification.

A study published last year found that:

❌40% of supplements didn’t have the ingredients listed on the label
❌89% had inaccurate quantities
❌12% had at least one banned ingredient

Supplements can be great but don’t settle for products that set a low bar.

If you want peace of mind and quality, look for products that are NSF Certified for Sport or Informed Sport Certified. That way, you know that the label is accurate, there are no banned substances, and you don’t have to fear dangerous levels of toxins or metals. 

Momentous is trying to raise the standard for all supplements by challenging the entire industry to create products you can trust. There’s a reason professional athletes and the military trust Momentous — because their standard represents quality. We love their mission, and it’s why we recommend their products, such as protein, creatine, and fish oil. If you choose to use supplements, try Momentous and get 20% OFF when you use the code “Pumpclub.” 

Workout of the Week

In the spirit of the “one exercise workout,” here are three days of workouts that consist of just one movement but will help you build strength and muscle while challenging your cardiovascular system. Each workout takes just 10 to 15 minutes, but when you add it all up, you’ll work all the muscles in your body and spark change and transformation even when time is short. 

How to do it
For each workout, perform 3 “work-up” sets (AKA warmups), where you gradually add weight until you hit your “working sets.”

For any exercise, you can also do dumbbell, kettlebell, or machine variations. Or, throw on a rucksack or weighted backpack and do body-weight versions.

Day 1

Set a timer for 1 minute. Perform 4 to 6 reps of a squat and overhead press. Then, rest the remainder of the minute. So if it takes you 20 seconds to do 6 reps, you’d rest the additional 40 seconds. Repeat four more times for a total of 4 to 6 rounds. Not including the warmup, the workout will take less than 10 minutes.

Barbell Squat or Front squat: 10 minutes x 4-5 reps/side

Day 2

Set a timer for 10 minutes. Perform 3 reps of straight leg deadlifts, and put the weight down. Rest and watch the clock. When a full minute is completed, do another 3 reps. Put the weight down, rest, and repeat. Keep doing the sets of 3 reps for 10 minutes (10 sets total) and your workout is done.

Straight Leg Deadlifts: 10 minutes x 3 reps per set every minute

Day 3

Standing or Seated Clean and Press: 50 reps total

For each set, you’ll perform 5 to 8 reps, but ideally, stop approximately 1 to 2 reps prior to “failure.” Rest for 30 to 60 seconds, and then do another set performing as many reps as you can. Again, stop about 1 rep short of failure. Keep repeating this process until you do 50 reps total, and then call it a day. 

Give it a try, and let us know what you think!

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Publisher: Arnold Schwarzenegger​

Editors-in-chief: Adam Bornstein and Daniel Ketchell