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Today’s Health Upgrade
FUBAR is here
Dark chocolate controversy?
Arnold's training secrets
Member of the week
Gabriel Luna's healthy habits
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.
FUBAR is Here
Go watch it now. Well, workout first. Then go watch it.
Dark Chocolate Controversy
If you eat a lot of dark chocolate, it might be time to double-check your bar of choice. An investigative report suggests 23 out of 28 popular chocolate bars had higher levels of metals (like lead or cadmium) than you might want in your body.
Before you panic, there are a few things to know. First of all, the poison is always in the dose. So if you don’t eat too much chocolate or have it too often, there’s no need to worry. You’ll find trace metals in everything from vegetables to chocolate because lead and cadmium are natural elements of the earth’s crust. So when you grow something in the ground, you can have small amounts in products that are perfectly healthy. To quote Kantha Shelke, a senior lecturer on food safety at Johns Hopkins University, “Total avoidance of lead and cadmium is impossible.”
Instead, it’s more about staying below a daily threshold that is considered dangerous. According to European safety standards (which tend to be more strict than the US), you’re fine as long as you consume less than 21 micrograms of cadmium per day.
To get a good sense of whether your dark chocolate has more metals than you want, check out this website, which shows the amount in many popular chocolate brands. And if you prefer milk chocolate, you have even less reason to worry. That version has less cocoa, which means a lower likelihood of having more heavy metals.
Arnold’s Training Secrets
Arnold recently put Men’s Health through one of his workouts and thought all of you might enjoy watching the fun he had in the gym. Check out this video for all the action and tips.
Member of the Week: Randy J.
From Arnold: This week's member of the week is Randy J. This is a great moment because Randy’s run The Arnold Fans for years, so I’m so excited he’s a member of the village. This week, he was able to meet many members of Arnold's Pump Club who attended the FUBAR premier. Here's what he had to say:
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Not only did I have a the opportunity to meet my fellow villagers from Arnold’s Pump Club at the FUBAR red carpet premiere in Los Angeles, I also gained some great new friends. Ever since Batman and Robin, twenty-six years go, I haven’t missed a single one of Schnitzel's Hollywood movie premiers. Now, my favorite action hero has his first-ever series. I was pumped more than ever to not only see my role model at his Netflix premiere but also to meet all the fans, the villagers, who make up Arnold’s fitness app community. Thanks to Schwarzenegger, many of Arnold’s Pump Club members were given special access to get into the FUBAR screening.
I met so many of you great fans before the show and some of us shared stories from our workout app and some of us talked about our goals and our struggles and how one man has helped us overcome some big obstacles and fears. I arrived alone but I came back as many.
I was happy to have exchanged contacts with some of you so I too can get motivated by my fellow villagers -- all thanks to this new fitness app. Together, we were strong and like the saying goes, It takes a village. Most of us can’t do this alone without support and encouragement. I’m so happy to have meet my fellow Arnold Fans like Nicholas, Aaron, Chris, Andrew, Alex and Kelsey. Nicholas, a villager I’ve never met in person before, even bought me a beer. How great is this community?! I can’t wait for the next village hangout. P.S. FUBAR was amazing. I loved it.
Gabriel Luna’s Healthy Habits
You might remember Gabriel Luna as the Rev-9 in Terminator: Dark Fate. Now, I get to work alongside him again in FUBAR. This time, he’s playing the role of Boro, an arms dealer who is highly educated and highly dangerous. Here are a few healthy habits you might find useful.
What's one action/item you've recently added to your daily routine that keeps you healthy?
One new practice I’ve added to my health routine is that I’ve made sure to take my daily vitamins.
What's one thing you do every single day to strengthen your mental health?
I listen to music to calm my mind.
Do you have a health routine? If so, what is it, and how often and when do you do it?
I lift 4 times a week, I play basketball twice a week, and I incorporate yoga twice a week to help with recovery.
In training for this role, did you learn any workout or strength/agility techniques you're going to continue to do forever?
Back when Arnold and I did Terminator, I learned a dozen different techniques and exercises for each muscle group. I now enjoy the process of building the “formula” each day to target the muscles I’m trying to build.
I had a lot of fun filming with Gabriel, and he recently said, “[Arnold and I] communicated with our fists.” You can read about what he meant here.
