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Today’s Health Upgrade

• Can smelling dark chocolate make you stronger?

• Check the cushion in your shoes

• This might change how you think about mindfulness

• Foods are super

Beyond The Headline
Can Smelling Chocolate Make You 18 Reps Stronger?

Within the past week, about 20 APC readers all sent us the same question

“Did you see the dark chocolate study? Is it true that if you sniff dark chocolate before a set, you’ll crank out 18 more reps?”

We’re already picturing “scratch and sniff preworkout stickers” with claims that match the research. 

So we looked into it, and the study isn’t as crazy as we first thought, though it’s taking a massive leap of faith in its claims. 

People who smelled dark chocolate really did add reps. But the study had many flaws, and the data suggest the researchers couldn't explain why performance changed. 

Here’s what we know, and why we’re not going to start stuffing chocolate into our gym bags (not yet, at least).

Scientists took men in their early 20s who lift weights. Each fasted for at least 10 hours, and then came into the lab on three different occasions for a workout. Before and between sets of leg extensions, a researcher held a liquid under their nose for 30 seconds with one of the following: 90% dark chocolate, milk chocolate, or plain water. 

Strange as it might sound, the dark chocolate added about 18 reps over water. Milk chocolate added about 9 reps. And when doing those extra reps, no one reported the workout feeling harder. In other words, the participants were able to do much more, but they said that the effort felt no more difficult than the plain water reps.

We’re skeptical because those 18 reps come with three big asterisks.

Start with the biggest one: The study named the mechanism in the title and then could not prove it with the results. That’s a bad sign. 

The researchers figured the smell worked by killing hunger, and sure enough, dark chocolate made the men less hungry, and the less-hungry sessions had more reps. But "happened at the same time" isn't "caused it." Ice cream sales and sunburns both spike in July, and the ice cream isn't burning anyone. 

When the team ran the real test to see whether the hunger drop drove the reps, it didn’t find a link between the two. So the explanation was just a hunch.

Then there's the control, which was plain water. Good studies “blind” the experimental conditions so the participants don’t know what they’re receiving. And that’s because we know the placebo effect is real and powerful (thinking something can work — even if it’s nothing — leads to changes). So, knowing the water was different from the other two conditions, it’s possible that much of the performance was driven by the expectation that it would work.

And it was a small study and only one exercise, so the applicability is limited. We’re looking at twenty-three young men, training on an empty stomach, testing one-leg machine across one session. It says nothing about other exercises, an entire workout, or whether this leads to more strength and muscle over time.

Here's what’s possible: when you train on an empty stomach, the sight or thought of food — or some source of energy — could boost performance. It's the same reason swishing a sports drink and spitting it out lets people grind out extra reps without swallowing a calorie. Your brain catches the cue, and it triggers a change in how hard you can push. 

It’s possible that something else is happening, but without additional research, it’s too soon to react to the latest study.

Together With NOBULL 
A Shoe Won't Add 50 Pounds to Your Squat. But The Wrong One Can Cost You Reps.

A new pair of shoes isn't a program, and it won't out-train bad sleep or a terrible diet. Train hard, eat well, get rest and recover, and you will see results. That’s how you stay focused, invest in consistency, and transform. 

If you master those habits and progress isn’t happening as you want, you’re not getting stronger, or you want to make sure you’re not overlooking anything, it’s worth looking at what silently eats away at performance. 

If you haven’t audited your footwear, research suggests the shoe you lift in can influence your strength or leave you vulnerable to injury.

Cushioned running heels are built to absorb impact. That’s great for a jog, but not the best when you’re adding load to an exercise. A sole that compresses lets your foot rock and sink mid-lift, and the power you send into the floor bleeds off before it moves the weight. 

The right training shoes solve this problem by keeping your foot flat, planted, and close to the ground. Stability results in more power, better balance, and stronger lifts. And not all shoes offer all three when you’re in the gym.

After two years of testing shoes that check the boxes without completely breaking the bank, the Outwork by NOBULL was our favorite. It’s been powering our workouts for the past year and remains a favorite among Pump Club app members. 

The NOBULL Outwork features a wide toe box, allowing your toes to spread and support balance, just as nature intended. And it has a flat, stable sole to ensure you don’t lose power, and a circular tread outsole that holds your footing through every lift and lateral move. 

It’s not better than a great program. But it ensures that if you put the effort into your workouts and recovery, your footwear isn’t working against you in the gym. It’s a shoe for people who show up and want to outwork yesterday.

New Outwork colors just dropped, and as a bonus for subscribers, APC readers get 35% off the entire site with code “APC35.” But the sale only lasts for this week.

Instant Health Boost
“Be More Mindful” Finally Has a Number

You've heard the advice a hundred times. Stressed out? Be more mindful. Mid-argument? Be more mindful. Slogging through a rough season of life? You guessed it…be more mindful.

It sounds nice. You'd even like to do it. But two things get in the way: nobody tells you what being mindful means, and nobody tells you what it's worth.

Let's fix both.

Being mindful just means paying attention to what's happening right now — your breath, your coffee, the person across the table — instead of running on autopilot while your head replays yesterday and rehearses tomorrow. That's it. Noticing your actual life as it happens, without immediately grading it good or bad.

Now the worth. Researchers reviewed 56 studies covering more than 24,000 adults and asked a straightforward question: do people who are naturally more mindful also feel less stressed? 

The answer was yes.

The scientists found that mindfulness and stress overlap by about a sixth. The other five-sixths of your stress comes from everywhere else, like your job, your sleep, your money, your relationships, and the 143 notifications hovering over you on your phone. 

It might not seem like much, but offsetting one-sixth of your stress can feel like a massive win.

Before you think this doesn’t apply to you, here’s the most interesting part: Nobody in these studies was taught to be mindful. Researchers just asked people two things on the same day: how mindful do you feel, and how stressed do you feel? So we can't say which one causes the other. Maybe being mindful shrinks your stress. Maybe having less stress makes it easier to be mindful. It's probably a bit of both.

If you want to see if mindfulness can make a meaningful difference for you, start with something small. You don't need an app, a subscription, or a 30-day challenge.

When you’re bored and want to use your phone, notice what you’re to avoid. Eat one meal without a screen and pay attention to the flavors. On a walk, name three things you can see and three you can hear.

Just notice what's in front of you, and don’t try to make sense of it all. That's mindfulness.

Will it lower your stress? No promises, but it costs nothing, and you might be surprised by what you discover.

Nutrition
Foods Are Super: The Beet

Beets look like they should be good for you. And if you dig into what’s in them, it’s hard to argue against them.

Beets have a surprising amount of research suggesting they support steadier blood pressure, better staying power during training, and faster recovery afterward.

The key is the nitrate in beets. Bacteria on your tongue convert the nitrate into a compound your body then turns into nitric oxide, which tells the muscle in your artery walls to relax. When that happens, you get easier blood flow and oxygen delivered where it's needed. 

When researchers pooled seven randomized trials in people with high blood pressure, beetroot dropped systolic blood pressure (the top number) by about 5 points on average. That’s enough to help reduce the likelihood of heart disease or stroke. 

Your muscles benefit too. A large review of 20 analyses found dietary nitrate gives endurance and muscular stamina a real lift, especially if you take it before your body needs it.  A beet shot before a hard session is one of the few legal, food-based edges that actually holds up in the data.

And a meta-analysis of beetroot juice and muscle damage found it helped strength and power bounce back faster in the days after hard, soreness-inducing training.

In fairness, most of the data uses concentrated beet juice. A whole roasted beet still delivers nitrate, but not as much as concentrated juice. However, it also brings fiber, folate, potassium, and the antioxidants that give it that deep red color. 

One important note that will influence how you prep your beets: nitrate dissolves in water, so roasting, steaming, or grating them raw keeps more than boiling does. If you do boil them, the nitrate ends up in the water, so use that liquid instead of pouring it down the drain.

For a quick, easy side, roast a few whole beets with olive oil and salt, then keep them in the fridge to throw on salads and grain bowls. If you want the exact amount measured in the studies, about 2 to 3 ounces of beetroot juice should do the trick. 

The Positive Corner of The Internet
About Arnold’s Pump Club Editorial Standards

We do things a bit differently here, starting with transparency.

1. The Content: All APC emails are researched, written, and fact-checked by the APC editors (see bottom of the email), with written contributions from Arnold (noted with “Arnold’s Corner”). Links take you to original studies (not second-hand sources).

2. Does AI play a role? Not for the primary content, but it is used in two ways. The main items are original content written by the APC team. The summaries at the end are AI-generated based on the human-written content above. We also use an AI tool to review our interpretations of the research and ensure scientific accuracy. We don’t assume AI is right, but we use technology to hold ourselves accountable.

3. Yes, we have partners (all clearly noted by “Together With”). Why? Because it allows us to keep the APC emails free. We first test products, and then reach out to potential partners who offer ways to help you improve every day. The bar is set high, and to date, we have turned down millions in ad deals. (Example: we will not partner with any non-certified supplements or those without evidence in human trials). If we won’t buy the product, we won’t recommend it to you. And if there’s no evidence it works, then there’s no place for it here.

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Publisher: Arnold Schwarzenegger​

Editors-in-chief: Adam Bornstein and Daniel Ketchell