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Today’s Health Upgrade

• The hot shower trick

• Why tea time is a healthy habit

• The playlist (that helps you push harder)

• Can collagen help your hurt muscles?

Reader Question
The Hot Shower Trick

I’ve seen you talk about cooling beds. I want to save up for one to adjust my temperature when I sleep. But does the hot shower trick help you rest better? -Beth, Utah

The short answer: Yes, a warm shower can help you fall asleep faster, but the timing matters.

Many people think a warm shower works because it calms you down. But the evidence suggests the sleep benefits of a hot shower come from the temperature change. 

Warm water increases blood flow near the skin, especially in your hands and feet. Once you step out, your body can release heat more easily. The resulting drop in core temperature is one of the signals your brain uses to prepare for sleep.

A 2019 meta-analysis found that a warm shower before bed helped people fall asleep faster and improved how they rated their sleep. It didn’t appear to increase total sleep time or deep sleep.

How To Make It Work For You: First, make sure the water is hot enough. Most of you probably don’t keep a thermometer in your shower or bath, but the studies suggest you want the water a little over 100 degrees (the research had it around 104 to 108°F, or 40 to 42.5°C).

That’s not to say cooler water won’t work, but heating your skin temperature above your normal temperature (98.6 degrees) is part of the cooling process. 

Then, spend at least 5-10 minutes in the water. Ideally, you’ll take the hot shower about one to two hours before bed rather than hopping directly from the shower into bed.

This won’t do everything a temperature-controlled bed can do because the cooling effect doesn’t last all night or adjust while you sleep. But it’s a cheap, easy way to work with the natural temperature drop that helps start sleep.

Together With Pique 
Your Daily Cup of Tea Might Be Doing More Than You Think

Most health upgrades ask something hard of you. Wake up earlier. Cut something out. Sweat more. Challenges are good, and so is leaving your comfort zone. 

But not all healthy behaviors are difficult or require sacrifice.

Scientists tracked nearly 14,000 adults and found that regular tea drinkers had blood markers that aged more slowly.

Researchers tracked the participants for two to four years and measured biological age, a score built from routine health markers like blood pressure, blood sugar, and cholesterol. It estimates how old your body is running compared with your birthday. 

The strongest results came from steady, everyday drinkers.

Tea is loaded with polyphenols, plant compounds called catechins in green tea and theaflavins in black tea. They help calm inflammation and oxidative stress, two of the main drivers of wear and tear as you age. 

In controlled trials, regular tea drinking has been tied to modest drops in blood pressure and LDL cholesterol. Those are some of the same markers that can make your blood look older or younger.

And part of the results might be the unspoken reality of tea drinkers: when someone drinks tea every day, they often do so as a replacement. The afternoon cup that replaces a soda or mindless eating. 

Sometimes, the best habits work so well because they replace habits that do an outsized amount of harm, especially when it’s part of a daily routine.

This was an observational study, so it shows a link, not proof. But the downside of a daily cup is close to zero.

That is, as long as the tea you get isn’t filled with the extras you’re trying to avoid. 

There's a catch hiding in that last point, though. A great tea only works as a replacement if it doesn’t contain all the hidden calories you’re trying to limit or avoid.

Order a 16-ounce matcha latte at most coffee shops, and you can end up with close to 30 grams of sugar. Some of that comes from the milk. A lot of it comes from syrup or pre-sweetened powder. 

That doesn't make the café version evil. A little sweetness is fine. But blood sugar was one of the markers in that biological-age score. A daily drink built on syrup works against the reason you're drinking tea in the first place.

So we look for matcha where the only ingredient is matcha, and the quality delivers the health benefits found in the research.

Our go-to is Pique's Matcha. It's one ingredient: organic, ceremonial-grade matcha from Japan. No sugar, no fillers, nothing else on the label. 

The leaves are shaded longer before harvest, which raises the L-theanine and gives it a smooth, almost creamy taste. It doesn't need sweetening to taste good.

Stir it into 12 ounces of hot or cold water. Or, if you need it, add a touch of milk or honey. The point is that you decide what — and how much — goes in.

And all Pique teas are quadruple-screened by an outside lab for heavy metals, pesticides, and anything else you don’t want in your tea but can't taste or see.

Pump Club readers get up to 20% off for life, plus a free starter kit on subscriptions over $100. No code needed. The discount applies automatically at checkout. 

Not every healthy habit asks for sacrifice. This one just asks you to brew, sip, and enjoy. 

Mindset 
How Your Playlist Influences Your Pain Tolerance 

Ever notice how the right song can make even the hardest workout feel easier? New research suggests your music taste might matter more than the music itself.

Research suggests that listening to music you enjoy may help you tolerate pain longer.

At a music festival, researchers randomly assigned adults to listen to one of five genres (urban, electronic, classical, rock, or pop) while holding their hand in ice water for as long as they could. Before the test, everyone rated how much they liked each genre.

No single genre came out on top. But the more people liked the genre they were assigned, the longer they tended to last. Interestingly, the genres people thought would help with pain (classical was a popular pick) didn't predict anything. The only significant effects came from listening to music they enjoyed.

The scientists believe that when you listen to music you love, it triggers emotional engagement and distraction, which pulls your attention away from discomfort. And that matters more than expecting music to work.

Enjoyable music helped people hang on longer, but it didn't make the cold feel any less painful. The study also tested short bursts of cold-water pain in mostly younger festival-goers, not workouts.

Still, the takeaway is simple and low-risk: The next time you're facing a tough workout or discomfort, turn up the songs you love. It might make a real difference.

Performance
Can Collagen Heal a Pulled Muscle?

Collagen has become the catch-all recommendation for almost any soft-tissue injury. Pulled hamstring? Take collagen. Sore Achilles? Same answer. But muscle, tendon, and ligament are different tissues, and the evidence for collagen doesn't apply equally to all three.

A recent systematic review gathered the human studies on collagen peptides for tendon and ligament injuries. It found only six, and because the review focused on tendons and ligaments, it can't tell us anything about a pulled muscle.

For a pulled muscle, adequate protein and a well-designed rehab plan matter more than collagen.

A muscle strain is a tear in muscle tissue. From a dietary standpoint (not including other techniques that support tissue injuries), repair requires enough total protein (including essential amino acids such as leucine) and a gradual return to loading.

Despite its reputation, collagen is an incomplete protein with very little leucine, making it a poor source of the amino acids muscle needs to rebuild.

The case for tendons and ligaments is more promising, but the evidence isn’t strong enough for us to say it’ll definitely help.

Across studies involving rotator cuff and ACL surgery, Achilles tendinopathy, and chronic ankle instability, people who received collagen (usually as a supplement, sometimes injected directly into the shoulder) generally reported less pain and better function. One ACL surgery trial also found people needed less pain medication.

That's reason for hope, but the findings come with limitations. The studies were small, five of the six had a high risk of bias, and both surgical trials used formulas containing several ingredients. That makes it impossible to know how much collagen contributed.

And the review's authors judged the evidence to be low certainty and warned that excitement about collagen has moved faster than the research.

The evidence for a muscle pull is even less convincing.

Two 2024 meta-analyses came to different conclusions: one study found a small improvement in strength when collagen was paired with several weeks of training, while the other found no benefit. Most of these trials tested products from a single manufacturer, and nearly all involved industry support. Results on post-workout soreness are mixed, with some trials reporting less soreness. But soreness isn't the same as a strained muscle, so those studies don't answer the question anyway.

For tendon or ligament rehab, collagen may be a reasonable, low-risk addition.

The protocol most people cite comes from a small study of eight healthy men: about 15 grams of gelatin (a form of collagen) with roughly 50 milligrams of vitamin C, taken an hour before exercise. That combination roughly doubled a collagen-production blood marker, but not every study has seen that marker rise, and a higher biomarker doesn't prove an injured tendon healed faster.

Whatever injury you're dealing with, keep rehab at the center of the plan and treat collagen as optional support.

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 edit and review our interpretations of the research, ensuring 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