Welcome to the positive corner of the internet. Every weekday, we make sense of the confusing world of wellness by analyzing the headlines, simplifying the latest research, and offering quick tips designed to make you healthier in less than 5 minutes. If you were forwarded this message, you can get the free daily email here.
Today’s Health Upgrade
Monday motivation
Weekly wisdom
How to reduce your risk of prostate cancer
This won’t last
Workout of the week
Arnold’s Podcast
Want more stories from Arnold? Every day, Arnold’s Pump Club Podcast opens with a story, perspective, and wisdom from Arnold that you won’t find in the newsletter. And, you’ll hear a recap of the day’s items. You can subscribe on Apple, Spotify, Google, or wherever you listen to podcasts.
Arnold’s Corner
Monday Motivation
The holiday season is here!
A lot of you ask me how to handle your fitness over the holidays.
My advice: enjoy yourself. You eat well and train to enjoy life, not so you become a robot who eats chicken and broccoli while the family enjoys a pumpkin pie. Find your joy when you can, but don’t stop training and sticking to your diet when you can, either.
This is my favorite time of the year. We spend time with our families and friends, we eat delicious food and share gifts, and we celebrate everything we have.
But there is one more thing that really creates all the holiday magic.
Giving back.
When you look beyond all of our tables filled with food and family, I want you to see that there are people who struggle this time of year. Some struggle with money. Some struggle with loneliness. Some don’t have food.
My challenge to all of you is to see those people and create your own new holiday tradition of reaching out and giving back.
The magic of this season comes from all of us lifting each other up.
Maybe you donate food.
Maybe you donate toys.
Maybe you visit someone who doesn’t have anyone to spend the holidays with and give your time to make them feel less alone.
Whatever you do, do something for someone else to show them that the magic really exists.
I also can’t recommend this enough. If you can, don’t just write a check. Show up and help yourself. Hand out meals. Give away toys. Give yourself a front row seat to the magic.
And if you are a parent, I can’t stress this enough, include your kids. Teach them the power of giving back because it’s a power they will use for the rest of their lives to make the world a better place. You don’t know how it plants a seed for giving back until years later.
Let me tell you one of my favorite memories: in 1956, I was 9 years old when the Hungarians had a revolution in November that the Soviets crushed. My dad brought me and my brother to the refugee relocation camp for the Hungarians who had fled their country to Austria as a first stop.
My dad was helping the refugees to be processed, whether they were staying in Austria or moving on to Canada or America, and he wanted my brother and I to help feed them soup. We did, and all the refugees who came through the line pinched our cheeks and told us how cute we were.
Here is the wild thing: recently, a Hungarian woman came up to me and told me that her mother went through my line as a refugee, and she remembered being fed by two little boys.
I told her I remembered it too, and I will always remember it. I think that’s where the first seed was planted in my brain about the idea of giving back.
I have a few traditions every year.
Every Thanksgiving, I donate a ton of turkeys and I hand them out at the Hollenbeck Center in East LA. I’ve done this for more than three decades, and I always brought my kids. When they’re around, they still come with me now!
I also invite some people I know who are far from their families to my house for dinner.
When I had just moved to America, I had no idea what Thanksgiving was, and my friend Bill Drake invited me to join his family so I wouldn’t be hanging out alone in my apartment. It was magical, so I am constantly repaying that debt forward to share the holiday spirit.
Every Christmas, I head back to the Hollenbeck and donate toys.
When I came here, I had nothing. And I’ll always remember the bodybuilders showing up to my empty apartment — some with linens, some with plates and utensils, one with a little radio. Again, I find myself trying to pay their generosity forward every year.
Think about that. When you give back to help someone, you never know the impact you will have. All of those people who helped me helped create my drive to help as many people as possible.
This month, my challenge to all of you is to share that holiday magic with as many people as you can.
Together, we can lift up the world.
Health
How To Reduce Your Prostate Cancer Risk
Cardio isn’t just for your lungs or endurance. And strength isn’t just to flex in the mirror. No matter what your goal might be, finding a way to improve and become fitter could be a life-changing (or saving) decision.
Recent research found that men who improve their fitness are 35 percent less likely to be diagnosed with prostate cancer.
Scientists collected data over 35 years on nearly 60,000 men to understand the interaction between exercise and diagnosis. The most significant risk factor for prostate cancer is age, so the researchers wanted to see if maintaining fitness decade-over-decade could increase the likelihood of staying healthy.
While factors like genetics and age play a role, this research shows that your fitness level is something you can control—and it makes a big difference. And if you don’t think it can happen to you or the men in your life, prevalence is higher than many realize.
Prostate cancer is the second most common cancer, and approximately one out of every eight men will be diagnosed in their lifetime.
Instead of aiming for an arbitrary goal, staying active appears to be the best way to help fight off cancer, instead of having long lapses when you don’t move or improve your cardiorespiratory fitness.
If you want a benchmark, one study found men who exercise the equivalent of only one to three hours of walking each week have an 86 percent lower risk of aggressive prostate cancer. Other studies found that three or more hours of vigorous exercise lowered the risk of prostate cancer death by 61 percent.
This Won’t Last
In the spirit of the holidays, we’re giving you an offer that won’t last long.
When you sign up for the annual plan of The Pump app, you’ll receive:
30 days free (we’ve never offered this before)
$100 gift card to Momentous (this will never be offered again)
Free copy of The Pump Diet book ($20)
20% OFF everything The Pump Store
This offer will disappear this week. Arnold says it’s his way of playing Santa. We say it’s an offer that’s too good to refuse — and will ensure that 2025 is your best year ever.
Join the Pump now, enjoy December for free, and then have everything you need to get in the best shape of your life in 2025.
Workout Of The Week
In honor of the special sale, we’re giving you a snapshot of one of the locked workouts in The Pump app. Everyone goes through The Foundation, and afterward, you get access to many of Arnold’s never-seen-before plans.
Here’s a snapshot of his current routine: a high-volume, fast-paced, low-rest approach to how he trains today.
But don’t be fooled: Just because he’s 77 doesn’t mean there’s anything easy about this workout. Your muscles will be pumped and full, and your heart will beat as if you did your most challenging cardio workout. Consider yourself warned.
How to do it
This is a snapshot of one day of the exact workout program Arnold uses today (which can be found in its entirety in The Pump app). It’s a high-frequency split that allows him to train 6 days per week, using all machines, doing super high volume, and very little rest.
Perform one superset at a time, and don’t move on to the next superset until you complete all sets.
Do one set of the first exercise in a superset, rest for 15 seconds, and then do one set of the second exercise in a superset and rest for another 15 seconds. Repeat this process until you complete three sets of each exercise in the first superset, then move to the next. Then, the last two exercises are straight sets, meaning you’ll do all sets of one move before moving to the next.
Please try to use a weight that makes sure the last 2-3 reps are extremely difficult, and follow the short rest periods as much as you can.
Superset 1
Machine lateral raise: 3 sets x 15 reps
15 seconds rest
Machine shoulder press: 3 sets x 15 reps
15 seconds rest
Superset 2
Machine preacher curl: 3 sets x 15 reps
15 seconds rest
Machine triceps extension: 3 sets x 15 reps
15 seconds rest
Cable rope crunch: 3 sets x 15 reps (30 seconds rest between sets)
Hanging leg raises: 3 sets x 15 reps (30 seconds rest between sets)
Give it a try, and let us know what you think. Here’s wishing you all a great week ahead!
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Publisher: Arnold Schwarzenegger
Editors-in-chief: Adam Bornstein and Daniel Ketchell