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Today’s Health Upgrade
Arnold's Monday motivation
The surprising brain booster
Workout of the week
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Monday Motivation
Most Mondays, I share a little motivation that I hope helps you in your quest to be a little better every day.
This week, I want to flip that “me” into a “we.” I want you to use some energy making someone else’s day a little better.
Our goal here is big: building the positive corner of the internet. To do that, we have to work on making ourselves more positive, but we also have to work on spreading our positivity.
When I see you all doing this all over social media and in my own app, I love it. You’re pumping each other up, which is the goal because I can only lift so much. But together, we can lift up the world.
This week, I want you to help make positivity contagious. You might know someone who needs a lift. You might just see someone you don’t know who is struggling. Whether it’s a friend or a stranger, I want you to make an effort this week to make someone’s day. You don’t have to make any grand gestures, just give back a little of the positivity we create in our little village to someone who needs it.
I always tell you about how having training partners throughout my life benefitted me because there will always be days when we don’t feel our best. But on those days, our training partners are there to get us going and keep us moving forward. Be a training partner to someone this week, whether it’s online or in the real world.
I think that you’ll find that going out of your way to help someone else helps you, and you’ll become addicted to giving back and spreading positivity like me.
Tell me how it goes. Let’s get our little positive army out there and expand this positive corner of the internet.
The Caffeine-Free Mind-Booster
Chew on this: if your brain needs a boost — and you want to avoid caffeine — try chewing gum.
Research suggests that just 15 minutes of chewing gum can help make you more alert and improve concentration and attention — and even improve work productivity.
We’re shocked that gum-makers haven’t used this in marketing campaigns. While researchers don’t have a full grasp of what’s happening, they have some solid theories. Chewing gum increases blood flow by pumping the muscles of your jaw, which brings more blood to your head and can increase the arousal of your brain and improve attention. Or, it could be that because chewing gum can help reduce stress levels, it frees up your brain for better focus. And, if you have a complicated or longer task, the gum appears to provide even more benefits.
Caffeine is still incredibly effective, but — if you recall from previous newsletters — having caffeine within 9 hours of sleep can disrupt your rest and cause other health frustrations. So, keeping caffeine in the morning and gum in the afternoon might be one of the easiest ways to stay focused and productive all day, with fewer downsides.
Workout of the Week
It’s time to dust off the resistance bands you got during the pandemic. This workout uses something called mechanical drop sets to challenge your muscles in less time and with fewer exercises. This type of drop set means you start with a harder version of an exercise (using bands) and then shift to something not quite as challenging without rest. The combination will leave your muscles pumped and your heart exhausted.
Before you begin this workout, please do a quick warmup to get your muscles ready.
How to do it
Perform the three-exercise pairing as a tri-set. That means do a set of each exercise with the same listed number (1A, 1B, and 1C, for example) and rest as little as possible. Once you do all three exercises, rest for 2-3 minutes, and then repeat the tri-set again. Don’t move on to the next group of three exercises until all sets are completed.
1A. Resistance band squats: 4 sets x 10-12 reps (no rest)
1B. Bodyweight squat: 4 sets x1 5-20 reps (no rest)
1C. Wall sits: 4 sets x 20-30 seconds
Rest 2-3 minutes
2A. Resistance band pushup: 4 sets x 10 reps (no rest)
2B. Pushups: 4 sets x AMRAP (as many reps as possible) (no rest)
2C. Incline pushups or knee pushups: 4 sets x 10-20 reps
Rest 2-3 minutes
3A) Banded good morning: 3 sets x 10 reps (no rest)
3B) Single-leg hip raise (do both legs): 3 sets X 8-12 reps (no rest)
3C) Two-legged hip raise 3 sets x 10-20 reps
Rest 2-3 minutes
No band? No problem. Just do the workout without the resistance band exercise. The workout will be a little shorter but still incredibly challenging.
Bodyweight version
1A. Bodyweight squat 4 sets x 15-20 reps (no rest)
1B. Wall sits 4 sets x 20-30 seconds
Rest 2-3 minutes
2A. Pushups 4 sets x AMRAP (as many reps as possible) (no rest)
2B. Incline pushups or knee pushups 4 sets x 10-20 reps
Rest 2-3 minutes
3A) Single-leg hip raise 3 sets X 8-12 reps (no rest)
3B) Two-legged hip raise 3 sets x 10-20 reps
Rest 2-3 minutes
And that's it! Give it a try, and let us know how it goes.
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