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Today’s Health Upgrade
Let’s talk about muscle confusion
Kitchen upgrades
The fruit that fights liver fat
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.
Fitness
Are Your Muscles Confused?
If you want to add muscle and build strength, it’s easy to get stuck in a rut and feel like you need to make significant changes.
However, a new study suggests if you’re not gaining muscle, your problem is not a lack of exercise variety or “muscle confusion.”
When people access The Pump App and complete Arnold’s “Foundation” workouts, they are surprised by his focused training methods. Instead of endless varieties of different exercises, Arnold built his body on a minimalist approach of fewer movements and proven progressions that help you become a little better every workout.
And now, decades later, research proves what Arnold knew: Your muscles respond best to overload and pushing near failure. But lots of exercise variety and equipment aren’t necessary to maximize your body’s potential.
In the study, participants performed workouts consisting of only two exercises (leg presses and stiff-legged deadlifts) three times per week or three different workouts with more exercise variety. You could call one program basic and the other built to maximize “exercise confusion.”
After ten weeks, both groups saw the same increases in muscle and strength.
Does this mean you can’t benefit from exercise variety? Not exactly.
A little variety can help you break out of a plateau because, psychologically, the new programs allow you to focus and push harder. And you don’t want your workouts to be too limited because some exercises challenge your muscles in slightly different ways, whether by changing the angle or the resistance profile to make your muscles work harder.
The point is that you don’t need more exercises; you need a good program designed to make you better and stronger each week — instead of accumulating fatigue and exhaustion.
Together With HexClad
Healthier, Tastier Food
Editor’s Note: We’re giving you access to some of our favorite deals during the holiday season. Good for your body, your health, and your wallet. It's just our way of saying thank you.
The easiest way to upgrade your diet is to cook more at home. The hardest thing about cleaning up your diet is that it’s challenging to find the time, energy, and cookware to make life a little easier.
This holiday season, two steps can set you on a path to better meals with less cooking and cleanup frustration.
Step 1: Upgrade your cookware at better prices than you’ll find any other time of year.
HexClad is giving all members of the positive corner of the internet early access to their Black Friday sale, where you can save up to 41 percent sitewide!
HexClad is the first hybrid nonstick cookware designed for people like you—those who want to cook with less oil, more flavor, and zero clean-up hassle.
HexClad’s unique laser-etched non-stick surface means you can use less oil or butter when you cook, allowing you to create healthier meals without sacrificing taste or texture.
So whether you're searing, sautéing, or stir-frying, HexClad’s hybrid technology gives you the best of all worlds—great searing power, easy cleanup thanks to nonstick, and extreme durability. Perfect for nutrient-dense meals.
With HexClad, you can elevate your cooking without compromising health or performance. As a member of the positive corner of the internet, you get a special discount on all HexClad products — and it’s the biggest sale of the year. Click here to access your discount and start upgrading your at-home cooking experience.
And, of course, we can’t forget Step 2: Download our quick & easy cooking guide. These recipes are designed for any skill level, and most can be prepared in 15 minutes or less. We hope these will show you the kitchen doesn’t have to be a limitation. If you can master these, you can make anything, and those extra home-cooked meals will pay off in more ways than one.
Nutrition
On Our Radar: The Fruit That Fights Liver Fat
When protecting one of your most vital organs, one type of fruit might pack more of a punch than all the rest.
A new study suggests that eating oranges can significantly reduce liver fat, which can help protect against cancer and heart disease.
Researchers explored whether a simple dietary addition—one orange per day—could help people with metabolic dysfunction become healthier. The participants already had health struggles, so the focus was to see if small behaviors that were easy to repeat could lead to a noticeable difference.
After just four weeks of orange therapy, there was a noticeable decrease in liver fat and GGT — an enzyme found in the liver that helps protect cells from damage.
Most impressively, 29 percent of the orange eaters saw such a significant change that they no longer had any excess liver fat despite no changes in overall body weight.
Unlike other studies where the control group is a placebo or no action whatsoever, in this study, the scientists compared people eating oranges to non-citrus fruits, suggesting that something specific to the citrus could help with liver fat.
And the answer might be hiding in plain sight. When reviewing the blood panels of those in the experimental group, those eating oranges saw a significant increase in vitamins A and C, riboflavin, and thiamine. More studies are needed, but consider this a study with lots of upside and very little downside or risk.
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Publisher: Arnold Schwarzenegger
Editors-in-chief: Adam Bornstein and Daniel Ketchell
