If You Could Only Pick One Exercise, What Would It Be?

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Today’s Health Upgrade

• Instant health boost

• The only exercise you need?

• Number you won’t forget

Instant Health Boost 
Managing Your Blood Sugar 101

The first rule of blood sugar: don’t freak out if your blood glucose increases after a meal. This is your body’s natural response and is completely healthy. You only need to worry if your glucose stays chronically elevated. 

The second rule: If you want to limit blood sugar spikes, make sure you include protein in each meal. 

A new study compared a carb-based meal to an identical meal with added protein. The scientists examined those with and without type 2 diabetes. No matter the participant, when protein was added to the meal, it reduced blood sugar and improved insulin sensitivity, which further helps your body manage the carbs without having big glucose spikes. 

Protein slows down gastric emptying, which means food stays in your stomach longer. This allows for a slower release of glucose into the bloodstream, which makes it easier for your body to process and store nutrients. 

The researchers also analyzed how different types of protein help with blood sugar. While both animal and plant proteins were effective, animal proteins led to the most significant changes, followed by dairy protein, and then plant protein. 

Together With GORUCK
The Only Exercise You Need?

If we told you that there was only one exercise you need to improve strength and endurance — while improving muscle gain and fat loss — would that be something you might be interested in? (Entourage fans, eat your heart out).

Research suggests that rucking — or walking while carrying extra weight — might be the Swiss army knife of exercise because of its ability to help you achieve every fitness goal imaginable. 

Hype aside, we don’t believe there’s only one exercise anyone needs to do. The best type of exercise is the one that you’ll do consistently, and research shows that you’ll benefit from a mix of strength and cardio. 

But if you had to pick one that checks all the boxes, rucking would do it better than anything else. It’s an activity you can do alone or with friends, and it gets you outdoors—which, as we’ve shared before, is good for your physical and mental health.

Research suggests that rucking makes you stronger, builds endurance, improves stamina, and does so without much impact on your joints. If that wasn’t enough, studies have found that rucking helps you burn 100 more calories per hour than jogging at a moderate pace. And if you compare it to walking, researchers from South Carolina estimate that rucking can burn at least 2 to 3 times more calories than walking. 

One study even found that wearing a heavily weighted pack resulted in participants losing three more pounds than those wearing a light vest. The cool part? The pounds seemingly disappeared despite not changing any other aspects of exercise or diet. Scientists are investigating whether carrying the extra weight might trick your body into producing more leptin, a hormone in your fat cells. This could reduce hunger, increase your metabolism, and limit fat storage.

If you’re looking for a way to start rucking, we tested all the backpacks on the market, and one stands head and shoulders above the rest. GORUCK is the go-to rucksack of Arnold’s Pump Club. Their Rucker was originally designed in 2008 specifically for rucking, which means the weight sits high and tight for better stability so you improve posture without causing back pain. 

Members of the Pump app have been using GORUCK for months, and it’s their secret weapon for staying fit, even when times get chaotic. 

Our favorite part? GORUCK stands behind all its products with a lifetime guarantee. So if you don’t love it, they’ll take care of you. And that’s why we feel confident recommending their rucks to the entire village. Plus, we have used them for years.

As a benefit of being part of the positive corner of the internet, you get 20% OFF your entire purchase. If you’re in the US, use the code “PUMP20GORUCK” for 20% off your order. And if you’re in the EU, use the code “PUMP20EU.”

Transformation
Number You Won’t Forget: 119 Pounds

From Arnold: I have to highlight one of our Pump Club members, Ben Riley, who has lost 119 pounds.

I want Ben to know I am very, very proud of him. When I was at the Arnold Sports Festival meeting with our Pump village, he stood up to tell me his story. I think at that point, he had lost 80 or 90 pounds. He asked me for advice. I told him then that it sounded like he had it figured out and that he just needs to keep going and showing up for himself. And he has.

That’s what I think everyone can learn from what he wrote. It isn’t about a shortcut or a hack. He just keeps showing up every day. He has setbacks, but he gets right back up and keeps going. That is the secret to success.

—

From Ben:

I'm not sure precisely where I started weight-wise. It was bad, I know that. I had issues in basically every area of life, from work to even climbing stairs or out of bed, and I didn't see a way to change.

I remember going into my Doctor’s office for some pains I was having, and she wanted to weigh me. I flat-out refused; I did not want to know that number, as if somehow the situation would change if I attached a number to it. It was about that time that I saw on Twitter about Arnold's newsletter. As a fan, I signed up. I had no idea what tidal waves of effect that ripple of cause would become!

At first, I just read them (the newsletters); I did what I'd done for years, and I told myself I was "researching" the most effective way to help myself. Something I'm sure is familiar to a few of us: what is the best way to do X? What is the most efficient way to do Y? How fast can I do Z? 

Anything but simply starting on the path. 

Over a couple of months, I started trying new things, I became more mindful of my food intake, and I started really trying to control it. It wasn't perfect; I binge ate a lot, but it became every few days rather than every day. This was a disorder, something I wouldn't accept until some time later, but I had a major problem with food in that regard. 

I saw my doctor again for my leg and back pain, and this time, I asked to go on the scale.

At 6 feet tall and 34 years old, I was 218.7kg (481 pounds). I was fine until I got to my car, and I cried; I was just so defeated.

I was somehow not yet diabetic, but it was imminent; my feet were discolored from the beginnings of veinous insufficiency.

I was in constant pain, and I was going to die in my forties or even possibly in my thirties. And now this number had been attached to me.

It was real, and I couldn't ignore it. I fell down hard psychologically. How do you even begin to overcome that?

Days later, the Pump App launched. I had grown to really admire the no-BS approach, no pseudoscience, no made up too good to be true nonsense of the newsletter, and I swear I practically heard Arnold in my mind saying, "Do it".

I had to do something. I couldn't just read about fitness anymore; I rationalized that if anyone could help me, Arnold could.

I signed up as a founding member of The Pump. This is up there with one of the single most important decisions I've ever made in my life. 

So far, using the bodyweight foundation program for a little over a year and, more recently, the gym equipment foundation program for the past two months, I have lost 54kg (119 pounds).

I was asked about the hardest and the easiest part of this change. I suppose at the start I was sick a lot. Like I would violently vomit from the effort of the first workouts sometimes. Chair squats were painful. Pushups, even ones done against the wall, were so hard; lunges were impossible for me; I felt dizzy and out of breath like most people would after a flat-out sprint. I just kept thinking, "What's the point? I'm too far gone." I nearly gave up before I'd begun.

But I kept reading the articles every day, I kept reading the comments, and I felt that little push to just do one more workout. 

I kept doing just one more, and every time, I lost a little more weight. I did a little more work, and it started not hurting so much. So, the first few weeks and months were definitely the hardest. Just building that resilience not to be so paralyzed by fear of failure and intimidated by the size of the task and just get on with it. Showing up day after day and just putting out whatever effort I had available to give that day, however that looked. It wasn't always pretty; it was NEVER easy, but it ALWAYS got done.

The easiest part, I suppose, is the community! I LOVE interacting with all the people in the app or outside it! I speak with many of the people I met at the UK Arnold expo every single day, and I have come to consider them my friends, brothers and sisters in arms in the battle against unfitness.

I speak to some outside of that medium, too, and it's always so inspiring, so motivating, and so real. You tell of your victories, and all I have to do is be genuinely and thoroughly delighted at your great stories and progress; it makes me want to have my own! You tell of your hardships, and I and others rally around to remind you that no matter how hard it gets, you are beyond that and can recover from it, turning the hardship of today into the strength of tomorrow.

None of you can ever truly know how much you do for me. The flames you fan within my spirit that keeps me going are the ace up my sleeve when it gets really hard.

For months, I never interacted. I was so scared; I thought you were all these huge bodybuilders and sportspeople, and I was just some gigantic fat guy who was totally alien and different. But of course, that's not how it is. The community is the driving force.

Arnold brings his legendary mindset, and he couples that with expertise and dogged determination from Adam and Daniel, but the community showed me how it can work. 

The people I’ve met are the easiest part of this journey. Everyone has been so wonderful. I feel 10 feet tall when we interact. Every time I feel like I'm stumbling, or I post something that might be simple to others walking but is a humongous milestone to me, the wonderful folk in the village prop me up with encouragement.

You know what else has been easy? The FUBAR diet plan! (It’s part of the app experience). Just eat from this list of things. Do that 80 to 90 percent of the time with the other 10 to 20 percent of whatever you wish and you're set. WTF!

Why was that so easy and straightforward! Why couldn't I do that for years before?! It's like I used to get hungry and just gorge myself on ANYTHING in sight. I was fully under the control of the binge eating disorder.

But this simple eating style has all but broken me free of it! I'm not perfect; sometimes, I take my 20 percent too far or notice that I'm being secretive with my eating again, but when I notice it, I don't beat myself up! I acknowledge it, I consult the guide, and I just get back on the path. Now when I feel a little hungry around the edges I'm like, "hell yeah get me that protein shake and apple"!

The shift in my mental attitude has been almost as huge as the shift in my body mass.

Before, if I gained even a few grams, it was a trigger for massive self-defeating talk, self-destructive binge-eating habits, and negative thoughts. But now I've learned that weight fluctuates; it is literally impossible to gain 5 pounds of body fat overnight, and these things just don't matter. This is the long game!

Even now, when I have weeks where I lose no weight, or I even gain 5 pounds out of nowhere, I don't care. If anything, I'm happy because that means it's either irrelevant water weight, or I've possibly just become more muscular since last week! Who knew I had such things as pecs and abs and biceps to get sore!

I know now that if I just keep doing it, if I keep showing up, if I keep following this path, I WILL get where I want to be. To quote Adam: "The resistance you feel is the point of friction where your body confronts who you are with who you want to be."

I have a long way to go to get to who I want to be. All the work I've done up until now basically has to be done all over again, and I am so ready for it! If I can start from where I was, battle through blood, sweat, tears, and worse to get here, then I can absolutely 100 percent go from where I am now to the victory my vision shows me is possible to be the man and husband I deserve to be.

Arnold has been on his fitness crusade for decades, and he has gathered some great people for his cause. I am just one of many that he has helped become better, and I will never be the one to let him down by letting myself down. He showed me and helped me believe that I can be better and better. So, to shamelessly steal a line from the great man himself:

Come with me if you want to lift.

—

And that’s it for this week. Thank you all for being a part of the positive corner of the internet. We hope that Ben’s story is a reminder and proof that we all have the strength to lift up the world.

-Arnold, Adam, and Daniel

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Publisher: Arnold Schwarzenegger​

Editors-in-chief: Adam Bornstein and Daniel Ketchell