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Today’s Health Upgrade

• Number you won’t forget: The rest rule

• “Calm energy”

• Weekly wisdom

• How to win your work week

Fitness
Number You Won’t Forget: 90 Seconds

The Rest Rule That Pumps Up Muscle Growth

It’s the type of advice that has been repeated so many times you assume it’s true: if you want to build muscle, keep your rest short. That’s how you keep the intensity up, spike your hormones, get a pump, and grow.

However, resting at least 1.5 to 2 minutes between sets seems best for building more muscle, and even longer rest if your primary goal is strength. 

The old idea was that short rest periods spiked growth hormone. And technically, that is true. Short rest produces a bigger temporary spike in growth hormone and testosterone, and people assumed that spike was the growth signal. It’s not.

Follow-up work has repeatedly found the size of your post-workout hormone bump does not predict or directly influence muscle growth.

In one study, resting for 1 minute raised testosterone more than resting for 5. And yet, protein synthesis, which is what directly influences muscle growth, actually decreased, meaning the bigger hormone spike came with less muscle, not more.

As we’ve discussed before, muscle growth is determined by mechanical tension. That's your muscle fibers working hard against a challenging weight. That strain, not the burn and not the pump (sorry Arnold!), is what tells a muscle to grow.

Growth comes from taking a set close to failure, heavy or light. But hard sets result in more fatigue. And the more you fatigue, the less you can push with maximum effort, and the harder it is to maximize tension. 

As we discuss in the app (and as members see in their custom programs), that balance of rest and intensity is the mix of art and science that lets you train in a way that makes the most of your time in the gym. 

The goal is to push near the limit on most sets, but not to the point where you can't lift the weight. 

Scientists found that when you grind all the way to failure, your bar speed drops around 22%, versus about 9% if you stop a rep or two short. That means you’re limiting tension. And when you rest too little, fatigue piles up and your reps and weights fall on ensuing sets.

At this point, yes, you’re working, and yes, it’s better than nothing, but you're also piling on unnecessary fatigue instead of building.

Enough rest lets you bring your best effort to each set, and the balance between intensity and fatigue is how you maximize tension and grow (and get stronger).

If your goal is building muscle, rest at least 90 seconds, and up to 2-3 minutes. If you’re trying to maximize strength, research suggests anywhere from 3-5 minutes could be beneficial.

Together With Pique 
Is “Calm Energy” Real?

Coffee gets most of the attention. But tea has an underground reputation of offering benefits like longer life and “calm energy.”

But does any of it hold up to the research? While some of the claims sound made-up, there’s more to it than it might seem. 

Research suggests that drinking enough of the right types of tea can give you “calm energy” and support overall health.  

Let’s start with that buzzy energy claim, which is really a byproduct of L-theanine, an amino acid in tea that takes some of the jitter out of caffeine, so that you get the heightened focus of caffeine without the edge. 

And matcha gets most of the attention because it has a built-in advantage that allows it to provide more L-theanine. Matcha is a powdered whole leaf, so you drink the leaf instead of steeping it and pouring it off. 

That means matcha delivers more L-theanine and more catechins per serving than a steeped cup of green tea. And those catechins might be one reason why randomized trials suggest that green tea lowered LDL cholesterol and shaved systolic blood pressure by about 2 mmHg. 

In a review of randomized trials, L-theanine improved attention and lowered stress, with the clearest effects when it was paired with caffeine.

But to get that calm energy, you’re probably not experiencing the benefits from a single cup. You’ll need to consume about 2-4 cups per day. But even if you’re on the lower side, you might still feel better drinking matcha.

That’s because matcha also has less caffeine. If coffee makes you jittery, that smaller dose might not be as disruptive, and it's why matcha might hit differently and feel better.

As an added bonus, 38 cohorts and nearly two million people suggest that regular tea drinkers had about 10 percent lower all-cause mortality and 14 percent lower cardiovascular mortality than the lightest drinkers.

We can’t claim causation, just association. Tea drinkers also tend to eat better and move more, and the studies can't separate the tea from the rest of their lifestyle.

So if matcha helps you focus and you enjoy it, that's reason enough to keep it in the rotation. 

The thing is, sometimes finding a good whole-leaf matcha is difficult because you don’t get just the good stuff in the matcha, but also the bad. 

Tea leaves are good at pulling things up from the soil, such as heavy metals. It's not a reason to panic. But it is a reason to care where your matcha grew and whether it was tested.

That’s why our go-to is Pique Matcha. It’s ceremonial-grade, grown on Japan's southern tip, and 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. The leaves are shade-grown too, which drives L-theanine to a higher concentration. 

Pump Club readers get 20% off for life, plus a free starter kit on subscriptions over $100. Your benefits are applied automatically. 

Mindset
Weekly Wisdom

You put on the workout clothes, and a voice in the back of your head says, “Who are you kidding?” Or you start your new job and think, “What happens if I’m no good at this?”

Almost everyone has heard that voice. It’s the one that greets you when doing something new or holding a role you still can’t believe is yours. Some call it imposter syndrome, but whatever you label it, you’re left feeling like a fraud.

But there’s something that’s misunderstood about pretending. It’s not all bad, and what you pretend to be can determine who you become.

Like so many of the quotes we share, Vonnegut wasn't writing about fitness. He was writing about a man who pretended to be someone he wasn't for reasons he thought justified it, only to discover the pretense had become the truth regardless of what he intended.

Take the darkness off it, and you're left with something that happens in real life: 

Whatever you rehearse, you get better at being. So the self you keep performing becomes the self you are.

And that’s why your inner narrative matters so much. Your actions and behaviors matter, but so do how you talk to yourself and what you believe about what you do.

The person who talks themselves out of the workout is rehearsing a role. And every time that person thinks, "I'm not really a gym person,” that role becomes more convincing

You're going to pretend either way. The part you control is which version gets the reps.

Psychologists have studied people chasing goals and found that the reason behind a goal determines whether it survives. 

Goals chased to earn approval or dodge guilt tend not to last. Goals that express who you want to be or think of yourself as result in more sustained effort that eventually turns into results. 

Self-concept comes first, and behavior follows it home.

Turn Wisdom Into Action

Every time you're about to say or think "I'm trying to work out more" or "I'm trying to eat better," swap it for purposeful ownership in the present tense. 

"I train on Tuesdays." "I eat breakfast with protein." Say it even when part of you feels like a fraud. The feeling is just a reminder to feed the version you want to become. 

You have to train your mindset to believe, which is how self-concept develops. 

You get to pick who you're pretending to be. Might as well pick the person you'd be proud to become.

Better Every Day
The Difference Between Good Days And Bad Days

Want to do better work? Stop grading your day by whether you complete your entire to-do list.

Harvard researchers analyzed nearly 12,000 daily diaries to figure out what separates a great workday from a miserable one. The answer wasn't a raise, a pep talk, or a perfect schedule.

Good days depend on something they call "inner work life": the mix of your emotions, motivation, and how you see your work.

A sense of progress was the single biggest driver of good days. 

People did their best work on the days they felt they'd moved something forward, even a little. Checking off a task, cracking a problem, helping a teammate win. 

Scientists call it the progress principle, and data suggests the wins don't have to be big. 

A little progress lifts how you feel about the work, fueling your motivation and making the next bit of progress easier. 

Momentum builds on itself, creating a domino effect.

As you come to the end of the week, don’t ask, "Did I get everything done?" Instead, ask yourself, "What did I move forward this week?" 

Chances are, the answer is more than you think, and noticing it is how you keep going, stacking good days, and getting better.

And that’s it for this week. Thanks for being a part of the positive corner of the internet. And remember: don’t wait to make a change. Take action on any goal, don’t quit in the hard moments, and the results will come. Have a fantastic weekend!

-Arnold, Adam, and Daniel

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