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Today’s Health Upgrade
Monday motivation
The small bet (that has never been worth more)
Do evening workouts harm your sleep?
How to turn your internal clock into a health protection system
Last-chance Cyber Monday sales
Workout of the week
Arnold’s Corner
Monday Motivation: The Mistake You’re Probably Making Today
It’s December 1. Everyone in America just spent the weekend eating everything in sight and probably having a few too many drinks. Around the world, people have started their holiday seasons.
So let me save all of you from the mistake I see far too many people make after a big weekend with a lot of delicious food and drink.
A lot of you are stepping on a scale and saying some variation of:
“Well, that’s it. That was a major setback. Might as well give up. I’ll have to set new goals next year.”
Let me tell you: you are completely wrong. Unless you decide to make it a self-fulfilling prophecy, and then, yes, you’ll be right.
But right now, you have the power to get back on the horse. You think it’s run away from you, that everybody else has kept going without you, that success is completely out of reach, but it’s still there, waiting for you.
And let me tell you something else: you didn’t screw up. I ate pie with my family. You were right to eat everything with your family and friends.
The only reason you think you screwed up is because a bunch of influencers have convinced you that they are broccoli and chicken breast-eating monks who are always perfect. They aren’t. Or, they are, but they don’t have any joy in their life, and what’s the fun in that?
So let’s move beyond beating yourself up right now. Let’s move beyond the “January 1 is only a month away, we will wait until then.”
Because, let’s be honest: how has that worked out for you so far?
You can keep beating yourself up and keep procrastinating.
Or you can avoid those mistakes for the first time this year.
You can say, “It is December 1. Forget what already happened. I’m going to train and I’m going to eat better. I’m not going to be perfect. I’ll probably miss some workouts when I’m traveling and go off diet at a Christmas party or two, but I’m going to do my best. I might not get a 10, but a 5 or a 6 is much better than a 0.”
Too many of you are so negative to yourselves that you’re your own biggest naysayer. If you talk yourself down every time you aren’t perfect, at some point, you start believing it.
People say, “What’s done is done,” and I think a lot of you can benefit from learning to let go of the past.
But that’s only the first step.
I want you to say: “What’s done has no power to stop me from doing what I’m about to do.”
Let’s be real. This pattern, of chasing perfection, beating yourself up, and then procrastinating and falling into inaction to avoid any more failure, isn’t just a thing we do with diet and fitness.
It’s something people do every day in their lives.
They bring up an idea in a big work meeting, and people don’t like it, so they tell themselves they’re an idiot, and they should never do that again.
They ask someone on their dating app out on a date, and that person says no, so they tell themselves they’re unlovable and delete their dating apps.
This is all the exact same pattern of the person who gives up after a big weekend of eating off-diet.
It’s time to break that insidious pattern of chasing perfection, failing, beating yourself up, and giving up. It’s time to start a new pattern: let go, and move forward the best you can.
Again, I want you to focus on this. You aren’t just letting go. You are letting go AND moving forward. That’s the real power. If you just let go, you protect your mind from any tough feelings. But when you move forward, you fuel your mind with possibility.
You show it that you are capable. You show it that you are resilient. You show it that you are worth it.
This week, my challenge to all of you is simple, but not easy: Kill the perfectionism. Kill the procrastination.
Do the best you can, even though you know it won’t be perfect. Do anything, besides beating yourself up or waiting.
I promise you, you will find your power in the doing.
Community
The Small Bet That Has Never Been Worth More
Amazing things happen when you bet on yourself. However, most people think the risk is too high for the biggest rewards.
But what if, for the price of a cup of coffee, you could achieve the best health, fitness, and mindset of your life without overcomplicated plans, stress, or hidden costs?
Right now, when you take Arnold’s Challenge, you can get The Pump Club app for as little as $4 (USD) per month.
It doesn’t matter if you're 70 years old and looking to get stronger, or 25, in peak condition, and wanting to maximize your potential; the app was developed to be customized to your needs.
Instead of overwhelm, The Pump Club app helps you focus on your habits, simplifies what to eat, tells you when to work out (and what exercises to do), gives you weekly access to coaching calls with world-class trainers, offers exclusive discounts, helps you with accountability when you’re feeling down and unmotivated, and gives you unprecedented access to Arnold Schwarzenegger.
When you sign up for the annual plan and complete The Foundation (as little as 3 workouts per week), you'll get 50% back. And, you have 6 months to get it done. It includes a 7-day risk-free trial, so you have everything to gain and nothing to lose.
Health
Do Evening Workouts Steal Your Sleep?
If you’ve ever crushed a late workout only to lie in bed staring at the ceiling, you’re not imagining things.
A new study took a deeper look at how evening exercise affects your sleep, and the real answer isn’t just about when you train but about how hard you push.
Scientists found that hard workouts within 4 hours of bedtime can delay sleep, shorten sleep, and stress your nervous system, but light or moderate evening sessions are usually fine.
Nearly 15,000 active adults wore WHOOP devices for an entire year, generating more than 4 million nights of sleep data. They measured training intensity (what the study calls “strain”) and timing influenced sleep onset, sleep duration, resting heart rate, and heart rate variability (your recovery signal).
When intense workouts ended 2 hours before bed, people fell asleep 36 minutes later, slept 22 minutes less, had a higher heart rate overnight, and saw HRV drop 14% — all signs their body wasn’t ready to recover.
If you finish that same hard workout after your usual bedtime, and things got dramatic: an 80-minute delay in sleep onset, 43 minutes lost in sleep, and HRV down 33%.
But if you finished training at least 4 hours before bed, even intense workouts had no negative effects. And within that 4-hour window, lighter or shorter sessions were far easier on sleep and recovery.
The scientists believe high-strain exercise keeps your body in “fight mode” longer, which means an elevated core temperature, higher heart rate, and a nervous system that hasn’t shifted back to calm.
If evening is your only time to train, don’t stress — just be strategic. If possible, schedule your hardest workouts for earlier in the day. Or, emphasize lighter or moderate workouts for later at night. And if that’s not possible, emphasize other techniques that help you wind down at night to improve your sleep. (See the following item.)
Minor adjustments can protect your sleep, your recovery, and how good you feel tomorrow without giving up your evening routine.
Together With Eight Sleep
How To Turn Your Body Clock Into The Ultimate Health Advantage
You already know that what you eat and how much you move matter for your heart and metabolism. But brand-new research from the American Heart Association says that when you sleep, eat, and exercise could be just as important.
Keeping your body on a consistent daily rhythm of regular sleep, early light exposure, and earlier meals can significantly lower your risk for heart disease, diabetes, obesity, and high blood pressure.
Experts recently reviewed hundreds of studies and found that disruptions to your body’s natural circadian rhythm, like staying up late, eating dinner after 9 p.m., or sleeping in on weekends, can throw off blood sugar control, blood pressure, and hormones that regulate metabolism. People with irregular sleep schedules or “social jet lag” (different weekday vs. weekend sleep times) had higher rates of obesity and diabetes, even if they slept enough hours.
Timing mattered for food, too. Those who ate breakfast before 8 a.m. had a lower risk of type 2 diabetes, while frequent late-night eaters showed worse metabolic health. Even dim light exposure at night was linked to higher cardiovascular risk. Morning exercise and natural light exposure helped align the body’s internal clock, improving energy, mood, and recovery.
Researchers believe these effects stem from how light, food, and activity synchronize your “central clock” in the brain and “peripheral clocks” in organs like the liver and pancreas. When they’re misaligned, your metabolism operates out of sync, like an orchestra without a conductor.
If you want to keep your body clock functioning well, here’s a cheat sheet from the study:
Go to bed and wake up at the same time every day (even weekends).
Get natural sunlight within one to two hours of waking.
Eat breakfast before 8 a.m. and avoid large late-night meals.
If possible, schedule workouts earlier in the day.
Dim lights and avoid screens an hour before bed.
But what if you work out at night? Research shows that temperature is one of the strongest signals your body uses to regulate this rhythm. A slight drop in core temperature triggers sleep onset. A gradual warming helps you wake up alert. Even tiny mismatches — like overheating at night — can fragment sleep, blunt growth hormone release, and reduce deep recovery.
That’s where Eight Sleep changes the game and helps you sleep better, even when everything else in your day doesn’t fall into place. The Pod 5 is a precision recovery system that automatically cools and warms your bed throughout the night to match your body’s natural temperature curve. It uses biometric data — heart rate, respiratory rate, sleep stages — to learn your rhythm and adjust in real time.
The result? Up to one extra hour of quality sleep per night, faster recovery, and sharper performance, without changing your routine.
Think of it as your real-life edge: while everyone else is fighting their biology, you’re syncing with it. Today is the last day of Eight Sleep’s biggest sale of the year. If you’ve ever wanted to master your sleep and your circadian rhythm, this is the moment to do it. Use the code “PUMPCLUB” at checkout to access up to $700 OFF the Eight Sleep pod.
Start Your Week Right
A Pumped Cyber Monday: Last Chance Sales
You have no shortage of deals to sort through, but here are a couple of our favorites that are ending soon!
Coffee Will Never Feel The Same
When most people think about the benefits of coffee, they think about energy. But why stop there? What you mix with your coffee can give you an extra boost.
Laird Superfood’s Sweet & Creamy Superfood Creamer with Adaptogens supercharges your coffee with MCTs that support brain health and functional mushrooms that help you lock in your focus. It’s made for people who want clean ingredients and real performance, not another sugar bomb in disguise.
And unlike liquid creamers, it’s powdered, which means longer shelf life and on-the-go convenience wherever you need it. Laird’s biggest holiday sale ever is happening today, and you can save 25% to 35% OFF. That includes free shipping for new customers and a 30-day money-back guarantee. And if you subscribe, you’ll lock in 20% off for life.
Stock Up On Nutrition Essentials
Most supplements don’t work. The few that do can fill gaps, provide nutritional insurance, and help fuel your performance.
Momentous is the gold standard in supplementation, offering high-quality products backed by third-party certification.
So whether you need protein, creatine, Vitamin D, or fish oil, they guarantee purity and safety. Enjoy up to 40% OFF your order with code BFCM2025.
Fitness
Workout Of The Week
We don’t love burpees. Not because they can’t be effective, but because we think there’s a more effective way to combine multiple movements to get you stronger, build muscle, or burn fat.
This workout takes the spirit of the burpee and breaks it into three separate exercises. This deceptively simple plan checks all boxes, jumping and chaos aside.
How to Do It
You’ll cycle through 3 movements with descending reps, no rest between exercises. The magic? The rep count goes down each round, making it mentally—and physically—more doable as fatigue builds.
Perform one set of each exercise in the following order:
For the first set of each exercise, complete 15 reps, and rest 1-2 minutes.
Then do 10 reps for each exercise. And rest again. Follow that pattern of exercise and rest: 8 reps per exercise, then 5 reps, and finally 3 reps.
You’ll do a total of 5 sets of each, resting as little as possible between movements (but as needed). Once you finish the 5th round, the workout is over.
Give it a try, and start your week strong!
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Publisher: Arnold Schwarzenegger
Editors-in-chief: Adam Bornstein and Daniel Ketchell
