The Only Real Losers Never Leave the Sidelines

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Today’s Health Upgrade

• Arnold’s Corner: Monday motivation

• How to reset your gut health

• Start your week right

• Workout of the week

Arnold’s Corner 
Monday Motivation: Don’t Be A Loser

I love the Olympics. Winter, summer, every single games, I tune in.

I love it because we see how sports bring us together.

I love it because we are reminded that sports are the ultimate equalizer. Look at weightlifting in the summer Olympics or downhill skiing now. The weights and the mountain don’t care what country you come from, how much money you have, or what religion you are. The weights and the mountain are the same for every single competitor.

I love it, most of all, because the Olympics remind us of a core life lesson: greatness and heartbreak live right next door to each other.

You can’t find greatness without a few meetings with heartbreak and failure.

We saw this very clearly over the weekend.

Like many of you, I’ve been following my friend Lindsey Vonn’s inspirational comeback. She’s 41, one knee is completely rebuilt, and now she went into the Olympics with a freshly-torn ACL.

As storylines go, you can’t get any better. It is gutsy. It is brave. It is a little bit crazy.

And it brings out all of the losers to do their naysaying.

“Why would she do this?” ”She must be missing something in her life.”

“It’s irresponsible.”

What these people don’t understand, because they’ve never tried anything great, because they’ve never pushed themselves to the absolute edges of their limits, because they’ll never know their real potential, is that there is no such thing as risk-free greatness.

Yesterday, when her Olympic dreams ended in that horrible crash that left all of us praying for her in front of our televisions, the haters were out in full force.

I don’t need to repeat it. Twitter has given losers enough of a platform; I won’t be amplifying them in this newsletter.

You have seen Teddy Roosevelt’s famous quote about the Man in the Arena. But have you really read it? Have you absorbed it?

“It is not the critic who counts: not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles or where the doer of deeds could have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly, who errs and comes up short again and again, because there is no effort without error or shortcoming, but who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, who spends himself in a worthy cause; who, at the best, knows, in the end, the triumph of high achievement, and who, at the worst, if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who knew neither victory nor defeat.”

Soak it in.

“…there is no effort without error or shortcoming.”

“…if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who knew neither victory nor defeat.”

My goal, this week and every week, is to keep you from becoming one of those cold and timid souls.

Sure, there might be less heartbreak, but there is also no joy in that life.

It’s a life that puts you on the sidelines.

You live in a constant state of mediocrity. Since a life without putting yourself into the arena doesn’t experience the lowest lows, it also cannot experience the highest highs. It’s a constant middle-ground, a life of “blah.”

It numbs you. It’s why people who never step into the arena themselves are always trying — and failing — to find joy in other people’s failures. They want to feel something, like they know the people in the arena do, but they aren’t willing to take the risk required to feel something real.

I don’t want any of you to live that middling, numb, mediocre life.

I want you to feel the highest highs. And for that, I need you to learn that you’ll also have to experience the lowest lows.

It might not seem fair that the same map can lead you to either brutal heartbreak or total greatness, but that’s life.

We saw it in the Super Bowl. Haters will call the Patriots losers.

But there are no real losers who play in the Super Bowl. I don’t mean that in the participation trophy sense, because I can’t stand the idea that everyone deserves a trophy. I mean that everybody who goes all out, who steps into that arena and gives everything, is a champion, even if they don’t deserve a trophy.

They have lived life fully, rejecting the numb mediocrity most people accept.

The only real losers are the ones who never leave the safety of the sidelines.

After these Olympics, Lindsey won’t go home with a medal. She will go home with the heart of a champion.

I hope she knows that she did a great public service for all of us.

She demonstrated that thriving means being comfortable on that razor’s edge of victory and defeat.

She reminded us that coming up short in a worthy cause beats becoming one of those cold and timid souls.

She showed us how to live, not just to exist. They don’t have a medal for that.

Life’s greatest wins live inside you.

My challenge to all of you this week comes in two parts, and one is easier than the other.

Let’s start with the easier one: don’t be a loser who hates from the sidelines. I have a feeling most of you can already check this one off, because this is the positive corner of the internet. But if you find yourself naysaying or enjoying other people’s failure, it’s the first sign that you are falling into that numb, cold, timid life. Stop it.

Now, the harder one. Take the risk. Put yourself out there. All of you have something you’ve shied away from, something where you thought about jumping into the arena but hesitated when you thought of the risk of failure. You might fail. But I promise you’ll find that even failure means a fuller life than the sidelines.

It’s time to start living.

Health
Your Weekend Sleep Schedule Might Be Messing With Your Gut

You survived the week, and all you want is a few extra hours of sleep on the weekend. But that shift between your weekday alarm and your weekend wake-up could be doing more damage than you'd expect.

Research suggests that a difference of just two hours between your weekday and weekend sleep times is linked to higher blood sugar, more inflammation, and a less healthy gut.

Scientists call it "social jetlag" — the gap between when your body wants to sleep and when your schedule allows it. In this study, participants with at least a two-hour mismatch between workday and weekend sleep times had worse diet quality (more ultra-processed foods and sugary drinks), higher post-meal blood sugar, elevated inflammatory markers, and less favorable cholesterol levels.

But the gut findings stood out most. People with greater social jetlag had lower microbial diversity and reduced levels of beneficial bacteria tied to better metabolic and digestive health. Those differences persisted even after researchers controlled for diet, suggesting that the irregular sleep pattern alone appeared to alter the gut environment.

Your gut microbes run on their own internal clocks. They follow circadian rhythms that regulate digestion, metabolism, and immunity. When your sleep schedule fluctuates, it disrupts microbial rhythms, altering hormones such as insulin and cortisol and creating a ripple effect of inflammation and metabolic stress.

You don't need to set a military-grade alarm every day. But try to keep your weekend wake-up within 30 to 60 minutes of your weekday wake-up time. Pair that with some morning sunlight and consistent meal timing, and you give your body's internal clock — and your gut — a much better chance of staying on track.

Start Your Week Right 
Your Monday Motivation Isn't a Lie

You've probably restarted your fitness routine on a Monday more times than you can count. And maybe that makes you feel like you're stuck in a loop: always beginning, never following through. But that urge to start fresh at the top of the week? It's your brain doing exactly what the research says it should.

People are significantly more likely to pursue goals on Mondays and other "landmark" days, and that motivation is worth using, not fighting.

Researchers analyzed gym attendance data from nearly 12,000 people, goal-commitment sign-ups, and Google search trends for diet-related terms. Across every dataset, the same pattern held: Mondays, the first of the month, birthdays, and the start of new semesters all triggered spikes in goal-directed behavior. Mondays consistently had higher gym visits and new commitments than other weekdays.

The researchers believe these "temporal landmarks" work because they create a mental boundary between your past self and the version of you that's ready to try again. Monday feels like a clean page, and your brain treats it like one.

Now, the important part: this study measured starting, not sticking. And that distinction matters. 

A separate study involving over 61,000 gym members found that the single strongest predictor of long-term consistency wasn't a perfect streak. It was what happened after a missed workout. 

People who returned to the gym after missing a session logged 27% more visits over time than those who didn't get that nudge to come back.

So here's your framework: use Monday. That pull you feel is real, backed by data across millions of observations. Start the week with a workout (like the one below), a walk, a meal you feel good about — whatever moves the needle.

But when Wednesday falls apart (and it will), remember the rule that actually builds habits: never miss twice in a row. Your comeback matters more than your streak.

Fitness 
Workout Of The Week 

Editor’s Note: We’ll never stop giving you a free Workout of the Week. Because we believe everyone should have access to exercise.

But in a world obsessed with workouts of the day, it’s worth knowing the difference between a workout and a program. Research shows that planned, progressive training produces significantly greater strength and muscle gains than randomly varied workouts, even when effort is the same 

A “Workout of the day” feels great — you sweat, you’re sore — but soreness isn’t the goal. Exhaustion doesn’t make you better. Your body adapts best when workouts build on one another intentionally, not when each session stands alone.

This workout will challenge you today, but a program is what changes you over weeks, months, and years. When you’re ready, that’s what we offer in the Pump Club app. We do the thinking, give you access to the best coaches, and provide accountability so you see results.

How To Do It

Today’s workout uses supersets, alternating upper- and lower-body exercises to train your entire body efficiently. 

Do this workout three times per week, resting at least one day between workouts.

Superset 1

1. Dumbbell step up: 3 sets (30 seconds rest) x 4-6 reps

2. Bent-over dumbbell row: 3 sets x 4-6 reps

Rest for 2 minutes, repeat until you complete all sets, and then move to the next superset.

Superset 2

1. Dumbbell Romanian deadlift: 3 sets x 6-8 reps

2. Dumbbell bench press: 3 sets x 6-8 reps

Rest for 2 minutes, repeat until you complete all sets, and then move to the next superset.

Superset 3

1. Dumbbell Rear-foot elevated split squat: 3 sets x 8-10 reps

2. Dumbbell overhead press: 3 sets x 8-10 reps

Give it a try, and start your week strong!

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Publisher: Arnold Schwarzenegger​

Editors-in-chief: Adam Bornstein and Daniel Ketchell