Every weekday, we help you make sense of the complex world of wellness by analyzing the headlines, simplifying the latest research, and providing quick tips designed to help you stay healthier in under 5 minutes. If you were forwarded this message, you can get the free daily email here.
Today’s Health Upgrade
Arnold’s Corner: Monday motivation
Do certain foods lead to more body fat?
Your money is no good here
From hope to action
Arnold’s Corner
Monday Motivation: Show Your Work
I think a lot of you have a misconception that’s holding you back.
It’s not your fault, it’s human nature.
You see the Instagram posts of before and after photos of people who got into great shape, or of the successful business launch that everyone’s talking about, or the trainer who started lifting the bar and now lifts 500 pounds, or the mom who seems to make parenting look easy, and you think:
“That’s what I want.”
Your brain processes all of those images and says:
“That’s sexy.”
It is not wrong. Success is sexy.
But your brain focuses only on the end result; it doesn’t prepare you for reality: The path to success is not sexy. It’s sometimes boring. It’s often painful. It can absolutely suck.
Because you don’t prepare for that, you run into the times when it becomes tedious or the moments where it is pure suffering, and you think, “Obviously, I’m doing something wrong; it shouldn’t feel shitty to do something I want.”
It should. And it does, sometimes.
When you choose not to eat the ice cream at night and reach for the Greek yogurt, it isn’t sexy. When you eat similar meals filled with protein and fiber every day, it can be really boring.
When you see striations on your shoulders start to pop out in the mirror, or you see the hint of abs for the first time, it becomes sexy.
Getting to the sexy takes months or years of boring, hard, painful work. You’ll be hungry sometimes. You’ll be uncomfortable. You’ll be bored with eating fish and vegetables.
It is the same with everything.
Our social media world — and even the old school media for years — never shows you the path to the great success story.
They show you the success story, because the path is terrible TV, and wouldn’t get any likes on a social media feed. Nobody would want to watch it.
That big business launch? You don’t see the months of planning, of staying up all night working, of running into impossible problems, of huge screwups that have to be fixed.
The deadlift PR? You don’t see the 20 failures, the injuries and physical therapy, the plateaus, the days where boring normal weights went up again and again and again.
That mom who makes it look easy? You don’t see her putting her phone in another room so she can be totally present with her kids. You don’t see her going in the other room when it gets to be too much to take a breath, so she can calm down. You don’t see her struggles.
It isn’t the media’s fault, or even social media’s fault, that we don’t see these things.
It is our fault. We don’t want to watch the boring work. We don’t want to see the failures. If we did, believe me, the media and your feeds would show them. They’re in the business of showing you what you want to see.
Every single day, people are inspired by the sexy success stories to start on their own path.
A month or a couple of months later, most of them quit when it gets hard, when it gets boring.
They never make it to the sexy, because they weren’t prepared for the long, hard slog of getting there.
We have the power to change that.
I was always a fanatic about teaching my kids math. And any parent or teacher who has taught math knows the phrase: “Show your work.”
It’s how you make sure they are doing the real, boring work of calculating the numbers themselves and not just using a calculator to write down the end result.
This week, my challenge to all of you, and to all of social media, is simple. Show your work.
Post your crazy PR. Post your abs. Post your successful business. Post your amazing parenting.
Use those first few seconds to show the sexy part to get eyeballs.
And then, once you have them watching, show the work. Show the kid meltdowns, show the failed reps, show the look on your face when you have to reject a delicious snack.
I’m sick and tired of people quitting on themselves. I think this might be one way to help them keep going when it sucks. I believe we can start a new trend.
There’s only one way to find out. Use the hashtag #ShowYourWork, and I will highlight your successes and your struggles.
Start Your Week Right
Same Calories, More Body Fat?
"A calorie is a calorie" is one of those ideas that sounds logical until your body disagrees. And while calories do matter, that doesn’t mean every calorie is processed the same or influences your hunger equally.
Swapping ultra-processed foods for whole foods could prevent roughly 2 pounds of fat gain.
Researchers fed healthy men two diets for three weeks each, then had them switch. One diet was 77% ultra-processed foods, and the other 66% whole foods. Calories and macros were matched. But on the ultra-processed diet, participants gained about 1 kg more body fat, their cholesterol markers worsened, and blood tests revealed elevated phthalates, hormone-disrupting chemicals that leach from food packaging.
The researchers believe (from this study and others that are similar) that ultra-processed foods are easier to digest (your body extracts more energy), less filling, and carry chemical residues that can interfere with metabolism.
But there's a wrinkle most coverage skips over. The whole-foods diet also had significantly more fiber. That matters because meta-analyses show fiber alone can reduce body weight by up to 2.5 kg and lower LDL cholesterol. At high intakes, fiber blocks your body from absorbing up to 300 extra calories per day.
The ultra-processed diet also had higher levels of saturated fat, which is associated with worse LDL cholesterol.
So is the real problem "processing," or a diet that reduces fiber and increases saturated fat? This study can't fully separate the two. But it doesn't matter for the main action you need to take.
If you want to eat better, start by focusing on adding more whole foods. That alone increases fiber intake and reduces ultra-processed food intake, which is more likely to help you eat less food (overall) and consume more higher-quality calories. No label-reading required. It’s simple swaps like an apple with almond butter instead of a packaged bar. Or eating oatmeal and berries instead of sugary cereal.
This doesn’t mean you must avoid all ultra-processed foods. And you don't need to overhaul your entire diet overnight. But small trades, done consistently, can do a lot of good without too much overthinking or stress.
Your Money Is No Good Here
The $80 Recovery Supplement That's Never Been Tested For Recovery
Our favorite topics to discuss are the ones that come directly from you.
On Saturday, we held another Pump Club meetup in Venice. Arnold stopped by to motivate everyone for deadlifts; we went on a ruck, and we ended with a Q&A.
Arnold front and center for a Pump Club deadlift and ruck in LA. More events are coming every month across the US and worldwide.
One member, who has been struggling with hand pain, asked me about a supplement recommended by her doctor. I told her to email me, and I would read more to understand. Yesterday, I read five different studies, and here’s what you need to know.
You might have heard of SPM supplements (also called Pro-Resolving mediators or PRMs), which are marketed as the "next generation" of fish oil, promising to resolve inflammation and speed recovery. The pitch sounds incredible. The price tag? Not cheap. The evidence that it actually works for recovery? Nonexistent.
A recent review found zero human studies testing SPM supplements for exercise recovery, making this another unfortunate example of marketing and science on the supplement shelf.
SPMs (specialized pro-resolving mediators) are real molecules your body naturally produces from omega-3 fatty acids. They were discovered about 20 years ago, and the science is genuinely interesting. Instead of blocking inflammation like ibuprofen, SPMs help your body finish the inflammatory process and shift into repair mode. In animal studies, injected SPMs helped mice recover muscle strength after injury.
But here's where it falls apart. A comprehensive review examined every available human study on SPM-enriched marine oil — and found that not a single one measured exercise recovery, muscle soreness, or performance. Worse, the supplements don't even contain actual SPMs.
They contain precursor molecules that your body may or may not convert into functional SPMs. The best-designed human study simply showed that the supplements raise blood levels of SPM-related markers. That's it.
If you’re buying these supplements, it’s a red flag not just for the product but also for the brand selling them to you.
The only randomized, placebo-controlled trial (the GAUDI study) tested SPM supplements for knee pain in patients with osteoarthritis and failed to meet its primary endpoint.
Meanwhile, standard fish oil has multiple human trials supporting its use for reducing soreness and preserving strength after hard training, especially with at least four weeks of consistent use. Your body already makes SPMs when you get enough omega-3s. So if you want to make that a priority (and it’s not a necessity), instead of paying a premium for unproven precursors, eat fatty fish two to three times per week or grab a quality fish oil supplement.
The science might catch up to the hype someday, but your wallet shouldn't have to wait.
Fitness
Workout Of The Week
Most workouts fall apart when fatigue takes over. Wave loading flips the script.
Instead of piling on reps as you get tired, you strip volume away and let intensity rise. This workout pairs wave loading with reciprocal supersets, so one muscle group rests while the other works. Efficient. Powerful. Old-school smart.
How To Do It
Each exercise follows the same structure:
Set 1: 5 reps
Set 2: 3 reps
Set 3: 1 rep
That’s one wave. Select a weight you can normally do for 1-2 more reps than the recommended rep range. For example, on the first set for 5 reps, pick a weight you could lift 6 times.
As reps decrease, the weight increases. You’ll do 1 set of the first exercise in the superset, rest 30-60 seconds, and then 1 set of the second exercise. Rest for another 1-2 minutes, and repeat twice more to complete the first wave. Rest for 3 minutes, repeat all three sets, rest, and then move to the next superset pairing.
You can do each superset as its own workout, or combine all three into a full-body blast.
Superset 1: Chest + Back
1A. Dumbbell Bench Press
Wave 1: 5 reps, 3 reps, 1 rep
Wave 2: 5 reps, 3 reps, 1 rep
1B Chest-Supported Dumbbell Row
Wave 1: 5 reps, 3 reps, 1 rep
Wave 2: 5 reps, 3 reps, 1 rep
Rest for 3 minutes
Superset 2: Quads + Hamstrings
2A. Front Squat
Wave 1: 5 reps, 3 reps, 1 rep
Wave 2: 5 reps, 3 reps, 1 rep
2B. Romanian Deadlift
Wave 1: 5 reps, 3 reps, 1 rep
Wave 2: 5 reps, 3 reps, 1 rep
Rest for 3 minutes
Give it a try, and start your week strong!
Better Today
Take any of these tips from today’s email and put them into action:
1. Why Most People Quit Before They Succeed — And What "Show Your Work" Can Change
Arnold Schwarzenegger notes that most people abandon their goals not because they lack motivation, but because they see only the end result, never the months of boring, painful work behind it. Arnold's #ShowYourWork challenge asks you to post the struggle alongside the success, so the next person who starts doesn't quit when it stops being sexy.
2. Ultra-Processed vs. Whole Foods: Why Matched Calories Still Led to More Body Fat, Worse Cholesterol, and Elevated Phthalates
A controlled crossover study fed healthy men matched-calorie diets (one 77% ultra-processed, the other 66% whole foods) for three weeks each, and found the ultra-processed diet added roughly 1 kg more body fat, worsened cholesterol, and elevated hormone-disrupting phthalates from packaging. The simplest fix isn't a diet overhaul; it's small swaps like an apple with almond butter instead of a packaged bar, which naturally increases fiber (shown to block up to 300 extra calories per day at high intakes) and crowds out processed foods.
3. SPM/PRM Recovery Supplements Have Zero Human Studies for Exercise Recovery (A Comprehensive Review Found No Evidence)
A meta-analysis found zero human studies testing SPM supplements for exercise recovery, muscle soreness, or performance. Even worse, the supplements don't even contain actual SPMs, just precursor molecules your body may or may not convert. Standard fish oil, with multiple human trials supporting reduced soreness and preserved strength with at least four weeks of consistent use, remains the evidence-backed option (or eat fatty fish two to three times per week).
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Publisher: Arnold Schwarzenegger
Editors-in-chief: Adam Bornstein and Daniel Ketchell
