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Today’s Health Upgrade

• Does dark chocolate improve your heart health?

• Maybe you should check under the hood

• Why some people build muscle faster than others

• Adam’s Corner: The podcast that will never happen

Foods Are Super
Dark Chocolate and Your Heart (A Breakdown of 31 Studies)

Every few months, a headline declares dark chocolate is basically a health food. You've probably wondered whether that's real science or just wishful thinking dressed up for clicks.

It's real, but with a few important caveats.

A systematic review of 31 clinical trials found that regular consumption of cocoa and dark chocolate is associated with reductions in blood pressure, with changes appearing in as little as two weeks.

Researchers found that consuming cocoa products reduced resting systolic blood pressure by roughly 1.9 mmHg and diastolic by about 1.2 mmHg. Dark chocolate had a stronger effect on systolic pressure (approximately 3.9 mmHg) than cocoa beverages, though the authors acknowledge that this does not hold across all sensitivity analyses. 

For context, a 5 mmHg reduction in systolic pressure is the threshold most researchers consider clinically meaningful for cardiovascular risk, so this is a real signal, not a dramatic one.

The mechanism comes down to flavanols, the bioactive compounds concentrated in high-cacao cocoa. Flavanols stimulate nitric oxide production in blood vessels, causing them to relax and dilate, thereby reducing the pressure your heart works against. 

The catch is dose: the strongest effects appeared at daily flavanol intakes of 900 mg or more, which is difficult to hit with a square or two of chocolate. Cocoa powder is the more practical option here, offering higher flavanol concentration with far fewer calories.

None of this replaces blood pressure medication if you need it. But if you're looking for a daily habit with genuine cardiovascular upside and a low barrier to entry, unsweetened cocoa powder mixed into coffee, oatmeal, or a smoothie is a reasonable place to start. 

Together With Function
Beyond The Surface: Why Appearances Can Be Misleading

A Note From Ketch: I have done blood tests once or twice a year for a long time because I think it’s important.

And despite having visible abs and deadlifting 600 pounds, blood tests revealed issues I wouldn’t have otherwise thought existed. 

I’ve had elevated LDL cholesterol since I started regular testing, and assumed, because of family history, that it’s genetic and I am kind of stuck with it. Even so, I’ve taken many steps to bring it down as much as possible. Red meat is a treat (besides venison), and I have cut most saturated fats. My cholesterol has come down, but no matter how healthy my diet was and how much I trained, I never got it to where I wanted. 

I had a few friends and relatives rave about Function. That’s usually the way I find out about something that might be useful for The Pump Club, so I needed to see what all the excitement was about.

The process was easy. The sign-up and scheduling felt simpler than at my doctor’s office (no offense, Doc). I also threw in a couple of extra heart-health add-on tests while I was checking out, based on my concerns about cholesterol. 

When I got my lab results back through Function, my doctor and I went over them, and I had new clarity about my health. 

My inherited LPA genotype largely determines levels of a pro-inflammatory cholesterol particle called Lipoprotein(a), and my Apolipoprotein E (ApoE) genotype influences how efficiently my body transports cholesterol particles in the blood.

I lowered my cholesterol as much as genetics allows through training and diet, and getting these blood tests gave me clearer answers about what I could do to support my health.

The testing led me to two immediate actions: my doctor and I decided I’d go on a statin, and we scheduled a coronary artery calcium (CAC) scan, which we’ve talked about here, for more peace of mind.

Those decisions were informed by the knowledge I received through lab testing with Function. My calcium score was zero, so I have peace of mind knowing my elevated cholesterol didn’t cause calcified plaque, and now the medicine will give me more power to fight it.

That's why we recommend Function. Function members have access to 160+ lab tests, from your cardiovascular and metabolic health to your immune system, kidney function, hormones, essential nutrients, and more. An honest look at all the things you can't see.

I know people have mixed feelings about modern medicine, so here is how I think about it: I found something in my blood that took my power away, and I took it back.

I’ve had surgery for a hernia in the past, and I didn’t tell the doctors to give me the Wild West treatment and give me a shot of whiskey and put a piece of leather in my mouth before cutting me, so I’m not going to start rejecting modern medicine because of what’s popular on the internet.​​​​​​​​​​​​​

Function gave me a 30,000-foot view of the good and the bad. I didn’t want to brag too much, but the good was great. Besides my lipid profile, everything was in amazing shape, and I’m functioning like someone much younger than my 42 years. 

Plus, results include clinician notes with insights to help you understand what it means for your health and what questions to bring to your doctor. And when your numbers look good, more peace of mind is worth something too.

As an Arnold’s Pump Club reader, you get a $25 credit toward your first Function membership. The discount is automatically applied at checkout. No code needed.

I hope those of you who take us up on the offer have nothing in the red, but if you do, I hope you think about it as I did and make your plan to turn it green.

We’re all fighting a battle to be healthier every day, and the more knowledge we have, the better we fight.

That knowledge is what Function gives us.

Fitness Deep Dive
Why Some People Build Muscle Faster Than Others

You know someone like this: they seemingly follow the same program as you, eat their protein, show up consistently, and still build twice the muscle in half the time. 

The easy explanation is genetics. Some people just have it. But a landmark expert consensus authored by 14 of the world's leading muscle researchers tells a more complicated and ultimately more hopeful story.

The biggest predictor of who builds muscle is not testosterone, sex, or genetics. It appears to be what happens inside individual muscle cells in the earliest stages of training, and you have much more control over your muscle-building potential than you might believe. 

Researchers from over a dozen independent labs synthesized more than two decades of evidence on why people following identical resistance training programs see such different results. Their most consistent finding across multiple independent groups is that higher responders appear to build more ribosomes from the very first workout. Ribosomes are the cellular machinery that manufactures proteins, the construction crew inside your muscle.

Lower responders show compromised ribosome accumulation early on. One analysis found that high responders were the only group to register measurable ribosome-related content after just a single exercise session.

Think of two factories receiving identical inputs. One has ten production lines running immediately; the other takes longer to spin up. Same materials, but the second facility needs more time and more consistent throughput before it hits its stride.

Researchers don't yet have a specific protocol for accelerating that process. What they do know is that the same levers driving muscle growth generally — volume, proximity to failure, consistency — also appear to reduce the prevalence of low responsiveness. The signal may simply need to be stronger and more sustained before it registers.

Here's the good news: The cells aren't broken if you're not a hyper-responder. They just need more.

Specifically, you may need a larger, more persistent training stimulus before they get to work. That's a very different problem from assuming you've hit some kind of ceiling. It means some people respond faster, not that others can't respond meaningfully.

What researchers didn't find is equally important: testosterone levels in younger adults showed no meaningful association with who responds better. Neither did habitual diet. And while aging does create real biological changes that can affect responsiveness, chronological age alone doesn't determine your outcome.

Older adults are not condemned to low responsiveness. And many people labeled "non-responders" in shorter studies were likely misclassified. When measurement error is accounted for and training volume is increased, the category of true non-responder shrinks considerably.

If you've felt like muscle won't come no matter what you try, the data suggest the issue is usually a combination of your program, intensity, and consistency. 

The primary driver of muscle growth is mechanical tension: the force your muscle generates working against a load, especially in a lengthened position. That tension is what signals ribosomes to get to work. 

But tension alone doesn't do much if you stop three or four reps short every set, which is where the real stimulus lives. Research consistently shows that training within about 1-2 reps of your actual limit maximizes hypertrophy. 

Going all the way to failure on every set provides no measurable benefit and costs you recovery time.

Put those pieces together: enough sets per week (research suggests around 12 per muscle group for most people), a load that challenges you across whatever rep range you prefer, and staying close to your honest limit on each set. Then stay with it long enough to matter. Many people who looked like non-responders at eight weeks had shifted into responder territory by twelve or sixteen. 

The factory doesn't announce when it's ready. It just starts producing. If you need help finding a program that works for you — based on the science of results and Arnold’s 50 years of experience — we have you covered. 

Adam’s Corner
The Podcast That Will Never Happen

I sent him a message on a Monday night in April.

It took maybe thirty seconds. I saw that he was sick — Adam Munsterteiger, the reporter who covered the Colorado Buffaloes — and something moved me to say something.

I'd been reading his work for years. The way you read something you grew up loving, with the kind of loyalty and interest that doesn't require the team to be good. Adam wrote about the Buffs with care, even though for the last 15+ years, their football team has been something only the most diehard fans still care about.

So I donated to the meal train his family had set up. And then I sent him a DM.

He wrote back the next morning.

Adam asked if I'd come on his podcast to talk about Buffs football and fitness. Two of my favorite things. What could be better? He was warm, specific, and generous. The kind of message you write when you don't have energy to waste on things that don't matter.

I was excited. I wrote back. And on May 4th, he sent me a message to set it up. I got busy and didn’t respond.

Then, on May 19th, Adam Munsterteiger passed away. He was only 46.

The Wisdom That Doesn't Stay

I've been thinking about that message and the podcast ever since. The one that will never happen.

Not because I needed the airtime. Not because I had something urgent to say. But because I would have gotten to tell Adam, in person, that his work meant something to me. I would have gotten to say it where he could hear it, in the way that actually registers. Not as a DM reply, but face-to-face, or close enough.

And now I can't.

Here's the thing I keep returning to, though. It's not the podcast. It's not even Adam. 

It's the way grief clarifies everything, and then slowly doesn't.

We've all felt it. Someone dies, and suddenly the things that seemed important last week reveal themselves as noise. Suddenly, you're texting people you haven't talked to in years. Suddenly, you notice the ordinary gifts of the day — your kid's voice, the coffee cooling on the counter, the fact that your body still works — and feel something close to overwhelmed by how good it all is.

And then, gradually, you don't.

The clarity softens. Tuesday arrives. The inbox refills. The ordinary friction of living reasserts itself, and the urgency you felt — that urgency, the one that made you feel briefly like you understood something — retreats to wherever it came from.

Memento mori, it turns out, is easy to feel and be much harder to sustain.

The Latin phrase means "remember that you will die." The Stoics who practiced it weren't trying to be morbid. They were using the awareness of death as a tool: a way to strip away the noise and sharpen attention on what was actually worth spending a life on.

But the practice fails most of us. Not because the insight isn't real. It is. It's just that the instruction is too large. “Live like you’re dying" sounds right, but doesn't automatically translate to a random Tuesday morning. It's a feeling, not a plan.

So I've been thinking that maybe we need to look at these sobering moments differently.

What Actually Costs Nothing

It’s natural to become philosophical in the face of tragedy. But, in doing so, it’s easy to try to extract lessons from an extreme position.

We grapple with questions like, “What would I do if I knew I was dying?”

That’s not to say it’s a bad thought experiment. But it’s also a big endeavor that likely doesn’t have a direct singular action you can take. 

And that’s the thing about death or anything heavy: ideally, it doesn’t just make you think, but it makes you act. In a way that feels meaningful or adds more meaning to your days.

As I thought about Adam’s passing, I started thinking about the little actions that can be overlooked. And one question stuck with me:

What is the actual cost-to-value ratio of the things I already feel but don't say?

Not the big things. Not the trips, the risks, and the pivots. Those decisions have real stakes, real tradeoffs, real reasons to wait. I mean the small things. The kind that takes thirty seconds. The DM that says: I've been reading your work for years and wanted you to know it matters. The text to someone you haven't spoken to in a while that says: You crossed my mind. Hope you're okay. The email to the person whose work changed something in how you think, to tell them it did.

We feel those impulses constantly. Almost everyone does. We think about people. We appreciate what they built. We're grateful, privately, for things we never say out loud.

We just don't follow through, and there are many reasons why. Because it's a little awkward. Because we're busy. Because there will be a better moment, a more natural occasion, a podcast we'll eventually record.

The world has changed in a way that we can’t ignore. We scroll through the same feeds, root for the same teams, and feel like we know people we've never spoken to. Sometimes we do know them a little. But knowing isn't the same as saying, interacting, and truly connecting.

I read Adam Munsterteiger's work for years without saying anything. And then one night in April, I said something because I saw he was sick. He wrote back on a morning when he had better things to do than respond to strangers. He was probably in a hospital bed trying to get healthy. But he did the small thing. Connection happened. Briefly. Imperfectly. Real.

The podcast was the plan.

The DM Was The Thing

I'm glad I sent the DM to Adam. I wish I'd sent it sooner. Not for the podcast, because that was never even something I thought about, but so I could have told him more. I'm upset I never got to thank him in person. 

Both things are true. They'll stay true.

But here's what I keep landing on: the DM took thirty seconds. The meal train donation took two minutes. 

Those things happened because the impulse was there, and I followed through. Not because I had a grand plan. Not because I was living like I was dying. Just because I felt something and didn't wait for a better reason not to.

That gap — between the impulse to reach out and the follow-through — is almost always smaller than we make it. The reach doesn't require an occasion. It doesn't require a platform, a plan, or even a particularly good reason. It just requires not waiting for one.

And maybe that’s something Adam Munsterteiger's passing can teach all of us.

Remembering your own mortality is not necessarily a call to do more. It's a call to reduce the friction between what you feel and what you express.

Because the things we feel but never say don't disappear. They sit there until one day the chance to say them no longer exists.

I’m not sure I know how to live every day like it's my last. I'm not sure anyone does.

But I think anyone can do this: find one person a week — someone whose work you've admired, someone you've been meaning to check in on, someone who deserves to hear what you actually think of them — and say the thing you've already been thinking.

Don’t keep them waiting. Don’t hold back. It doesn't require a podcast to say the thing you've already been thinking. -AB

-Adam Bornstein is the co-founder and co-editor-in-chief of Arnold’s Pump Club

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 review our interpretations of the research and ensure 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