schwarzenegger.com

Monday motivation

2026-02-16 · 11:06 UTC ·Arnold Schwarzenegger ·16 min read

Brief

Arnold Schwarzenegger’s “Monday Motivation” newsletter is primarily a motivational argument against defining women’s fitness potential by menopause status. Drawing on a message he says he has pushed for roughly 40 years, he contends that “peri,” “meno,” and “post” have become limiting identities amplified by a commercial ecosystem of menopause-branded workouts, diets, and supplements. His core claim is not that menopause symptoms are unreal, but that they should not be treated as a permanent ceiling on strength, mobility, or athletic progress. To make that case, he leans heavily on anecdotal examples from Arnold’s Pump Club, especially April, 62, who went from being unable to perform a lunge to deadlifting nearly 290 pounds, and Peggy, who began at 51 with no weights and progressed to moving 15,000 pounds in an hour after roughly 650 days of training.

The back half of the newsletter shifts into lighter research translation and programming advice. It summarizes a review of 86 randomized controlled trials involving more than 7,000 participants, claiming resistance training was the most reliable exercise modality for improving sleep quality and that one year-long trial added about 40 minutes of nightly sleep. It also highlights an observational study of nearly 24,000 women linking lower sun exposure to higher odds of future hypertension medication use, while acknowledging confounding and indirect measurement limitations. Finally, it offers a practical “myo-reps” workout based on Borge Fagerli’s method: an activation set of 10-20 reps taken close to failure, followed by repeated mini-sets of 3-5 reps separated by only 3-5 deep breaths, applied here to lunges and overhead press after heavier 3x6-8 squat and row work.

Why it matters

Arnold Schwarzenegger’s 2026-02-16 newsletter combines a motivational essay on women’s strength training with short research summaries on sleep, blood pressure, and a sample lifting workout.

Key details

  • Schwarzenegger argues that menopause, perimenopause, and postmenopause are being over-medicalized by a wellness industry selling “special” workouts, diets, and supplements, and says women instead need the same basics as anyone else: a plan, consistency, and support.
  • He highlights Pump Club member April, age 62, who joined in 2023 near age 60 unable to do a single lunge, then progressed to full lunges, goblet squats, a nearly 290-pound deadlift, a national tennis tournament win, and a body-fat reduction from 40.9% to 29%.
  • Another example, Peggy, started lifting at 51 with bodyweight only and, after about 650 days, was able to move more than 15,000 pounds in a single hour of training; Schwarzenegger frames this as evidence against menopause-specific limitations.
  • The newsletter cites a review of 86 randomized controlled trials covering more than 7,000 participants that found all exercise helped sleep, but resistance training was the most consistently effective, with one 12-month trial showing about 40 additional minutes of sleep per night versus non-exercise controls.
  • It also cites an observational study of nearly 24,000 women in which those with the lowest self-reported sun exposure had 41% higher odds of later receiving hypertension medication than those with the highest exposure; the proposed mechanism is UV-triggered nitric oxide release in skin plus vitamin D effects, though the piece notes the study cannot establish causation and relied on self-reports and prescription records.
Cleaned source text

title: Monday motivation

author: Arnold Schwarzenegger

content_type: newsletter

publication: schwarzenegger.com

published: 2026-02-16T11:06:22+00:00

source_url: gmail://19c66221ad51de09

word_count: 3656

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February 16, 2026 | Read Online

You Are Not a Diagnosis: Why Menopause Doesn't Define What Your Body Can Do

Arnold Schwarzenegger spent the last 40 years championing strength training for women. But now, he's worried that an industry is taking advantage of women and labeling them in a way that is disempowering.

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Today’s Health Upgrade

Arnold’s Corner: Monday Motivation

Do this during the day, sleep better at night

A “natural way” to lower blood pressure

Workout of the week

Arnold’s Corner

Monday Motivation: You Are Not a Diagnosis

I want to talk to the women today.

Men, _don’t go anywhere_. You’ll learn something. But this message is for the women because I want to answer one of the most common emails we receive — and it manages to give me hope, but also make me worry:

“I want to know how I do it when I am a menopausal woman.”_(You can insert peri or post here, also.)

First, let me tell you why it gives me hope. Seeing so many women embracing the idea of fitness and resistance training is something I’ve fought for my whole life.

Watch this clip of me on Johnny Carson more than 40 years ago, when I had much more beautiful hair, trying to convince women to pick up weights:

Arnold Schwarzenegger: Women Can Weightlift to Get Fit, Part 1 Johnny Carson ]( )

I’ve been fighting this fight for decades. For 40 years, the message has been the same: women should train. Women should be strong. Women are capable of incredible things when they step into the gym and stop listening to all the garbage about what they can’t do.

It took the world 40 years to catch up with me. Maybe that makes me stubborn, or maybe it makes me right. I think it’s both.

Now, let me tell you why it worries me.

I talk about how deciding who you want to be a lot here. Your identity is important. I don’t want you to just train, I want you to become someone who trains, someone who is strong.

So when you tell me that you are someone with menopause or perimenopause, I see you starting to define yourself as someone with limits, and that’s what I want to avoid.

Before we start, I want to acknowledge something about us men: we are not exactly known for overthinking. We just do the thing, sometimes badly, and figure it out later.

This is probably why we have shorter lifespans than women, so I’m not recommending it as a life strategy.

But there is one benefit to not overthinking: you don’t give problems more power than they deserve. And that’s exactly what I’m seeing happen to millions of women right now.

Everywhere I look, I see women describing themselves as “peri,” “meno,” or “post.” I see it in bios. I see it in introductions. I see it in the way women talk about themselves when they join the Pump Club.

“I’m perimenopausal, so I probably can’t…”

“I’m menopausal, so I’ll never be able to…”

“I’m postmenopausal, so it’s too late for me to…”

I need you to stop right there.

Menopause is real. I am not dismissing it for a second. The hot flashes, the terrible sleep, the mood changes, the belly fat that shows up uninvited and refuses to leave — I’ve heard it all from thousands of women, and I believe every word of it.

But here’s where I have a problem:

When did a phase of your biology become your identity?

When did a hormonal change become a life sentence?

When did “this is harder now” turn into “this is impossible”?

I’ll tell you when. It happened because an entire industry figured out they could make money off of your fear. They sold you special menopause workouts. Special menopause diets. Special menopause supplements.

And with every special product, they sent you the same message: _“You are broken, and you need a special fix.”

You are not broken. You don’t need a special fix.

You need the same thing every single human being needs: a vision, a plan, consistency, and people who believe in you. That’s it.

When I hear women say they can’t get strong because of menopause, I have to push back because I’ve been pushing back against these lies for longer than some of you have been alive.

But I don’t want you to listen to me. I’m Arnold. Of course I’m going to tell you to train. That’s what I do.

I want you to listen to women like you.

You are not a diagnosis. You are not a label. You are not “peri” or “meno” or “post.”_ _Don’t let a word define you. Don’t let an industry limit you.

April is 62 years old. When she joined the Pump Club in 2023, she was coming up on 60. Menopause had wrecked her. Depression, hot flashes, terrible sleep, and a belly she didn’t recognize. She had put her faith in every lose-weight-quick scheme she could find, including a celebrity keto diet that destroyed her muscle tissue. She was at rock bottom.

On her first morning with the Pump Club, the warmup called for lunges. She couldn’t do one. She was on the gym floor crying from the pain in her knees and pelvis and the lack of mobility. She’s never told anyone that before.

But then she got really pissed off.

Day after day, she held onto a ballet barre in her photography studio and did lunges with her knee touching a yoga block. It hurt to sit. It hurt to stand. But she kept going. Four months later, she was doing full lunges and goblet squats.

Today, April is one of the few people on earth who does Bulgarian squats and actually likes it. She won a national tennis tournament. She climbed an ice cave in Iceland. She deadlifted nearly 290 pounds. She plays on teams with people 40 years younger, and as she told me: “It’s fun shaking hands at the net and they know their grandma just whooped them.”

Her body fat went from 40.9% to 29%. But here’s the thing that makes me want to scream this from the rooftops: she doesn’t care about that number anymore. She fuels for strength, not for looks. No bathroom scale dictates her life.

April didn’t let menopause define her. _She let it fuel her.

Then there’s Peggy. She started lifting at 51 with zero weight. Literally zero. Bodyweight only.

When Peggy joined, she didn’t begin with hope. She was in a place where she wasn’t sure she belonged. The Pump Club was a lifeline.

Her first lunges were wobbly. She once asked Ketch and Adam if they could create a video showing how to load a barbell, because she had never done it. And they did.

She set a vision for herself: a picture of Linda Hamilton in Dark Fate on her phone.

She knew it would take years, if ever, to get there. But she pictured how she would feel after a year of working out versus a year of not working out. Both visions were her fuel.

Recently, in one hour of training, Peggy moved over 15,000 pounds. From zero. In about 650 days.

She told me: “My mind — my being — believes that it is as strong as my body. I do more, attempt more, go more places, with minimal fear or anxiety because my nervous system finally feels strong.”

Peggy didn’t need a menopause program. She needed a barbell and people who believed in her.

And they’re not the only ones.

Dawn is 56. Menopause made all her old fitness rules stop working. Today she sleeps better, feels stronger, and trusts her body again.

Rachel is 46. Illness and surgery left her unable to squat or lunge. Today she’s rebuilding, one workout at a time.

Helen is 52. Long COVID stripped away her strength and her identity. Strength training became her anchor and gave her a comeback — and inspired her husband to start lifting with her.

Cathie is 76. Her words: “My muscles remember how to lift. It’s never too late to be strong.”

Nancy is 73. She’s dropped clothing sizes, gained strength, and keeps showing up every day.

Look at this list. Look at these women.

Not a single one of them needed permission from their hormones to get strong.

Not a single one needed a special program designed around a diagnosis.

Every single one needed the same thing: a plan, consistency, and the refusal to let biology write their story for them.

Here is what I want all of you to hear — men and women, but especially the women who have been told their best years are behind them:

You are not a diagnosis. You are not a label. You are not “peri” or “meno” or “post.”

You are a human being who is capable of extraordinary things, and the only thing standing between you and the strongest version of yourself is the decision to start and the commitment to not stop.