Welcome! You are reading Books & Biceps #301!

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This week’s Books & Biceps is sponsored by Reflection.app.

And now I’m going to give you two conflicting pieces of information. 

1. I have always hated journaling because it feels like homework.

2. I continue to try journaling a few times a year for the following reasons:

Study after study has shown that journaling improves the quality of your life — from your mental health, to your emotional intelligence and cognition. It even helps with sleep by getting anxious thoughts out of your head.

I like sleep. I like cognition. I like writing. Journaling should be a cinch for me… but it’s never worked.. SO FAR!

I recently began trying the Reflection.app. It’s short. It gives you prompts. It’s easy. It’s satisfying. If you’re in the same boat as me and you know journaling is something you should do but you struggle sticking with it, give Reflection.app a shot:

BONUS!: Books & Biceps readers can download the app and try it free here PLUS you’ll get 40% off their top membership!

BOOKS

Red Mars by Kim Stanley Robinson

For a long time science fiction was my blind spot when it came to reading. Outside of the biographies, non-fiction books, history books and event books I typically read and recommend, when I grabbed a fiction title it was often in the mystery, detective, action or “big novel” genre.

I didn’t intentionally ignore sci-fi, I just didn’t seek it out.

Then a few summers ago I read Project Hail Mary, one of the most unique, awesome books I’ve enjoyed in the last five years and I liked it so much I committed to reading at least 2-3 sci-fi books every year.

Admittedly, it’s a tough genre for me. The wayyy out there sci-fi stuff with alien wars and hidden dimensions of telepathic palm trees and space slugs that eat moon dust like it’s Frosted Flakes*… all that doesn’t appeal to me too much (if there’s a book you think I should try, let me know though!). *I made these up I don’t know of any novel with either premise.

The kinds of sci-fi books that I am drawn to deal with “near future” type stuff… Things that have a dose of realism and are rooted somehow in our modern time but extrapolate how things might be with a moon base or people exploring one of Jupiter’s satellite moons or, in the case of this week’s book, living on Mars.

Author Kim Stanley Robinson has won just about every sci-fi book award possible, including the trifecta of the Hugo, Nebula and Locus awards, so I figured the first book in his “Mars trilogy” would be a good place to start.

This is the log line that hooked me on the back of the book:

“For centuries, the barren, desolate landscape of the red planet has beckoned to humankind. Now a group of one hundred colonists begins a mission whose ultimate goal is to transform Mars into a more Earthlike planet. They will place giant satellite mirrors in Martian orbit to reflect light onto its surface. Black dust sprinkled on the polar caps will capture warmth and melt the ice. And massive tunnels drilled into the mantle will create stupendous vents of hot gases. But despite these ambitious goals, there are some who would fight to the death to prevent Mars from ever being changed.

For a fictional timeline, this would take place a decade or two after The Martian, meaning sometime in our near future AFTER the first group of astronauts made it to Mars and explored… This book is maybe the third step after that, space travel-wise, and it deals with all the fascinating science and interesting minutiae of how you’d select 100 people to leave earth forever and how they’d live on Mars. I’d guess it’s 75-100 years from now in the real world.

The book is part science, part adventure and part psychology.

I loved the details of how they constructed the ship to mimic gravity and seasons to keep people from going insane: temperature, lighting, daylight time, meal time, etc… I loved how the weeding out process took place in Antarctica… And the scientific detail for food, plants, exercise and more is interesting. But overall the best part of the book is that it makes you think over and over: where are we headed? how will we get there? is this how it will go?

If you’re into realistic-ish sci-fi, you’ll enjoy this one. Check it out.

BICEPS

While algorithms tend to work against us on social media, every now and then they deliver the goods… In this case, over the past week or so, I’ve been getting regular posts from an account called Listen Close Motivation in my feed on Instagram and I gotta say… It is an absolute bullseye for me.

It’s the simplest, most basic meathead idea:

Take footage of dudes getting up at 5AM to train or to shadow box or to run in the snow or to do push-ups in the middle of the street or to sprint in the city or whatever video looks like hardcore training…

Then add in some hype music or chords from popular workout songs…

And follow that up with 15-20 second snippets of strength coaches giving their pre-game speeches or trainers pushing their clients or even a few voice overs of famous quotes about heart or pride or courage…

And I’m pumped up just typing this. I’ve watched like twenty of these and they’re all short, but if you need a little boost before hitting the gym:

Watch this, big dog, then go run through a wall.

UPGRADING HAS ITS PRIVILEGES

Moving forward the Friday issue of Books & Biceps that you’re reading will be considered the free issue. There will now also be a new paid issue on Tuesday, complete with fitness challenges and a Teams community and more that comes with our new membership tiers.

So many of you have asked for these features and upgrades over the years that I’ve now made it one of my jobs to give it you. And I mean jobs in the truest sense: building this takes real time and real work and serious hours.

I’m ALL IN and I hope you will be too.

If you love this newsletter, get value out of it, and believe in it, consider upgrading to a paid subscription to support it. It would mean the world to me if you did. Here’s what you get with each tier:

The Premium Flex BOOST membership gives you the Books & Biceps upgrade you've been craving, featuring the exclusive Tuesday Newsletter, book breakdowns, fitness challenges and bestselling author Q&As.

• Access to the Premium Flex-Only Tuesday Issue of Books & Biceps

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Now the choice is simple: BEAST or BOOST?

Like I said, I’m ALL IN. I hope you will be too. Sign up before June 4th and save 20% on each tier (already applied on the upgrade page):

QUICK FLEXES

I witnessed a legend yesterday. Dads, read this:

Time to Honor Our Meathead Agreement

In the gym there is an unspoken agreement that if a fellow dude needs a spot you jump in and help, one meathead to another.

If you enjoy reading this newsletter every week, let’s spot each other.

Let’s consider my writing and sending each issue of Books & Biceps my spotting you the best books, interviews and meathead content around.

Your spot to me is that you share this issue with ONE person who you think would like it.

That’s the deal. I spot you. You spot me. Just like the gym. Thanks!

Here’s your personal sharing link to get free stuff for every share:

STRONG LINKS:

1) I try to eat healthy, but I don’t ALWAYS eat healthy… And when I don’t want to eat healthy, and I want to know the latest tips, tricks and secret off menu items in fast food, there is only one place I turn to, the Fast Food Club. When you want to eat like crap in the best way possible, check it out:

2) Running sucks! But I make myself do it.

Lately, I’ve become interested in learning about the mechanics of running, prepping for races and more. This newsletter, The Rundown shares unique stories as well as stretches, nutrition tips and even cool upcoming races you might be interested in. You can join here.

3) Do you run a start-up? Have you ever wondered what tools and tactics the best founders use? This newsletter, Big Desk Energy, gives you deep insight into the ins, outs, dos, don’ts and definitely don’ts when it comes to starting a company - all with a little humor involved. Check it out.

4) Readers always ask me what supplements I take or what pre-workouts and protein powder I use. I’ve been using the same brand since they launched about a decade ago: Jym Supplements. I’ve known the owner and founder for fifteen years and it’s the best tasting, highest quality stuff around. Try my favorite pre-workout (Blue Arctic Freeze) and protein powder (S’mores) here.

Thank you all for reading!

Have a phenomenal Memorial Day Weekend! - Jon

PS:

DON’T FORGET TO UPGRADE to BOOST or BEAST👇:

BONUS: Have you read these greatest hits?

1) This feature has been read by more than 10 MILLION PEOPLE:

How ESPN’s SportsCenter United a Generation in the 90s

2) This breakdown of iconic author Lee Child’s success was read by over 4 MILLION:

Did you know Lee Child started his Jack Reacher literary empire with $6?

PPS: You still reading Gus and Mallory? Thanks for getting through the whole thing! No skimming!

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