Boom! This is Books & Biceps #328!

Welcome to our hundreds of new readers and we’re leading off with HUGE NEWS:

The Paperback Edition of Generation Griffey is out now! And in just 2 days we’re the #2 New Release in Sports Essays & Sports Reference. We’re SO CLOSE to #1 and today’s the day to get there…

Rise up, Books & Biceps crew. We need about 50 orders to make it happen and every single one counts… Especially yours. Turn that hat backwards like Junior, toss some Hot Pockets into the microwave, pop in Goldeneye on N64 and let’s goooo:

You are all amazing. Thanks to each and every one of you! And if an awesome B&B reader shared this with you, add your e-mail with the subscribe button below:

If you’re a new subscriber or haven’t read the big New Yorker profile on our Books & Biceps crew, you can check it out here.

BOOKS

Endurance: Shackleton’s Incredible Voyage by Alfred Lansing

I love stories of survival that are so absurd, ludicrous and against-the-odds that if they weren’t true you’d think they had to made up.

The story of the exploration ship Endurance is exactly that, and it’s the perfect post-Thanksgiving holiday read. Feel like complaining about traffic? About a delayed flight? About an annoying holiday party? About having a cold? Or eating too much? Or stores being too crowded? Forget all that. You have nothing to worry about compared to what Ernest Shackleton and his crew dealt with 110 years ago.

How’s this for a quick summary:

In August 1914, polar explorer Ernest Shackleton boarded the Endurance and set sail for Antarctica, where he planned to cross the last uncharted continent on foot. In January 1915, after battling its way through a thousand miles of pack ice and only a day's sail short of its destination, the Endurance became locked in an island of ice. Thus began the legendary ordeal of Shackleton and his crew of twenty-seven men. When their ship was finally crushed between two ice floes, they attempted a near-impossible journey over 850 miles of the South Atlantic's heaviest seas to the closest outpost of civilization.

Let me explain what this meant:

Sub zero temperatures. Months of no daylight. Open frigid oceans. The loss of their boat. The loss of their clothes and food. Starvation. Eating penguins and seals and eventually their pack dogs. It meant constant cold and suffering. It meant death-defying, last-ditch efforts in makeshift boats where icy water and hail caused instant frostbite and ice blisters and the loss of feeling everywhere. Even ice blindness, where your eyes freeze.

And yet…

Shackleton pulled off the impossible, culminating in a Hail Mary desperate boat ride, blizzard hike, mountain climb and rope fall that has to be read to be believed.

If you’d like a little perspective on what real suffering, survival and success in the face of overwhelming odds looks like, bring this book with you on your winter holiday travels. You’ll be thankful for EVERYTHING after you read it. It’s also impeccably written and reads like an action/adventure movie. You’ll love it. Get it here.

BICEPS

Rich Froning is one of the all-time great CrossFit Athletes, winning the title of World’s Fittest Man four straight years between 2011 and 2014.

I’ve only tried CrossFit a few times and it wasn’t for me, but the workouts these dudes put themselves through to train and compete are impressive. And from what I’ve seen, their home gyms are next level.

Actually, “home gym” doesn’t do what Froning has put together justice. He has a “home training compound” that you have to see to believe.

It makes my beloved Flex Factory look like a single set of old eight-pound dumbbells, haha.

I don’t get home gym envy very often, but damn, you gotta look at this place. Here’s the short video:

QUICK FLEXES

This is a quick reminder to make sure you don’t let too many days slide during the holidays between workouts.

It’s inevitable that you’re going to miss one or two or even three sometimes: travel, crazy schedules, late flights… It happens.

But don’t let those days compound. Even if you need to grab a lift late at night or at lunch or get up early, DO IT! Don’t slip.

Almost happened to me the other day. I was out of town last Friday until super late Sunday night. Then I slept in. And was gonna blow off Monday’s lift, but I didn’t. And it was a phenomenal decision. Helped me reset my body and put me back on track:

If for some reason you aren’t going to have access to a gym for a while, this is a go-to, simple, short bodyweight workout to at least get a short pump in. You can do it anywhere:

The Do Anywhere Just Do Something Workout for the Holidays:

4 × 25 push-ups

4 × 25 air squats

4 × 25 crunches

Rounds: Whatever works for you

This shouldn’t take more than 15 minutes, but it’s better than nothing and is a good fill-in for days when a gym isn’t happening. Double it if you have more time. Shorten the reps if you need to. But do it if you can. Your body will thank you!

I’m a sucker for when people post 80s and 90s wrestling nostalgia, as you all know.

And yesterday someone shared the video of the very first time Hulk Hogan came out to the ring with ‘Real American’ as his theme song. What a moment.

It was at Madison Square Garden on December 30th, 1985 and of course, his opponent was none other than my guy, Macho Man Randy Savage:

Don’t Forget to Order Generation Griffey Today!

If you still wear your hat backward like Griffey, think all the Prime flavors are dumb because Gatorade Citrus Cooler is the greatest sports drink ever, miss Blockbuster and Tower Records, destroyed your friends in Street Fighter, GoldenEye, and NBA Jam, can quote Tommy Boy and Billy Madison, and never missed Stu Scott on SportsCenter —this book, Generation Griffey, is for you.

I ranked 90 of the '90s things that made your dude childhood legendary. A rankfest, if you will. Ninety columns. By me. For you. For US.

Why Generation Griffey?

First, it’s a great name. We’ve got alliteration, “generation,” and the quintessential athlete of that era: Ken Griffey Jr.

Junior perfectly defines the era for late '80s and '90s kids because the apex of his career matches our childhood. From the day he joined the Mariners’ lineup in 1989 through the next decade, nobody embodied '90s style (the backward hat), swagger (the swing, the smile, the commercials), and coolness (the kicks, the cameos, the crossover stardom) quite like Griffey.

His reign atop the sports/celebrity pyramid (alongside Jordan) from his rookie year in Seattle to his move to the Reds in 2000 serves as the perfect bookend for all of us who grew up in the last decade of the last century.

See? Generation Griffey is a spectacular name for this book.

What are we ranking?

Everything. Well, not everything, but the 90 most nostalgic things that make us dudes smile all these years later: the movies we quoted, the athletes we loved, the cards we collected, the foods we devoured, the shows we watched, and more. All of it. Got it? Good. Let’s go.

STRONG LINKS

1) KNEES OVER TOES

This is the EXACT workout I’m using to cure my longstanding low back pain, along with my longtime pathetic mobility and flexibility. The program is called Knees Over Toes. I’ve been doing it for 3 weeks and the results have been remarkable for me. My tight hip pain has disappeared and my low back pain has gone from a constant five down to a two. Doesn’t even hurt to bend and put on socks and shoes, haha.

If you’d like to sign up, please USE THIS LINK FOR BOOKS & BICEPS READERS.

2) MIDLIFE MALE

If you’re a dude over 40 and you used to read Men’s Health or Esquire or GQ, and you’re looking for a digital magazine to get you on top of your game and keep you on top of your game, with incredible A-List interviews (Troy Aikman, Don Saladino, Gunnar Peterson and more), original columns and a curated list of weekly items second-to-none, subscribe to Midlife Male Magazine.

I’ve been helping build this publication from the ground up and it’s the magazine I used to wish existed - and now it does:

3) Is freelance writing one of your New Year’s resolutions? Have you always wanted to learn how to write for your favorite publications, blogs or magazines? My Freelance Fortune Course has you covered. Everything I’ve learned in 20 years of writing for the world’s biggest publications like: The New York Times, GQ, Men’s Health, Yahoo! Sports and more.

In fact, one of our course members just landed his first piece and wrote me:

4) Readers always ask me what supplements I take or what post/pre-workout 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.

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→ USE THIS LINK to try Beehiiv and you won’t regret it!

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