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Boom! This is Books & Biceps #336!

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If you’re a new subscriber or missed my yearly book round-up, The 16 Most Memorable Books I Read in 2024, you can read it here.

BOOKS

American Kingpin: The Epic Hunt for the Criminal Mastermind Behind the Silk Road by Nick Bilton

It’s not often that the national news and a Books & Biceps recommendation collide, but when they do, I like the fact that for once, I have a little insight about the person or event making the news.

In this case, the news is President Trump’s pardoning of Russ Ulbricht. While this pardon has plenty of storylines depending on how much you know or care about the case, what I’m here to recommend is the behind-the-scenes story about why Ulbricht was in jail in the first place and the book about how the FBI tracked him, found him and through some ingenious strategy, arrested him.

It’s fascinating stuff… and it’s about things I used to know next to nothing about.

As a primer, if you haven’t heard about Ulbricht or the Silk Road or the Dark Web, here’s a quick recap: The Dark Web is a sort of alternate Internet where none of the traditional web rules apply. It’s essentially the online wild west and it exists behind, around and between the internet you’re reading this on now.

The reason it’s known as “dark” is because anything that happens there can’t be traced. Or at least for a long time it couldn’t be… The most famous site on the dark web was called The Silk Road. It was created in 2011 by a guy in his twenties, entirely by himself, in his bedroom.

He did the work of 20 programmers, coders, developers, hackers and more… And in a short time he built a site where people could sell every drug imaginable anonymously. Then people started selling guns and other weapons. All transactions took place in bitcoin (back when bitcoins were were worth between $1 and $10).

Within months this dude was making tens of thousands of dollars a week. Then tens of thousands of dollars a day. Then hundreds of thousands of dollars a week. Inside of a few years he found himself inching up to becoming a billionaire – and the most powerful, wealthy drug dealer in history.

It’s a true story and it reads like a thriller. And it’s about the guy who just got a presidential pardon, Russ Ulbricht.

Can’t recommend it enough. Wild. Order American Kingpin here.

BICEPS

This week I had my 73-year-old mom join me for a workout in the Flex Factory and she even got a few single rep sets on the hex bar. Impressive! I’ve always tried to get my parents to lift and I’ve been a lot more insistent on it since they reached 70 and beyond.

Luckily, both my parents are active with walks and biking and pickleball and golf for my dad, but I’ve done a lot of research on aging and strength and the three real impediments to quality of life as we age are sarcopenia (muscle loss) and a large reduction in flexibility and mobility (range of motion, quickness, etc…) which leads to falls and broken bones, which leads to hospital time, poor recovery and often a downward health spiral… It sucks. Don’t ChatGPT the stats on people who break their hips after age 75. All bad stuff…

My dad has started and stopped circuit training several times but he’s settled on sets of push-ups when he wakes up and before bed. He can bang out almost 30 at a time, which is up from a legit 1 only four months ago.

My mom has started taking strength classes with light weights, but it’s mobility work with weights that can have a real benefit.

If you’re reading this and your parents are over 60, here’s a simple workout they can do maybe 3 times a week with minimal equipment to maintain athleticism as long as they can. Obviously, there are levels, and I’d love for my parents and yours to do real strength training 3 times a week as well and try sprints and jump rope, but baby steps, haha.

I just ran my mom through this on Tuesday and she did great:

10 minute backwards walks with intentional steps, meaning, focus on toe-heel backwards with every step. The number of falls elderly people endure because they stumble backwards is staggering. Practicing this movement and strengthening the motion is huge. I’d go up to a 20 minute backwards walk on a treadmill even if possible.

Split Squat with light dumbbells. Range of motion in hips, quads, thighs and back goes quickly as you get older. It’s why bending, leaning forward, squatting, etc… become so painful and rigid. Do slow, weighted sets of 10 split squats with each leg. Two or three sets. Work from whatever range you’re starting with on down slowly over weeks and months.

Goblet Squats with 5 pounds, low and slow, with foot wedges. You won’t be surprised to hear this, but most people over 40 can’t simply squat all the way down between their knees and stand up without assistance. It’s sad. But it’s true. The good news is by using weights and slowly increasing them, even from 5 to 10 to 20 pounds, your range of motion and flexibility can improve. You can start with 3 sets of 5, holding at the bottom of the movement.

Seated Good Mornings with no weight or light dumbbells. This is one of my favorite movements from the Knees Over Toes program. Keeping your back straight while your hands touch (or try to touch) the ground is a game changer. Completely solved my hip pain and will work wonders for older people with low back pain. Again, 3 sets of 10 or 5.

Many of you reading this are experienced in the gym and many of you have parents who aren’t... So grab your mom or dad and get them going on these movements ASAP. They won’t regret it.

QUICK FLEXES

Back in my Muscle & Fitness magazine days I used to ghostwrite founder Joe Weider’s columns and I worked with Lou Ferrigno on a bunch of stories.

Sometimes I’d come across old VHS training tapes that they’d sell in the 80s and early 90s and make a workout routine out of them and I just came across a classic:

Lou Ferrigno’s Chest Workout

Now, this is a legitimate 30 minute video going through every aspect of his workout.

First, Lou had a massive chest. And second, if you did this whole thing I think your chest might fall off. But between the advice, the early 90s music and the lifting, it’s fun to skim through:

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Whenever two of my buddies collaborate or get together for a podcast or project I automatically get pumped up… And if my name comes up AND Books & Biceps is mentioned, you know it makes me smile.

In this case, I want you all to listen to my pal Greg’s ‘Intentional Wisdom’ podcast with my other pal Jonathan Goodman, about his excellent new book, The Obvious Choice. We’ll be talking to Jon soon about his book, but in the meantime, you’re going to get a ton out of listening to these two chop it up about business, life and living with intention:

STRONG LINKS

1) My Twitter buddy Michael Girdley has one of the most unique newsletters out there (and 230k followers on X). He’s bought, scaled and sold a ton of small businesses (11) and he loves Chili’s and dad humor. I don’t always enjoy reading about business and you probably don’t either, but it’s important and one of the few dudes who makes it relatable and funny AND gives you useful advice is my guy Girdley. If you click on this link below, you’ll automatically be signed up:

2) Check out my new venture, 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. Join us here.

3) Readers always ask me what newsletter platform I used for Books & Biceps and the answer is Beehiiv.

🔥🔥🔥If you want to start your own newsletter, I can’t recommend them enough. Absolutely loaded with features. The best customer service on the planet. Super easy to learn and post

→ USE MY AFFILIATE LINK to try Beehiiv and get a HUGE DISCOUNT!

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