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Boom! This is Books & Biceps #340!

Welcome to our hundreds of new readers this week and a special shout out to everyone who bought Generation Griffey. It is the ULTIMATE 90s dude countdown book. If you dominated NBA Jam, still wear your hat backwards, crushed Bagel Bites and know Gatorade Citrus Cooler is the best sports drink of all time, then:

(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

Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World by Jack Weatherford

Confession: Up until recently nearly everything I knew about Genghis Khan came from Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure. Yeah, my knowledge encompassed the idea that if he were alive today he’d raid a Dick’s Sporting Goods store and look like this:

All this is to say, I knew nothing about him. I was always curious, though. And after reading some great fiction books (check out my write-up of Sledge here) and a cool book on the real pirates of the Caribbean (this one), I was in the mood for a biography and I’ve had Genghis Khan on my bookshelf for a while so I picked it up and started reading.

Couple things to clear up right away.

All of us should know A LOT more about Genghis. Yes, I’d heard that goofy stat that one out of every hundred or two hundred people were descendants of Khan because of how many kids he had with his various wives and concubines, but what you should know is that he is one of the very few, singular humans, who altered how the world looked and worked.

Think about that.

There truly is a “world before Genghis” and “world after Genghis”. And it’s not hyperbole.

Even crazier is that he wasn’t some prince born to a powerful king. He was, effectively, the longest of long shots of leaders. He should have died as a child. Or as a teen. Or should have spent his life in poverty. Or in slavery. We really should never have heard of him. And there certainly wasn’t any indication that he’d make any kind of dent in the world for the first portion of his life…

And then he did, amassing a territory through force, strategy and psychological warfare that would be covered by 3 billion people and over 30 modern countries today… and that contributed everything from military strategy, society’s built on merit, religious freedom and even the first versions of what we’d call a postal service. Most of the societes and cities he conquered (and yes, this was not peaceful by any means haha) were left more advanced and technologically speaking “better” for it.

I’m about halfway through this book and learning a ton. It’s wild to me how a man like Kahn, who lived from roughly 1155 to 1227 has an active legacy that lives on today… In fact, the last official heir of his who maintained leadership in one of his provinces only died in 1920! That’s seven hundred years after his own death. Insane. This is certainly more of a historical read and personal curiosity type book, but so far it’s been well worth it. Check it out here.

BICEPS

Every now and then you come across a meathead video where you think, “damn, I wish I thought of that.” And then, if it’s a really great video, you think, “damn, I wish I got to DO that!”

This video checks both boxes. I hadn’t heard of these two guys, who have a YouTube Channel called, perfectly, “Buff Dudes”, but I should have.

First, because they’re not some fringe channel with nine followers. They have a ludicrous 2.7M subscribers. Second, they put out videos like this one, where they decided to go frame by frame through the legendary Rocky IV training montage and do all the workouts themselves:

Chopping down trees. Axes. Tire drags. Log squats. Sled pulls. These guys got most of it and it’s pretty cool. Well worth a fast ten minutes of your time.

QUICK FLEXES

I started a goofy thing called “100 Pull-Up Wednesday”, which is exactly as it sounds. I start my Wednesday workout in the Flex Factory with 100 pull-ups. Or close to it. I did a heavy butterfly workout Tuesday night in the pool, so this week I got to 60 (sets of 5 rotating through 4 grips) on Wednesday AM and felt a tweak in my lower left lat, so I stopped….

SIDE NOTE: After 40, I’ve learned that “pushing through” does more harm than good. Being uncomfortable and exhausted and tired during a workout is great… But at any sign of a tweak, twinge, pull or pain, I shut it down… Took me a few years to get this concept… And a few dumb injuries I made worse by “toughing it out” at 42. My adage now is: we live to train another day healthy.

But back to the workout. I’ve noticed that after about 50 pull-ups my fat meathook hands turn into a catcher’s mitt. Look at this thing:

I mean, I could bring it to Spring Training and catch sliders no problem. Does this fattening happen to anyone else?

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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:

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