Boom! This is Books & Biceps #355!

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BOOKS

The Wide, Wide Sea: Imperial Ambition, First Contact and the Fateful Final Voyage of Captain James Cook by Hampton Sides

Earlier in the year I mentioned that I was going to be reading a bunch of books on pirates because I’ve always been fascinated by them. And I’ve read several and recommended them here in B&B. My favorite so far is The Republic of Pirates, which is essentially the true story of the pirates of the Caribbean. It’s awesome.

In reading about the pirates of the 1700s and 1800s though, one thing stands out: If pirates were “rebellious stars” in terms of capturing the public’s imagination, then the famous explorers of the age were true blue celebrities, mingling with kings, giving speeches and getting invited into high society.

And at the top of that list in the late 1700s was Captain James Cook.

Cook comes up over and over again in these pirate books and this led me to realize that I should probably read more about him.

Thankfully, one of my favorite non-fiction writers of all time, Hampton Sides, tackled Cook in his latest book, The Wide Wide Sea, which just showed up at my house like a three pound door stop.

I’m about fifty pages in and so far this book provides an incredible perspective on European society, lifestyle and the leaps we’ve made in engineering and technology from the 1700s. I’ve read a lot of history and a thing I’ve noticed happening more and more in my own brain, as we become more and more used to AI, smart phones, apps and screens is how alien the recent past suddenly seems.

Humans went from discovering places that European explorers had never been before on earth to looking at any place on Google earth in the blink of an eye, historically speaking. The very idea of getting on a ship for years, with your life on the line, to simply find places out in the sea that hadn’t been found yet is such a foreign concept to everyone in 2025 who uses a GPS in their pocket to get everywhere.

But that’s all background. The story here is James Cook, the singular superstar explorer who made his way to Tahiti, Australia and New Zealand on his first global voyage, even running aground on the Great Barrier Reef. Cook, as you’ll read, was a genius at nearly every aspect of ocean navigation, from reading the stars, to mathematical equations to sextants and dead reckoning. He was also the most skilled cartographer of his age, drawing maps that overlay perfectly on satellite images of land masses today. Crazy.

This book answers just about everything you’d want: How he made his voyages with accounts and notes pulled directly from his journals. Why he made his voyages. What the first impressions were of the people they encountered in Polynesia and modern day Hawaii. What the interactions were like. The good. The horrible. The surprising. This book reads like a time machine in the best way possible. Check it out.

BICEPS

One of my friends and neighbors is trying to lose about twenty pounds. He’s been working out at the gym regularly and jogging a few miles around the neighborhood but he hasn’t seen the results he’s been looking for. So I invited him over to the Flex Factory for a Garage Gym workout early Wednesday morning for a full body HIIT circuit and it was awesome.

I know everyone’s gym/garage gym set-up is different, but here’s the workout I put together:

Street Warm-Up

8 × 50 yard skips forward

4 × 50 yard skips backwards

4 × 50 yard low side shuffles

4 × 50 medium sprints

Flex Factory Circuit

1 minute jump rope

15 slam ball slams

15 light hex bar deadlifts

25 push-ups

10 landmine shoulder presses

10 pull-ups

10 band biceps curls

Repeat 2 or 3 times.

Man, I LOVED this total body circuit and it hits everything. Took about 45 minutes to do two rounds with about one minute of rest between each set. Probably take an hour for three rounds after the warm-up.

You can either start on separate stations one apart from each other or just rotate in and out and get your rest while the other person lifts.

Highly recommend having dudes over to workout and chop it up for an hour. It’s the Sophisticated Meathead version of “grabbing a cup of coffee” haha. Enjoy!

QUICK FLEXES

Every single time a reader shares something like this it makes my day.

Thank you, Dave:

I’ve been telling you all about Knees Over Toes for a long time. This is one of the best threads they’ve put out on knee and ankle mobility and dunking!:

STRONG LINKS

Have you watched the Bench O’Clock Monday Morning Mug YouTube ad that’s sweeping the nation?

1) We’re writing some incredible stories over at Midlife Male, including this great feature from Greg Scheinman about training with one of my personal favorite icons, Laird Hamilton in Hawaii. If you’re a dude over 40 looking to maximize midlife, read this and subscribe for free:

2) This is the single most relatable newsletter about start-ups you’ll ever read. And it’s by the guy who founded Beehiiv, the platform host of this newsletter. His name’s Tyler. His newsletter’s Big Desk Energy. You’ll love it:

3) And if you love Underdog Stories in Sports, you’ll love this. One of my favorite new reads:

Generation Griffey is still the #1 Sports & Pop Culture book for dudes who grew up in the 80s and 90s… Get your copy!

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, noteverything, 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.