Boom! This is Books & Biceps #389!

Thanks to everyone who has shared this newsletter with a buddy or fellow sophisticated meathead. In fact, if an awesome B&B reader shared this with you, add your e-mail with the subscribe button below:

Welcome to This Month’s Title Sponsor: Momentous!

You likely know that Creatine is foundational for strength, power output, and recovery, and as a meathead, that’s all important. BUT, this is what I’m really pumped about: new studies show it may support cognitive performance too. That means if you read a ton but often forget what you read (um, sometimes), or if you feel like you’re not as sharp as you were (again, used to be me), or maybe you just feel a mental fog come on in the afternoon (yep), Creatine may offer a solution. It’s been a HUGE help for me, especially since I upped my dose to 10g/day instead of 5g (do your own research and consult your doctor for your own dosage). Studies also show Creatine works well to combat stress and fatigue.

That’s why I’m excited to have Momentous sponsoring today’s newsletter (more at the bottom):

And forget basic offers of 10% or 15% off. That’s weak sauce for the B&B crew. Instead, use this link below and you get up to 35% OFF YOUR FIRST ORDER USING THE CODE ‘BICEPS’ at checkout on Creatine chews, powder, collagen peptides, Omega 3s and more!

Dungeon Crawler Carl: A Novel by Matt Dinniman

Three days ago I’d never heard of this book or the author. Seventy two hours later I think Matt Dinniman is brilliant and I want to read all his work. That’s how fast a book can affect you. Bang. Like that.

So did someone recommend this book to me? Did I read about it? Hear someone discuss it on a podcast? Nope. I found it the old fashioned way. I saw it in a bookstore and the cover made me curious.

Quick story: I write at Barnes & Noble every few weeks. The one in my town has a decent-sized cafe area, solid chairs, fast Wi-Fi and I like to cruise through books when I take a break from writing. The spot where I normally sit faces an end cap that for the last few months showcases three books, all from the same author in the same series, each book with cool cover art and a title in thick, neon font.

After taking a stroll along my usual aisles (history, sports, thrillers, mystery, etc…) I pulled up to the end cap and picked up the book you see in the picture above and thought, “Dungeon Crawler Carl? What the hell is this even about?”

I flipped to the first page and in what felt like seconds I’d finished ten pages. The writing is clever, funny, sharp and relatable (for me, anyway). I was instantly a fan of Carl and how he thinks. He felt like a guy I knew, or used to know, and he was sarcastic and likable.

Then the story kicks off and it’s absurd and fantastical and great and it involves an alien invasion, the destruction of earth and mankind and a galactic game show with the humans who survive the initial alien arrival. I’m about 40 pages in and I can tell you this, I’m all in.

It’s goofy and brilliant at the same time. A rare combination. I mean, I don’t even know what genre to put this in other than the only one that counts: entertaining. Check it out HERE if you’re looking for something different to read. This is the first of three books in the series. I will likely be reading all of them soon.

You all know I’m a huge fan of the bench press. So much so that we’ve coined our own phrase here at Books & Biceps (Bench O’Clock Monday Morning) and we even have our own mug that you can buy right here:

But towards the end of 2025 I took a break from bench to increase my shoulder rotation and flexibility so that I could improve my butterfly stroke for the last few swim meets of the year. For my chest workout, I stuck with weighted push-ups at high reps with a variety of hand grips. And it worked. I felt less bulky in the water. I could control my entry point much better and the stiffness I usually felt on the back half of the 100 fly was dialed back.

BUT….

I miss the bench press so I’m working it back in.

My plan is to really control my elbows and hand position, while doing a big chest expansion warm-up and warm-down afterwards with bands.

I’m also not going to go heavier than 225 and nothing lower than 5 reps.

So for my first day back after my warm-up on Monday I did:

135 × 15, 185 × 15, 205 × 8, 225 × 6

I left a bunch in the tank and it worked. I felt nice and light when I finished.

Another change is that I’m only going to bench one day a week (Mondays, obviously) and then I’ll continue to do my push-up workout on my other upper body day. Anyone else dialing back the bench as you get older?

If you’re a guy over 40 and you’ve been looking for a new digital magazine that’s written for midlife men, by midlife men, on the topics that actually matter to us: family, fitness, fashion, finance, food & fun, then join us at Midlife Male.

I write a column every Tuesday called The Manologue. This week, I launched a new section inside the column where I highlight amazing things that our fellow men have done. Guys who aren’t famous, but who have achievements that you 100% need to hear about. I’m calling them Manologue Profiles, and this is our first one, on Fighter Pilot and Astronaut, Charles Duke:

Momentous Creatine Chews are about the size of a large mint and have a light citrus taste. It’s super easy to pop two, four or five in your mouth and they dissolve fast. These are way better than gummies which, research has shown, may contain no actual creatine! Crazy!

These Chews deliver 1 gram of Creapure® creatine, the clinically studied, German-sourced gold standard that fits perfectly into your Sophisticated Meathead routine, whether in your own Flex Factory, your car or at your desk. And as I mentioned earlier, studies have shown notable improvements in short-term memory and intelligence/reasoning abilities. Check out these three stats:

Here’s my typical Creatine regimen: I take a scoop of 5g of the powder every day in my protein shake after I lift, and then later in the afternoon, I pop a few of these in my mouth to reach 8 to 10 grams before or after my swim practice. Easy.

It’s up to you whether you want to take creatine. You can read a ton more info about it here. What I can tell you is that brands often reach out to me to partner up and I usually say ‘no’, but in this case, I already take Momentous Creatine, so this was a no brainer. Also, I asked them to up the standard 15% or 25% off to get us up to a full 35%.

This offer is an easy win-win, because a great way to support the newsletter is to support the sponsors that support us. Please check out Momentous chews, powders and more below. And if you take Creatine, try this one:

Try our “Read More, Lift More” Challenge, the world’s only one-month training program that pairs an awesome book with 30 proven workouts. Ten pages of reading a day with one workout based on your reading.

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