💪Books & Biceps - Issue #180

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BOOKS

I’m in the middle of several books that I’ll be mentioning in this space shortly, but I wanted to call attention to two outstanding magazine articles I read recently.

In my magazine reading heyday I probably subscribed to about 15 mags (and wrote for 5 or 6). Then, like all of you, as time passed I began cancelling one after the other until I subscribed to zero.

But a funny thing happened: I missed reading magazines. I missed the sprawling cover stories and the layouts and the joy of reading a perfectly executed 4,000-word piece with a unique writer and interesting subject that sometimes creates magic. Also, I missed the print medium as a whole and I want to support it so I re-subscribed to two of my old standbys a while back - Esquire and Wired.

Now, I’m perfectly aware of the irony of extolling the virtues of print magazines and then recommending articles to read from those magazines in a digital form. I get it. But hopefully the writing will remind you just how enjoyable it is to read a magazine outside on a hot summer day with an ice-cold drink while your tablet/phone is inside (yeah, I know, 80% of you are reading this on your tablet/phone - i can’t really win with this one but just enjoy the terrific writing).

On that note, here are two exceptional pieces:

Chris Rock's Plan for Immortality - At fifty-six, already decades into an A-list career, Chris Rock is rebooting the Saw franchise. He nailed the fourth season of Fargo. He’s directing again. He’s writing more jokes. The man might just be trying to live forever. By Mitchell S. Jackson

The Rise and Fall of Planet Hollywood - Thirty years ago, the biggest celebrities on earth opened a chain restaurant. For a few years, it was the hottest ticket in town. Then it went bankrupt. Twice. The brains behind this pop-culture phenomenon explain how it happened. By Kate Storey

BICEPS

Last week was Sylvester Stallone’s birthday and there’s no better Books & Biceps way to celebrate it than to share one of my favorite workouts from one of my favorite Sly movies, Rocky IV.

It’s called Drago and it’s BRUTAL and I can’t promise you’ll stop a cold war by doing it but I can promise you’ll sweat and get jacked and feel like a piece of iron when you’re done:

DRAGO

5 x 1 minute jump rope

50 Slam Ball sit-ups

60 Slam Ball Slams

40 Hand-release Push-ups

3 x 30 Thrusters

30 Russian Twists

15 Clean & Jerks

5 x 5 Pull-Ups

10 x 100 sprints

B&B QUOTE OF THE WEEK ON BASEBALL

“Every day is a new opportunity. You can build on yesterday's success or put its failures behind and start over again. That's the way life is, with a new game every day, and that's the way baseball is." - Bob Feller

QUICK FLEXES

I posed this question on Twitter this week and got a ton of responses and great answers: Who was the most sure fire Hall of Famer after 8 years in MLB, NBA, NFL, whatever…who will never make the Hall? Check out the tweet for my answer and the hundreds of other suggestions.

And check out this video of NBA prospect Jericho Sims who jumps so high he crashes his face into the rim on a put-back dunk.

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PS: Most importantly… BUY YOUR COPY OF 1996 RIGHT NOW