💪Books & Biceps - Issue 183

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WRITING

Imagine you’re a lifelong sportswriter. You’ve covered every major sports event dozens of times: Super Bowls, World Series, NBA Finals, tennis U.S. Opens, golf U.S. Opens and the Masters and the College Football National Championship and March Madness and almost 10 Olympics and on and on…

You’ve been to nearly every important major sporting event in your adult life and it’s all great and in totality it seems it’s impossible to top.

Now imagine that you have a daughter who happens to be very good at swimming. At first she’s kind of good. Then in high school it’s clear that she’s really good. And you start sprinkling in personal notes about her in your writing and you start covering high school championships. Then your daughter becomes a bit of a phenom and gets offered a full ride to Stanford and is hosted by none other than Katie Ledecky herself.

Then, incredibly, she makes the Olympics…but it’s during a pandemic so family and friends aren’t allowed to attend… only… you’re a sportswriter who actually covers the Olympics… and suddenly you’re one of only a handful of parents on hand who actually get to watch their child compete live in Tokyo.

And not only does she compete - she wins a medal.

This all happened. And as a parent and a swimmer and a sports fan, it’s one of my absolute favorite kinds of stories and it was written expertly, as always, by one of the best, Pat Forde.

If you have any interest in sports or parenting or competition or simply terrific writing, read this piece:

I’ve Covered Nine Olympics. Nothing Prepared Me for Seeing My Daughter Win a Medal by Pat Forde

BICEPS

We all love leg day. Or we all hate leg day. Either way leg day must get done.

I admit to dreading it but I also admit to throughly enjoying when I’m in the middle of it. One thing I’ve realized is that I get more out of the lifts when my energy and heart rate are up. What increases your heart rate and energy?

Sprints.

After toying with a few sets/reps the last few weeks in the Flex Factory here’s what I came up with. I also named it after a really strong super hero and a really fast super hero and it was kind of my son’s idea but I like it.

The Hulk Flash Workout

10 x 100 yard sprints

5 x 10 deadlift (50% max)

5 x 100 sprints

5 x 5 deadlift (75% max)

5 x 100 sprints

ENJOY!!!!

QUOTE OF THE WEEK

“My father gave me the greatest gift anyone could give another person, he believed in me.” ―Jim Valvano

QUICK FLEXES

As the dean of dude twitter, we’ve had some great conversations over on the bird app this week. This post about the difference between conversations dudes have with their buddies vs. what wives think we talk about hit home with many fellow dudes.

And this one about the music dudes over 35 listen to in the gym had an equally fun response.

And some BREAKING NEWS: prompted by my son, I have officially declared my favorite shirt! Check it out here.

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