Books & Biceps is the only weekly e-mail that combines reading recommendations, exclusive workouts, short biographies of fascinating people, dad highlights & more…

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BOOKS

Lost in the Funhouse: The Life and Mind of Andy Kaufman by Bill Zehme

As I’ve gone deeper and deeper into the wrestling rabbit hole to write my Macho Man biography I’ve found myself reading and referencing a wide variety of books that I read long ago. One book I’ve recently re-read sections of is this brilliant biography of Andy Kauffman by Bill Zehme.

Whether you’re old enough to remember Kaufman’s act firsthand, or you’re familiar with his genius from the Jim Carrey movie, Man on the Moon, or hell, maybe you’ve just seen a few skits on YouTube, if you’ve ever been curious about one of the most unique comedic minds we’ve ever had, I can’t recommend this book enough.

It includes awesome stories on the genesis of Tony Clifton, his role in Taxi, his SNL appearances, and for my purposes recently, his wrestling war with Jerry Lawler. If you’re a fan of comedy in general, this book is worth it just for the behind-the-scenes stories on Kaufman, Jim Belushi, Lorne Michaels and the SNL premiere.

BICEPS

Every year around November 1st I begin one of my favorite strength building programs for three months: the classic 5 x 5. At this point I do my own modified version of it, but if you’re not familiar, it is one of the simplest, most effective workouts you can do to reset your power in compound movements.

There are a bunch of different variations to this workout, and this is mine.

NOTE: You want to use weight that is about 60-70% of your max and move up 5 pounds every week if you can. If you can’t, stick with your same weight. The goal is to be able to (just barely) complete all sets of 5 x 5 without going totally to failure.

My main variation is that I love pull-ups/chin-ups, so I swap those out for barbell rows… and on Wednesday I switch to high reps with dumbbells.

Here’s the Flex Factory version of the 5 x 5:

MONDAY:

5 x 5 Bench

5 x 5 Chin-ups / Pull-ups

5 x 5 Overhead Press

5 x 5 Hex Bar Deadlift

abs

WEDNESDAY:

15 x 15 Incline Bench Dumbell

15 x 15 Barbell Rows

15 x 15 Barbell Shoulder Press

21s for arms

FRIDAY:

5 x 5 Bench

5 x 5 Chin-ups / Pull-ups

5 x 5 Overhead Press

5 x 5 Hex Bar Deadlift

Abs

QUICK FLEXES

I broke down one of my favorite sports movie speeches of all time this week and as of this writing, it has over 160k impressions:

You can read the entire thread right here.

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Have a great weekend! - Jon