Welcome to the exclusive Premium Flex Tuesday Issue of Books & Biceps for June 25, 2024! This issue went to members only today…

But I’m sending this FREE PREVIEW for all Books & Biceps readers to check out because Premium Flex has been awesome. The community chat. The reading camaraderie. The personal bests in the physical challenge. Everything has exceeded my expectations and you can upgrade here at any time with my personal member referral.

Please enjoy your free preview of the newsletter representing the #1 sophisticated meathead community in the world:

Before we get to Part III of our First Blood book breakdown and our final six days of our 100 push-ups/day physical challenge, here are three awesome things:

1) Congratulations to Premium Flex Member Chase from Texas who won our 2nd Father’s Day watch from La Touraine! 

REMEMBER: All Premium Flex Members get 25% OFF your first purchase at La Touraine! All you have to do is enter the promo code “Biceps” at checkout when you visit La Touraine’s website HERE.

2) All Premium Flex Stickers have been sent to everyone who joined and shared their address with me. They should be arriving this week. If you signed up for Premium Flex and have not shared your address, just reply to this e-mail and I’ll get yours out today!

3) Premium Flex Member Jeremy (and former D-1 Hooper, as we’ve learned) had a great idea for the Teams Community Chat: an introduction thread for members as they join. Love it!

I’m going to post mine later today and anyone can jump in after to share whatever quick info they’d like about themselves. What city you’re in. What teams you follow. Favorite author. How many kids you have. Favorite Denzel movies… whatever… Or not. Share whatever you’d like or just read what others write. Totally your call.

The Big Read of the Month - June ‘24

First Blood PART III: Pages 181 - finish

First Blood by David Morrell

If you missed my full introduction to the novel in Issue #303 of Books & Biceps you can read it here. In short, this is the book that Stallone’s Rambo movie was eventually based off of and it’s super different and excellent.

This week we’re reading pages 181-Finish and if you haven’t gotten to the very end, I won’t spoil it here… but DUDE, ACT III of this book is bonkers. We’ve got Teasle hallucinating and Rambo going bat shit, literally!

Now let’s get into this week’s THREE THINGS:

1) THE MOST MEMORABLE, STOMACH-TURNING SCENE I’VE READ IN A WHILE:

Ever since I read this sequence in the book I’ve been calling this scene “Rambo’s Guano Crawl” because one of the most disgusting moments in literature needed its own title.

The entire scene, from Rambo discovering the bats in the abandoned mine to the way Morrell described the putrid smell and slimy feel and acrid taste of the guano muck and crud Rambo worked his way through to escape, is revolting. But this… this moment is where I had to put the book down and get a glass of water:

He wallowed forward, desperate to get out, stumbled, slid to his knees, cold slime up to his hips now, soaking into his genitals…

I’ve read a lot of books, but never has a character waded through hip-high cold bat poop mush and had it soak into his groin. No. That was a new one… And the writing was so good I could feel it - which was even more nasty.

And when Rambo finally got the hell out of there, I felt a sense of personal relief. I was glad to be out of there too. What a tremendous (and gross) piece of writing by Morrell.

Was I the only one gagging while reading these pages. Or do I have a weak stomach haha!

2) TRAUTMAN’S GENIUS

I love the moment in this book when Trautman’s had just about enough of Kern’s spineless incompetence. And so has Teasle. It’s one of the few times where we feel a real kinship between Trautman and Teasle and of course it’s directed at the man they both don’t respect.

After Kern’s final plea wondering how Rambo could possibly escape the trap he set, Trautman unloads on him:

“When those Guardsmen heard the shots behind them, a group broke from the main line to go back and investigate. When they did, they left a hole more than big enough for him to slip through and up into the hills. Like you, they all expect him to keep moving away from the line anyhow, so they wouldn’t have been alert to sight him when he came near and slipped through. You had better tell them to continue into the hills before he gains more distance…”

Then, after some more bellyaching from Kern, Trautman finishes him off:

“Suppose whatever the hell you want. It’s no matter to me. I don’t like helping in the first place. All the same I am. But that doesn’t mean I have to explain over and over what I think should be done and then goddamn beg you to do it.”

This last line is exceptional. Arrogant. Dismissive. Perfect.

3) THE BRILLIANCE OF THE SHOWDOWN

The climax towards the Rambo vs. Teasle one-on-one showdown that had been foreshadowed all book is one of the more impressive pieces of action writing and pacing I can remember.

It’s so hard to build one character’s emotional arc to hit its peak at the right moment during a finale, but to have two characters meet in Act I, not see each other for the bulk of the story and then reconnect in the final pages, at the exact time where their journeys come to a head (emotionally AND physically in this case), is remarkable.

Kudos to Morrell for pulling this off. It’s easy while reading to forget the plotting and planning that the author had to do to get Teasle from the military truck with Kern and Trautman to his office to his police car and then on the chase with Rambo, who had to follow his own journey from the mine to the mud to the muck and a stolen police car to meet his nemesis for their final face off.

You gotta tip your cap to how this was all pulled off.

And then, of course, you’ve got explosions, car chases, foot races and gun fights. Everything an action-packed ending needs!

I won’t ruin the ending right here in case some of you haven’t read it yet, but we can talk about it briefly next week.

ALSO —> I have our next book ready to go, but had a cool idea I wanted to run by you all. I’ll post it in the Teams Chat tomorrow and you all can weigh in. If you’re reading this and you haven’t logged into the Teams Chat yet, get in there!

If you need me to re-send the link, let me know.

The June Physical Challenge:

100 Push-Ups a Day for 30 Days for Time

I wrote this in our Teams Chat on Sunday after I broke 2:30 in the 100 push-up challenge:

I think this is the fastest I can go but we’ll see. I’ve settled on sets of:

34 on one minute
33 on one minute
33 final set

Whenever I do bigger chunks I don’t recover in the 30 seconds rest…. And smaller chunks take up too much time…

I think maybe I can shave 5 seconds off each rest? Gonna try that tomorrow….

UPDATE: the five second thing didn’t help because I had to cut a few reps off the last set due to fatigue… but what DID help was changing the hand position for each set.

I’ve settled on this:

Set one: Elbows at sides in a bench press position

Set two: Elbows down by ribs (military)

Set three: Elbows at sides wider hand position

This allowed me to incorporate my shoulders a bit more on the final set and go faster while my chest was fatigued.

Going to take tomorrow off (since I benched heavy yesterday) and then see if I can get under 2:20!

What’s worked for you? Where are you at? I’ve seen some awesome times in the Chat. Keep going! The point isn’t to compare yourself to anyone else’s numbers, but to where you were when you started and where you are now. That’s it. It’s You vs. You, just like everything else in life.

Feel free to share you progress in our Teams Chat or post and tag me on Twitter or Instagram.

Or hit me up with any questions.

LET’S DO THIS!!! A quick peak into the future at our first meet-up haha:

BONUS FLEX

Here’s a simple workout I tried the other day for a half-hour. All you need is a bell and a ball and you’re good to go!

Have you read this classic column? I rewatched Tommy Boy with my son the other day. Maybe our 4th time watching it together and my 50th. Legendary:

This has been a FREE PREVIEW of PREMIUM FLEX for all Books & Biceps Readers!

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Stay strong! - Jon