💪Finkel's Fast Five 118 - May 1, 2020

Welcome to Finkel's Fast Five #118. Thanks for reading and subscribing! Congrats to Bill H. for winning last week's "Forward the FF5 to Friends" raffle. A copy of When Pride Still Mattered is on its way!   You guys have been great with these so let's run it back one more week with a new sports book giveaway. All you have to do is forward this FF5 issue to two (2) friends who you think would like it and you'll enter a raffle to get a copy of one of my all-time favorite biographies, Sandy Koufax: A Lefty's Legacy by Jane Leavy. FORWARD TO A FRIEND HERE. Good luck! - Jon

 ONE

BOOKS - Did you know that before Abraham Lincoln was actually assassinated in 1864 there was a separate, previous conspiracy to kill him all the way back in 1861?   According to The Lincoln Conspiracy by Brad Meltzer and Josh Mensch, the plan to kill Abe was supposed to be carried out in Baltimore on his way to DC for his inauguration, but thanks to heroic work by a legendary detective, a group of undercover agents infiltrated the scheme and this book explains how it all went down. I read a ton of history and I never knew this happened, so it's right in my wheelhouse. Meltzer and Mensch also wrote The First Conspiracy about the assassination attempt on George Washington and since that one read like a thriller, I assume this one will too. Comes out next week. I just pre-ordered mine today.

TWO

 FITNESS - We're coming up on 50 days of being stuck at home and for many of fellow meatheads around the country, that means fifty days without being able to hit the gym. Yeah, you miss the dude who grunts like an angry rhino as he squats and the girl who balances her phone on the lat pull down machine to film an Instagram video of her doing lunges at the right angle... But what you really miss is the iron.  Yes, you can stay in great shape with free bodyweight workouts (especially ones inspired by action heroes written by yours truly) and yes, they get the job done and I've been doing them myself, but what you miss is what we like to call, "moving weight". My old Muscle & Fitness co-worker and current fitness empire builder, Jim Stoppani, has a great idea for how you can add some serious heft to your home workouts with a backpack and he even includes a six-week plan. Check it out. Scroll just below the fold for the video. Also, for what it's worth, Jim has the best-tasting protein powder I've ever had. Been using it for years.

THREE

 FINANCE - You want to feel dumb? I mean, like really, really dumb? Of course not. Nobody does. Especially when it comes to money and finances and investments. But you know what's worse? Being made to feel dumb on those topics by an eight-year-old.  I'd like to introduce you to this short video that I've watched about four times this week and I've even showed my kids. It's a simple video of a dad quizzing his kid about assets, liabilities, risk, debt and more. The short clip is titled 'Can't Be No Sucka Wit Ya Money' and this kid's financial basics are mesmerizing. He'll probably sell a company before he's old enough to sit in the front seat. You have to watch this little man show his stuff. And the dad's pride is awesome.

FOUR

DOGS - As longtime FF5 readers know our family dog passed away at the beginning of the year. He was almost eleven years old and was my best pal and it was gut wrenching and heartbreaking and it hurt. I think about my man Mr. P all the time, but as the months passed and we've been stuck at home, the house began to feel very empty without a dog... And slowly but surely we all warmed up to the idea that we were ready to have a new puppy join our family.  With so many shelters needing help right now, we scoured a bunch of rescue facilities in our area and after searching for a while, we adopted a new baby lab mix this week. I'd like you all to meet Lyla Garrity Finkel and she's a stunner. Here she is posing on our lawn and flashing her pretty green eyes... and here she is training to be my new early morning workout partner in the Flex Factory. Dogs are flat out the best and it's good to have one back in the house.

 FIVE

 A great quote about purpose:  “Adhere to your purpose and you will soon feel as well as you ever did. On the contrary, if you falter, and give up, you will lose the power of keeping any resolution, and will regret it all your life.”  – Abraham Lincoln  SUPER IMPORTANT NOTE: To make sure you keep getting the FF5, please add [email protected] to your address book or whitelist us.  WAS THIS E-MAIL FORWARDED TO YOU? SIGN-UP HERE

BONUS

Many of you enjoyed my Meathead Movie Home Workouts. I combined all four of them into this really cool e-book PDF that you can download for free right here.

Share the FF5 and get TREMENDOUS STUFF:  1 SHARE = Enters you into a raffle to win a free copy of one of the books I mention here in the FF5. I'll do a drawing every 10 issues, but you have to forward the FF5 to a friend to enter.  3 SHARES = 1 Abe Lincoln as Tyler Durden Fight Club Sticker - perfect for your laptop, office, fridge or on your squat rack like Tommy John  10 SHARES = 1 Official Finkel's Fast Five Coffee Mug like this one that my man Marlin won last year  25 SHARES = If you share Finkel's Fast Five with 25 friends who you think would like it, I will take you to the movies... (well, not literally) ...but I will Venmo you money for a ticket to your next movie, on me. We'll cap this at 4 people for now.  FORWARD TO A FRIEND RIGHT HERE  DID SOMEONE FORWARD YOU THIS E-MAIL? GET MY FREE STARTER LIBRARY HERE  FYI: The sharing of the FF5 is cumulative... You don't have to share this e-mail 10 times if you don't want to. It can be 10 issues over 10 weeks or 10 months, whatever... The point is, please share it. We've grown from less than a hundred to a few hundred to a few thousand readers in under two years... Let's see how fast we can get to 10,000! - Jon

MY LATEST BOOK: Politics suck, but presidents are fascinating. If you want to read a POTUS book that is all sports, no politics, you can buy Jocks in Chief, which ranks every president athletically, right here.