💪Books & Biceps - March 26, 2021

All Our Waves Are Water, Fixing Crappy Posture, Bruce Lee and more

BOOKS

All Our Waves Are Water: Stumbling Toward Enlightenment and the Perfect Ride by: Jaimal Yogis

Sometimes you find a book. Sometimes a book finds you. Cheesy? Maybe. But for those of us who have bought a random book on a whim, only to have that book leave a lasting impact, well…. there’s no other way to describe it. And that’s what happened to me with All Our Waves Are Water. I was cruising the bookstore to grab a few new reads for an upcoming trip and this cover caught my eye:

Something about the slumped surfer and slashing script and the wave…it grabbed me. I also happen to love adventure memoirs and surfing books and since I’d come across Yogis’ writing before, I grabbed it.*

This book is part Shoe Dog, which I wrote about here, part surf memoir like Barbarian Days and part spiritual adventure. Yogis is an excellent storyteller and in about 250 pages he takes us to the Himalayas, San Francisco, New York City, Indonesia, Washington, D.C., Bali, Jerusalem and more. It’s like he’s lived ten lives in one… and now he’s a dad/writer/teacher with three kids in Northern California.

This book is different and unique in all the right ways and if you’re looking for a read to take you out of your day-to-day and make you think about travel, life, spirituality, happiness and, yup, surfing, then give this a shot.

*once i started reading I remembered that I’d heard of Yogis’ other book, Saltwater Buddha, which I ordered after finishing this one

BICEPS

I haven’t declared very many wars in my life (really, none) but I think it’s time I declare a war on my increasingly terrible posture. It’s been a battle I’ve been waging for years now and there’s no turning back. I’m going to DEFCON 1. Every time I catch my reflection in a window and when I’m not concentrating on standing upright, I’m a hunched mess. And if you’re reading this on your phone, there’s a 96% chance you’re slouching right now. Right? Right?!?! Don’t lie. I just saw you straighten up!

I recently added a twice/week mobility routine to my workouts (which you can read about in Books & Biceps #160 here). I’ve been rolling my back out and doing spinal stretches nightly. I think it’s working, but this article below in Art of Manliness has a ton of great info about how to fight all forms of crappy posture: sitting, standing, walking while on your phone, etc… My big tip: when you’re determining your personal posture against a wall, DON’T put your heels on the wall. This is a mistake I’ve apparently been making. Put your feet six inches from the wall. Then your body will settle in. Check out AoM’s ‘Ultimate Guide to Good Posture’ here.

KICK ASS QUOTE OF THE WEEK

“Absorb what is useful. Discard what is not. Add what is uniquely your own.”

- Bruce Lee

QUICK FLEXES

In a rare instance of an awful excuse turning into a reality, our dog actually ate my son’s homework this week and I got to write this e-mail to his teacher.

I hit a half-court, one-handed shot on my first day back shooting around on a full court. It felt great. I’m basically Steph Curry. Video proof right here.

The cover of my ‘1996’ book is based on the classic ‘Property Of’ t-shirts, so I’m naturally turning the book cover into a t-shirt itself. This is, clearly, my masterpiece and can only win one when you pre-order the book!

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PS - Have you pre-ordered my book, ‘1996’ yet?

It comes out May 11th and I cannot wait to share a few of the legendary writers who have endorsed it. I mean, these are some of my all-time favorites. Lots of giveaways coming up so keep your screenshot when you get it.

Buy '1996: A Biography' Right Now

And lastly…

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