🚨 Welcome to this week’s issue of Generation Xcellent. I’m Stephen Perrine, New York Times bestselling author and former top editor at Men’s Health and Maxim. And like you, I’m doing all I can to survive the moshpit of midlife. Thanks for joining me on the journey! If you like what you see, send me an email—and share this newsletter with another guy who could use our help.

📩 Thanks for joining the conversation!

- MONEY -

Your Mid-Life Financial Anxiety Playbook

As the economy changes rapidly around us, anxiety is riding high. Here’s what to do if layoffs are threatening your industry.

By Kelly Dalton-Trotter

Become fluent in new software. AI is not going to take your job. But someone who knows how to use AI just might. The new skill of “prompt engineering” (designing and refining prompts to get the best possible results from AI models like ChatGPT) is separating the men from the boys. AI isn’t going anywhere: Lean into it. If you resist, it may exclude you from the job market.

I was told a long time ago that worrying is like rocking in a rocking chair, it may keep you busy, but it doesn’t get you anywhere. Instead, focus on creating a plan so you're prepared for a potential layoff, and you'll be set up for success.

—Kelly Dalton-Trotter is a former human resources project manager for General Electric and the founder of Dalton-Trotter Consulting.

Battle of the ‘90s Crushes: Week #4
Christina Applegate vs. Alyssa Milano

>Welcome to week 4 of our epic March Madness–style tournament. Last week, in a nail biter, last Friend standing Courteney Cox outfoxed Baywatch star and fantasy mouth-to-mouth resuscitator Pamela Anderson by a single vote.

This week, two icons of dysfunctional late-80s TV sitcom childhood go head to head, as Who’s the Boss? star Alyssa Milano faces off against Married With Children’s Christina Applegate. Which of these crushes will move on to the quarter finals? Only YOU can decide! 

We’ll have a new showdown every week, with more Gen X goddesses competing for your vote. And check out our social pages (we’re on Instagram, Facebook, and Threads) for updates and a full rundown of the winners.

- HEALTH -

This Is Why Your Back Hurts

We’ve identified the primary cause of your lower back pain: It’s you. Here’s how to alleviate the ache—fast.

By Michael Takes, CSCS, DC

>If you want to know why your back hurts, do this: Hold your arm straight out, palm up, elbow fully extended. Now hold that position while you scroll through this piece.

If you spend most of your day fully wedded to a desk, a driver’s seat, or the captain’s chair on the deck of the Starship Enterprise, then how you sit in that seat is going to be one of the most important factors in how your back feels at the end of the day, and how it’s going to feel chronically later in life. And, if you’re like most people, you’re probably doing it all wrong

At the base of your pelvis, just above your butthole, is a small, triangular bone called the tailbone, or coccyx. Imagine the coccyx as one leg of a tripod—the other two legs are your sit bones (technically, the ischial tuberosities. Okay, I’ll wait while you do your Sheldon impression).

By the way: Your elbow is in a state of extension, and you’re probably already experiencing a minor discomfort in the front crease of your elbow. It’s fine. Keep it extended.

Related:  Easy exercises to loosen up that lower lumbar

A lot of us were told as kids to “sit up straight.” And for many of us, that means sitting in the middle of the chair, or even close to the edge, with our feet firmly on the floor, back straight, head up. Looks great!

Unfortunately, most of us have weak core muscles—the almost-inevitable result of sitting 8+ hours every day. We simply don’t have the muscular strength and endurance to sit straight up all day, and as a result, we slouch. Our lower back relaxes, and our spine loses that normal curve, lightly stretching our lower back muscles—just as your forearm and biceps muscles are being stretched by your straightened elbow.

Are you feeling a little ache in those arm muscles? Some stiffness? Of course you are, because it’s natural that these muscles want to contract. And unless your elbow bends, those muscles will continue to fight to contract against the stretch you’re forcing them into. That tires them out and makes them sore.

The same thing happens in your back when you slouch and sit on your tailbone.

And you know that when you bend your elbow again (now’s a good time), it’s going to be uncomfortable. Well, the same thing happens when get up out of your chair. You’ve been keeping the bottom of your spine in a state of extension for God knows how long. And you’re doing it day after day, week after week.

And this is why your back hurts.

So, rather than trying to “sit up straight,” you should instead slide your butt all the way back to where the chair back meets the seat. This forces you into a position where the pelvis is balanced on those ischial tuberosities and the coccyx is NOT touching the seat and your lower back returns to its normal, concave shape.

So please: move your butt back where it belongs, in the wedge of your seat and backrest. It’s the best way to start building a healthy back again.

—Michael Takes is a certified strength and conditioning coach and doctor of chiropractic at the Dunfield Physio and Rehab Centre in Toronto.

- GEN X CULTURE -

20 Movies that Define Generation X

The movies that made us laugh, cry, head-bang, and feel part of something bigger than ourselves.

By Bob Larkin

>If you’re amongst millions of Gen X dads who couldn’t wait until his child was old enough to watch Jaws, or Alien, or Pulp Fiction, only to find the pipsqueak couldn’t care less, then you too have discovered a horrifying fact about our offspring: They don’t care about movies the way we did.

“Gen X was the last generation to have a unified pop culture experience,” say Jean Twenge, Ph.D, a professor of psychology at San Diego State University and author of “Generations: The Real Differences Between Gen Z, Millennials, Gen X, Boomers, and Silents―and What They Mean for America's Future.” Not only did we all watch the same movies in the theater, she says, but “we’d also watch it ten times over on cable.”

Here are our 20 picks for the movies that defined our generation. Did we leave out anything essential? Let us know!

Reality Bites (1994): Thirty years later, and I still walk into every gas station hoping “My Sharona” starts playing and I can be part of a spontaneous Gen X dance party.

The Goonies (1985): Some of you never found an old pirate map and ventured with your friends into an underground cavern in search of lost treasure where you ended up befriending a disfigured giant, and it shows.

Say Anything (1989): Okay, so stalking a woman with a boombox might not be the best romantic advice, but “In Your Eyes” still gives us all the feels.

Dazed and Confused (1993): Aside from the recreational drugs and public spankings and jokes about underage girls, this movie makes the late 70s seem like a more innocent time.

The Breakfast Club (1985): It was great when we first watched it as teenagers, and it’s great today even though the character we most identify with now is Carl the janitor.

The Matrix (1999): We can sum up the first time we saw this movie with one word: “Whoa.”

Office Space (1999): We’re in our 50s and still harboring fantasies of destroying a printer in a field while being serenaded by the Geto Boys.

Heathers (1988): A reminder that we grew up in a world where the very idea of teenagers wreaking violence against their schools was pure satire.

Pump Up the Volume (1990): From those carefree, pre-Internet days when the fantasy of becoming a pirate radio DJ was at least semi-plausible.

Swingers (1996): Some days, we just need a pal to remind us, “You’re so money, baby, and you don’t even know it.”

Almost Famous (2000): You’re never too old to want to run away and join a touring rock band. And not just because there’s a chance of sleeping with Kate Hudson.

The Terminator (1984): In case you weren’t paranoid enough about A.I.: We’re just four years away from when Schwarzenegger's cyborg assassin traveled back to the '80s to stop the human revolution.

Ferris Bueller’s Day Off (1986): With hindsight, it’s obvious that Ferris was the villain. He lied to literally everyone in his life, just to avoid a little responsibility. But something about this movie still scratches our anti-authority itch.

Reservoir Dogs (1992): If you meet a guy 45+ who can’t quote at least three lines from this movie, he should not be trusted.

Slacker (1990): The movie that made us believe you could make a honest living from selling Madonna’s pap smear.

The Lost Boys (1987): From a glorious age when mullets and guys named Corey still ruled the earth.

Fast Times at Ridgemont High (1982): Believe it or not, there’s a whole movie surrounding that one scene with Phoebe in the red bikini. You should watch the rest of it sometime.

Clerks (1994): A movie about dead-end jobs that actually makes being poor, young, and bitter look like the pinnacle of existence.

Singles (1992): Despite being fictional, we still believe that Citizen Dick was a better band than 80% of music today.

Scream (1996): We’re still not entirely sure if the lesson of Scream is that too much knowledge of pop culture minutiae makes you more qualified to commit murder or solve a murder. Maybe a little of both?

—Bob Larkin has written for Men’s Health, Esquire, The New York Post, and other outlets.