Gen X Sports: Tom Brady's Flat-Belly Rules

Sexiest Gen X Bedroom Posters AND 7 Money Lessons Every Dad Should Teach His Child

Author

Stephen Perrine
October 14, 2025

🚨 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! (And as always, our content is 100% Organic Intelligence—written by guys like us, for guys like us.)

Stephen Perrine

- FITNESS -

Tom Brady/Instagram

Tom Brady’s Ultimate Flat-Belly Workout

When it comes to getting in top shape, not all muscles are created equal, says #12.

By Jeff Stevenson

> If you want a lean, flat belly, it’s not the abs you need to focus on, Tom Brady says. It’s the butt.

“Glutes are your engine,” explains Brady. [BTW, check out this collection of the greatest female butts on Instagram.]

When you exercise the muscles of the butt and thighs, they release anti-inflammatory compounds called myokines. Myokines play a role in everything from sparking muscle growth to regulating bodyweight, improving insulin sensitivity, suppressing tumor growth and even enhancing cognitive function. (All muscles release myokines, but the butt and thighs are by far the biggest source.)

Your butt muscles are also the primary storage facility for excess blood sugar, and they require more calories to fuel than smaller muscles—two more reasons why they’re key to a flat belly. Maybe that’s why Brady claims his favorite piece of gym equipment is the Butt Blaster.

The bad news: The butt and thighs are where we lose muscle first as we age. There’s even a medical term for it: dead butt syndrome, a weakness in the glute muscles caused by endless hours of sitting and a lack of butt-centric exercise.

To get a Super Bowl–caliber belly (and butt), follow this routine developed by Brady and his team at TB12. Each of these exercises does double duty, targeting both the glutes and the core. [IMPORTANT: Keep your glutes and core tight and engaged throughout each of these exercises.]

1. Glute bridge: Lie on your back on the floor, knees bent, heels close to your butt. Now squeeze your glutes as you push off from your heels, raising your butt off the ground until your body forms a straight line from your knees to your shoulders. Hold for 20 seconds, then slowly lower your butt back down to the floor.

2. Pallof press: Anchor an exercise band or cable pulley at shoulder height and hold the handle directly in front of your chest. Bend your knees slightly and step to the side until there’s tension on the band. Now, keeping your legs, hips and chest stationary, press your hands straight out in front of you. Hold for 20 seconds, then return your hands to your chest. Switch sides and repeat facing the opposite direction.

3. Single-leg balance: Stand with your feet shoulder-width and bend your arms so your upper arms are parallel to the floor and your forearms are perpendicular. You should look like you’re signaling a field goal. Now raise one knee up until your thigh is parallel to the floor. Hold for 20 seconds, then slowly lower it back down. Switch legs and repeat. Do 3 reps with each leg.

4. Core rotation: Anchor an exercise band or cable pulley at shoulder height and hold the handle directly in front of your chest. Bend your knees slightly and step to the side until there’s tension on the band. Extend your arms out in front of you and lock them in place. Now, keeping your hips stationary, twist at the waist as you slowly rotate to your left, stretching the band. Hold for 20 seconds, then slowly return to the starting position. Switch sides and repeat in the opposite direction.

5. Lateral band walks: Place a small resistance loop around your legs, just above your knees. Spread your feet and knees shoulder-width apart. With your knees and hips slightly bent, step laterally to the right with your right foot first, then your left. Repeat twice more, then reverse the pattern, stepping your feet to the left.

—Jeff Stevenson has written for Maxim, Men’s Health, and other classic men’s magazines.
🍺 MY HOME STATE? IT’S, UH, “INTOXICATION”

- GEN X CULTURE -

The Posters that Launched Our Gen X Libidos

A tour of the 24×36 legends who laid waste to our allowances under the black lights at Spencer’s

By Bob Larkin

>Before the internet, a teenage crush came on glossy paper. You needed allowance money, a ride to the mall, and the hope that your mom was two stores away. We bought our dreams by the tube.

The bikini poster turned drywall into a dreamscape and transformed our bedrooms into clubhouses of wishful thinking. Kids today practice pickup lines on chatbots. We practiced on our walls. Home decor doubled as a roadmap for brand-new hormones and a pledge that cooler days were coming. How many of these sirens spent time on your teenage walls?

1. Farrah Fawcett (1976). Farrah’s smile was sunshine, and her hair had its own weather report. But we all know the real appeal of this poster. Was it… cold during the photo shoot? Cause Farrah’s nipples are practically concealed weapons. All we know is, this is one of the only posters that threatened to take out an eye.

2. Heather Thomas (1982). We already loved her from The Fall Guy, outrunning explosions and trading quips with Lee Majors. Then came the poster: hot-pink jacuzzi haze and a bikini tug that felt like a cliffhanger. Every 13-year-old stared and stared, certain one more second would reveal all.

3. Tiffani Amber Thiessen (1990). Even if you didn’t watch Saved By the Bell or Beverly Hills, 90210, this poster was mesmerizing. Tiffani looked like the girl who aced homeroom, called her grandma every Sunday, and still knew how to make friends under the bleachers. That wholesome smile and those high-rise jeans were pure teenage rocket fuel.

4. Samantha Fox (mid-1980s). Most of us had no clue what Samantha Fox actually did. Was she a model, an actress, a rock star, or all of the above? It didn’t matter. The poster stood guard over our bedrooms and never judged. Hit play on “Touch Me,” meet that glossy 24×36 gaze, and it felt like Samantha was singing straight to you.

5. Christie Brinkley (1983). She cruised into National Lampoon’s Vacation in a red Ferrari, wrecking every adolescent attention span. Then she married Billy Joel, which proved something vital to Gen X: gorgeous women sometimes choose bug-eyed piano goofballs. This blue cutout-swimsuit poster turned bedrooms into confidence machines.

6. Cheryl Tiegs (1978). The late-’70s went on pause the day this hit the mall. Feathered hair, pink bikini, and that playful waistband tug that felt like a legal gray area. Bedrooms, garages, and wood-paneled dens were turned into bachelor pads by proclamation.

7. Loni Anderson (1978). On WKRP In Cincinnati, she ran the front desk like mission control, and proved the “dumb blonde” was the smartest person in the radio station. Then came the infamous white-bikini poster, which hit bedrooms the same year as the legendary turkey drop episode, and instantly brightened more teenage walls than a halogen lamp. In our hearts, we’re all just a little bit Herb Tarlek.

8. Heather Locklear (1985). She chased perps with Shatner on T.J. Hooker, then turned apartment living into a contact sport on Melrose Place. The poster nailed the sweet-to-savage ratio: crop-top jersey, high-waisted denim, feathered blast of hair, and a grin that said she would flirt with you at Orange Julius, then write you up for loitering.

—Bob Larkin writes for Men’s Health, the New York Post, and other publications.

Ask Jen: The X-Rated Files
“Why Does My Coworker Flirt with Me, Then Shut Me Down?”

Shutterstock

>Got a question about sex, marriage, dating, or whatever’s happening in your DMs? Ask Jen X. She’ll sort it out, no judgement. (Well, maybe a little.)

Q: A woman at work flirts with me like it’s her side hustle. But the second I ask her out for a real date, she goes arctic. What’s her deal, and how should I handle it? — “Not Jim Halpert,” Portland, OR 

A: What’s her deal? Could be a few things: Maybe she likes attention, but not accountability—flirtation is free, but dating comes with a copay. Maybe she enjoys the banter but draws the line at coworkers, and going cold is her clumsy way of enforcing a boundary. Or maybe she’s taken, messy, or just bored, and the office is her dopamine vending machine.

What you do next is the part you control. Follow the One Clean Ask Rule: you asked once, she iced you, so that chapter is closed. From now on, match energy at “pleasant coworker.” No pet names, no flirty DMs, no performance of “Office Rom-Com, Season 6.” Keep it professional and boring—in email, not Slack, where chaos lives. If she revs up the flirt engine again, give her a blank look, then pivot to Q3 revenue like a boss. The best answer to a mixed signal is a very clear signal.

- MONEY -

Shutterstock

7 Money Rules Every Dad Should Teach His Child

Because no teen should go through life broker than a Beanie Baby collector circa 1999

By Bob Larkin

>My 17-year-old son is permanently broke. He treats money like an AOL free trial: exciting for 30 days, then poof, gone. That’s on me, but let’s be honest, it’s also a Gen-X dad special. We taught our kids to parallel park and appreciate Die Hard, but we skipped the part about keeping twenty bucks from vanishing between Friday and Sunday. So here are seven money rules we should all be teaching our kids.

1. Pay yourself first—and automate it. “Set it and forget it” works because humans procrastinate. The Save More Tomorrow program boosted savings by having people auto-commit a slice of future raises. Tell your kid to auto-transfer money the second it hits their account. It’s the financial equivalent of putting the cookies on the top shelf.

2. Build an emergency stash before building the LEGO Death Star. Start with “handle a $400 oops” and grow toward a few months’ expenses. In 2024, only 63% of adults said they could cover a $400 hit with cash or its equivalent; only 55% had three months saved. That gap equals stress.

3. Treat credit cards like Gremlins: Never feed them after midnight. If you can’t pay in full, don’t swipe. Median credit-card APRs hover around 24%. That “deal” turns into a Beanie Baby bubble fast. And flash-sale FOMO? Experts warn the interest wipes out the discount if you carry a balance.

4. Be a stayer, not a player. Over time, most actively managed funds lag their benchmarks. SPIVA’s year-end 2024 scorecard shows persistent underperformance across 5- and 10-year windows. Your best bet is a broad, low-cost index fund. Think of it as less “stock tips from your barber,” more “own the market and chill.”

5. Everyone wants your money. Even the bad guys. Develop a highly attuned sense of smell for pump-and-dump ploys. “Guaranteed” crypto/stock DMs are the new chain letters. The FTC reports record fraud losses in 2024, with $1.9B lost via social media contacts alone. Coach your kid to pause, verify, and never rush money.

6. Time in the market beats timing the market. A teen who invests small amounts now has decades for compound growth. Pair this with automatic increases (Rule #1) and it becomes a self-feeding Tamagotchi. No dead pet, just growing dollars.

7. “Here, invest this.” Lectures bounce off, but real-life reps stick. The CFPB’s research review says hands-on experiences and parental modeling are what move the needle. (And yes, that “habits set by 7” line has nuance. Start early, but it’s never “too late.”)

Ah, but how exactly does one teach the above lessons without sounding like a sitcom dad?

● Allowance with strings. Tie cash to chores/goals, then help split it: spend/save/give/invest. That “practice, not preaching” approach is straight from the CFPB playbook.

● Debt reality check. Show how a 24% APR nukes a “20% off” deal if they don’t pay the card in full. Math beats hype.

● Index fund starter kit. Help them open a custodial or teen-friendly account and buy a total-market index fund. Then do nothing on purpose. SPIVA says that’s usually the winning move long-term.

We can’t rewind the VHS, but we can dub better money habits onto Side B. Teach these rules, automate what you can, and your kid might actually have cash left on Sunday. Radical.

—Bob Larkin writes for Men’s Health, the New York Post, and other publications.
🏦 IS 55 TOO OLD TO APPLY “EARLY DECISION”?

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