🚨 Welcome to this week’s issue! I’m Robert Tuchman, entrepreneur, author, and publisher of Generation Xcellent, 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 us an email—and share this newsletter with another guy who could use our help..

📩 Thanks for joining the conversation!

- FITNESS -

Leaner, Stronger and Younger at 45+

To grow your muscles faster (and more safely),
come to learn the genius of dumbbells.

By Myatt Murphy

Dumbbells make you a better athlete. Sitting nice and comfy in a gym exercise machine can help you focus solely on the muscle you’re trying to train. But what sport requires you to use only one muscle at a time? Dumbbells call on not just your large muscles but a series of small, stabilizing muscles—otherwise known as the proprioceptive muscles. These are the muscles that help you keep your balance rounding second base or chasing after a wicked serve. And, with dumbbells, you can mimic more of the moves you use for your chosen sport, whether you want to build a stronger golf swing or a quicker lateral move on the basketball court.

—Myatt Murphy, CSCS, former Fitness Director for Men’s Health, is the author of Ultimate Dumbbell Guide and more than a dozen other health and fitness books.

- SPORTS -

16 Greatest Gen X Sports
Movies of All Time

From “Show me the money” to “If you build it, they will come,” these films still resonate in every Gen X man’s heart.

By Robert Tuchman

>Youthful passion. Obsessive practice. Crushing heartbreak. And, eventually, miraculous triumph. But enough about me trying to lose my virginity in high school. As an author and longtime entrepreneur in the field of pro sports, I’ve obsessed over football, hockey, hoops and baseball for my entire life. But not every triumph or tragedy happens on the field. Sometimes, they happen in the movies.

With the possible exception of Creed, there hasn’t been a truly great sports film in many years. But when we were kids, they seemed to come around all the time. Here are the films that still resonate.

1. Hoosiers (1986) Gene Hackman coaching a small-town high school basketball team is simply the best sports film of all time, no questions asked. A slow burn that hits you right in the heart. 

2. All the Right Moves (1983) Maybe the most underrated sports movie of all time. A not-yet-weird Tom Cruise fights to escape his blue-collar town in this high school football drama. It’s like Friday Night Lights before that was a thing.

3. Bull Durham (1988) Baseball meets romance with Kevin Costner in his prime. Witty, grown-up, and sexy—it made you eager to try out this “adulthood” thing.

4. Rudy (1993) Heart. Grit. Tears. “You’re 5-foot nothin’, 100 and nothin’…” Gen Xers lived for the emotional payoff.

5. Hoop Dreams (1994) A Gen X documentary landmark about two kids from Chicago chasing basketball stardom. For a generation raised on big dreams and hard truths, Hoop Dreams was a mirror.

Related:  Greatest Sports Moments for Generation X

6. Vision Quest (1985) This classic teenage-angst film about wrestling answers the eternal question: Why do we play sports? To get laid.

7. The Natural (1984) If your kid doesn’t understand why baseball is as close as humans can get to magic, show him this. Don’t get freaked out by the fact that Wilford Brimley was just 50 years old when this film dropped.

8. White Men Can’t Jump (1992) The free-throw scene in which Woody subtly cracks Wesley’s confidence is a master class in psychological warfare.

9. The Karate Kid (1984) Every Gen Xer tried the crane kick at least once.

10. Major League (1989) Wild Thing, Jobu, and just enough raunch to make it a sleepover favorite.

11. Field of Dreams (1989) Any man who is a father, or had a father, will understand.

12. Days of Thunder (1990) NASCAR, adrenaline, and a just-starting-to-get-weird Tom Cruise.

13. Tie: Rocky III (1982), Rocky IV (1985) You can’t talk about ‘80s sports movies without Stallone, Mr. T., Hulk Hogan and Dolph Lundgren as Ivan Drago. "If he dies, he dies.” ‘Nuff said.

14. Jerry Maguire (1996) “Show me the money!” Perhaps the last time we could sit down to watch a Tom Cruise movie without thinking of him as a couch-jumping maniac.

15. Remember the Titans (2000) “You think football is fun?” Denzel Washington plays a football coach, and yes, it’s just as intimidating as it sounds.

16. Breaking Away (1979) For many of us, our first introduction to the class warfare between blue-collar dreams and elite culture. But we still pedaled our bikes down the block while yelling fake Italian.

—Robert Tuchman, a media and sports entrepreneur, is a co-founder of Generation Xcellent and the author of The 100 Sporting Events You Must See Live.

Battle of the ‘90s Crushes: The Quarterfinals
Shania Twain vs. Susanna Hoffs

>We’ve entered week 2 of the quarterfinals in our epic March Madness–style tournament. Last week, Courteney Cox went Scream-ing past Molly Ringwald to move into the semis.

This week, a chanteuse showdown: Country superstar Shania Twain, who easily outpaced Gwen Stefani in the previous round, takes on Bangles frontwoman Susanna Hoffs, who triumphed over Salma Hayek. Who will win this contest of musical chairs? 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.

- FATHERHOOD -

Your Magic Teenage Slang Decoder

If you’re still using “brat” as a compliment or “NPC” as an insult, it’s time to no cap SYBAU, sweat.

By Zoe Giselle

>Cringe. That’s the only word to describe what it’s like when my parents say things like “Skibidi toilet,” like it’s still 2023 or something. So to help them, and you, seem less lame, I’ve collected a list of phrases we use around my high school, and tried to translate them into Gen X speak.

Some may call me a traitor to my generation, but I’m not worried: Everything you read here will be out of date by the end of the summer anyways.

Ate/eat: “You ate it” means “you crushed it.” So it’s okay if your kid says he’s going to eat his homework.
Aura: An air of cool or mystery. Acting like you have it when you don’t is called aura farming.
Baddie: A wild girl
Bed-rotting: Staying in bed looking at your phone all day
Beta: A weak, subservient person
Boombayah: Sex
Bop: A girl who likes a lot of boombayah
Brain-rot: The results of bed-rotting
Bruzz: Bros
Bussin': Excellent
Cap: A lie. "No cap" means honest truth
Cake: A nice butt
Dead: Funny, as in “I died laughing.” If you text me a joke and I send back a skull, that’s a good thing. I’m not telling you to drop dead.
Deadass: Not at all funny, as in, "I am deadass not lying."
Delulu: Delusional
Deep: Important or serious, as in, “I don’t know about college. It’s not that deep.”
Drip: Stylish
Fit: Outfit, as in, “That’s a drip fit.”
Geeker: Someone who uses a lot of drugs.
Glaze: Kiss ass, as in “I had to glaze mom to get the car keys.”
Glizzy: Hot dog.
Green fn: Essentially means “whoa.”
Gyatt or Gyat: Shortened from “god-DAMN,” you might use it when spotting cake.
Huzz: Hoes. As in, “Bruzz before Huzz”
It's giving: The vibe, as in, “He keeps looking at me. It’s giving creepy."
Mid: Mediocre
Mewing: A facial exercise in which you push your tongue into the roof of your mouth, which supposedly strengthens the jawline.
Mog: To be more appealing than your rival. “My opp was chatting up this alpha, but I mogged her.”
Opp: Your enemy.
F: Respect
Rizz up: To charm someone
Serve: To excel. “She served in that drip fit."
Sigma: A loner
Snatched: Very attractive. “Gyat, that cake is snatched.”
Spawn point: Mother. “My spawn point wouldn’t give me the keys no matter how much I glazed her.”
Spoopy: Spooky.
Sweat: A person who tries too hard. In old-person speak, this would be a scrub.
SYBAU: Shut your bitch ass up.
TS: “This shit.” As is, I have a lot more slang I could share with you guys, but I’m so done with TS.

—Zoe Giselle is a rising high school senior in Connecticut.