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Forging Capable Men

I'm an author, strength coach, and physical therapist — also a father, husband, and hack golfer. Every Saturday I send The Saturday Standard: research worth knowing, a thought worth keeping, an action worth taking, a book worth reading, and a note from me. Five things, five minutes, one coffee. This and other blog posts are available for free every week — join below.

The Honest Truth About Cigars and Pipes
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The Honest Truth About Cigars and Pipes

Blame Tolkien and Lewis. I became an avid reader in graduate school, and the deeper I went, the more I kept landing at the same table. A group of friends in Oxford — Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, a handful of others — who called themselves the Inklings, and who met in a pub they nicknamed the Bird and Baby with their pipes lit, arguing for hours about myth, faith, language, and what makes a story true. Tolkien loved his pipe so much he wrote it straight into Middle-earth: the hobbits and their...

The Saturday Standard — Vol. 21 Saturday, September 26, 2026 As always, coffee first, fellas — and let's talk about testosterone, who actually needs it, and why some men are on it without ever being properly tested. The Research Should you be on TRT? Testosterone and men's wellness clinics are riding a high right now. From the Hims commercials about libido, weight loss, hair loss and the like, to local shops leaving flyers on your car, to your buddy at the gym who swears by this clinic up the...

The Saturday Standard — Vol. 20 Saturday, September 19, 2026 As always, coffee first, fellas — and let's clear up some confusion on the amount of muscle you have being more important than the amount of muscle being used. The Research Muscle is a storage tank, but it is also metabolically active We usually think about muscle in terms of how much of it we have. More muscle, more strength, better metabolic health. Less muscle, worse in all the same categories. If something is going wrong, the...

The Saturday Standard — Vol. 19 Saturday, September 12, 2026 As always, coffee first, fellas — and let's address a huge misconception in body composition and weight management. The Research High carb vs low carb The question every man has asked me at some point is should they eat low carb or high carb? The honest answer — that many men don't seem to like — is that when calories are matched and protein is matched, it barely matters. And the internet gurus and influencers selling you the...

The Saturday Standard — Vol. 18 Saturday, September 5, 2026 As always, coffee first lads. Let's have a good chat about why your LDL number matters more at 25 than at 55. The Research LDL: The bill you didn't see coming Most men think about cholesterol as a habits problem they'll get to eventually. Clean things up at 45, bring the number down, square the account. That isn't how it works. Think about a hose you've run at high pressure for twenty years. Turning the pressure down today is...

The Saturday Standard — Vol. 17 Saturday, August 29, 2026 Coffee first boys. About to take a mini-sledgehammer to your Whoop. The Research Wearable tech: is it actually useful? There's a ring on your finger or a band on your wrist, and every morning it hands you a number. Recovery: 42%. Readiness: low. Strain: you overdid it. Sleep score: 71. Let's break down what those numbers actually mean, and what you need versus what you can throw away. Short version: some of what your device measures is...

VOL. 16 · AUGUST 22, 2026 As always, coffee first, lads. The Research Two things are true at the same time, and the general public still can't seem to accept that. The first is quite serious. About 40% of American adults have obesity — 39% of men specifically. Nearly 10% have severe obesity, and that number has kept climbing even as overall obesity leveled off. Add in the men who are overweight but not obese and you land at roughly three-quarters of the American male population carrying...

VOL. 15 — SATURDAY, AUGUST 15, 2026 The Research Is more better when it comes to training? When it comes to guidelines for training, they can be laid out simply. This is your floor: two lifting sessions a week, total body, and 150 minutes of moderate-to-vigorous aerobic activity. Those numbers come from the Physical Activity Guidelines for Americans, published by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The current version is the second edition, released in 2018 — the first came out...

VOL. 14 — SATURDAY, AUGUST 8, 2026 Coffee first, and let's talk a little bit about magnesium. The Research Magnesium: should you be taking it? Magnesium is absolutely having a moment in fitness and health circles. It's become a popular conversation among podcasts and influencers, and if you're a guy who's having trouble sleeping, big brother is definitely going to find a way to put magnesium in front of you. Instagram knows. YouTube knows. That ad found you for a reason. So let's break this...

Vol. 13 · August 1, 2026 Coffee first lads, then time to talk about peptides again. The Research I get asked about peptides more than just about anything else right now. Ipamorelin and BPC-157 are the big names most of you have heard about. Be it from your brother-in-law, some guy at the gym, or Jimmy in accounting who won't shut up about his bodybuilding split and how excellent his recovery has been. His Whoop band told him so. So let's have an honest conversation about it, because once you...