Lucky you - today’s Superset comes packing a double dose of Matthew McConaughey wisdom - Alright, Alright Alright…

I just really enjoyed the intellectual challenge of reading his new book (discussed below), and am becoming more fond of kicking these editions off with some powerful quotes and ideas consumed during the week. Here is the hook snippet from the new book. I will re-read this exact passage multiple times this week, and hope to take action on it too:

“Like most all of us, I'm trying to navigate and adapt as shrewdly as I can to our changing times. To understand where I fit in, where I don't, define what I stand for, and what I won't. But I find myself increasingly tempted to just settle for the false and profane as acceptable signs of our times.

Should I maintain a beginner's mind and continue to seek the magic in life when the facts deny reason to do so? How do I stave off the cynics' disease and still remain a hopeful skeptic? Are we hoping to survive or surviving to hope?

Maybe that's the point. To admit that evil is necessary, and choose to rise above it - or not. To admit the ugly facts and untruths all around and inside us, and still believe. I think that is the point.

As an optimist and a believer, I'm a man of strong spirit and great faith, but if it's belief we seek, let's admit it: we're not going to find it looking to the evidence. So, enough with the academic and mathematical equations that aren't adding up. I think it's time for us to flip the script on what’s historically been our means of making sense, and instead open our aperture and look to faith, belief, and dreams for our reality.”

Brain - Taking Inventory with Rich Roll

I am a sucker for introspective questions that pack a punch and force me to think about things on a deeper level. I think it’s a valuable exercise for us all.

Rich Roll, on a recent podcast, ripped through a hard-hitting series of these questions that I think make for a great reflection point to get the week started, but to also aid in our ambitions and mindset as we finish off this year.

What is important to you? - Rich Roll

What are your values?

What is the quality of the relationships that you have?

Where were you six months ago, or six months ago, where did you think you would be today? And is that lining up? And if not, why?

What’s the missing piece in your life? What’s the thing that brought you joy as a kid that you’ve pushed aside?

What is the most uncomfortable conversation with yourself that you’ve been running away from? Do you have the courage to engage with that? Are you willing to do a little more work - can you pull back another layer on who you are?

Some of these can seem heavy for a Monday morning, but what if you were to sit with these today, or one day this week? What if you put pen to pad, and really put some thought into these answers? And then after you had some answers - what if you took action and made improvements from these introspections?

I know I will be in a better place mentally if I do, regardless of how challenging. My hope is that these do something for you, too. So often we run through life dancing around the hard questions. We avoid sitting with our thoughts because we don’t want to confront the reality that we know we have buried down.

If we can just grasp onto a short moment of courage to ask the hard questions and give honest answers, we can identify areas in our lives where we need to do better. And that’s the only way to move the needle forward.

Body - A 4 Day Training Plan for The Busy Bodies

Not everyone can commit to six days in the gym, I get it. Between work, family, and life, sometimes you’ve only got four solid training days to give. The good news? If you train with intention, four days can be plenty to strip fat, build muscle, and walk into your goals looking sharper and stronger.

As I have returned to my roots of focusing more on my output in the gym and less on the cadence of an endurance race preparation, I have remembered how daunting it could be for someone starting out with no plan to effectively hop back in the gym and get the most out of their time in there.

Below, I have what I believe to be the ideal outline for someone who is looking to build muscle, lose some bad weight, get stronger, and also keep up some semblance of a cardio routine to boot. All in the manageable span of four days.

A couple of notes to consider on the why if you want to follow along (This is very similar to the six-day plan I am currently following)":

1. Frequency Without Overkill: You still hit each major muscle group at least once per week, but in a way that balances recovery and output. Push and pull days give your upper body plenty of volume for growth and retention. Legs get one dedicated day, which is more than enough to maintain strength and athleticism.

2. Conditioning With Purpose Instead of tacking cardio onto every workout, day four is its own hybrid session. By combining intervals or incline walking with accessory lifts and core training, you create the calorie deficit needed for fat loss without sacrificing intensity on your main lifting days.

3. Efficiency Over Volume In a four-day setup, every set matters. That’s why the focus is on big compound lifts (squat, bench, row, pull-up) supported by targeted hypertrophy work. The result? You stimulate the maximum amount of muscle fibers while keeping sessions efficient.

4. Built-In Recovery The biggest mistake people make when getting back into the gym is overtraining. Four days leaves you with three days for recovery — whether that’s walking, stretching, or just letting your nervous system recharge. More recovery means you can push harder when you do train.

Day 1 – Push (Chest / Shoulders / Triceps)

• Barbell Bench Press – 4×6–8

• Incline Dumbbell Press – 4×8–10

• Seated DB Overhead Press – 3×8–10

• Dumbbell Lateral Raise – 4×12–15 (last set drop set)

• Rope Pushdowns – 3×12–15

• Overhead DB Extension – 3×10–12

Day 2 – Pull (Back / Biceps)

• Weighted Pull-Ups (or Lat Pulldown) – 4×6–8

• Barbell Bent-Over Rows – 4×8–10

• Chest-Supported Row – 3×10–12

• Straight-Arm Pulldown – 3×12–15

• Incline Dumbbell Curls – 3×10–12

• Hammer Curls – 3×12–15

Day 3 – Legs (Quads / Hams / Glutes / Calves)

• Back Squat – 4×6–8

• Romanian Deadlift – 4×8–10

• Bulgarian Split Squat – 3×10–12/leg

• Leg Press – 3×12–15

• Lying Hamstring Curl – 4×12–15

• Standing Calf Raise – 5×12–15

Day 4 – Conditioning Hybrid (Cardio + Upper Accessory)

• Interval Training (bike/rower/treadmill): 12–15 rounds (30 sec sprint / 90 sec easy)

  • OR Incline Walk (30–40 min Zone 2 HR)

• Face Pulls – 3×12–15

• Dumbbell Lateral Raise – 3×12–15

• Machine Chest Press – 3×12–15

• Hanging Leg Raise – 3×12–15

• Weighted Cable Crunch – 3×12–15

If you follow this four-day plan and understand where your macros and calories need to be, I promise you will get results. Control the weight on all of these lifts. Track each week to make sure you are slowly putting more weight on the bar. And if you have extra time, extra cardio never hurts. Watch a video podcast and walk on the treadmill and you’ve knocked two developmental birds out with one stone.

Book - Poems & Prayers - Matthew McConaughey

I read Matthew McConaughey’s new “book”, Poems & Prayers, on a couple of flights this week (it’s a short, easy read of just as the title says, hence the reason I put “book” in parentheses).

It isn’t a memoir like Greenlights, nor is it a collection of essays. Instead, it reads more like a series of snapshots - moments of reflection crafted into verse and prayer. It is an intellectually challenging compilation of short, digestible pieces that feel like conversations with yourself, set down in McConaughey’s unmistakable voice.

His dialect shines through every page. There’s a rhythm and elegance to his writing that mirrors the way he speaks - smooth, colloquial, and yet deeply intentional. You can almost hear him narrating as you read, with that Texas drawl that somehow makes optimism feel both grounded and wise. Few writers can carry their voice so authentically from spoken word to the page, and McConaughey deserves credit for doing it effortlessly.

The messaging of this book was a timely reminder that I needed. Poems & Prayers is a meditation on optimism. Not a naïve, blind kind of optimism, but one that leans into life with faith, grit, and openness. It’s about believing in better days, in the goodness of people, and in the possibilities ahead.

That resonates deeply with me. Especially in recent times, I (as I’m sure you have too) have found myself being less and less optimistic about some things, and that is a trend in my life I don’t want to continue. I want to believe in people. I want to believe we have the capacity and the freedom to improve - ourselves, our relationships, our society. I want to be optimistic about the world as I step out into it and away from the slandering digital version of it we find ourselves consumed in often.

This book provided a great spark to focus on getting back to that blind optimism - not a foolish optimism, but an optimism that is rooted in believing in things, and having conviction on them.

Here is a snippet from the book:

“Let’s sing more than might make sense, believe in more than the world can conclude, get more impressed with the wow than the how, let inspiration interrupt our appointments, dream our way to reality, serve some soul food to our hungry heads, put proof on the shelf for a season, and rhyme our way to reason. Forget logic, certainty, owning, or making a start-up company of it; let’s go beyond what we can merely imagine, and believe, in the poetry of life.”