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30 MINUTE PHYSIQUE
Maximizing our physiques with 30 minute workouts
Full Time Personal Trainer helping regular people build muscle, lose fat, and move better in 30 minutes or less. No gym required. No complicated nonsense. Just effective workouts that fit real life.
Train with me: https://www.trainerize.me/profile/benen/Benen.Karski/
Check out my Gumroad page to join my email list and peruse my ebooks and programs for sale: https://garagegymbro.gumroad.com/
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October Book Club Update: I Quit
I'm a coward and gave up on “Moby Dick.” First 90 pages or so was interesting enough. The following 90 pages were all over the place, the structure seemed…. disorganized? The language and sentences were long and challenging. It felt difficult to focus and became work. I looked at how many pages I had left. About 300 and so… I don't quit books often, but I looked at the shelf and had too many books I was looking forward to reading to struggle through any more of “Moby Dick.” S
30minutephysique
Oct 161 min read
The Recent 3 Books I've Read (Including my Current Book)
1. "Factotum" by Charles Bukowski 2. "Out of the Silent Planet" by C.S. Lewis 3. "Moby Dick" by Herman Melville _ "Factotum." This was my 2nd Bukowski book. I have weird feelings about his work. I want to like him because he's a fellow (well, former fellow) Polish-American with a classic, actually easy to pronounce "ski" last name (even though people sometimes see my 6-letter last name ending in "ski" and totally panic, somehow adding 15 letters and 5 extra syllables to the
30minutephysique
Oct 34 min read
September 2026 Lift and Read Program and Book Club
Lifting Program: PPL 3X Each session has 3 (or more) specific workout variations. For example, 1 pull day will have regular pullups. The next pull day will be neutral grip chins. And the 3rd pull day will be wide grip pullups as the vertical pulling exercise. Each pull session, pick 1 of these 3 pullup variations. This routine is very flexible as far as exercise variations, volume per exercise, and even frequency. Use autoregulation and your own common sense to adjust train
30minutephysique
Sep 64 min read
Lift & Read Book Club, Issue 20 (June Lifting Club Program Included)
Fiction "The Name of the Rose," by Umberto Eco. I've been reading this one for a couple months now and I'm on the home stretch. It's pretty dense, as it's a fictional murder mystery set in a 1327 monastery (middle ages stuff). But it's very good. You just may need a working knowledge of Latin from time to time, or just a Google search bar nearby. Because that one's almost done, I'll share my next fiction I plan on reading, too. "Once Upon a Time in Argentina" by Frank Kidd.
30minutephysique
Jun 15 min read
Lift & Read Book Club, Issue 19 (April Lifting Club Program Included)
Fiction "The Brothers K" by David James Duncan. About halfway through this family saga about baseball, religion, politics, humor, drama, etc. What a delightful read so far. Physical Culture I finally finished "C-Mass" and can officially close the books on ever reading another Paul Wade story again. Like I said in the last issue, though, this "C-Mass" book is by far the best of the 3 Paul Wade books I've read. The writing, prose, tone, and verbiage may be the most cringe of
30minutephysique
Apr 16 min read
Lift and Read Book Club, Issue 18
Fiction: "The Forgotten Man" by Robert Crais (finished) This is the 10th (and my 10th) book of the Elvis Cole and Joe Pike series. I love this series and these books. They're short, fast paced, well written shoot 'em up mystery stories. If you like the idea of cool, punchy Private Investigators, you'll like these books. I can't recommend the series enough. They're funny and intense all at once. "The Forgotten Man" is probably top 2 or 3 so far for me in this series, which mea
30minutephysique
Feb 265 min read
January Lifting Club and Lift & Read Book Club, Issue 17
Lifting Club: PPL 4X This is the program we're running in the "30 Minute Physique New Year Kick Start Challenge," which you can learn all about here: https://www.30minutephysique.com/post/the-30-minute-physique-new-year-kick-start-challenge-1 It's straight forward and each session should take just around 20-30 minutes. I often clock these sessions in the 15-20 minute range when I'm doing just 2 sets per exercise and limiting my rest periods to just 1-2 minutes. Train 3-6 d
30minutephysique
Jan 48 min read
Lift and Read Book Club, Issue 16
What's up, friends. Welcome to another Lift & Read Book Club Issue. Let's get the lifting stuff out of the way. I've written about this already in the December Lifting Club, so I won't take up your time with all of it again on this page. Check this link from my blog for this month's training programs: https://www.30minutephysique.com/post/december-2025-lifting-club or you can check this link if you prefer reading on Substack: https://open.substack.com/pub/garagegymbro/p/dece
30minutephysique
Dec 22, 20257 min read
Lift & Read Book Club Issue 15
I finished reading "The Count of Monte Cristo" about a month back. Wow. What an incredible story. It wasn't at all like I assumed it would be, having heard of it as a classic tale of escape and adventure. My mind assumed the entire novel would head a completely different direction, but that's why you read the books. This one was full of humble teachings and lessons right up until the very last sentence. This is a true classic and a pretty easy – albeit, fairly long – read.
30minutephysique
Nov 16, 20253 min read
The Count of Monte Cristo
Wow. What an incredible story. It wasn't at all like I assumed it would be, having heard of it as a classic tale of escape and adventure. My mind assumed the entire novel would head a completely different direction, but that's why you read the books. This one was full of humble teachings and lessons right up until the very last sentence. This is a true classic and a pretty easy – albeit, fairly long – read. It's funny, it's sad, it's redeeming. Everyone should read "The Coun
30minutephysique
Nov 1, 20251 min read
Lift & Read Book Club, Issue 11
This week I'm reading – primarily – the following 2 books: "SlaughterHouse - Five" by Kurt Vonnegut "Dauntless" by Marcus Follin The...
30minutephysique
Jul 25, 20252 min read
Lift & Read Book Club. Issue 10
Long time no 'book club' update. I've been lifting a lot and reading a lot. Here's some of the books I've read during the last 2 months:...
30minutephysique
Jul 15, 20254 min read
Lift & Read Series: May Book Club Part 1 & My Lifting Program for the Month
Welcome to the rundown for the month of May. This monthly lift & read series is 2 months old, but I'm excited to continue it. In this...
30minutephysique
May 6, 20255 min read
Lift & Read Series. April Book Club, Part 4(?)
"The Hands of Enemies (Speed of Light Book 1)" This is the 4th fiction book I'm working on this month. Granted, the first one was nearly...
30minutephysique
Apr 24, 20251 min read
The Elvis Cole & Joe Pike Series (A Lift & Read Update)
Robert Crais never misses. This Elvis Cole & Joe Pike series is the best series I've read, and I've been a fan of many other series’ that...
30minutephysique
Apr 20, 20251 min read
Lift & Read: April Book Club, Part 3
Lift & Read: April Book Club, Part 3 "The Last Detective," By Robert Crais. Okay, so my next fiction is one of my favorite series' ever....
30minutephysique
Apr 12, 20251 min read
Lift & Read: April Book Club, Part 2
“Managed Care” by Joe Barrett is hands down one of the funniest books I've read. A real laugh out loud page turner with great characters...
30minutephysique
Apr 10, 20251 min read
Lift & Read: April Book Club, Part 1
Welcome to the April Book Club. This series is a new edition to the blog I'm looking to keep up with and update, in order to encourage...
30minutephysique
Apr 3, 20253 min read
HELLO
I'm a practical garage gym bro, who happens to also be a certified personal trainer, strength & conditioning coach, and an uncertified writer. I promote simple, but effective practices to maximize strength, hypertrophy, and body composition.
On this site, I am specifically focusing on promoting the "30 Minute Physique" lifestyle, and will be sharing my journey of getting as jacked as possible via 30 minute workouts.
Check out my Gumroad page to join my email list and peruse my ebooks and programs for sale: https://garagegymbro.gumroad.com/
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