💪Books and Biceps - Issue 211
Daniel Boone, Ken Griffey Jr. and LL Cool J in one newsletter...
Books & Biceps is the only weekly e-mail that combines reading recommendations, exclusive workouts & 7-Bullet Biographies of fascinating people.
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BOOKS
Blood & Treasure: Daniel Boone and the Fight for America’s First Frontier
By: Bob Drury and Tom Clavin
When Daniel Boone was about 11-years-old, he was charged with tending his family’s livestock every day starting at sunrise, watching his younger sister, hunting white-tailed deer solo in the woods, shooting the deer, packing it out…and then corralling the livestock and his sister home before nightfall.
And I can’t get my 11-year-old to remember to charge her iPad or empty the dishwasher.
This little juxtaposition between the 1700s and today is one of hundreds that came to mind while reading Blood & Treasure, which is enlightening, frightening and seems like it took place a thousand years ago, not a few hundred.
Boone lived a life unrecognizable today. He was an explorer, arguably the best rifle shot in the colonies before the Revolutionary War, and he was a long hunter… This means he’d spend months and months out in the wilderness, often alone, hunting meat for his family and community. He made his own clothes, living quarters and food. He lived outside, alone, for entire seasons. He could take down twenty white-tailed deer in a day. Then he’d have to skin them, dress them, boil the meat, make jerky, make clothes and more. He’d hunt, skin, cook and eat bear, raccoons, squirrels and elk. He’d trek a 700-pound elk carcass a hundred miles. His was not an easy life.
And we haven’t even mentioned the constant bloodshed, battles and bartering with Native Americans. Over the course of his life he befriended them, was nearly scalped by them, was captured by them, had his children murdered by them and went to war with and against them.
I admit to knowing next to nothing about life on the frontier for both Americans and Native Americans. This book was a revelation. Incredibly researched and entertaining. If you’ve ever had any interest or curiosity in Boone or frontier life, I highly recommend this one. Get it here.
BICEPS
I’ve been experimenting with supersets lately. When combined properly they give you a great one-two punch of compound movements to build total body strength and smaller movements to hit more targeted muscle groups.
My favorite from this week was a superset of hex bar deadlifts with landmines.
If you aren’t familiar with landmines, they’re a lift where you put plates on one end of a barbell while wedging the other up against a wall. Then you lift the weighted end up onto your shoulder and press it while driving your legs and hips up.
The superset I cranked out was:
12 reps hex bar squats
10 reps landmines
100 yard jog
5 rounds.
Smokes your legs, traps, shoulders and grip:
Also, in FLEX FACTORY BREAKING NEWS, I declared “Mama Said Knock You Out” as the #1 workout song of all time.
I even did a full breakdown and deep dive right here:
BIOGRAPHIES
This weeks’ 7-Bullet Biography was on Ken Griffey Jr. and his amazing football career. Yeah, you read that right. Football. In an alternate universe, Griffey may have played in the NFL:
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Have a great weekend!
Jon