💪 Books and Biceps Issue 238

Ken Griffey Jr., 36,000 kettlebells, an Arctic Survival Story and...

Books & Biceps is the only weekly e-mail that’s like if your meathead writer best friend sent you a personal newsletter about cool stuff he’s read and written. Awesome, right?

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BOOKS

Endurance: Shackleton’s Incredible Voyage by Alfred Lansing

I’ve had this book on my radar for years and I’m psyched to finally be getting around to it. I love stories of survival that are so absurd, ludicrous and against-the-odds that if they weren’t true you’d think they were total bullshit.

The story of the exploration ship Endurance is exactly that.

How’s this for an inside flap:

In August 1914, polar explorer Ernest Shackleton boarded the Endurance and set sail for Antarctica, where he planned to cross the last uncharted continent on foot. In January 1915, after battling its way through a thousand miles of pack ice and only a day's sail short of its destination, the Endurance became locked in an island of ice. Thus began the legendary ordeal of Shackleton and his crew of twenty-seven men. When their ship was finally crushed between two ice floes, they attempted a near-impossible journey over 850 miles of the South Atlantic's heaviest seas to the closest outpost of civilization.

Sub zero temperatures. Open frigid oceans. Surviving temps and starvation and eating penguins and seals. And here’s the kicker… somehow nobody died.

I just started this book and let’s just say I’m happy to be reading about being stuck in ice while I’m in warm, sunny Florida and drinking an iced tea. Ha. An absolutely unreal story so far. Check it out.

BICEPS

I have two kettlebells. I’d like two more heavier ones. It’ll be easy for me to get them… But what I’ve never needed is 36,000 kettlebells on short notice.

This is the problem the army recently found itself in and this story by writer Michael Easter for Men’s Health is fascinating.

It’s called:

What Happens When the Army Needs 36,000 Kettlebells, Fast: The remarkable true story of the largest order of fitness equipment ever placed.

Oh, and this was the rest of the order the army needed:

1,098,240 pounds of hex barbells.

10,067,200 pounds of bumper plates.

183,040 pounds of medicine balls.

Incredible. I think you’ll enjoy how they solved this mass meathead problem.

Quick Flexes

I wrote a thread on Thursday about the origins of Ken Griffey Jr. wearing his hat backwards. As of this writing, it cleared 350,000 impressions:

You can read it here.

This past weekend I also smoked my largest brisket, over 6.2 pounds. Came out PERFECT:

And here’s a cool throwback photo to a book signing I did for my biography of Charlie Ward… WITH Charlie Ward… at Madison Square Garden… during a Knicks game.

What an incredible night:

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Have a great weekend! - Jon