Living with a SEAL: 31 Days Training with the Toughest Man on the Planet

by Jesse Itzler

“Even if you have to stop. Do all ten.”

“Well, now I’m telling you that our shit was incomplete and it’s fucking me up. So we are going to do them NOW.”

Then he tells me to sit up and touch his knees. I do that a hundred times. After about thirty-five I have to lie flat on the floor after every five sit-ups to get my energy and strength to do the next five.

As I fall asleep I think about the lack of oxygen in SEAL’s tent and again think to myself… I’m such a pussy.

Workout totals: 6 miles, 10 pull-ups, 100 sit-ups

If you want to be pushed to your limits, you have to train to your limits. —SEAL

I think some people wished they could do it

but they never would.

This is our push-up routine: Do one push-up then stand up and wait fifteen seconds, then go down and do two push-ups and wait fifteen seconds and so on, until we get up to ten push-ups, and then we start taking thirty-second breaks. For push-ups sixteen, seventeen, and eighteen, SEAL allows us to take forty-five seconds between sets.

Followed by thirty pull-ups. (No time limit. As long as it takes to knock out thirty even if I drop from the bar.) Then we go and run quarter-mile intervals. We run the quarter miles at a fast pace. Then we walk one minute. We repeat this for two miles. Quarter-mile sprint… one-minute walk.

“If you want to be pushed to your limits, you have to train to your limits. If you get hurt, you will recover. What the fuck is the problem?”

“Do six-mile runs in the mornings and three at night. And don’t forget to hit the push-ups. Make sure you get two hundred in every day. I’m going off the grid. Do this shit on the honor code.”

Workout totals: 2-mile interval run, 171 push-ups, 30 pull-ups

I’m not into sit-down dinners and fancy shit like that. I’m into fueling up and being on my way. —SEAL

I imagine I’m a hard guy to have a relationship with. —SEAL

Enjoy the Pain I earned it. Now I’m going to enjoy it. —SEAL

did six-mile runs in the morning and three-mile runs at night. And two hundred push-ups in the middle like an Oreo cookie.

“Nah, I’m just gonna sit on the couch and enjoy the pain,” he says. “I earned it. Now I’m going to enjoy it.” He starts to laugh to himself.

“Any interest in endorsing Zico?” “I race for me. I don’t race for products, Jesse. I race for me.”

Then the song repeats approximately thirty times. What the fuck is he doing in there?

“Twenty-five hundred push-ups, motherfucker. Yes, I am okay.”

He has me walk for five minutes at a 12.5 incline at a fifteen-minute pace. Then, he reduces me to a 3.0 incline, but makes me do: 1/4 mile: 9:30 pace 1/4 mile: 6:50 pace 1/4 mile: 9:20 pace 1/4 mile: 6:40 pace 1/4 mile: 9:20 pace 1/4 mile: 6:30 pace 1/4 mile: 9:00 pace 1/4 mile: 6:20 pace

He always makes sure I have proper form. As in all the way up and all the way down, as fast as you can do them, or they don’t count:

44 unassisted (“Unassisted” means no help with lots of yelling.) 1 minute rest 44 unassisted 1 minute rest 44 unassisted 1 minute rest Total: 132

15X @ 7 sets (on the minute): 105 total Rest 1:30 12X @ 9 sets (on 50-second mark): 108 total Rest 1:30 10x @ 10 sets (on the 45-second mark): 100 total Total: 313

Workout totals: 5-minute walk on a steep incline, 8 miles (2 miles of which were intervals), 132 sit-ups, 484 push-ups

Every day is a challenge, otherwise it’s not a regular day. —SEAL

“Roger that. So go fuck your bullshit shoulders,” he says. “Whatever you got going on, someone else has more pain. You gotta learn how to fight through it. No matter what it is… Think about someone else and take a suck-shit pill.”

Geto Boys hit song, “At night I can’t sleep, I toss and I turn…”

We do a three-mile run around the lower loop of Central Park, forty jumping jacks, then ten push-ups, and repeat. We do twenty sets of the jacks and push-ups in fifteen minutes. That’s eight hundred jumping jacks and two hundred push-ups in fifteen minutes!

Workout totals: 8 miles, 800 jumping jacks, 200 push-ups

Everyone is a potential threat. —SEAL

“Yeah, it’s a driving technique. You need to point at the target. Every target,”

“This is no joke. This shit is like a video game behind this wheel. You can get gobbled up real quick. You need to have your shit tight on the roads out here.”

If you can’t do the basics, you can’t do shit. —SEAL

I have to throw SEAL over my shoulder and run thirty yards in the hallway of the basement, drop SEAL, do thirty-five reps (four count) of flutter kicks, flip to my knees and do twenty push-ups, then we switch and he carries me. We are to repeat this fourteen times.

I know it sounds impossible, but he lived on fresh fruit and water and worked out like a madman (naturally!).

Workout totals: 6 miles, 100 burpees, and 14 fireman carries

If you’re gonna do ’em, do ’em right. —SEAL

It’s AFAWC: as fast as we can.

SEAL believes push-ups are the single best exercise for strength. He also believes proper form is the key. You get more out of ten push-ups the right way than thirty done improperly.

Proper form: back straight, ass up slightly, neck straight (don’t drop your neck). Go down and break ninety degrees with elbows, and make sure your chest hits the floor. Go all the way up (until arm is fully extended).

So our first set has one push-up with a fifteen-second rest; then we do two push-ups with a fifteen-second rest. All the way to...

Workout totals: 8 miles (2 AFAWC) and 350 push-ups

I’m on alert. High alert. Even when you don’t think I’m on alert, I’m on alert. Even right now, I’m on alert. —SEAL

You can get through any workout because everything ends. —SEAL

He ordered me my very own fifty-pound metal-plated weight vest for push-ups and to “increase the level of difficulty” of my runs.

“Relax, Jesse, you need to know that everything ends. Just do this shit and it will end.”

“Nah, man, I’m good. I’m staying light.”

SEAL grabs a banana and some almonds on his way to his room.