In 2011, for­mer rap­per and mil­lion­aire busi­ness­man Jesse Itzler approached an accom­plished Navy SEAL with this propo­si­tion: to move into Jesse’s fam­i­ly’s Man­hat­tan apart­ment and train him for 31 days. The SEAL, wide­ly con­sid­ered ​“the tough­est man on the plan­et,” agreed, but on one con­di­tion: Jesse would do every­thing he told him — and noth­ing was off the table.

What ensued was a phys­i­cal train­ing reg­i­men that includ­ed sleep­ing in a wood­en chair, jump­ing into a frozen lake, and run­ning miles wear­ing a 50-pound weight­ed vest, with train­ing occur­ring at all hours of the day and night. At turns hilar­i­ous (think Fresh Prince of Bel-Air goes to boot camp) and insight­ful, Liv­ing with a SEAL tells the sto­ry of a fit­ness rou­tine like no oth­er — and the unlike­ly friend­ship it produced.