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RZA | Train Like | Men's Health
Transcript
00:00You got the RZA right here from the almighty Wu-Tang Clan and right now we at Granite's gym with my buddy Grant Roberts and we're going to work out today. Hey Grant, come on over here. Now I know you got something special for me today. What are we working on today?
00:15It's Gunday, baby. It's Gunday.
00:16Gunday. Biceps and triceps.
00:30This is the way I train to prepare for the film, Nobody 2. It's also me preparing for the big Wu-Tang tour this summer.
00:41You know, as a performer, fitness is everything. When you're on stage and you're moving for, you know, an hour, 90 minutes, sometimes two hours, your legs got to be in shape, your respiratory got to be in shape.
00:55Even your arms. Throw your hands in the air. All that s***. You got to stay in shape. So I do stretching. I do weights. I do my kung fu.
01:05I do everything to make sure that my mind and body is ready so that when I go out to that audience, I can get my best performance.
01:12So I think that, you know, my generation of hip hop, we know that exercising proper diet is important to be a good performer.
01:25Grant's been training many superheroes that you may have seen in the movies. I came here for him, especially for this particular role, where I play a samurai.
01:35Now, every time I come to the gym, he always got some gadget that blows my mind. This gadget right here is called a power plate.
01:42He makes me sit on this thing either in a push-up form like this, and it vibrates. And when it vibrates, you hear my voice trembling.
01:49And you go down here. You hold position. Push up.
01:59You can drop down to a plank. Hold position.
02:05You can roll your knees or roll your core like this. And you hold that for 45 seconds. And that's how you warm up the body.
02:15But I would say as you get wiser and your body mature, you have to moderate your use of certain exercises and introduce other exercises.
02:25Like I said, stretching, yoga, Kung Fu, you know, Qi Gong, another great thing. You just do Qi Gong every day.
02:34And you put that energy here spread out with dynamic tension.
02:42But I still bench press, and that's just to show somebody that I can still bench press 225 pounds. That's enough to get somebody a ball for me.
02:49Cable drag curl. So what's cool about this particular exercise is once you're in it, the biceps stay engaged.
02:59If your arms are long, you're just holding on to your weight. There's not a lot of engagement.
03:02This way, as you can see, Bobby's arms are fully all the way back there. He's going to curl to his chest.
03:07Good. He's not going to recruit his shoulders. He's working on that peak of that bicep.
03:11He's going to come back out. He's going to stretch the biceps. The biceps are always under tension. Back up.
03:17We're going to actually do this special. We're going to use the strap-on today, right?
03:24Yeah, we use the stim today. We use the electric stim, which just creates a higher impulse, bigger recruitment factor, harder workout.
03:30Yeah. Now, I don't normally use the stims, but when you kind of have less time to prepare for the roll, the stims can accelerate the workout process.
03:39Absolutely. This is a giant set. Three things. We're going to come across the body. What's cool when you come across the body, you can see the angle of his wrist.
03:46His wrist, he's supinating. That's going to hit the outside head of the bicep. He's going to alternate.
03:51Okay. We're going to do eight reps of this. After the eighth rep, we're moving into a hammer curl.
03:57Good. Elbows back a little bit, Bobby. Elbows back a little bit.
04:01Elbows stay chambered here. Pull up. Hammer curl.
04:04We get eight reps of that. Eight reps, and then you're going to open your palms up.
04:07And then from here, you open palms, right?
04:09Okay. Eight reps.
04:10And we give you eight reps of these.
04:11Correct.
04:12Now, sometime I'll alternate.
04:13You can alternate.
04:23So when you fail on this exercise, you want to go right into an alternate because you're going to be a little bit stronger.
04:27Right.
04:27So if you fail doing the twos, go to an alternate. You'll finish the set.
04:35Yeah. Well, right now, I'm also prepping for the final chamber tour with my entire Wu-Tang Clan Brothers.
04:42And this is different than the past because maybe the last time that we all come together and get on stage and come to a city.
04:50Right. So there's something special about that.
04:52It'll be very grueling, meaning the schedule is crazy and you got to stay in shape.
04:58And so I'm preparing myself by physically training myself, mentally training myself.
05:03And most importantly, though, because this is an artistic endeavor, I'm getting the art tuned in.
05:09This is going to be a show like you've never seen before.
05:17Yeah, after the Giants set, we went over and we want to get into what we call hammer curls.
05:22Right now, I'm just giving you a demonstration of the hammer curls.
05:24This is about 30 pounds.
05:26You were using 60.
05:27In fact, you normally use 90.
05:29Yeah, we normally go up to 60 or even 90 pounds.
05:32But the form is here.
05:33You come here and you bring it up to here.
05:35Curl it up.
05:36Curl it up.
05:37Keep that hammer.
05:38It's like you're banging that hammer down.
05:40You're coming up with the pressure here.
05:42So we do about two sets of these.
05:45Eight to 10 reps, depending on the weight.
05:48We're just giving a little its and bits that they can snip and snap.
05:56The next step we will do is called the peak curl.
05:58Lay down peak curls.
06:00Where we bring it up here and we bring it down reverse.
06:02Now I'm going to do three sets of those.
06:04That's going to hit the biceps and the triceps and also build up some of this here.
06:20So this is the standing reverse curl.
06:36So that's going to be top of forearm and the total bicep.
06:39We're going to hit that 15 times.
06:41Three sets.
06:41I actually do work out a lot on tour, to be honest.
06:46One thing about touring is that my days are more structured.
06:50So I could get up.
06:51I have breakfast.
06:52I work out.
06:53I hit the sauna.
06:55I meditate for an hour.
06:57And then I go to sound check.
06:58After sound check, I then get a good meal.
07:02I relax.
07:03And then I get ready for the night and hit the show.
07:05And after the concert, the party's really in.
07:08Now we're moving the triceps.
07:11What you got for me?
07:14This is a kickback push away.
07:16So do a bit of a small squat.
07:18I put thumbs on the end of an easy curl bar.
07:20I kick it down to my knees.
07:22Okay, I'm going to perform 15 reps.
07:23This is hitting the back head of the tricep.
07:31After 15 reps, I'm going to grab the inside of the bar.
07:34I'm going to get a little bit closer.
07:35You know, push away.
07:36Bring it back to my chest in a bit of a locomotion move.
07:39Push it away.
07:40Bring it back.
07:41Push it away.
07:42That feels pretty easy at the beginning of this motion.
07:44As you know, by the time you get to the end of the set, you're cooked.
07:46You know, when it comes to diet, I don't really change my diet too much.
08:06I'm a vegan, so I keep it pretty simple.
08:08You know, avocado toast in the morning.
08:10For lunch, I may throw some lentils and some, you know, some fennel.
08:15A lot of oranges and bananas and fruits and vegetables throughout the day.
08:18And for dinner, go cauliflower with a little bit of pasta here and there.
08:24And just keep it simple, you know.
08:27I've realized it doesn't take a lot to eat in order to keep the chi up.
08:32Because, you know, when I eat, it actually slows me down.
08:35So, I kind of really keep my diet modest.
08:57Yeah, yeah, it's the RZA.
08:58So, thanks for training with me today.
09:00About to get up out of here.
09:01Make sure you check me out this summer in the new film, Nobody 2.
09:04with Bob Odenkirk, Christopher Lloyd, and Shannon Stone.
09:08And make sure I see you out there on the Wu-Tang Clan Final Chamber Tour.
09:12Coming to a city near you.
09:13Bong, bong.

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