“When you have a schedule like Jay-Z’s, you don’t know when or where total-body workout, and it’s always different,” says Borges. “That way,
you’ll fit in your next workout,” says Marco Borges, Jay-Z’s trainer and if you miss a workout, you won’t feel as if you’ve suffered a setback.”
the author of Power Moves: The 4 Motions to Transform Your Body for Focus not on hitting multiple muscles, but rather on moving multiple
Life. Since Borges began training Jay-Z three years ago, the two have joints, says Borges, who designed this Jay-Z–inspired workout
worked out in stairwells, hotel rooms, offices…any where they can find exclusively for Best Life readers. Do three sets of each exercise, resting
room to move. “But every session has t wo things in common: It’s a for no more than one minute between sets. TREVOR THIEME
Squat Press (Quads, shoulders, hamstrings, glutes, core)
Stand with your feet shoulder-width apart. Your arms should be bent so that your fists are at shoulder height, palms for ward. Squat with your hips pushed
back—as if you were going to sit in a chair—until your thighs are parallel to the floor. At the same time, press your arms sky ward. Slowly come back to the
starting position. Repeat five times, building up to 15 reps.
Reverse Lunge With Chest Fly (Quads, chest, hamstrings, glutes, biceps, shoulders, core)
Stand with your feet shoulder-width apart and hold a set of dumbbells at your sides, palms facing your body. Step back into a reverse lunge with one foot and
simultaneously press both dumbbells to arm’s length in front of you, ending with your palms facing up. Return to the starting position and then repeat the
movement with your opposite leg. Do 10 reps, alternating legs, for a total of 20 reps.
Pull-up Blast (Back, core, biceps, hip flexors)
Begin in a classic pull-up position, hands slightly wider than shoulder-width apart. In one explosive movement, pull yourself up and tuck your knees into your
chest. Return to the starting position. Repeat 10 times, building up to 20 reps.
Stability-Ball Single-Arm Press (Chest, core, shoulders, triceps)
Begin with your upper back on a stability ball. Bend your elbows and hold a dumbbell in one hand (rest the other hand, fist clenched, on your stomach).
Contract your abs to stabilize your body, and then extend the dumbbell straight up until your arm reaches a locked position. At the same time, shift your body
weight onto the opposite elbow and push the dumbbell higher into the air. Return to the starting position. Repeat 10 times, then switch sides and repeat.
Dead-Lift High Pull (Nearly every muscle from head to toe)
Stand with your feet shoulder-width apart and grasp a barbell with a slightly wider grip, palms facing you. The movement begins with the barbell on the
ground and your body in a low squat. Drive your hips and the bar up at the same time. As you lift the bar, keep your elbows higher than your hands and finish
the motion at the top of your chest. Return to the starting position. Repeat 10 times, building up to 15 reps.
Dumbbell Jump-Through (Legs, hips, core, back, shoulders, arms, chest)
Get into a push-up position with your hands on blocks (or on dumbbells positioned vertically). Perform a push-up. As you return to the starting position, tuck
in your knees and jump through your arms, landing in a reverse-dip position. Perform a reverse dip, and then jump back through your arms, landing in your
original push-up position. Repeat 10 times, building up to 20 reps.
dirty T-shirts on. I was like, ‘Come on, man.
Come on. We know you’re successful.’
“Hip-hop is more about attaining
wealth,” he continues. “People respect
success. They respect big. They don’t
even have to like your music. If you’re big
enough, people are drawn to you.”
Consequently, any discussion of
credibility, or keeping it real, elicits a
response of disbelief from him. “That’s an
insecure emotion,” he explains. “You make
your first album, you make some money,
and you feel like you still have to show face,
like ‘I still go to the projects.’ I’m like, why?
Your job is to inspire people from your
neighborhood to get out. You grew up there.
What makes you think it’s so cool?”
Of course, Jay-Z has not been immune to
those insecurities himself. In 1999, he was
arrested for stabbing a record executive in a
New York club, and in 2001, he was charged
with possession of a loaded handgun. Against
his lawyer’s advice, he pleaded guilty to a
misdemeanor charge in the stabbing case and
was sentenced to three years’ probation. The
gun charge was dropped.
It’s generally thought that those brushes
with potential incarceration cured Jay-Z of
the need to prove that he could still live the
thug life. He has rapped about both of those
arrests (“Put that knife in ya/Take a little bit
of life from ya/Am I frightenin’ ya?”), but has
shown no further inclination to transform
his words into deeds that would put an end
to the extraordinary life he has created for
himself. In fact, quite the opposite. He has
been baited relentlessly by other rappers—
Nas, to cite just one example, taunted
“Gay-Z” for his “dick-suckin’ lips”—and has
responded in kind, but only in song. In real
life, he has taken steps to ease those rivalries
and ensure that tragedies such as the killings
of Tupac Shakur and the Notorious B.I.G.
never happen again.
That’s because too much is at stake now,
far more than money or bling. At 39, Jay-Z
is old enough to think about the cultural
impact that hip-hop has already had, and the
critical role he has played in it. “Hip-hop has
done so much for racial relations, and I don’t
think it’s given the proper credit,” he says. “It
has changed America immensely. I’m going
to make a very bold statement: Hip-hop has
done more than any leader, politician, or
anyone to improve race relations.
“I’ll explain why I say that,” he continues.
“Racism is taught in the home. We agree on
that? Well, it’s very hard to teach racism to
a teenager who’s listening to rap music and
who idolizes, say, Snoop Dogg. It’s hard to
say, ‘ That guy is less than you.’ The kid is like,
‘I like that guy, he’s cool. How is he less than
me?’ That’s why this generation is the least
racist generation ever. You see it all the time.
Go to any club. People are intermingling,
hanging out, having fun, enjoying the same
music. Hip-hop is not just in the Bronx
anymore. It’s worldwide. Everywhere you go,
people are listening to hip-hop and partying
together. Hip-hop has done that.” He pauses,
as if marveling at the idea, and then repeats it
for emphasis: “Hip-hop has done that.”
Something else that hip-hop has done, in
Jay-Z’s view, is help to elect Barack Obama.
“Rosa Parks sat so Martin Luther King could
walk, and Martin walked so Obama could
run,” Jay-Z told a concert audience in the
crucial swing state of Ohio shortly before the
November election. “Obama is running so we
all can fly, so let’s fly.” He recorded a get-out-the-vote message for robo calls to African-
