J L L Cool - LL Cool Js Platinum Workout: Sculpt Your Best Body Ever with Hollywoods Fittest Star

Singleness of purpose is one of the chief essentials for success in life no matter what may be ones aim.

JOHN D. ROCKEFELLER

I VE BEEN a boxing fan all my life, and while Ive never entered the ring for a world championship bout, preparing to go onstage for a rap concert is probably about as close to that feeling as you can achieve. Its that hyped up, you know what Im sayin? A crowd eagerly anticipates your arrival, waiting for the first chord or the ding of the bell to unleash its collective energy. The buzz in the air is so thick, you think the venue is plugged into some mysterious energy source. Once onstage or in the ring, you bob and weave, trying to find your flow, burning more calories than Martha Stewart working the dials on her stove. The collective outpouring from the crowd washes over the stage/ring, but youre unaware of it because youre so in the zone. Song leads to song like round to round. You need to stay strong and go the distancebut you always keep your eyes open and look for your opening. Im gonna knock you out.

This was the tour in support of my comeback album, Ten, released in 2002 to both commercial success and critical acclaim. I had worked out for years, but I had accomplished more in the previous 6 months than I had in all those other years combined. Back in the day, it was just pushup contests and hitting the heavy bag and maybe going to the gym once a week, basically to hang with the fellas. No dieting, no nutritionjust a down-and-dirty street style of working out to maintain some kind of conditioning. There was absolutely nothing scientific about it. One day I was looking in the mirror at my body, and I just wasnt happy with what was goin on. I became fed up with looking at myself that way. If Im unhappy with something, I dont accept it; I fix it. So I made the decision right then and there that I was going to do everything I could to achieve the best possible shape of my life, without even really knowing what that would look like or feel like.

I set my sights on making it happen for this tour. I was determined to take it to the next level, so I asked my personal trainer, Dave Scooter Honig, to join the rest of the crew and me on the tour bus. At the time I weighed 223 pounds, and once he was onboard, I told him, Scooter, I just want to get down to 210 pounds. If we can accomplish that, Ill be ecstatic. Little did I know that we would actually end up building more muscle than I ever dreamed possible, all while burning fat and getting ripped.

Next thing I knew, we were hopping off the tour bus in the middle of the desert in New Mexico, 115 degrees outside, watching our ride drive off without us, the bus blurry in the heat. The driver would pull off the road 5 miles ahead of us and wait for me to catch up. On foot. Hot? The bugs couldnt walk, it was so hot. The turtles were taking a rest. Maybe it was the heat coming up off the asphalt, but it felt like I was running in hot grease, my calves were burning so bad. Still, we would do that 2 days a week on the road because we were spending so much time driving from one venue to another. It wasnt just a matter of getting from here to there either. We would clock ourselves and try to improve each time.

Thats the type of dedication that you must have to succeed at this. Whats your highway in the desert? Is it working hard all day and then going home to take care of your family before you can even think about picking up a dumbbell? Your tour is your life. Your tour is work, kids, school, trying out for a team, or whatever. Its different for all of us.

For me, it was passing a school, having the driver pull over, and scrambling over the fence for a makeshift workout. Id run around the track, do pullups off the football goalpost, bang out some pushups in the end zone. It was crazy, wasnt it, Scoots?

Scooter recalls: We used supersets. We used pre-exhaust sets. We used straight sets. We used circuits. It all depended on what I thought Todd needed to accomplish on that particular day. I incorporated anything and everything in a concerted effort to confuse his muscles.

We might go from heavy benches to weighted dips and weighted pullups, and then sprint for a minute, followed by stomach crunches. Id throw intervals into the mix as well. If a treadmill wasnt available, wed use stepups, or jumping rope, or mountain climbers. Thats what we did a lot on the road.

He has to rock n roll onstage, so the goal was to keep his heart rate elevated during his training sessions. We dont always have to do this, but the goal on that tour was to burn as many calories as possible in the shortest amount of time. Id also break the workouts up. Sometimes wed do our runs early in the morning, and then later in the day, once it had cooled down, we would do our weight training.

LL S MUSCLE-BUILDING TIP It doesnt really matter when you lift during the dayjust so long as you lift. Testosterone levels are naturally highest in the morning, which might give you a little more intensity. At night the weights might boost your metabolism at a time when it normally slows down. Either way, these differences are negligible and tend to cancel each other out. Train whenever it best fits your schedule.

When youre training that intensely, you really need to keep an eye on your diet as well. After walking into a diner at 3:30 one morning, Scooter asked the cook to clean the grill off because he didnt want the grease on the grill entering my body. The guy looked at him, thought he was crazy, took a $5 tip, cleaned the grill, and then cooked for us.

Other times we would stop at a truck stop in the Deep South, those places where they sell anything from guns and flannel shirts to rebel flags. There was a small diner attached to one such truck stop, and here come seven black guys and one little white guyScooterwalking in through the door. We sit down and the waitress comes over holding her notepad and missing several teeth.

She goes, What can I do for you fellas?

I said, Wed like to order, please.

She goes, Youve got to wait a minute. I got to go take the money over at the register, and then Ive got to just clean those tables.

So she buses the tables, handles the money, washes some glasses. Then, without washing her hands, she comes straight back over to us.

Okay, now what can I getcha?

We all look at each other for a few seconds, and then Scooter says, Wed like to order. Can I please speak to the cook?

She goes, Youre lookin at her, honey.

He says, Well, maam, Im sorry but youre not cooking our food. Take me to the kitchen. Would you mind if I cook?

She goes, No.

So Scooter went back there and made us egg-white omelets. All the guys went crazy.

Scooter: We would stop on the road, the rest of the crew, from the lighting guys down to the bodyguards, and, boy, can they eat. One of the guys on the bus is the rib king. He would always ask the driver to stop at those rib joints that pop up on the side of the road, the ones where you can see the smoke coming out of the windows from a mile down the road. You think fire trucks are coming there, only theyre just cooking ribs in a tin barrel. Anyway, this guy had a built-in homing device for those joints, and as soon as we stopped, Todd would look at me, and I would look at him and say, Youre not eating it. Every time, the rib king would have a sour stomach.

Even at five-star hotels, Scooter would go in the back and ask the chefs to please cook his way. It was hilarious: At the Four Seasons in Beverly Hills, they had Scooters Menu on the wall for Mr. Todd Smith. It was crazy.

Scooter: After the show, whether we trained would depend where we were that day and how long of a ride wed have to the next town. Because Todd needs to sleep. So I figured, since hes up, and its 12:30, wed get a bite to eat, and then wed get our workout in. That way hed have more time to sleep. When youre on the road, its very important for your client to sleep because hes performing and theres a lot of traveling involved. So what wed usually do was, he would sleep, get up and eat, wed train, hed go back, lie down, relaxand then wed go to the show. All the meals would be sent to his room.