The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Trainers give a thumbs-down to Kravitz’s workout video
Gym pros worry about safety for those trying routine.
Regardless of what Us Weekly says, celebrities are not just like us.
One had only to see the workout video Lenny Kravitz posted recently to know that.
First, there was Kravitz’s outfit: a plum-colored muscle tank, complete with leather pants, black boots and his signature sunglasses.
Then there was the exercise itself, which took place on a decline bench and involved a barbell with weights on each side.
At the starting position, Kravitz is supine, with the bar extended below his head. Then, while hoisting the upward with a furious motion, he appears to do a combination of a pullover and a situp. At the upright position, he does a shoulder press, bringing the bar over his head.
In the video, Kravitz, 59, performs seven reps before handing the weight off to a trainer, who, in his wraparound shades, bears a resemblance to Joe Manganiello, Channing Tatum’s hulking sidekick in “Magic Mike.”
The video appeared on the rock star’s social media accounts and went viral, with 22.4 million views on the X platform. Its soundtrack is “Life Ain’t Ever Been Better Than It Is Now,” a retro-soul banger from Kravitz’s 2011 album, “Black and White America.”
“Thank God for today!” Kravitz wrote. “Grateful. Never been better. There are no shortcuts so seize your day. It is all possible. Love!”
The video elicited supportive comments from fellow celebrities, such as model Alton Mason, who left some fire emojis. But what did fitness industry professionals make of it?
Nearly a dozen professional trainers — who were interviewed for this article after efforts to reach Kravitz were not successful — said they would not recommend the routine for any client, regardless of fitness level.
“It’s a ridiculous exercise,” said Mike Yablon, a bodybuilder and personal trainer who, at a gym in lower Manhattan, was spotting a hulking client, as he squatted several hundred pounds.
Roxanne Edwards, a trainer who was performing a lateral raise nearby, said, “It’s working everything except what it’s supposed to be.” She added that, in her view, the weights in the video were perhaps not so heavy as they appeared to be.
David Barton, who leads Gym U in New York, also weighed in on the Kravitz workout: “What’s the thing they say — ‘Do not try this at home.’”
Barton added he had a grudging admiration for what he saw in the video and for the level of fitness necessary to perform the movement. “I hate to admit it, but my muscles are all for show,” he said.
Other trainers cited the video as an agitating example of the showy routines some trainers — seeking to differentiate themselves from the pack — foist on clients.
The person attempting this particular workout, which rolls three exercises into one, winds up doing something extremely hard that is less effective than doing each movement on its own, the trainers said. And, according, to Yablon, anyone attempting the Kravitz routine might injure something.
“Like your rotator cuff,” he said.