Ja Rule’s Workout – How You Can Build a Body You Can Be Proud Of
The thing about most rappers’ physiques is that they have a natural advantage. They are genetically more suited for athletics. That’s why they have the muscles of the back of the body – the ones responsible for athleticism (calves, hamstrings, glutes, lower and upper back and traps) easily developed.
[Ja Rule is not a big guy. He looks good because he has a decent amount of muscle and is naturally very lean.]
It doesn’t hurt that they have naturally lower levels of body fat. All that is left is to develop the muscles of the front of the body – biceps and chest and you’ve got yourself a beach physique.
Ja Rule is Not a Big Guy, But He Looks Big
This is all about low body fat percentage and proportions. Ja Rule is lean and well built in the shoulders, traps, upper back and arms. Now the way to achieve a body like this is first to get strong in the basic exercises like barbell deadlifts and barbell squats on a beginner strength training routine. Think of it like this – to carve a big statue you need a big rock. So you need some foundation of core muscles and strength.
If You Are Not Lean, First Get Lean Fast
This way you will look good or at least decent all the time and you will optimize your hormones for muscle building. If you are lean, your body is primed for muscle growth. Female hormones work best when you have more fat stored, while male (muscle building) hormones spike when you are lean. So get lean first.
Once You Have Your Basic Strength, Go For A Split
Think beach muscles. Train each muscle once a week for 6-9 sets of 8-12 reps. That’s 2-3 exercises per muscle. Divide up the body so that you train 1-2 muscle groups per workout. So you are going to be in the gym 3-5 days per week. Here is a typical split breakdown:
Workout 1 Chest and triceps
Workout 2 Biceps
Workout 3 Back and legs
Workout 4 Shoulders
Put priority on the muscles you want to build faster. The way to do it is to train only them this day.
Let’s Examine His Workout Video
[Ja Rule's workout - he's messing around in the gym for the photo shoot. Even tries to push his supplement line lol. Nevertheless, he's a good role model for an aesthetic physique.]
Clearly Ja Rule Is at the Third Stage – Split Routine
He is lean enough and big enough and only works for the size of the small muscles. For his chest – he does machine flies, barbell bench presses, pushups, and incline dumbbell presses. For the biceps – preacher stand curls and concentration curls. He trains his back very little – just some reverse machine flies and lat pull downs. The shoulders get a beating with alternating dumbbell shoulder presses. Ja Rule focuses on his abs with exercise ball prone (face down) jack knives and ball crunches.
To sum up, here’s the way to get a body like this. Get lean first. At the same time build a basic strength level. Then work on a split routine and grow the small muscles – chest, arms and shoulders. Here are two great workouts for this purpose.
- Visual Impact. This training system gives you both muscular size and muscular hardness and density. A cool trick revealed in the workout is making your skin super tight around your muscles.
- The Hollywood Physique transformation system has been designed to give you a shocking transformation in as little as 13 weeks. Following this workout plan your body will dramatically improve. You will lose fat and build muscle in just the right places so as to mimick the transformation that the Hollywood A-list leading men like Daniel Craig, Ryan Reynolds, Taylor Lautner, etc. go through. Click here to see the amazing transformation of the author of the program, Clay.
P.S. Remember, getting lean is what makes you look proportionate and muscular.
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Ja Rule disapeared after the beef with Eminem and 50 cents.
Alex,
yeah – whatever happened to him?
Yavor
Ja Rule is only 5’6-5’7 and yet he still pulls off the slim/lean look? How does he do that yavor? You think he sticks to the 5 rep range. I’m simular in height to him wanna pull off the lean look instead of the “stocky” built……your thoughts?
Mike, it’s not the rep range. It’s proportiona – small waist, developed shoulders, etc.
To pull this off lose the excess weight and focus on creating a v-taper with an emphasis on the shoulders and arms.
Do NOT focus only on the big lifts (squats and deadlifts).
Yavor,
Ok cool. However would be a terrible crime if i took out squats and deadlifts from my workout completely. Rusty Moore on fitnessblackbook was saying focusing on these lifts will increase the size of your lower body, i’m really content with my lower body and dont wanna add any size to it.
Yeah Mike – it’s your body after all. So your goals should come from you
But it is a good idea to reach about 2x body weight on the dead lift (this is really basic strength level).
Yavor
I’ve decided that i want to add 10 lbs of muscle to my upper body (Visual Impact) once i get really lean. My question is in your opinion what makes a bigger impact on your physique and proportions/attractiveness ? Shoulders or Biceps? I naturally have broad shoulders so i dont know what would be best? Improve my shoulders(Natural Genetics) even more or go with my Biceps
Chest ( 5 lbs) + Shoulders( 5 lbs)
Chest( 5 lbs) + Biceps ( 5 lbs)
Your thoughts?
I want a physique like Usher. I’m not really sure if he’s more built(muscular) or just toned and very strong. Supposedly when they interviewed him back in the early 2000′s ,he said that he doesn’t lift weights at all,just does bodyweight exercises. It just seems hard to believe he achieved all this without weights……
http://imstars.aufeminin.com/stars/fan/usher/usher-20050402-33387.jpg
http://www.bestcelebritylinks.com/u/usher/usher.jpg
Shoulders hands down. Well developed delts will make you look outstanding.
Bodyweight exercises build muscle. Usher did bridging and handstand pushups among other things. Handstand pushups are the best way to build the shoulders. Also for photos he goes for a photoshot diet for A FEW DAYS (no salt, drinks lots of water) to lose excess water under the skin.
Thanks Yavor
Shoulders it is
Yavor,
How many meals do i need to eat a day while trying to gain muscle?
Just eat normal man. The important thing is to have energy to progress in the workouts. This comes from eating enough calories.
yavor,
i’m really confused about pyramid sets? I thought when training for mass, you need to decrease the weight and increase the reps. If that’s the case then why do you change the weight from set to set in phase 1 of Visual Impact Muscle Building? I’m so confused…..
How are you suppose to change the weight from set to set and rest 45 seconds between that set? Doesn’t make sense…
Mass training is about exhausting the muscle 0- hence the small rest times and the pyramid sets. Pyramids are *really* good for exhausting the muscle.
Just do your best to rest as little as possible while changing weights, even if its more than 45s.
Yavor,
I notice alot of times when i’m working my chest, my triceps feel more worked then my chest. Does that mean my form/ technique is off? I’m doing high reps/low weight. Trying to build mass for my chest……
Will answer your questions in the next post I’m working on buddy.
Came across this page while searching for how I can have a good body by working out. I must admit you give quite useful professional advice.I am about to turn 46 in January 2013. I have never lifted weight but for a long time I admired guys who do workouts. Either I could not afford the gym fees or later on in life I just could not be committed to working out. I really want to have a nice body.I am 1,78m tall and weigh about 80kg. Naturally I have wide shoulders and do not have a pot belly. But I would love to achieve the six pack and defined shoulders and biceps. Am I too old to start working out?
Chris, you are not too old. I officially give you permission to start training
. For a six pack you will end up weighing 65-75kg
Really! You mean I can achieve a six pack? Good. How do I go about it? How do I start? Or where do I start from. I don’t want to be very bulky. About diet, what is your advice?