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8 min read<\/p>\n8 min read<\/p>\n
EVEN AT REST <\/strong>and in the dim light of the Tmpl gym<\/a> in midtown Manhattan, what may be the most famous abs on the planet stand out. They form a supple six-pack clearly defined under Lenny Kravitz\u2019s mesh tank as the iconic rocker warms up with some pullups. He\u2019s wearing Deadly Doll sweatpants, black Nike Cortez sneakers, and vintage wrap sunglasses, and it looks effortless as he smoothly lifts and lowers his lithe 5’9″, 153-pound frame. Other gymgoers, uniformly clad in athleisure garb, gawk as if an alien or supe has dropped in from another dimension. Over the course of a two-hour, mostly upper-body session, the six-pack will morph into an eight-pack during dumbbell lunges as Kravitz\u2019s core activates. Later, during a series of ab-burning leg raises, it will briefly pop as a 10-pack.<\/p>\n Of course, the resting aspect of a resting six-pack belies the intense activity that goes into forging a resting six-pack. So many reps, over so many years, banged out relentlessly. So many croissants, glasses of red wine, and French fries ghosted. It\u2019s the opposite of effortless. Kravitz is keenly aware of this dichotomy between what you see and what it takes to get it, and in a post-workout interview, after removing his sunglasses, he shares his fitness origin story.<\/p>\n His maternal grandfather, Albert Roker, made him do chores as a kid and taught him this lesson about creating anything important. Roker told him: \u201c \u2018You must build on a strong foundation. If the foundation ain\u2019t strong, the house is going to fall down. It all starts with the part you can\u2019t see\u2014the hard work, the patience, the discipline.\u2019 \u201d Kravitz extends that metaphor: \u201cFitness is the house; discipline is the foundation. It\u2019s the work you do when no one is watching. It\u2019s figuring out how you\u2019re going to squeeze in a workout no matter what else you have going on that day or night.\u201d<\/p>\n And Kravitz has had a lot going on. He\u2019s sold more than 50 million records, made 12 studio albums, established a successful design firm, and been touring for the past four decades. \u201cThe mid 90s is when I really began training, although I was already very health conscious, but I hadn\u2019t put the two together yet,\u201d he says. \u201cMost people I knew in the rock and roll world were not taking care of themselves in that way but Mick Jagger was a big influence on me. We were on holiday together once in the Bahamas and I watched how disciplined he was about his training and nutrition and realized that this was a major part of his formula.\u201d<\/p>\n Kravitz bringing the heat at Macy\u2019s 4th of July Fireworks, 2026.<\/p>\n Just over 10 years ago, on the cusp of turning 50, Kravitz says he felt bloated and out of sorts and moved into the Miami home\/gym of his longtime trainer and close friend Dodd Romero. He stayed for \u201cfive or six months\u201d and dedicated himself to training, describing it as a \u201chardcore boot camp.\u201d He reveled in the grueling gym workouts and windy bike rides. He found that regular doses of fitness and achieving his daily goals helped lift his funk.<\/p>\n It led to a Lennaissance of sorts. \u201cLenny was in better shape at 50 than he was at 40 or even 30,\u201d says Romero. \u201cNow, at 62, he\u2019s in better shape than he was at 50.\u201d The two FaceTime constantly, with Romero evolving Kravitz\u2019s programming and workouts depending on what he sees. During this workout at Tmpl, Kravitz FaceTimes with Romero repeatedly for everything from exercise order to rep counts to form checks. Romero obliges, despite the fact that he\u2019s in Los Angeles, mid-session with another client, Ryan Seacrest. (Seacrest doesn\u2019t seem to mind and enjoys the fitness cross-pollination).<\/p>\n When he\u2019s training, Kravitz listens to \u201csoulful\u201d music, 60s and 70s funk and jazz.<\/p>\n After this workout, Kravitz, who is in the midst of a two-year world tour,<\/a> will jet off to California for some gigs and then Europe for a summer full of concerts. Plus, he\u2019s working on a new album set to drop early next year. We crunched the numbers to better understand how the math of Kravitz\u2019s fitness adds up.<\/p>\n Kravitz has <\/strong>had one trainer, Romero, for almost 30 years. It\u2019s a relationship that has outlasted many others in his life, and during our interview, Kravitz refers to Romero, who is 62, as a brother. Romero has helped him through physical injuries to his back and rotator cuff, using healing exercises and prehab moves to avoid the surgery doctors recommended. Through the pandemic years, they worked out virtually almost daily. He\u2019s the guy Kravitz FaceTimes at 2 a.m. if he\u2019s in Tokyo or Brisbane or Paris and wants to train. \u201cWe call it a dance,\u201d says Romero. \u201cWe dance well together. He\u2019ll show me a quick video of a hotel gym, and then we rock \u2019n\u2019 roll.\u201d There\u2019s a deep level of trust, especially regarding Kravitz\u2019s body. \u201cYeah, 100 percent,\u201d Kravitz says. \u201cDodd has a gift\u2014the way I make music is the way he works on bodies. He can just look at you like a computer and see the slightest things that are off. Like, \u2018You ate some chips last night, didn\u2019t you?\u2019 I hate to say it, but he\u2019s always right.\u201d<\/p>\n 50-25-12-5<\/strong><\/p>\n The set <\/strong>and repetition schemes Romero programs for Kravitz\u2019s workouts are much wider than the three sets of 10 to 12 reps most people do. That\u2019s because they\u2019re using a wide weight range and Kravitz trains to nourish ligament health and preserve muscle mass. In general, he\u2019ll train five or six times per week, with each 45- to 60-minute workout focusing on two or three body parts targeted with 8 to 10 main exercises. For instance, if Kravitz is doing dumbbell curls, he might start with 10 pounds. The first set of 55 reps serves as a warmup that gets his blood flowing. Then he increases the weight so that it\u2019s challenging for the rep count. The final set, he\u2019ll curl 40-pound dumbbells for five reps. \u201cI\u2019m not looking to be big or bulky,\u201d Kravitz says. \u201cI want a very narrow silhouette, more like Spider-Man meets Bruce Lee, you know what I mean? Bruce Lee looked good in clothes. He\u2019s bad\u2014a thin, cool guy who obviously had muscle tone and who moved and flowed really gracefully.\u201d<\/p>\n Kravitz generally trains in the kind of clothes he wears on stage when performing.<\/p>\n 336<\/strong><\/p>\n In between <\/strong>his main sets of exercise, Kravitz usually doesn\u2019t rest. He often does core work, typically two or three sets of 21 reps of a variety of moves, such as hanging leg raises, planks, and all kinds of crunches. That means every workout, Kravitz does around 336 reps (sometimes he\u2019ll do more) that polish what Romero calls his \u201cjewels,\u201d his 6- to 10-pack. \u201cThat\u2019s his bread and butter,\u201d Romero says. \u201cLenny wears his shirts and his jackets open where you can see all those jewels. It\u2019s an important body part for him.\u201d Kravitz\u2019s abs are so high-fidelity that social posts can attract haters and there\u2019s even a Reddit thread that asks, \u201cIs Lenny Kravitz a natty?\u201d It bugs him, a little. \u201cAll this is natural: no peptides, no human growth hormone, no testosterone,\u201d he says, quickly adding, \u201cThere\u2019s nothing wrong if people want to do those things. But there\u2019s an alternative. You can do it naturally with exercise and food. Is it harder? Yes. Does it take more work? Yes. But that\u2019s how I choose to do it, and it\u2019s 100 percent attainable.\u201d<\/p>\n 28<\/strong><\/p>\n Kravitz is <\/strong>famous for working out in leather pants or jeans, and while it might seem like a style flex, there\u2019s actually a more practical reason. \u201cI perform onstage in leather, denim, whatever, so those are the pants I wear to train,\u201d he says. \u201cIt also means I can fit in a workout anytime, anywhere.\u201d Kravitz doesn\u2019t track his fitness with Whoop or an Apple watch. Instead he uses a basic, but powerful, metric: his waist size. Specifically, whether he can fit into 28-inch pants. \u201cI can gauge everything by how I\u2019m in my pants,\u201d he says. \u201cLike, if my pants are a little tight, I know I\u2019m getting outta\u2019 shape. My friend Denzel Washington gave me this phrase, \u2018The pants don\u2019t lie, the pants don\u2019t lie.\u2019 \u201d About those legs: They\u2019re the one body part of Kravitz\u2019s that you don\u2019t often see. When asked if he\u2019s insecure about any aspect of his body, he says, \u201cNot right now, and I don\u2019t mean that to sound like I\u2019m into myself, but I\u2019ve put in the work and I feel really good. But I gotta fill out my legs a little bit.\u201d It\u2019s something Romero is aware of and targeting with more lunges and deadlifts. He jokes that he might steal a trick from Arnold Schwarzenegger\u2019s playbook: \u201cOne summer Arnold cut all his sweatpants off at the knees so he could see his weak calves.\u201d<\/p>\n 0<\/strong><\/p>\n Zero refers<\/strong> to the number of calories Kravitz typically consumes before 3 or 4 p.m. every day. \u201cIt\u2019s not because I\u2019m trying to intermittent fast; it\u2019s just the way I am,\u201d he says. \u201cI can\u2019t get up and, like, eat.\u201d His diet is very low carb, mostly vegan and raw, but he does eat eggs these days. \u201cTypically, I\u2019ll start with an egg white omelet with a lot of vegetables,\u201d Kravitz says. \u201cThen a protein shake, and later I\u2019ll have a salad.\u201d His preferred shake features Fiction<\/a> protein powder (from sprouted rice, algae, peas), dates, greens, and avocado. He also drinks a lot of water and takes Perfect Amino<\/a>, a supplement with branched-chain amino acids, which help with muscle health. Romero says Kravitz has fine-tuned his diet discipline. \u201cHe used to splurge calorie-wise on Taco Bell, fried chicken, pizza,\u201d he says. \u201cThose days are very rare now, maybe once a year.\u201d In terms of a cheat meal, Kravitz says he doesn\u2019t really have anything specific, but if he is stepping out on his diet, it\u2019s carbs\u2014\u201cbread, croissants, pasta.\u201d<\/p>\n 1964<\/strong><\/p>\n Hotspan is <\/strong>a new wellness concept that refers to the years someone maintains their attractiveness, vitality, and sexual desirability. When told that he\u2019s stretching it and making it really hard for the rest of us, Kravitz laughs. \u201cAge is a funny thing. I don\u2019t look at it as a number,\u201d he says. \u201cI look at age as time on earth. What you do with that time, what\u2019s the result of how you choose to live?\u201d He continues his riff with an analogy about the 1964 Ford Mustang, the iconic pony car from what also happens to be his birth year: \u201cYou can have a 1964 Mustang that looks like it came off the line yesterday. It\u2019s gleaming, with an engine that purrs. You can also have one that\u2019s rusted, dented, beat up, and doesn\u2019t work. Same car, same year, but a very different outcome as a result of how you maintained it. It sounds silly the way I\u2019m simplifying it, but that\u2019s how it is to me.\u201d Spoiler alert: Kravitz doesn\u2019t plan on slowing down. \u201cYou realize as you keep spending time on the planet that aging is not how you thought it would be. We\u2019re going forward in time, but at the same time, we\u2019re going back in time, because now I\u2019m in better shape than I was 10 years ago, 20 years ago. Ten years from now, I will be in better shape than I am now.\u201d<\/p>\n Jonny Marlow<\/p>\n Photographs:<\/strong> Jonny Marlow This story appears in the Summer 2026 issue of Men\u2019s Health.<\/p>\n![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/65602220-1923-43eb-a43a-694862d1618a.png\" "\\"A")
Jonny MarlowLenny Kravitz shadow-boxing at Tmpl<\/a> gym in New York City on May 19, 2026.<\/p>\n![\"Macy's](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/3d3e9722-7820-4f9d-a80d-6e0877102c91.jpeg\" "\\"Macy's")
NBC\/\/Getty Images<\/p>\n![\"Person](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/afec49b3-0c30-4bf4-b54f-67fd9135d57a.jpg\" "\\"Person")
Jonny Marlow<\/p>\n![\"Thick](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/9391b7a2-5bf9-4b20-a346-bbfdd4282f19.png\" "\\"Thick")
1<\/strong><\/p>\n![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/0d8d6491-3573-492e-a25a-01fa28650c4c.jpg\" "\\"A")
Jonny Marlow<\/p>\n![\"Men's](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/a78d6594-180d-44b1-9f58-494f60a5ac26.jpg\" "\\"Men's")
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Location:<\/strong> TMPL Clubs & BathS, NY
Creative Director:<\/strong> Jamie Prokell
Visual Director:<\/strong> Sally Berman
Video Executive Producer:<\/strong> Dorenna Newton
Video Producer:<\/strong> Janie Booth
Video DP:<\/strong> Cory VanderPloeg
Video Editor:<\/strong> Kyle Orozovich<\/p>\n