Hip-Hop Brotherhood’s FitLit Club Changed Rappers’ Lives

No entourage, no bodyguards, no designer outfits. Only 4 men who want more for themselves. They want more strength, more fatherhood years, and more limits to break.Welcome to the FitLit Club. The most suitable group in the hip-hop world.

It all started where most fitness journeys die. It’s a New Year’s resolution.After recording together on Jones and Maino’s collaborative album The Lobby Boys And once they found refuge at Chelsea House, Mino’s family-owned restaurant in New York City, the friends set up a group chat. So Fabolous proposed to his friends a new diet for 2022. No empty carbs, junk food or fried food for 30 days. Krispy Kreme may have had some shaky moments, but discipline took precedence and the FitLit Club was born. “We started going to the gym together to get him through those 30 days.

The four rappers, all in their 30s and 40s, started Fit-Lit at various points in their fitness journeys and careers. Fabolous has a slender build and the least fitness experience of the group. He is best known for raw love anthems like “Make Me Better” with the help of Ne-Yo. Jones has been working out for decades and often polishes his massive chest and arms at his own gym, Vamp His Fit. He also introduced “boring” into the cultural lexicon with his 2006 hit “We Fly High (Ballin’)”. Wu Tang: American Saga Actor and Nas protégé Dave East has maintained the physique he developed playing AAU basketball with Kevin Durant. Maino is a stocky gymnastics advocate and his collaboration with T-Pain, “All the Above,” has been an inescapable radio anthem and sports walkout song for over a decade.

FitLit Club workouts are hangout sessions with a purpose. Jones is the group’s informal trainer, calling out exercises and sometimes telling them to find each other in the middle of their lifts. increase. It turns out that even outsiders come from a genuine interest in seeing their friends reach new heights.

From left: Founding members of the FitLit Club in late 2022, Dave East, Jim Jones, Maino, and Fabolous.

“Gymnasium Jones,” Mino yelled after Jones wrapped his leg around a punching bag and crunched. Creed Ⅲ stunt double. “Fab is starting to look like a club bodyguard,” Jones joked after praising the rapper for his improved definition. “Jim [Timberland boots]Also,” says Fabolous) or the intensity of their workouts (“[Maino and Fabolous] I want to be a vibe person,” East says.)

Hip-hop is often a dog-eat-dog genre, filled with artists who are constantly battling to get to the top of the food chain by staying ahead of each other on and off the track. But the FitLit Club does the opposite. At one point, Jones does a bench press while bringing his knees closer to his chest between lifts. Each burst into laughter before returning to their station. No one questions Maino’s masculinity, and he has “no complaints about my inability to do his job.” FitLit Club has only one rule for him.

Fabolous (left) and Jones continue to push each other and themselves.

“Everyone’s gym battle and journey is different. One thing we have in common is going to the gym. “Everybody’s job will be different. I don’t think anyone else can do what I can, and I may not be able to do what they can.”

This lack of ego is how they are able to hold each other accountable. Rarely. But Life is a day when he’s not in a chat discussing events, sharing unfiltered commentary about pop culture, and, just as necessary, checking out workouts. is not. “Dave might already be at the gym and text him something like, ‘Hey, I’m here already.’ You can text him 50 times. It’s motivating,” explains Jones.

Mr. Jones (left) and Mr. Maino lift it up and laugh together.

The leanest member and one of the busiest schedules, Fabolous modestly considers himself the group’s “reverse motive”. And it works. “I didn’t expect to see Fab working out. I was a little disappointed at first,” East admits. “But seeing him locked in for a year was motivational.”

Motivation often comes from empathy. You can see yourself among your best friends who face work-life balance issues just like you but still go to the gym every day.FitLit Club is all that and more. Because it’s how these men communicate with the few people in the world who truly understand their lives.

Fabolous jokes that when he needs to leave the gym early to pick up his kids from school, he doesn’t want to be late and look like a “bad hip-hop dad.” The crew sympathizes with him and reminds him that he is a wonderful father.

No man is the same as before using FitLit Club. East can’t fit in his clothes now that he’s taller, Fabolous is in the best shape of his life. Mino may tease Jones’ obsession with weightlifting, but he’ll be the first to tell you that it helped him get big. “It brought us closer than ever. I got three brothers out of it. It’s not just about the gym, it’s about life.” Before closing, he asks the question that has defined this fitness group for a year. “Does he want to do one more set?”

FitLit Club Full Body Burner

Warm up with 3 sets of 10 walking lunges and 10 push-ups. He does 3 sets of 10-12 repetitions with enough weight to make each set challenging.

plate press

Strengthen your shoulders. Lighter weight!