The insane workout of DJ Ruckus, the world’s most in-demand DJ
He drops beats at sold-out clubs around the world, travels 250 days a year, and has become a style icon in his own right. So how does DJ Ruckus stay so shredded? Try his boxing working routine and find out.
Boxing requires a certain kind of lightness. There’s a dance to it, a rhythm. Even when you start jabbing, there’s a pattern to the punches. But it’s all calculated—because boxing, aside from being an outlet for your frustrations and stress, also gets you supremely ripped.
It’s the preferred workout of the jacked-as-hell DJ Ruckus, a globetrotting music-maker who has been deemed “the most sought-after DJ in the world” thanks to his various residences and high-profile gigs. You can catch Ruckus at, say, Coachella this year. Or in Vegas, where he has a 40-show residency with Sin City’s Marquee/Tao Properties. For that matter, you can see him at any of his residencies in L.A., Miami, New York, London, and Dubai. The guy travels more than 250 days per year—and yet, despite his late hours and constant flying, he still manages to stay fit.
“I find a go-to gym in every place I go,” Ruckus—real name: Greg Andrews—tells Men’s Fitness after an intense 45-minute workout at Rumble Boxing in NYC. “I make it my first and most important meeting of the day.”
As for his love of boxing: “I’ve been doing it since I was a kid, at age 8 or 9 in Miami. It’s always a part of my regimen, whether it’s aerobic like today’s workout, or in a ring, with more technicality and defense techniques.”
Ruckus also likes boxing for its parallels to music and DJing. “It’s a dance—a 1-2-3-4 rhythm,” he says. “You’re learning when to throw the right punch, same as when to drop the right record. It’s about timing, pacing yourself, and being able to endure until the end.”
About the workout
Ruckus’ workout is designed by Rumble Boxing’s founding partner, Noah Neiman. The 45-minute regimen mixes core- and tendon-readying warm-ups with strength training, calisthenics, a bout of bag busting, all chased with some light yoga. (Days later, you’ll still be feeling it—we were.)
“Boxers have this ‘ideal’ body type that many people covet,” says Neiman. “They don’t have hulking muscle. Everything is lean; it’s for a purpose. Boxers have to stay light on their feet. They know how to activate the core, and to use all the tendons that shape the body.”
If you feel a little, uh, boxy, on your first few be-gloved workouts, just stick with it. The sport requires refinement and dedication: “You gotta throw 100,000 punches before you really feel confident about it,” says Neiman. “Learn the techniques, throw the punches from your body and not your mind. It takes repetition. To succeed at boxing, you have to learn to find pleasure in the pursuit.”
Directions
The workout starts with a warmup, then moves into three different parts, each with three “rounds” of work:
Part A: Strength and calisthenics (rounds 1-3)
Part B: Heavy bag / shadowboxing (rounds 4–6)
Part C: Abs workout (rounds 7–9)
Two important notes:
When exercises are shown as “patterns,” complete that pattern as many times as possible for the allotted time. For example: If the pattern is jab, cross, jab, then throw that combination of punches as many times as possible for 45 seconds.
When exercises are labeled with A/B/C, they are part of a superset and should be completed in sequence without resting.
Here’s Ruckus’ 45-minute workout, courtesy of Neiman:
