What’s up, JRD Nation?!
Today we’re going to revisit a workout our community went crazy for when it premiered, and it’s easy to see why. It’s a body breakdown of one of the most sought-after physiques in the NBA – Lebron James.
We’ve had some extremely popular athlete-focused workouts before — including how to get the aspirational, shredded physiques of Christiano Ronaldo and Russel Westbrook.
Today, we’ll give you the nitty gritty (with updated info) on how Lebron trains and eats to be such a force to be reckoned with. Let’s go!
Lebron James Diet
Lebron’s physique is so coveted because it’s a perfect balance of muscular with lean athletic ability, speed, and skill. This body type looks good shirtless at the beach or dressed in a nice suit.
Lebron’s six-pack abs, broad, rounded shoulders, and sculpted chest and upper body give him that elite desired physical look. He balances strength training by staying lean, allowing his incredible speed, agility, and hops.
Eat a Whole Foods Paleo-Based Diet
Lebron eats a quasi-Paleo diet, cutting out processed foods, white sugar, and dairy. Instead, he focuses on eating fruits, veggies, nuts, lean meats, and fish. During a particularly intense 67-day training session, Lebron reportedly dropped around 20 lbs. of body fat!
While we want you to incorporate these excellent, healthy foods into your diet, it doesn’t mean you have to follow his training diet or cut out your favorite foods entirely.
If your goal is to lose fat, you need to eat in a calorie deficit. This simply means you have to eat fewer calories than you’re expending.
You want to ensure that your diet fulfills your macronutrient needs. If you need help with this, try our free Nutrition Calculator.
Just type in your basic info, like height and weight, and the calculator will give you your calorie and macronutrient requirements to hit your fitness goals.
Want more guidance dialing in your nutrition and dropping body fat? We highly recommend our JRD Nutrition System 2.0.
We designed this program specifically for those looking to either gain muscle or lose body fat while fueling their workouts and not feeling deprived.
This is not a diet. It’s an effective everyday eating program that teaches you how to eat for your body type. You can still eat the foods you love and balance them with what your body needs to get your desired results.
Now let’s get to Lebron’s fired-up, fat-incinerating workouts!
How Lebron Trains
Lebron breaks up his week by incorporating a mix of yoga, weights, plyometric exercises, and cardio. Here’s the typical breakdown of his workouts, followed by our JRD-style Lebron James Workout.
Weights 3x Week
You need to maintain (or gain) muscle mass while losing body fat, and weightlifting is an essential part of this puzzle. Lebron does some form of weight training a minimum of 3X per week.
Most of Lebron’s workouts are low reps and heavy weights, focusing on large muscle groups with exercises like bench press, squats, and deadlifts. Aim to use weights heavy enough that your muscles feel at failure (or close) with just 4-6 repetitions.
Yoga 30 Minutes Daily
Lebron knows that protecting yourself from injury means doing yoga or stretching daily. This ensures that your muscles aren’t tight or cramping during or after workouts and will help lubricate and cushion your joints.
Bodyweight + Plyometric Exercises 5-6x Week
Bodyweight exercises, including push-ups, pull-ups, and plyometric movements are an essential part of Lebron’s daily training.
Many of our JRD daily workouts focus on this style of HIIT workout, incorporating bodyweight resistance with heart-pounding jump rope cardio.
Lebron incorporates explosive movements like box jumps and wind sprints to increase his speed and agility. We recommend using weighted jump ropes and integrating powerhouse moves like Double Unders to train for speed, balance, and agility.
Let’s go through a sample workout…
The JRD Lebron James Workout
Monday: HIIT + Plyometrics
Complete the circuit 3X total, resting for 45 seconds between sets.
- Push Ups: until failure
- Pull Ups: 10
- Dumbbell Snatch: 5 on each arm
- Cable Row: 10 on each arm
- Jump Rope Regular Bounce: 45 Seconds
Tuesday: HIIT + Plyometrics
Complete the circuit 3X total, resting for 45 seconds between sets.
- Dumbbell Squats: 8-14
- Hip Raise with Leg Curl: on a Swiss Ball, 10-12 on each side
- Lunge Step Ups: with a dumbbell, 10 each leg
- Standing Calf Raise: with a dumbbell,12 each leg
- Regular Bounce: 45 Seconds
Wednesday: Cardio
On cardio days, we recommend one of our HIIT jump rope workouts to get your blood pumping and ramp up fat loss.
Lebron is a fan of using the Versaclimber, a vertical climbing cardio machine that is popular and widely available in most gyms. He can even be seen attending Versaclimber classes. You can incorporate this into your workout regimen if you enjoy it, too.
However — if you don’t have a gym membership or prefer to stick to jump rope-based workouts — you can get all the benefits from our phenomenal daily jump rope workouts.
Whatever workout you decide on — push yourself and Do The Thing!
Thursday: Weights
Complete the circuit 3X total, resting for 45 seconds between sets.
- Bench Press: 10 Incline with dumbbell
- Lat Pull Down: 10
- Military Press: 6-10
- Rows: 10 (with neutral grip)
Friday: HIIT + Weights
Complete the circuit 3X total, resting for 45 seconds between sets.
- Single-Leg Squat: 3-6 on each side
- Leg Curls: 10 on each leg, on a Swiss ball
- Side Lunges: 10 on each side (optional: with dumbbells)
- Regular Bounce: 45 Seconds
Don’t forget to finish your workout with stretching and yoga for recovery!
You can add a 6th day of workouts if you feel up to it or your goal is weight loss. We recommend adding an extra day of cardio, HIIT, or jumping rope. If that feels a bit intense for you, try an active rest day and go for a hike or shoot some hoops instead.
Lebron James Nutrition Recap
The most important takeaway from today – first, nutrition is essential!
- Eat to fuel your workouts with lots of whole foods, fruits, veggies, and lean meat.
- If your goal is weight loss, maintain a calorie deficit
- Use the Nutrition Calculator to ensure you’re hitting your macronutrient goals
Lebron James Workout Recap
Lebron’s workout regime is intense – he is one of the top athletes of all time.
We encourage you not to do too much too soon. Listen to your body and take breaks when you need them. Think of the following workout as a goal you’re working towards (if you’re not there yet.)
- Lift weights a minimum of 3X a week — low reps and heavy weights.
- Yoga and recovery for 30 minutes daily to protect your muscles and joints.
- Bodyweight and plyometric exercises 5–6X per week
Sure, it’d be great to have a team of professionals helping you to eat and train like Lebron, but it’s pretty simple if you’re willing to work for it. Consistency is key!
If you want to replicate the lean, muscular, and agile physique of Lebron, you need to follow a healthy balanced diet and beast through intense HIIT workouts daily.
Need help with these workouts and getting started? Check out our Free 7-Day Beginner Jump Rope Challenge.
Stay Shredded with JRD TV
We hope you feel inspired to get shredded and sculpted like the incomparable Mr. James. We want to encourage your growth and fuel your passion for fitness by inviting you to join our JRD TV community.
JRD TV is our fitness and nutrition app you can access from any smart device, anywhere, anytime.
We are so proud of this amazing fitness platform that we’re going to give you two weeks free to try it!
For 14 days, you can access all our programs and the nutrition system, including:
- New Daily Workouts: added every Monday-Friday
- Shredded Ninja (our top-selling program)
- Swole Samurai
- JRD90
- The JRD Push-Up Program
- JRD Nutrition System 2.0
- Hundreds of commercial-free workouts
- Live coaching streams
- Community forum of awesome, supportive people
We believe this one-of-a-kind platform is a better deal than any gym membership, and the workouts are more fun, personalized, and supportive.
Check out JumpRopeDudes.tv to start your free trial today!
Remember, you can follow us on social media (Instagram and Facebook) and contact us there for any questions and comments jump rope related. We love to hear from you!
Keep rocking and rolling with your fitness goals, JRD fam!
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