(pump up music)
- Hey, Men's Health, this is Dan Reynolds.
I sing for Imagine Dragons.
I am here in Malibu at Malibu Fitness,
which is my gym. Love it.
Right by the ocean.
You get to workout outside.
Today I'm gonna be doing my standard upper body workout
primarily focused on the shoulders.
(pump up music)
I started working out probably
about a decade ago for a lot of reasons.
One for music.
Imagine Dragons is a very expressive show.
I'm running across the stage.
I'm also trying to breathe and sing at the same time.
If I'm outta shape
if I'm not going to the gym, if I'm not, you know
keeping up on my cardio, I really suffer on the stage.
Also, just mental health.
I've dealt with depression for many years
and at a young age, had a therapist
recommend to exercise every day.
It's been really life-changing for me.
I also have two autoimmune diseases
ankylosing spondylitis and ulcerative colitis.
I was diagnosed in my early twenties
especially having ankylosing spondylitis.
Basically, my bones can fuse
and this happens because my body attacks my joints.
I have a lot of pain in my hips
and the best way to protect myself
from that is to eat really clean and healthy.
I do a standard anti-inflammatory diet
and then also to strengthen all my hinge movements.
Stretching has been probably the most important part
of my life.
If you see me on stage
I will stretch probably five times during the set.
In between songs.
I'm touching my toes, I'm, I'm just always stretching
trying to get blood moving through my body.
Do a lot of yoga too.
On my cardio days instead of running,
I'll go, I'll do some yoga.
Typically work out Monday to Saturday
so I guess six days a week.
But my workouts are only about an hour
maximum hour, 20 minutes.
Something that's been extremely helpful for me
particularly on stage, is Olympic lifting.
So I do cleans, I do deadlifts, I do clean and jerks.
I work those into the week
and I to really make me explosive on stage,
which is very important for me
light on my feet fast twitch.
So Olympic lifting has been a really important part
of my routine.
The first exercise of the day that I do is shoulder presses.
I do four sets, start heavy, six, move down in weight.
Eight, move down in weight. 10 move down in weight. 12.
So four sets total, taking two minutes between each set.
From there, I do my first circuit, so I do three exercises.
I start with back extensions
targeting those hamstrings, hips.
I try to hit them almost every single day.
Helps with man ankylosing spondylitis.
10 reps holding a weight to get the blood flowing
through all my joints.
And then I move over to power raises.
The incline power raises.
Hitting the back of my shoulders again.
Protecting my shoulders, I do 10 reps of that,
and then end with a bit of a cardio push,
which is box jumps.
I'll do 10 jumps.
It helps me on stage a lot.
It helps me feel explosive light on my feet, and also
to be able to breathe while I'm singing,
Rinse and repeat three times.
I'll do external rotators, which as I'm sitting
and bringing that weight up and getting a full rotation
I've dealt with a lot of shoulder issues.
One of the things that I used
to do is over push the front of my shoulders,
but you're hitting those so much on your chest day
that strengthening the back opposed to hitting the front
so often has been very helpful in protecting my shoulders.
So I'll do that and then I'll do incline pigeon pose.
Again, this is a knees over to thing that I learned.
Helps open up my hips
at the end of the day, stretch them out.
After all that.
The final thing I'll do is two rounds
of just couch stretch against a wall.
Deep stretch in my hip flexors, my quads.
I've found that opening up my hip flexors has been one
of the most important things for protecting my SI joints
and that'll, that'll end the day.
That's it for today, Men's Health.
Thank you so much for having me.
I hope that you have found some sort
of inspiration from this for your own life.
Certainly been very helpful to me.
So passing on the good energy and love to all of you guys.
Have a good one.