Wiz Khalifa lies under the weight rack, hands grasping a barbell a few feet above. He tightens his abs and squeezes his glutes, then pulls his chest to the bar. He’s tackling one of his favorite moves—the inverted row, a devastating bodyweight exercise that blasts lats, biceps, and forearms.
I’ve got a really wide-ass back for some reason.” Khalifa’s been building muscle onto that back—and the rest of his wiry, six-foot-four frame, too—for the past seven years, and in that time he’s come to crave the training process. That’s why the 34-year-old shows up at Unbreakable Performance, an MMA gym in West Hollywood, five or six days a week. And he doesn’t just do the exercises; he studies them.
I love that feeling.” Along with making and producing music, Khalifa is growing his side gigs: Khalifa Kush, a marijuana brand, and HotBox by Wiz Khalifa, an online delivery-only restaurant. He also churns out regular content for his massive social-media fanbase, which includes more than 35 million Instagram followers and more than 25 million YouTube zealots. But the moment he hits the gym, he forgets all that.
Right now he’s working through a 90-minute session with trainer Zach Goetz. Khalifa starts by hitting the weights and doing bodyweight resistance exercises (like those inverted rows), and he ends the workout by redlining his heart rate with 30 minutes of kickboxing. The sweat forces his mind off his music and businesses, and that actually supercharges his creativity.
He’s up to 170 pounds, 30 more than he weighed when he first walked into the gym in 2017. Back then, music was his sole focus and nights partying were the norm. Look, it’s time to do something good for yourself.” So Khalifa strolled into Unbreakable for the first time, aiming to build muscle and get stronger.
And a month later, he was training with Goetz, the gym’s director of strength and conditioning.“As slight as he was,” says Goetz, “he was a guy who was serious about his craft. I don’t think he ever does anything without the intention of being great at it.” Khalifa’s gym focus has led him to devise a strict training plan. He blasts legs and core on Monday, does chest and shoulders or arms on Tuesday, then attacks his back and core on Wednesday.
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