How Good Charlotte Keep Fit On Tour | Men's Health Magazine Australia

How Good Charlotte Keep Fit On Tour

For most of us, it’s hard enough to keep in shape when the gym is down the road and a host of trendy lentil bars are popping-up around the corner. Hurrah for lentils. Now imagine tying to keep fit on a world tour where airline meals and celebratory beers are a statutory part of the schedule.

 

The boys from Good Charlotte spend up to three months crisscrossing the globe from Europe to South America. Sitting on buses, playing eye-spy and waiting for airport luggage way before the cocks have come out to crow. Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous? Not so much.

 

The American pop-punk band may not look like your typical fitness buffs with head to toe tattoos and black on black on black clothing, but there isn’t much these guys don’t know about working out.

 

MH caught up with brothers Joel and Benji Madden to find out how they stay fit on tour, maintain active social lives and find the time to tub-up some serious meal preps.

Life Changes

Question: So what type of exercise and workouts do you do on tour?

Answer: We do a lot of bodyweight exercises. It’s like 20-30 minutes max because we are literally doing a workout whenever and wherever we can. We do a lot of HIIT training, stuff like 3 minute rounds on a skipping rope with push-ups and sit-ups in a circuit. There is even a good tour workout we do with a deck of cards.

We thought cards were just for drinking games, tell us more . . .

You give every face card a value of 10 reps and then number cards are what they say. Then we pick a few different exercises like push-ups, crunches and dips and assign them to the suits. We rattle through the cards picking-up one each and add 3 minutes of skipping after every 10 cards.

Makeshift Love

Sounds fun, so you guys workout together?

Yeah, working out together helps to stay motivated and we can share our goals too. When it comes to health and fitness it’s very personal, but having someone you can share your goals with really helps. Go up to a stranger in the gym and say “hey man I’m trying to lose 5 kilograms” and they’ll be like “F-you”.

F-you gym strangers! Have you always been into your health and fitness?

No definitely not. In school we were never athletic and never believed we could be.  With all the success we’ve have had in the music industry that has always been easier than achieving a healthy and fit lifestyle. Making it in music didn’t seem impossible to us, it was something we wanted to do. Fitness wasn’t like that at all; it’s something we really had to work on.

Stick To Your Guns

What about dieting? It can’t be easy to eat clean on tour?

For us it’s about what we don’t eat on tour. Sugar is the killer. Staying away from all sources of sugar, particularly in drinks, that’s how we see the best results. We used to think we needed endless amounts of protein and to prepare meals but it’s virtually impossible. We look to get the cleanest sources of food from the

Earth, whether it’s from supermarkets or take-out places.

 

Like a Paleo Diet?

Basically, we try to eat just whole foods and avoid anything processed. We stock a mass of fruit and vegetables in the dressing rooms and on tour buses. We do a food run every three days and get tons of nuts, vegetables and meat to snack on.

Life Can’t Get Much Better

Any kickass snacks to recommend?

Apples and almonds with these little almond butter pouches, they’re incredible.

And what bands do you listen too while pumping iron?

1. Set Your Goals

2. Story So Far

3. Waterparks

4. Good Charlotte (of course)

5. Sleeping With Sirens

Good Charlotte release their new album Youth Authority today (July 15th)

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