Dayvon Daquan Bennett, commonly known as King Von was a famous American rapper from Chicago, Illinois. And although his career was short-lived due to his unfortunate death at a young age, he still managed to make a lot of hit rap songs including Took Her To The O, Crazy Story, I am What I Am, Armed & Dangerous, and so on that many people still love and adore. Besides his fantastic rapping talents, King Von was also known for one other thing, and that’s the fact that he had an impressive physique. With that being said, what was King Von’s Workout routine?
King Von’s workout routine mainly consisted of bodyweight movements such as diamond push-ups, wide push-ups, pull-ups, dips, squats, as well as some dumbbell exercises that focus on drop sets. And for cardio, he used to play a lot of basketball which gave him his lean physique.
In this article, we’ll talk about King Von’s impressive physique as well as the workout routine that allowed him to achieve it.
Table of Contents
King Von Stats
Before getting into his workout routine, we first need to establish some of his basic stats (as of 2019)
- Age: 57
- Height: 5’9”
- Weight: 159 lbs
- BMI: 23.5
- Body fat percentage: Somewhere between 8 to 12%
As you can tell from the stats, King Von was pretty lean since he had a really low body fat percentage. This allowed his muscles to pop and appear big even if they didn’t have a lot of mass in them. Additionally, he was tall which made him appear even bigger.
King Von’s Workout Routine
In one of King Von’s old tweets, he was asked about his specific workout routine and he replied with this: “Lil shit. Push-ups Diamonds/wide ones. dips, pull-ups, sit-ups, squats. Dumbbells 35. Start off 30 each arm den 25 den 20 like 5 sets. Champagnes with the dumbbells den I be hooping. U ain’t gotta do all of it but keep doing it u gone get to looking raw ready to whoop whoever”.
From this tweet alone, we can figure out a lot of stuff about King Von’s training style.
First of all, he mentions diamond and wide push-ups, dips, pull-ups, sit-ups, and squats which are all considered bodyweight exercises.
This means that he used to implement a lot of these types of exercises. That doesn’t mean he preferred them over weights, it’s just due to the fact that he spent most of his lifetime in county jail which rarely had those sorts of weights.
In addition to that, since his chest exercises were limited to push-ups (and dips) only (due to lack of equipment), he had to use all of their variations including the diamond and wide one which are great compound movements that target multiple areas of the chest as well as the triceps. And from his physique, you can tell that they gave him good results since he had a full impressive chest.
He also did pull-ups to train his back, sit-ups for his abs, and squats for his legs which are all considered important base exercises for anyone that’s looking to get into bodybuilding.
For his arms, he used to do dumbbells curls from the look of it but with a little twist. As you can see, he progressively lowers the amount of weight that he’s lifting. In the bodybuilding world, this is called a drop set which is an advanced resistance training technique where you focus on completing a set until failure or until you hit a repetition goal. Afterward, you lighten the load by 10–30% and repeat.
This sort of technique is really great if you want to maximize muscle gains, and you can use it in any exercise, not just bicep curls.
King von also mentions that he used to play basketball which is a great way to train cardiovascular health (cardio) and engage multiple muscle groups such as the legs, core, chest, shoulders, and back.
And last but not least, he said that you “should keep doing it”, meaning that you gotta be consistent with your workouts and not miss one. In other words, you should be training daily.
Workout Example:
Based on the information above, we can come up with a workout routine in the style of King Von:
Chest:
- Regular Push-Ups: 5 sets until failure
- Diamond Push-Ups: 5 sets until failure
- Wide Push-Ups: 5 sets until failure
- Incline Push-Ups: 5 sets until failure
- Decline Push-Ups: 5 sets until failure
- Dips: 5 sets until failure
Arms & Shoulders (all of these exercises use dumbbells):
- Tricep extensions: 5 drop sets of 12
- Hammer curls: 5 drop sets of 12
- Overhead Press: 5 drop sets of 12
- Lateral Raises: 3 drop sets of 12
- Bicep Curls: 5 drop sets of 12
- Single Arm Tricep Kickbacks: 3 drop sets of 12
- Skull-Crushes: 3 drop sets of 12
Back:
- Pull-Ups: 5 sets until failure
- Chin-ups: 5 sets until failure
- Dumbbell Bent-Over Rows: 5 drop sets of 12
- Inverted Row: 5 drop sets of 12
Legs:
- Squats: 5 sets until failure
- Lunges: 5 sets until failure
- Pistol Squats: 5 sets until failure
- Squat Jumps: 5 sets until failure
- Wall sits: 5 sets until failure
- Single-Leg Calve Raises: 5 sets until failure
Abs:
- Sit-Ups 10 sets until failure
Conclusion:
If you look up to King Von or want to achieve his impressive physique, it’s gonna require a lot of hard work, here’s what you need to do:
- Daily workouts that consist of bodyweight movements and dumbbell exercises
- Implementing a lot of drop sets during workouts
- Practicing basketball or some sort of sport for cardio to get that lean King Von look
- Staying consistent with your training