Jamie Lamor Thompson / Shutterstock.com

This Is How R&B Singer Miguel Uses Exercise & Meditation To Reach Prime Productivity

Feb. 27, 2019 09:29PM EST

Miguel's fitness journey started in an unlikely way. Before going on tour with R&B superstar, Trey Songz, Miguel and was determined to, "not look like the scrawny dude on tour." Miguel told Men's Health that he worked out 6-7 days a week for six months before he reached his personal #BodyGoals, but decided to keep with the practice well after the tour. Since then, Miguel says that his idea of mental and physical fitness have shifted dramatically.

Those of us who aren't world-renowned superstars know that making time to stay mentally and physically fit can be a struggle. Between adulting and fighting to find a modicum of personal time, it's hard enough to remember to eat. But Miguel's way of thinking about health and wellness may help you change your routine for the better. He told Men's Health:

"My workout regimen is more about clarity and consistency."

The keto-friendly superstar and his wife, Nazanin, share a gym, which is also conveniently their garage. This makes it easy for them to get out a quick workout routine together, or for them to have their own space for fitness as a part of their individual daily routine. Miguel says that he usually starts his morning at about 6 a.m. with a mini-meditation session.

"I try to wake up early in the morning, get my mind right, get a meditation in."

According to Miguel, true physical fitness isn't just about looking good, wellness works from the inside-out. Before the singer hops into the studio or his tasks for the day, you can catch him getting in a few moments of meditation, and that's a sure thing. He said:

"All of it is like a balance for me so I meditate regularly as well. It's a part of the regimen, so that's why I like to wake up early. I get up before most people would. I like to wake up at 6:00-6:30 these days. Get a meditation in for 20-30 minutes and then kind of just let that settle in, think about what I have to accomplish for the day. Then jump in on a workout around 8:00."

Now, moving on to that bawdy. Have mercy on me. Miguel says that he keeps his TV-ready physique by working out five times a week, but these days, he's not doing it for the gains.

"I try and work out five times a week now. For me, it's more of a productivity tool. There was a time when I had serious fitness goals and aesthetic goals that I was reaching for and I think now it's more about just having a daily routine."

And it makes sense. Science says that exercise can be a remedy for fatigue and boost self-esteem, while meditation can reduce anxiety. Finding ways to keep your mental AND physical muscles strong is imperative to your productivity. What a better way to start the morning than with a sh*tload of endorphins empowering you to rule the world and the mindfulness to take your day one moment at a time. Sounds like a formula for one dope a** day.

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Finally, Miguel shared that although sometimes his workouts are for clarity and require silence, there are certainly levels to sh*t when it comes to his mood in the gym. He explained:

"So, music. It depends. I'm moody with the music in my workouts. Some days I wake up and the workout is just for clarity of mind so I don't really want any music. And then other days I need a little bit of Meek Mill. I need some Drake."

Miguel encourages us to stop looking at fitness like it's a chore, and instead use it as a productivity-booster. Instead of thinking of that trip to the gym as just another activity to check off of your to-do list, use exercise and meditation as trusted sidekicks that will assist you in kicking ass all damn day.

Check out the full clip below or on Men'sHealth.com!

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Featured image by Jamie Lamor Thompson / Shutterstock.com

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Taylor "Pretty" Honore is a spiritually centered and equally provocative rapper from Baton Rouge, Louisiana with a love for people and storytelling. You can probably find me planting herbs in your local community garden, blasting "Back That Thang Up" from my mini speaker. Let's get to know each other: @prettyhonore.

The Destructive Power Of 'Purity' Culture

When I was ten, my Sunday school teacher put on a brief performance in class that included some of the boys standing in front of the classroom while she stood in front of them holding a heart shaped box of chocolate. One by one, she tells each boy to come and bite a piece of candy and then place the remainder back into the box. After the last boy, she gave the box of now mangled chocolate over to the other Sunday school teacher — who happened to be her real husband — who made a comically puzzled face. She told us that the lesson to be gleaned from this was that if you give your heart away to too many people, once you find “the one,” that your heart would be too damaged. The lesson wasn’t explicitly about sex but the implication was clearly present.

That memory came back to me after a flier went viral last week, advertising an abstinence event titled The Close Your Legs Tour with the specific target demo of teen girls came across my Twitter timeline. The event was met with derision online. Writer, artist, and professor Ashon Crawley said: “We have to refuse shame. it is not yours to hold. legs open or not.” Writer and theologian Candice Marie Benbow said on her Twitter: “Any event where 12-17-year-old girls are being told to ‘keep their legs closed’ is a space where purity culture is being reinforced.”

“Purity culture,” as Benbow referenced, is a culture that teaches primarily girls and women that their value is to be found in their ability to stay chaste and “pure”–as in, non-sexual–for both God and their future husbands.

I grew up in an explicitly evangelical house and church, where I was taught virginity was the best gift a girl can hold on to until she got married. I fortunately never wore a purity ring or had a ceremony where I promised my father I wouldn’t have pre-marital sex. I certainly never even thought of having my hymen examined and the certificate handed over to my father on my wedding day as “proof” that I kept my promise. But the culture was always present. A few years after that chocolate-flavored indoctrination, I was introduced to the fabled car anecdote. “Boys don’t like girls who have been test-driven,” as it goes.

And I believed it for a long time. That to be loved and to be desired by men, it was only right for me to deny myself my own basic human desires, in the hopes of one day meeting a man that would fill all of my fantasies — romantically and sexually. Even if it meant denying my queerness, or even if it meant ignoring how being the only Black and fat girl in a predominantly white Christian space often had me watch all the white girls have their first boyfriends while I didn’t. Something they don’t tell you about purity culture – and that it took me years to learn and unlearn myself – is that there are bodies that are deemed inherently sinful and vulgar. That purity is about the desire to see girls and women shrink themselves, make themselves meek for men.

Purity culture isn’t unlike rape culture which tells young girls in so many ways that their worth can only be found through their bodies. Whether it be through promiscuity or chastity, young girls are instructed on what to do with their bodies before they’ve had time to figure themselves out, separate from a patriarchal lens. That their needs are secondary to that of the men and boys in their lives.

It took me a while —after leaving the church and unlearning the toxic ideals around purity culture rooted in anti-Blackness, fatphobia, heteropatriarchy, and queerphobia — to embrace my body, my sexuality, and my queerness as something that was not only not sinful or dirty, but actually in line with the vision God has over my life. Our bodies don't stop being our temples depending on who we do or who we don’t let in, and our worth isn’t dependent on the width of our legs at any given point.

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