THERE ARE AB exercises, and then there’s what Jon Batiste is doing on a private patch of beach on Long Island right now. At first glance, the Grammy- winning singer, who’s best known as the former bandleader of The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, looks like he’s holding a basic plank, glutes tight, forearms in the sand. Then he purses his lips.
Suddenly, Batiste, who also won an Oscar in 2021 for Best Original Score, is belting baby-like motoring sounds from his lips, then a higher-pitched dribbling sound. His abs are pulling double duty, flexing to hold his plank while also helping to power his voice. It’s both a core challenge and a vocal challenge. “Then when you go out [onstage],” he says, “you sing.”
This is the loudest reminder that Batiste isn’t slogging through this one-hour workout simply for biceps and abs. Nearly every day, he hits the gym (or beach) with trainer Jacob Hershman, aiming to build a body that can withstand the rigors of his hour-long onstage performances.
He needs that body more than ever: In August, the 37-year-old released his sixth solo studio album, World Music Radio. In November, he released American Symphony, a Netflix documentary that chronicles Batiste’s year composing a symphony as his partner undergoes treatment for her resurgent leukemia. This month, he begins to promote an acting role in the movie-musical The Color Purple, in theaters on Christmas Day. All while and he’s currently gearing up for a 2024 world tour, an eight-month event that’ll have him doing four or five shows a week. Each show, he says, pushes his body to its limits. “I’m playing 12 instruments, I’m singing, I’m dancing,” Batiste says. “I’m quick-changing, I’m sweating through all of the clothes.”
His workouts help him prep for that intensity. He started doing beach sessions with Hershman in 2013, two years before his band, Stay Human, became the house band for Colbert. Back then, he focused on bodyweight exercises and running. Hershman gradually introduced tools like weight vests and kettlebells.
Batiste often adds musical moments, lightening the mood and honing his vocals. Before his plank, he began with a Spiderman lunge while humming along to the lyrics of “As” on his Stevie Wonder playlist. Only after a few more stretches did he fall silent to don a ten-pound weight vest for a one-mile run. When he returned from that, he wasn’t done. He wants his workouts to stretch his limits. “I like having that in my mind’s eye, where I can see at the end of the show, I’m ready to do a whole ’nother one,” he says.
No wonder Batiste is still sweating. Hershman hands him a medicine ball, and the musician reaches it overhead, then slams it into the ground ten times. Next he starts chopping the ball diagonally toward his ankles, blasting his abs and obliques.
He’s not singing anymore, either. He’s focused on gutting out the rest of this session—and he’s training mind as much as body. These moments, Batiste says, mirror the focus he has when composing new music. “Just being in flow state,” he says, “knowing when you’re at a point where creatively you’ve done what you need to do for today, and then you come back and build on that the next day.”
Twenty med-ball-chop reps later, Batiste is done, and he got more from this session than muscle.
“It creates a sense of getting to know the body and its limitations,” he says. “Just knowing that, it helps you to connect mind and body.”
Jon Batiste's Bodyweight Burner
When Batiste hits the road, he gets his sweat on with hotel blasts like this circuit. Do 3 or 4 rounds, resting 60 seconds between them.
Pushup
Start in pushup position, then lower your chest to within an inch of the floor. Press up. Batiste aims to do 100, resting as needed between reps. Starting out? Aim for 15 to 20.
Mountain Climber
Start in pushup position. Drive right knee to chest and back, then drive left knee to chest and back. That’s 1 rep; do 20.
Squat
Stand with feet shoulder width apart, push your butt back, and bend at the knees, lowering until your thighs are parallel to the floor. Stand. Do 20 reps.
A version of this story originally appears in the December 2023 issue of Men's Health, with the title "6AM WITH... JON BATISTE".
