DURRELL BABBS RISES from the incline bench and releases the 50-pound dumbbells, letting them thud to the ground. The R&B and soul musician, better known as Tank, has just finished a set of chest-supported rows in the garage gym of his Los Angeles home. It’s 1:30 on this unseasonably warm April afternoon.
He's having a blast. He spreads his arms, shimmies to the right and the left, then effortlessly belts out a melodic verse as his trainer, John Gaines, smirks. “See, there you go doing that again,” Gaines says. “I’m going to start recording those.”
Tank laughs, then immediately jumps into another circuit. First, he’s doing face pulls on a cable machine, blasting his back, then grabbing TRX handles, leaning back at a 45-degree angle with the ground, and doing reverse flies. After three rounds of this, he’s already breaking a light sweat.
But there’s much more to come in this workout—and in this latest chapter for Tank, who’s experiencing a career expansion at age 48. Just three years ago, he was struggling with a unique ear condition that kept him out of the gym and off tour. But he’s since rebuilt both body and mind, and discovered new ways to extend his brand. He’s currently gearing up for his R&B Money tour, which will take him (and platinum-selling artists Keri Hilson and Carl Thomas) to 25 cities over a two-month span, beginning in May. His R&B Money podcast, which will air its 100th episode on April 27, has more than 220,000 subscribers. “Everybody’s saying that they’re mentally tough or they’ve got that dog in them,” he says. “The only way to really know that is when you get to your lowest point.”
For Tank, that point came in 2021. Early that year, he suffered “sudden sensorineural hearing loss,” completely losing the hearing in his right ear, and losing some in his left as well. The condition scared him. It also rocked the body he’d been building since the eighth grade. For nearly eight months, he couldn’t walk in a straight line, battling vertigo—and that meant he couldn’t train, either.
Struggling without his fitness, Tank slipped into depression, and his conditioning slipped. His body has long been a part of his R&B brand, and he’s never been shy about taking off his shirt. But in the later months of 2021, he’d look in the mirror and see a body that looked like “I’d never worked out,” he says. He took a series of medications, but says none of them helped. It wasn't until the following year that he was able to hit the gym hard.
Tank quickly started rekindling his relationship with fitness while working with Gaines, who builds workouts around classic exercises and a handful of athletic exercises. This all helped Tank find his mental equilibrium. “I’ve been doing this for so long that I don’t even feel right if I don’t train,” he says. “It’s just part of my life. Music and the gym. You can find me one of those two places.”
His garage has become his muscle-building sanctuary. A rack full of dumbbells, some resistance bands, several foam rollers, and a few medicine balls sit against one wall. On the other hangs a Tonal, a high-tech cable machine with a touchscreen nestled between its handles. There’s a stairstepper, a few benches, a treadmill, and a sauna in here as well. The treadmill and stairstepper get frequent late-night runs. “Sometimes, I have to fight my wife for this,” Tank jokes of his gym time, before hinting that his physique has played a key role in the fame that's built his current lifestyle. “If you like it, you’re gonna let me hit this gym and do this late-night cardio. She gets mad when I do late-night cardio.”
He makes sure to do something physical every day. Mornings often start with 15 minutes on the treadmill. And when Gaines is around, as he is on this day, he pushes Tank through vicious weight training sessions. “I know he's got his cardio done and he takes care of his core,” Gaines says. “The foundation is there, so we’re just fine-tuning details and bringing up different areas that we want to show.”
For this session, that means shifting from the rows and face pulls and TRX flies into a nasty overhead press drop set that’s designed to blow up Tank’s shoulders. He starts by doing 10 seated overhead presses with 60-pound dumbbells, then immediately follows with another 10 reps with 40s. He does three sets like this, fighting to add a bit of weight every round. A superset of dumbbell lateral raises and pullovers on the Tonal follows.
After some bent-over dumbbell rows and lat pulldowns, the workout wraps up. Tank transforms back into a showman, hopping on Instagram on Gaines’ phone to address his 2 million (and counting) Instagram followers. And he loves this part of the workout. His arduous 2021 is long past him; he’s lifting weights and performing once again.
“Gotta get you something to see,” he says to Gaines' phone, a wide smile on his face. “You come to see me. I gotta get you something to see.”
The Tank Workout Plan
THERE ARE NO rest days for Tank, who trains seven days a week and tries to maintain that regimen even when he hits the road to tour. But not every single day is hyper-intense. The rapper hits the weights five days a week and focuses solely on cardio on weekends, building his engine but letting his muscles and joints recover. Here’s how it breaks down.
MONDAY
Cardio and Back
Tank often starts with his stairstepper or treadmill work, then transitions to exercises like rows and pullups on this day. Starting a week with back has underrated benefit too: Training your back first in a week lets you train it heavy, pulling your shoulders into proper position and honing your posture.
TUESDAY
Cardio and Push Day
There’s more cardio work to start things off (because you can never hone your heart health too much!), followed by plenty of presses. Tank prioritize upper chest motions, like incline presses, on this day.
WEDNESDAY
Cardio and Legs
Still more cardio, which Tank does every day. Then he takes on a host of leg exercises. Leg days will generally push your body to its limits for several reasons. First off, you’ll be able to lift your heaviest weights on leg day. Second: Motions like squats and deadlifts train your legs while also taxing your upper body.
THURSDAY
Cardio and Upper Body
Tank starts with cardio on this day, then works both his chest and back. Because he’s pairing two large muscle groups on this day, he’s not lifting the same weights as he does during his Monday back sessions and Tuesday chest sessions. That means higher-rep work, and underrated cardiovascular challenge in this weights session, too.
FRIDAY
Cardio, Shoulders, and Arms
He’s hit the weights hard already this week, so now, he steps back to lighter loads to attack his shoulders and arms. Even if you’re lifting your hardest on shoulders and arms, you simply won’t approach the massive loads you’ll move on leg days and during bench presses and rows. This helps Tank’s central nervous system recover to end the week, even as he’s adding depth and strength to biceps, triceps, and delts.
SATURDAY/SUNDAY
Cardio
Tank continues to stay moving on weekends, piling up more cardio. This leaves him ready for those long concerts. And there’s never a downside to working Zone 2 cardio: It’s good movement that creates total-body bloodflow without leading to unnecessary training volume that’ll leave you fatigued.
