2004.10.DD - GQ Magazine - How I Get My Body (Duff)

HOW I GET MY BODY

DUFF MCKAGAN
40
6'2
160 POUNDS
BASSIST, VELVET REVOLVER

I moved to Hollywood when I was 19; when I was 20, we started Guns N' Roses. By the time of the Use Your Illusion tour, I was drinking a gallon of vodka a day, doing cocaine, any pill I could get my hands on, heroin. And on May 10, 1994, my pancreas exploded.

The pain was like in war movies, where they say, " Kill me. Put me out of my misery." I got out of the hospital, and I started riding my mountain bike; I was shaking so bad I didn't know what to do. The first day I rode for, like, eight hours, I didn't want to be static, or else I would think about drinking."

Then I met Benny the Jet, my sensei. He saved my life, got me kickboxing. It's pretty much the most intense workout there is. I face everything in the ring that you face in life.

Now I work out six days a week - kickboxing, lifting weights with Attila the Hun, this Hungarian guy from our dojo. I'm an extreme person. When I did drugs and drank, I was extreme, and when I go to the gym, it's not just to fuck around. - As Told To Brian Raftery

The Duff McKagan Prescription

The Workout: McKagan always does a circuit that incoporates nine minutes of jumping rope, 120 push-ups and 400 sit-ups. He works to maximize his calories-per-workout.

He'll start by trying to burn 1,000 calories in fifty minutes, and when he achieves that he'll pull down his time to forty minutes.

The Diet: He eats four carbs: His meals often consist of oatmeal with rains for breakfast tuna for lunch and chicken or turkey for dinner.

He still drinks a gallon a day...of water.