How Eminem Managed To Beat Addiction With Exercise

Yo,

His palms are sweaty, knees weak, arms are heavy,

There's vomit on his sweater already, mum's spaghetti,

He's nervous, but on the surface he looks mum's spaghetti,

To drop bombs, but he keeps mum's spaghetti,

What he wrote down, MUM'S spaghetti,

He opens his mouth, MUM'S SPAGHETTI,

Fucking tune, mate. Weren't bad that Eminem fella, was he?

Credit: PA

Of course, he's still out and about, dominating the world of rap, looking ahead to his headline slot at this year's Reading and Leeds Festivals.

However, despite the rapper's current popularity, it wasn't always plain sailing for him.

After success came to him via The Slim Shady LP, followed up by the equally brilliant Marshall Mathers LP, the wheels were set in motion.

What came after was a string of ridiculously successful albums, catapulting him to astronomical levels of stardom.

Of course, with that type of fame comes huge responsibility. In most of his music he referenced his drug use, but it all became a bit too much when he entered rehab in 2005 to treat his 'dependency on sleep medication'.

Around this time it became notable that the musician was putting weight.

However, when he'd eventually make a comeback after jumping between rehabilitation and relapses, his weight loss was noticeable.

Credit: PA

Simply, Em recognised he was an addict, he just needed to be addicted to something other than pills. He chose exercise, which he said not only helped him out with his physical appearance, but also his mental health to certain extent.

"I wasn't that motivated; I wasn't taking it too seriously. Once I got sober, that changed," he told Men's Journal.

"In 2007, I overdosed on pills, and I went into the hospital. I was close to 230 pounds.

"I'm not sure how I got so big, but I have ideas.

"The coating on the Vicodin and the Valium I'd been taking for years leaves a hole in your stomach, so to avoid a stomachache, I was constantly eating - and eating badly.

"When I got out of rehab, I needed to lose weight, but I also needed to figure out a way to function sober.

"Unless I was blitzed out of my mind, I had trouble sleeping. So I started running. It gave me a natural endorphin high, but it also helped me sleep, so it was perfect.

"It's easy to understand how people replace addiction with exercise. One addiction for another but one that's good for them."

He claims because he has an 'addict's brain', when it came to running he took it to the extreme. He compared himself to 'a fucking hamster'.

Credit: PA

"I started getting OCD about the calories, making sure I burned 2,000 every day," he continued.

"In the end I got down to about 149 pounds. I ran to the point where I started to get injured. All the constant pounding from the running began to tear up my hip flexors.

"So when I was starting to dial back on the treadmill, I tried out some of those workout DVDs you do at home."

Watching Eminem in front of a television copying one of those mad gym instructors is something I'd love to see, to be honest.

To this day the rapper still swears by exercise, doing the 'Body Beast' workout with free weights, bench, and a pull-up bar at home before he gets into the studio.

Gains, you ask? Mum's spaghetti, of course.

Topics: rap, Weight Loss, Exercise, Eminem

Mark McGowan

Mark is a journalist at LADbible, who joined in 2015 after a year as a freelance writer. In the past he blogged for independent football fan channel Redmen TV, after graduating from Staffordshire University with degrees in journalism and English literature. He has worked on campaigns such as UOKM8? and IIOC.