Kim Jong Kook is famous across Korea for exactly one thing besides his music and Running Man fame: his obsessive love of working out. Now the 49-year-old singer has shown just how far he would go to keep his training schedule — even over love.
The moment came on the October 20 episode of SBS Plus and MBN’s Real Men’s Travel Guide in Taiwan, which follows Choo Sung Hoon, Kim Jong Kook, and Zico through Taiwan. Moments after arriving at their lodging, Kim Jong Kook and Choo Sung Hoon found a gym just 30 seconds away and returned drenched in sweat.
Kim Jong Kook (Credits: Koreaboo)
Kim Jong Kook Would Choose the Gym Over a Girlfriend
That is when Zico decided to test him. The rapper posed a hypothetical: imagine you are not married, but you have been dating your girlfriend for more than 10 years — what if she told you to stop exercising?
Kim Jong Kook hesitated for a beat, then dropped the bombshell: “If we’ve been together for more than 10 years, breaking up wouldn’t be that hard.” The line left Zico stunned.
Zico pushed back — “Hyung, that’s really harsh” — and escalated the scenario: what if he could never work out for the rest of his life? Kim Jong Kook refused to even entertain it: “Not being able to work out forever would be too cruel. That won’t happen. Let’s not worry about it.”
A Fitness Reputation Years in the Making
For fans, the answers are funny but hardly surprising. The former Turbo member has built an entire second career as Korea’s most famous fitness personality, running his own gym content and earning the nickname “Commander” on Running Man for a physique that guests genuinely fear.
Just last week he made headlines on the same Taiwan trip when local fans mobbed him — a reminder that the Running Man star’s fame now stretches well beyond Korea’s borders. Between wedding singing gigs and travel shows, though, one thing clearly hasn’t changed: the gym comes first, and everyone else is second.
Also Read: Running Man Star Kim Jong Kook Mobbed by Fans in Taiwan and Ji Ye Eun’s Wedding: Yoo Jae Suk to Host, Kim Jong Kook to Sing
Source: Koreaboo — read the full story there.
