AT 57 YEARS OLD, Jason Statham is still doing pretty much the same thing he was more than 20 years ago: beating bad guys black and blue, pulling off death defying stunts and looking good while doing it.
Statham’s latest film, A Working Man, plays to a similar tune. His character is an unassuming blue-collar type who, to no one’s surprise, is actually a highly skilled and highly lethal ex-soldier who is dragged into rescuing his boss’s daughter. Statham is hardly breaking new ground here. We’ve seen him play an indestructible action hero countless times before, but what is remarkable is that he doesn’t look any less capable of playing the role than he has in the past, thanks to maintaining a rigorously sculpted physique.
Statham trains hard, but he doesn’t do it just to look good. “Musclemen grow on trees,” he said in an old interview. “They can tense their muscles and look good in a mirror. So what? I’m interested in practical strength that’s going to help me run, jump, twist, punch.” He also prefers to be time efficient and get the most out of short, high-intensity sessions. “Get serious. Do 40 hard minutes, not an hour and half of nonsense. It’s so much more rewarding,” he said.
So the key to Statham’s physique is functional training, but what does he actually do to get that fit? Luckily for us, Statham’s former trainer previously broke down one of the actor’s seven-day training splits for Men’s Health US, and it’s about as extreme as you’d expect.
Here, we take a look at Statham’s weekly training split. But remember, he doesn’t do this every week, it’s a snippet taken from a larger program. So don’t be too intimidated.
Jason Statham's workout routine
Day 1: deadlift day
Statham begins his week with just one goal in mind: increasing his deadlift one rep max. To warm up, he spends ten minutes on a Concept 2 rowing machine and does a pyramid circuit of push ups, pull ups and barbell squats, adding an extra rep for each exercise with every set.
Then he gets into progressive sets of deadlifts, gradually increasing the weight while decreasing reps. Eventually, he reaches his one rep max of about 165kg. Take a look at his daily plan below.
Warm up:
Rowing machine, 10 minutes
Pull ups, push ups and barbell squats pyramid circuit, as many sets as possible in ten minutes
Progressive deadlift workout
Set one: 10 reps, 60kg
Set two: 5 reps, 85kg
Set three: 3 reps, 105kg
Set four: 2 reps, 130kg
Set five: 1 rep, 150kg
Set six: 1 rep, 155kg
Set seven: 1 rep, 160kg
Set Eight: 1 rep, 162.5kg
Set nine: 1 rep, 165kg
Day 2: big five 55 workout
The big five 55 workout, designed by Statham’s strength coach Dan John, involves a circuit of five exercises which are performed ten times. There is no rest between each exercise and set. To make this possible, Statham uses relatively light weights, as the focus is on building endurance as well as strength.
Warm up:
Rowing machine, 10 minutes
Static hold circuit of kettlebell farmer holds, L sits on dip bars, bodyweight squat holds
Big five 55 workout
A continuous, 10 set circuit of the following exercises:
- Front squat
- Pull-ups
- Decline parrallette pushups
- Power cleans
- Knees to elbows
Day 3: rowing intervals
For the third day of the week, Statham gets on a rowing machine for a series of sprints.
Warm up:
Rowing machine, 10 minutes at steady pace
Interval workout:
Rowing machine, six intervals of a 500-metre sprint with three minutes of rest between each interval
Cool down:
Kettlebell farmer carry, 500 metres
Day 4: squat day
Warm up:
Rowing machine, 10 minutes
Bodyweight squats, 20 reps
Squat workout:
Front squats, 5 reps, 5 sets
Cool down:
200 push ups
Day 5: cumulative movements
Warm up:
Rowing machine, 10 reps
Bear crawl, 15 metres, 5 sets
Crab walk, 15 metres, 5 sets
Cumulative movement workout (one set of each movement):
7-metre fat rope climbs, 5 reps
Front squats, 5 reps
Ball slams, 5 reps
15-metre rope pulls, 10 reps
Bench press, 10 reps
Ball slams, 10 reps
Pull-ups, 15 reps
Dips, 15 reps
Ball slams, 15 reps
Resisted fat rope pulls, 20 reps
Whip smashes, 20 reps
Day 6: trail run
To close out his week, Statham picks a high-intensity activity to do for an hour. On this particular week, that activity was a trail run in the mountains.
Day 7: rest
