The Biggest Exercise Mistakes Made by Male Celebrities
Discover exactly how male celebrities like Brad Pitt and Denzel Washington exercise, and the biggest male celebrity workout mistakes.
Ben Greenfield
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The Biggest Exercise Mistakes Made by Male Celebrities
I was recently on an airplane and, as so often seems to happen these days, the seat that had been occupied on the plane’s previous flight contained a magazine left behind. In this case, the magazine was People and, although I’m typically reticent to thumb through most paparazzi publications, out of sheer curiosity and boredom I took a peak at the latest celebrity photos and bodies.
Not surprisingly, many celebrity TV actors, movie stars, and musicians appear to be in great shape. And of course, a few are fighting an uphill battle against the bulge that celebrity photographers love to focus on.
For this two-part series, I dug into the fitness routines of some of these celebrities who have unveiled their go-to workouts on the Internet and elsewhere. So in Part 1, you’re about to discover exactly how male celebrities like Brad Pitt and Denzel Washington exercise, and get the biggest male celebrity workout mistakes.
Top Celebrity Workouts
Denzel Washington: Boxing
Let’s start with Denzel Washington. This Oscar-winning star of films like Malcolm X and Training Day does ten rounds of boxing five days a week. Having been in a boxing club for two years in college, I can tell you that this sport is no joke and is an incredible calorie-burning activity that builds speed, power, and cardiovascular endurance.
Denzel’s biggest workout mistake:
Boxing is stressful. Denzel should consider adding yoga or tai chi to reduce stress. Boxing is also skewed towards aerobic and power energy systems, without much strength, so full body weight training at least twice a week would also be prudent for Denzel.
Jon Hamm: Sports
Jon Hamm, the star of TV’s Mad Men doesn’t go to the gym to stay fit, but instead gets his workouts in by playing competitive sports like tennis and baseball. Because of this, he experiences a decent combination of fun, flexibility, mobility, speed, power, and agility. In How To Get Fit While Playing Sports, you can learn how even sports such as golf or pick-up basketball can get you fit fast if you play them right.
Jon’s biggest workout mistake:
Sports don’t build resistance to injury. If anything, they can increase risk of injury if not accompanied by dynamic stretching and strength training. Most athletes who play sports for life injury-free are also stepping into a gym for four to six days a week for foam rolling, dynamic stretching, and strength training to complement their sport (but they don’t need to do much cardio, agility or power training due to the sport).
Matthew McConaughey: Running
Actor Matthew McConaughey is a big fan of running, often mixed with old-fashioned, body weight calisthenics like body weight squats and push-ups. Whether on the beach or in the streets of Hollywood, Matthew can often be seen running at a relatively steady clip, which is a fantastic and efficient way to burn calories and build leg strength.
Matthew’s biggest workout mistake:
Of all the ways to increase your risk of injury or burnout, running in the absence of both mobility and weight training is probably at the top of the list. If someone is running, say, six days per week, I will usually recommend to switch running to three days a week, then throw in rowing, cycling, elliptical, strength training, yoga, and foam rolling. In these runners, it’s amazing to see hip, knee and ankle pain subside, without any plateau or halt in fat loss or body weight control. Matthew should give this minimalist running approach a try.
Usher: Circuit Training
Usher, the Grammy-winning musician who is famous for his ripped abs, performs multiple times per week a workout consisting of a series of difficult abdominal exercises such as mountain climbers, planks, and weighted sit-ups interspersed with two-minute sprint bouts on a treadmill. Not only is he burning an enormous number of calories both during and long after exercise with this routine, but he’s also shifting blood flow rapidly from one body section to another, resulting in massive improvements in cardiovascular capacity.
Usher’s biggest workout mistake:
Younger men with ripped abs often wind up being older men with bad backs, and here’s why: constant flexion of the spine without extension of the spine can cause muscular imbalances and eventually chronic aches and pains, especially in the low back. For any individual who loves to do lots of ab work, I recommend balancing out all the bending with deadlifts, squats, and the low back extension machine.
Brad Pitt: Target Training
Brad Pitt: Target TrainingBrad Pitt’s ripped body is perhaps most notably recognized from the 1999 film Fight Club, in the classic photo in which he is posed with other members in a dark and dreary gym, showing off the lean body many men crave. To get that body before shooting the film, Brad performed something called “target training,” in which he targeted just one muscle group with an intense workout each day for four days, followed by a forty five-minute cardio workout on the fifth day, and then recovery on the weekends. To do this style of training you would, for example, on the first day of the week perform overhead shoulder presses, lateral dumbbell raises, cable front raises, upright rows, and a host of other shoulder exercises, and then “beat up” another body part, such as chest and back on the second day, abdominals and legs on a third day, and arms on a fourth day, finishing up with a fifth cardio day and two days of active recovery.
Brad’s biggest workout mistake:
Believe it or not, I’ve seen naturally lean guys like Brad get more muscle-building bang for their buck by performing heavy, full body weight-training on three days of the week, with 48 hours recovery between the weight training. When combined with high intensity interval training (HIIT) on the in-between days, and daily bouts of fasted morning cardio for 15-30 minutes, you can get a lean, athletic body without the inflammation and extreme muscle damage target training can cause. I outline a sample program for skinny guys to build muscle in the “male ectomorph” training section of my book Get Fit Guy’s Guide To Achieving Your Ideal Body, which you can read at GetFitGuy.com.
If you have more questions or comments about how celebrities exercise, then head over to Facebook GetFitGuy and join the conversation there! I’d love to hear what you have to say, and stay tuned next week, in which you’ll get the top female celebrity workouts and the biggest female celebrity workout mistakes.
Images courtesy of Shutterstock.
About the Author
Ben Greenfield received bachelor’s and master’s degrees from University of Idaho in sports science and exercise physiology; personal training and strength and conditioning certifications from the National Strength and Conditioning Association (NSCA); a sports nutrition certification from the International Society of Sports Nutrition (ISSN), an advanced bicycle fitting certification from Serotta. He has over 11 years’ experience in coaching professional, collegiate, and recreational athletes from all sports, and as helped hundreds of clients achieve weight loss and fitness success.