Jason Statham is 50 years old. Yep – 50. And he still sports one of the most laser-cut physiques in Hollywood.
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How does he maintain such a physique at an age when most men groan when getting off the couch? By working hard. Very hard.
Case in point: the below workout that Statham will typically shuffle into his weekly regimen. This workout is designed to be a metabolically demanding, training the entire body with exercises that work multiple muscle groups.
Can you handle it?
Warm-up (Part 1): Rowing.
Statham completes 10 minutes on the rowing machine at a pace that’s less than 20 strokes per minute (SPM). (Statham’s distance: 2238 metres).
Warm-up (Part 2): Static Hold Circuit.
Do these four exercises as a circuit. For each exercise, you’ll hold a specific position for 30 seconds, and then have 10 seconds to change stations, before starting the next exercises. Do a total of four rounds.
1. Ring Dip Hold
Hold yourself in the top position of a dip for the prescribed amount of time. Like the ring pullup, Jason performs this using gymnast rings instead of on a dip station that has parallel bars.
2. Kettlebell Farmer Hold
Grab a pair of heavy kettlebells or dumbbells will work in a pinch and let them hang arms length at your sides.
3. L-Sit on Parallettes or dips bars
Jason uses parallettes to perform this exercise but the L-sit can also be done on a dip station that has parallel bars.
4. Bodyweight Squat Hold
Lower yourself to the bottom position of a squat with your thighs parallel to the ground and hold.
Workout
This routine, called the “Big Five 55 Workout,” is compliments of strength coach Dan John.
Here, Statham performs a circuit of 5 exercises, which he does a total of 10 times. There is no prescribed rest and ideally you move continuously from one exercise to the next while keeping the sets unbroken. Focus on going as fast as possible while maintaining form, full ROM, and control. The weights should be light enough to allow this.
You can run the stopwatch and race through this workout but for better results and quality movement you should simply try to keep the momentum and flow through the exercises nonstop. He starts with 10 repetitions of each movement, and each time through, decreases the reps by 1. So he does 10 reps of all exercises in the first round, 9 in the second, 8 in the third, and so on, until he’s doing just one repetition in each set. The result is that he completes a total of 55 repetitions of each exercise. Again, the weights below are the amount Jason used during this particular week.
1. Front Squat (45 kilos)
2. Pull-ups
3. Decline Parrallette Push-ups
Directions: Hands on the parrallettes, feet on a box so that they are approximately 1 foot higher than your hands. Do the prescribed number of push-ups. Typically, because you’re elevated on the parrallettes you can go much deeper in the bottom position and really push the ROM, although this is dependent on shoulder flexibility.
4. Power Cleans
5. Knees to elbows
Directions: Hanging from a pull-up bar or from the rings at the half-cocked positon (elbows at a right angle) raise your knees until they touch your elbows. Lower them back down in a controlled fashion so you don’t swing.
A version of this story originally appeared on MensHealth.co.uk
