We caught up with Hart in L.A., his home base when he’s not traveling, shooting, and hustling on the 10,000 things Kevin Hart hustles on, making him one of the hardest-working men in Hollywood. But even when Hart moves, his schedule stays put. “When we travel, the first priority is finding a gym,” Hart says. He starts his day there, at the new gym, at 5:30 a.m. Hart says putting fitness at the top of his day means he’s investing in himself first. “I can’t start the day without it.”
“As you notice, I’m a well proportioned man—outside, of course, of my actual height, which is frowned upon in some places. Except China! I’m a big man … in China,” he says.
Hart stays proportioned through workouts involving a set of three primary features— cardio, weight, and core work—which he merges together, transitioning from one to the next.
And what does 2020’s sexiest man alive drink and eat every day? Water. A gallon. Plums, “because they make my hands look big.” Also, lots of Beyond Meat products. “I’m trying this whole plant-based thing for a minute,” he says. “People out there: don’t be fooled by the plant-based diet and feel like you gotta get it all in one day. You gotta do it and make it work for you. Do I still have guilty pleasures? Of course.” Hart’s is chicken. (On cheat days, he “punishes” family-sized bags of Doritos—with French fries and blue cheese.)
These days, Hart's energy might seem somewhat miraculous, especially for those who remember the picture of his 1970 Plymouth Barracuda, crumpled in a wreck on the side of the road. The 2019 accident gave Hart three spinal fractures and almost left him paralysed. A man who put fitness at the top of each day and had started running marathons was bedridden. He lost 8kg.
“You want it all in one day,” Hart says of his recovery. “Even now I can’t go and run three miles. I can’t. The reality is, you’re still healing.”
But Hart has find positives in that process. “Anything in life where you can start from a ground-zero-like perspective, and get to watch your progress, find new measures of happiness step by step, and get to a point of success—that’s a big bonus,” he explains. Healing for Hart isn’t a series of negatives—not running three miles, not getting all his workouts in, not succeeding—it’s all positive.
“Negative is the easiest thing in the world. Because you can embrace it. It’s very easy to hate, very easy to not like. But to like, to love, that seems to be more of a challenge these days.” So Hart practices that, he surrounds himself with people who are that. He is that, still. And that is pretty sexy, indeed.
This article originally appeared on Men's Health
