Hugh Jackman Just Shared His Best Workout and Training Advice With Tim Ferriss (2024)

During a recent interview on The Tim Ferriss Show, X-Men and The Greatest Showman star Hugh Jackman discussed what he's learned about fitness through years of putting on muscle to play characters like Wolverine and then leaning down for other roles.

The actor has previously spoken about how rowing is his exercise of choice when it comes to maintaining a lean physique, and on the podcast he explained to Ferriss why a rowing machine is pretty much the only piece of equipment he needs.

"There's a reason the rower's usually empty at the gym—because it's difficult," he said. "And a lot of people want to say it and feel they’ve worked out, and they want to get a sweat, but they don't necessarily… And the rowing machine—I think if you add in some chest work, some pushups, that's everything you need to keep fit, healthy, strong... It's such a good building exercise for deadlifts and all these core movements, compound movements, getting your scapula—everything sort of in the right place—and your breathing and relaxing your neck, you know, at the same time as doing it."

The actor went on to sing the praises of his trainer, powerlifter and dancer Beth Lewis, and the "85 percent" approach, which originated in sprinting.

"It really is great for me because, I mean, in the past, even with someone like Wolverine, I have to prepare to look physically a way, but I can't get injured. So I can't prepare as a bodybuilder. I have to be able to prepare as a really jacked, ripped athlete-slash-dancer, because fighting is dance. It is more relaxation in a fight scene than there is strength, which is probably the case for, if you think about all the great athletes you see, there's relaxation, and then movement has moved in sports. That's why you see every sprinter poking their tongue out now and dancing around with joy before they run the hundred meters. You know, that sense of having the right level of relaxation. I think that they call it the 85 percent rule. If you tell most, sort of, A-type athletes to run at their 85 percent capacity, they will run faster than if you tell them to run 100 because it’s more about relaxation and form and optimizing the muscles in the right way."

That mindset, which allows athletes to be a bit more forgiving of their own performance and take the pressure off themselves, has also changed the way that Jackman motivates himself to train.

"If I was coaching me, myself, like if I was the coach and Hugh Jackman was on my team, I wouldn’t put more pressure on him, push him more," he said. "I wouldn’t yell at him, scream. I’ve got that motivation. If anything, I have had to work from building up insecurity. So: I’m not good enough. I need to work extra hard. If I do everything perfectly and I work my ass off, then I’ll be OK—that kind of thing, which in the end does certainly limit your ability to enjoy life or enjoy the row or the show or anything like that. But it doesn’t get the best out of you. It really doesn’t. So I mentally, quite often during the day, just, before I do an activity, imagine that it’s done. That feeling I have when it’s done and gone well. And I go into it with that."