Frank Grillo Shares the Workout That Keeps Him Fighting Fit After 50
Frank Grillo, the rugged actor you probably know as the Hydra operative and thorn in Captain America's side from The Winter Soldier and Civil War or as the MMA coach from the movie Warrior or TV show Kingdom, is 55 years old. Look at him, and let that sink in for a minute.
But if you ask Grillo himself, he'll tell you that he really hit his physical stride once he reached 50. "In your fifties, you think you should be slowing down," he tells the Men's Health crew from Fortune Boxing in Hollywood, California.
"I probably got in the best shape of my life at 52 years old, which is the message I try to tell people all the time, much younger than me. There's no rules, so don't think as you get older you get slower."
For his role in Hulu's Boss Level, Grillo undertook a two-a-day workout split, which wound up totalling about four hours of training a day. He says that his first session was at 6 a.m. for boxing work, then he had a p.m. strength training workout.
But for Grillo, fitness isn't just for his day job as an actor. He embraces a physical routine for his life—and everything he does is for a specific reason: performance and function. He's known to be a fighting sports and martial arts fan, and even hosted FIGHTWORLD, a docu-series on Netflix that highlighted different fight cultures around the globe. All that's to say, you probably won't ever see Grillo training in a way that doesn't directly translate to boxing—like standing in front of a mirror pumping through barbell curls, for instance
"As far as the 'vanity muscles'—that's actually a hindrance to do biceps and triceps on the regular the way a bodybuilder would," he says. Instead, when he opts for weights, Grillo focuses on big muscle movements like squats, deadlifts, and heavy exercises for the chest and shoulders.
Grillo walked through a typical daily workout at his boxing gym, offering tips and guidance about how and why he trains. Whether you're over 50 like him or a younger guy looking to level up, there's something to learn from Grillo's approach.
Frank Grillo's Boxing and Strength Workout
Warmup
Shadowboxing
20 minutes
Strength Training
Barbell Shrugs
5 sets of 8 reps
Lateral Raise
3 sets of 15 reps
Explosive Pushups
3 sets of 10 reps
Boxing and Pad Work
Try 5 rounds of 3 minutes
Abs Finisher
Plank Knee-to-Elbow
15 reps per side
Single-Leg Cross-Body Crunch
15 reps per side
Plank Hip Slide
15 reps per direction
V-Sit Oblique Crunch
15 reps per side
Plank Hip Dip
15 reps
Plank Punches
30 seconds
Want more celebrity workout routines? Check out all of our Train Like videos.
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