How Jason Statham Got In Shape For All Of His Biggest Movie Roles

As his 60th birthday looms in the distance, Jason Statham is in reflective mood.

He’s in the middle of filming the Stallone-written A Working Man and Beekeeper 2, but while his acting career is showing no signs of slowing down, his body can no longer train as intensely as he used to…

… and the gravel-voiced action hero is pissed off about it!

It appears that what used come naturally is now proving incredibly troublesome for his ageing muscles, and he recently tried to combat this by making several changes to his workout program.

He’s going to walk us through those changes today, and we’ll also be taking a look back at the workout programs which Statham used for all of his iconic roles in years gone by (including The Transporter, The Expendables, and many more).

This post is huge so I’ve divided it into chapters for you.

5 Things You Didn’t Know About Jason Statham

“Jaysun Fackin Stayfum” is known for his rock solid core…

… so I figure there’s no better way to start this article than by rocking you to yours (!) with 5 little-known stats about Britain’s biggest action hero.

• He used to be a professional diver

Long before he became an action movie star with a jawline chiselled from the peaks of Everest, Statham was a professional diver. He represented Team GB in the 1990 Commonwealth Games, and was starting his preparations for the 1992 Olympic Games when he decided to change career.

• Yes, that’s him in the Erasure video

As Statham set about breaking into the entertainment industry, one of his first paid projects was an appearance as a backing dancer (and painted silver from head to toe!) in the music video for Erasure’s hit single Run To The Sun, which featured on their #1 album I Say I Say I Say (1994).

• He was 32 years old in his first major role

Statham had been making ends meet by selling knock-off perfume on the streets of London between jobs, and then a chance meeting with Guy Ritchie changed everything. The Oscar winning director was said to have been so taken with Statham’s over-the-top confidence that he wrote him into his upcoming movie Lock, Stock, And Two Smoking Barrels (1999), basing his on-screen character of “Bacon” on Statham himself.

• He almost died while filming The Expendables 3

The brakes failed while Statham was driving a three-tonne truck for one of the movie’s set pieces, sending the actor hurtling over a cliff and face first into the Black Sea. Holy fuck! Thankfully his aforementiond swimming credentials helped him to stay calm as he performed a daring escape.

• He stands 5’8 tall

Prison shots often show his characters as being 6’0-6’3, but The Stath is only 5’8 in real life. Directors utilize clever techniques to manipulate camera angles in order to make the actor appear taller. Meanwhile, Statham opts for footwear with built-in heels, and copies the old Stallone “trick” of hammering muscles which are most prominent on screen in order to create more presence.

Bursting Onto The Scene Screen

It took a few years for Statham to grow into the top tier action star he is today.

After bursting onto the scene as a cockney wideboy in Guy Ritchie’s cult classic Lock, Stock, And Two Smoking Barrels (1999), he was cast again by Ritchie for Snatch (2000), before branching out on his own with a show-stealing performance in a Vinny Jones led re-make of The Longest Yard, titled Mean Machine (2001).

That performance led to studio executives giving him a shot as a leading man in his next project, and he grabbed it with both hands.

Filmed in early 2002, breakthrough hit The Transporter saw Statham play the now legendary Frank Martin, a mysterious British mercenary working in France fetching “high value packages” under the noses of authorities. Frank’s life seemed to be going well (oh, what a house!) until a packages turned out to be a person stuffed into the boot of his car, breaking one of his golden rules and sending him into full action hero mode.

Cue lots of impressive kicking, punching, and generally looking annoyed at everybody.

Statham displays an athletic, physically fit body in The Transporter which seemed light years away from that of his roided up rivals at the time, and it’s precisely the type of shape you’d expect from a character with an extensive military background.

The over-the-top bodybuilding physiques which ruled the 1980s landscape no longer bankable box office draws, and casting directors had spent the best part of the late 90s in search for an heir to the throne.

They had finally found it in Statham.

Building The Transporter

Interestingly, Statham insisted on training himself for the role.

“Yeah, the studio offered to hook me up with some trainer in Hollywood but I didn’t feel comfortable with that. I’d trained by myself for years and I preferred it.”

– Jason Statham

This is not something a studio would typically entrust to an actor, but considering his martial arts background and previous experience as part of the Team GB diving team, they granted his wish.

“My goal was to be very different from what anyone else was doing. I’ve never been a bodybuilder or been big, but I have skills not many of those guys can offer. One of those is my athleticism, so I performed all my own stunts for The Transporter. I felt it was important that the audience believe that I could actually do the things I do on screen, you know?”

– Jason Statham

As such, Statham chose not to focus entirely on training in the gym, and also included a daily stretching routine to boost his flexibility, plus challenging underwater swimming drills to improve his explosiveness.

This unique trifecta helped him chisel a body with a sense of legitimacy his rivals lacked.

Let’s take a look at his training split for this movie:

* Daily stretching routine also performed on these days.
^ Underwater swimming drills also performed on these days.

And here’s the workouts themselves (I’ve only included the gym-based workouts here, not the stretching and swimming, as that’s the stuff 99% of readers are interested in).

NOTE: This style of training is known as Reverse Pyramid Training. Statham will perform 1-2 warm-up sets for each exercise with around 60% of the weight he intends to use on his first proper set. On all working sets he’ll use as much weight as he can handle to achieve the target number of reps, and if he fails to get there he’ll apply the rest pause technique (take a 10-second breather then go back in to finish it off). If he manages to achieve the target number of reps in one attempt he’ll increase the weight slightly the next time he does the workout.

• Workout A (Mon & Thu)

• Workout B (Tue & Fri)

• Workout C (Wed & Sat)

The Best Is Yet To Come

The unexpected success of The Transporter thrust him into the limelight.

In the space of three years Jason had gone from selling dodgy perfume on the streets of London to rubbing shoulders with the world’s biggest movie stars, and he struggled to get used to his new surroundings.

“It was a big shock to the system moving from England to the U.S.

They pay more here (laughs), but you also get pampered more – too much actually! Some of the stars seem to get their every wish catered to, whereas back home someone would just shout, “Fuck off and get back to work!”

I found it difficult adjusting to being around folks who I’d only ever saw in movies, too, you know? When Brad Pitt walked onto the set during Snatch I turned to my agent like a little kid and said, “Fuck me, it’s Brad Pitt!”, but my words came out louder than I was expecting and he heard! I was dying with embarrassment (laughs), but we had a laugh about it later on.

It’s actually quite refreshing when you meet some of these big Hollywood actors and you realize they’re just normal guys like us. Well Brad is, for sure, but I’ve definitely met a few dickheads along the way too!”

– Jason Statham

In the years which followed, The Stath went on a mission to cement himself as the #1 action movie star of his generation, churning out a string of solid titles including an unusual villain role in Cellular, the bonkers Crank, and cult classic Death Race.

However, it was his highly anticipated return as Frank Martin in The Transporter 2 (2005) and The Transporter 3 (2008) which really did the trick.

Throughout this period of the 2000s, Statham regularly used a full-body calisthenics program which maximized his athletic performance so that he could really explode off the screen. This routine also helped him to drop a decent amount of body fat (-24lbs) and become leaner than we’d ever seen him before (see his insane shape in Death Race).

“So the one thing with me that other people find weird as fuck – particularly those in the movie business – is that I like to change my workout routine all the time.

I think my body responds better to this versus just doing the same stuff over and over, and it’s really important for my peace of mind because I get bored too easily.

So when we look back at old training programs from this era, you’ll notice that they barely follow the same structure from one project to the next, even though my overall goal is the same; I train to become more explosive, and I let my diet get me lean.”

– Jason Statham

Here’s a typical week of the training plan he used for movies like Crank, Death Race, and The Transporter sequels:

• Workout A (Monday, Wednesday, and Friday)

• Workout B (Tuesday & Thursday)

* This is performed as a circuit, so you’ll hit all exercises and then rest for 2 minutes (x3).

• Workout C (Saturday)

The Expendables

In early 2010, Statham received a call from none other than Sylvester Stallone.

The stellar work he’d done in the action movie genre over the last few years hadn’t gone unnoticed by Sly, who was enjoying a career resurgence of his own after the surprising triumph of both Rocky Balboa (2006), and Rambo IV (2008).

Stallone was hoping to persuade the Brit to join him and Jet Li in a unique project which would mark the first time in a very long time where three major action stars shared the screen.

Statham was intrigued, and the more they fleshed out the idea, the bigger it grew. The final draft of the movie ended up adding Dolph Lundgren, Mickey Rourke, Terry Crews, Bruce Willis, and Arnold Schwarzenegger into the mix, making it the (quite literally) biggest action movie ensemble cast ever assembled.

We now know it as The Expendables.

Of course, it didn’t take long for things to get competitive in the weights room…

“I remember walking into the gym on the first day of prep, and Sylvester was already there. It looked like he’d been there for hours because sweat was pouring off him.

I shit myself, to be honest!

I’ve always taken my prep very seriously, but I was floored by how much more “ready” Sly was than me. I left the gym that morning thinking, “Well, I’d better get my fuckin’ act together!”

This was a strange project for me. We had a bunch of guys who had all made similar movies throughout their careers, so I went into it thinking we’d all be great buddies, but it really wasn’t like that at all. It became an incredibly competitive environment and there were lots of bruised egos – like me when I first saw Sly!”

– Jason Statham

This was the first time Statham decided to hire a coach, opting for seasoned Hollywood trainer Logan Hood.

You can see his Expendables workout program and training split below.

• Workout A (Monday)

• Workout B (Tuesday)

• Workout C (Thursday)

• Workout D1 (Friday)

• Workout D2 (Friday)

Welcome To The Top Table

The success of The Expendables did a lot for Statham, and he spent the remainder of the 2010s at the top of the action movie food chain.

Being handpicked by Sylvester Stallone catapulted his career into a whole new realm.

During the early stages of the 2010s he released a bunch of solid beat-em-ups (often with Stallone as a writer/producer) like The Mechanic (2011), Safe (2012), Homefront (2013), Parker (2013), Wild Card (2015), and Hummingbird (2016), but it was his involvement in two more summer blockbusters in the latter half of the decade which brought the biggest success.

First came shark thriller The Meg; a project which saw him draw heavily on his professional diving skills as he faced several challenging underwater scenes which most actors would’ve had no choice but to hand over to a stunt double. Meanwhile, his show-stealing minor role as a “good bad guy” in 2017’s The Fate Of The Furious led to a spinoff movie within the franchise titled Hobbs & Shaw, where Statham starred alongside Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson.

As expected, Statham went “all out” with his preparations for both roles.

“The Meg was the first time where I used gymnastics rings as part of my training. I was lucky enough to find a good place to stay while filming in New Zealand, this house had a big space for a gym, so I created this bar setup in the back yard.

If you can find a place to put them, rings offer so many benefits in terms of shoulder mobility and core strength, I really enjoyed it. Lots of guys can throw around heavy weights, but they don’t take the shoulder joint through its full range of motion.

That kind of training might be great for one position, but the shoulders are such a complex joint that it requires a decent amount of maintenance, especially in my line of work, so the rings have been great for that. I also enjoy the fact that instead of just repeating exercises like a bodybuilder, it feels like I’m trying to master a new skill.”

– Jason Statham

He also went back to training himself.

“That’s how I’ve always done things and I prefer it.

The pressure of the first Expendables movie got to me, I guess, so I hired someone else to take care of that stuff for me. I guess when you’re in a room with Sly, Arnie, and the rest of those guys, you don’t want to look like the worst piece of the jigsaw!

By the time we did the second one (2012), though, I went back to doing my own thing.

In the last couple of years I’ve really started to look closely at doing things correctly and trying to master different techniques. There’s so many places you can learn good information from nowadays (get on Russ’ e-mail list for one!), so for a guy like me who spends a lot of time on my own I can do lots of self-examination to see where improvements could be made.”

– Jason Statham

He also returned to his “maximum variety” style of training.

“People in the movie business think I’m crazy, but I’ve always hated doing the same stuff in the gym over and over again. Give me variety any day of the week!

That makes it hard for coaches and trainers to work with me, because they often bring their own set of ideals and restrictions with them, and they can’t understand where all my random little injuries have come from over the years, so I just do my own thing and don’t bother anyone.

Anything goes as far as exercise selection and training styles; the only “rule” I have is that my workouts must be done in the morning. I’ve always been a morning person, it’s just something I got into the habit of doing when I was a diver.”

– Jason Statham

And he continued in his approach of learning from his co-stars and applying new techniques.

“Watching how he (The Rock) trained for this movie was a good experience. For some reason I was expecting him to do loads of bodybuilding stuff, but I was dead wrong. When I arrived on set he was neck deep in some horrible looking prowler pushes! You can see his NFL and wrestling background in the work he does, and his mentality is second to none. Seriously, if his coach told him to wake up at 2am and hit a set of walking lunges he’d just do it!”

– Jason Statham

Here’s a sample workout he used for The Meg:

* Load the sled with your body weight, then push it for 20 seconds, turn around and push it back for another 20 seconds, and then rest for 20 seconds. That’s one round, you’ll do ten.
^ Start with a 60 second warm-up row, then enter the gruelling HIIT section where you’ll 30 seconds of sprints and 30 seconds rest for ten rounds.

And here’s Statham’s training split and workout program from Hobbs & Shaw:

• Workout A (Monday)

* Travel at a speed less than 20sp/m. Statham’s distance is 2274m.
^ This is a ladder set, so you’ll perform 1 rep of each exercise, then 2 reps each, then 3, then 4, then 5, and the work back down to 1.
+ Start with around 35% of your max, and then gradually increase the weight as the reps get lower.
– What can I say, except Hollywood.

• Workout B (Tuesday)

* Travel at a speed less than 20sp/m. Statham’s distance is 2301m.
^ This is a static hold tri-set, so you’ll hold each position for 30 seconds and then rest for 30 seconds to complete one round.
+ This is a descending ladder circuit, so you’ll do 10 reps of each exercise back-to-back in the first round, and then 9 reps each, then 8 reps each, and so on until you complete the 1 rep round. There is no prescribed rest here, just take what you need when you need it.

• Workout C (Wednesday)

* Travel at a speed less than 20sp/m. Statham’s distance is 2002m.
^ You’ll do six bursts of 500m, with three minutes of active rest in between each burst. Statham’s recent times were as follows: 1) 1:40:1, 2) 1:39.7, 3) 1:43.9, 4) 1:41.6, 5) 1:38.7, 6) 1:50.3.

• Workout D (Thursday)

* Travel at a speed less than 20sp/m. Statham’s distance is 2095m.
^ Jason likes to use 105% of his bodyweight, but adjust accordingly.
+ 200 push ups sounds impossible at this stage of the workout, but not when performed this way. You’ll do 1 rep (then count “1 one thousand”) and immediately do 2 reps (then count “1 one thousand, 2 one thousand”), then hit three reps (and count “1 one thousand, 2 one thousand, 3 one thousand”), then four reps (followed by “1 one thousand, 2 one thousand, 3 one thousand, 4 one thousand”), and then five reps (followed by counting “1 one thousand, 2 one thousand, 3 one thousand, 4 one thousand, 5 one thousand”). This takes you to 15 reps in total, and these tiny rest breaks make it possible for you to get a lot of work done in a very short space of time. You’ll then go straight back to the start and repeat the cycle 13 times over, giving you a total of 200 reps.

• Workout E (Friday)

* Travel at a speed less than 20sp/m. Statham’s distance is 2149m.
^ This is a 1-round circuit so you’ll work through the list from top to bottom and then it’s all over. I’ve added Statham’s recent weights to give you an idea of where he’s at with this. Adjust your weights accordingly and try to finish in a timely manner. The Stath’s recent time for this circuit (with the weights I’ve written) is an impressive 23:53.

King Of The Franchises

Jason is now firmly established as an action movie legend.

The rise of streaming services like Netflix and Amazon Prime has only helped further, because the ease with which one can bang on a Jason Statham flick and enjoy the madness has breathed new life into some of his lesser-known movies.

But one thing about The Stath which often flies under the radar is that he has become the king of action movie franchises.

Arnold has one (Terminator), The Rock has two (The Fast & The Furious and Jumanji), and Sly boasts an impressive three (Rocky, Rambo, and The Expendables), but none of them can compete with Jason Statham, who already has four franchises to his name (The Transporter, The Expendables, The Fast & The Furious, and The Meg)!

Rumour has it that’s about to become FIVE, with the expected development of a cinematic universe around 2024 sleeper hit The Beekeeper. This David Ayer-directed revenge story went straight to VOD and became one of the biggest hits of the year.

Unfortunately, 2024 wasn’t all good news for Statham.

Now in his mid-50s, he began noticing signs of age catching up with him, causing him to struggle with a few of the strength-based exercises which have been regular staples in his workout programs over the last two decades.

“When I was doing the first Expendables, Sly made a joke about how his muscles feel old, risty, and bent out of shape like the dumbbells we had in our gym.

I think about that joke all the time now, because I feel the same way!

And let me tell you, there’s nothing more frustrating for a lifelong athlete than reaching a stage where your body just can’t do the things you want it to. It’s mentally crippling. You can’t force your way through it because you’ll just get injured, so you need to adapt. I started focusing more on developing my core strength and improving my fitness levels. That’s why I’m not carrying as much muscle mass nowadays, but it’s helped me to get even better at my job and I’m safer from injury.”

– Jason Statham

In order to craft his core-focused routine, he called upon former taekwondo champion James Moontasri.

“Most days we would train at 5am. The sessions were a mixture of lifting weights, martial arts, and dynamic stretching. We would vary the order of the session depending how Jason felt on any given day. It was easy to see when he wanted to start off by hitting things!

Jason’s the type of guy who likes to over prepare, so when you see the fight scenes and he’s throwing huge kicks and punches, you should know that he’s practiced those movements thousands of times to make sure the final product looked perfect.”

– James Moontasri

He also continued the trying to master those gymnastics rings.

“Yeah, he had his own gymnastics rings routine which he’d do before our sessions. It was pretty intense stuff, the dude can crush pull ups for days! Being able to push yourself hard in isolation is an impressive personality trait to have. I enjoyed watching him do those workouts while I set up the equipment for our sessions.”

– James Moontasri

Here’s the workout he used for The Beekeeper:

* Complete each exercise in sequence, taking a short 15 second break between each move, then rest for 1 minute after the third exercise. That’s one round.
^ Complete the exercises in sequence, hitting each one for 45 seconds and giving yourself a short 15 second break between each move in order to change position, then rest for 2 minutes after completing the fourth exercise. That’s one round.

It’s a unique training style which he has already come to love.

“As frustrating as it is, I do enjoy mastering new skills.

So even though I sometimes feel as stiff as a rock, I’m really enjoying trying to learn all this new stuff which has been thrown at me. It’s also given me an opportunity to re-introduce some water-based cardio back into my routine, because it’s great for loosening off the muscles. It kinda feels like I’ve come full circle in that respect. It’s great.”

– Jason Statham

Statham And Steroids

Steroid abuse is rife amongst Hollywood actors (especially those who star in action movies), but it’s unlikely that Jason Statham uses them.

Statham has maintained an impressive amount of lean muscle tissue and a fairly low body fat percentage for the best part of four decades, but he has never truly crossed the line to what we would consider unachievable for a natural trainee.

Heck, when you look at the intensity of his circuit-based workouts, combined with all of his martial arts training, stretching routine, swimming drills, and the strictness of his daily diet, I’d say that explains why he’s in this kind of shape.

He’s also never shown any signs of the infamous “growth hormone gut” (sorry, Sly).

Of course, there’s a fair chance that Statham may have chosen to get on some form of TRT (testosterone replacement therapy) now that he’s deep into his fifties, but if that helps him to maintain optimal hormone levels and do what he does for a living, then I don’t think there’s anything wrong with that at all.

Statham’s Impressive Martial Arts Background

One of the things which has always separated The Stath from his onscreen rivals is that he’s a bone fide athlete.

He holds a black belt in Karate, a purple belt in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, and professional training in Wing Chun Kung Fu, Kickboxing, and Muay Thai.

“Growing up I always preferred watching actors who were closer to the real deal. People like Bruce Lee and Jackie Chan were my heroes. Even Sylvester Stallone – fair enough, he doesn’t do any martial arts, but the level of training he did for the Rocky movies is incredible, especially the sequels as he got older!”

– Jason Statham

So does Statham still keep up with his martial arts training today?

“No, you never stop learning! People often think once you can do something you don’t need to do it as much anymore, but it’s really the opposite. At least with me it is, I found that the more I learned, the more I wanted to get even better! I’m constantly on the lookout to learn new things I can use in my next movie or to master a new skill that I’ve never done before. The way my workout program is structured now, I’d say that I’m probably doing more martial arts training in my 50s than I did in my 20s!”

– Jason Statham

Statham’s Approach To Diet And Junk Food

I’ve got some great news for you…

… of all the Hollywood actors I’ve covered over the years, Statham has one of the most straightforward approaches to nutrition!

You won’t find any unusual “food hacks” here, nor overly-expensive supplement recommendations, just good solid advice.

“When I’m going into preparations for a new movie I’ll enter a 2-3 month phase of dieting. My goal is to be lean and muscular, so I focus on the foods which we all know are good for us – seeds, nuts, oats, fish, plenty of protein, etc.

Luckily I enjoy foods like brown rice, steamed vegetables, and miso soup, so that makes it easy for me to reduce my calories when I need to.

I’d say my daily diet is quite varied in terms of meals, because I don’t like to eat the exact same things all the time, but my two simple rules are that I’ll always get enough protein and it’ll never go over 2000 calories.”

– Jason Statham

One area which he considers crucial to results is hydration.

“I’ll drink at least three litres of water every day, without fail.

I’ve always been amazed at how many men go to the gym and spend as much money as they do on supplements but don’t drink any fucking water. You’ll instantly look and feel so much better if you can get on top of that one single issue.”

– Jason Statham

He’s also not too keen on junk food during a dieting phase, but has certain ways of squeezing it in when he feels like he needs it.

“Yeah, I just do what needs to be done for the upcoming job and then I know I can enjoy some downtime after that. I’d say about 95% of the foods I eat are good and healthy, and the other 5% is the stuff where I just fancy something that tastes nice, like a bar of chocolate.

I also never eat anything after 7pm, so if I ate something which could be described as a bit off track then it’d be during the day when I’m most active. Cutting out the late night snacks was huge for me; honest, once you get into the habit of shutting the kitchen at 7pm you’ll see much your cravings for junk food plummets!”

– Jason Statham

And what does he think is the key to unlocking a great transformation?

“I think a lot of it, at least with long-term transformation, comes down to mentality.

I don’t mean being tough, I mean reprogramming the way you think about food, so that this becomes about your goals and not just about how long you can resist junk food.

So I’ll tell myself stuff like, “I’m not gonna eat that junk food, because I’d like to lose a bit of excess body fat, and this excess body fat is actually depressing me more than not being able to eat the junk food!”.

Framing it like this gives me personal accountability, and that’s one of the very best ways to change your mindset and stop returning to the stuff which has always held you back in the past, because if you follow the traditional approach to dieting, which is all about depriving yourself and punishing yourself, it eventually just becomes a nuisance. It’s normally shitty fried food, too, so you’re not really giving up anything other than stuff which is disastrous for your body.”

– Jason Statham

Here’s the sample diet plan which Jason Statham used for The Transporter 2:

Does Jason Statham Use Any Supplements?

Jason Statham keeps his list of supplements down to the proven basics.

Just like his nutrition plan, he tends to ignore all the “flash in the pan” trends and stick to the stuff which we’ve known about for decades.

He’ll use a high quality pre-workout drink prior to his workouts (see here), as well as a whey protein isolate, creatine monohydrate powder, and a multivitamin. That list is nothing too fancy, but it most certainly gets the job done.

So there you have it!

Now you know the “ins & outs” of how Jason Statham got in great shape for all of his most popular movie roles, as well as his diet, and even a few interesting facts.

I hope you’ve enjoyed the read, and if so please share my this work with the Statham fan in your life, because you’ll make their week giving them all this info.

Finally, if you intend to use my article to help you carve your very own Statham-like body, do keep me informed how you get on – but one thing I definitely can’t help with is the damn voice!

Further Reading:

If you enjoyed this blog, then you’ll probably also like reading these.

>> How Sylvester Stallone Has Adapted His Training Over The Years
>> How The Undertaker Got In The Shape Of His Life At 42
>> The Rules To Ripped