You thought your day was busy?
Not so fast!
Action movie star Mark Wahlberg just posted his schedule on social media, and people are misplacing their excrement. The guy wakes up at 2 in the morning to workout!
Here’s the full Mark Wahlberg daily routine:
| Time | Activity |
|---|---|
| 2:30 AM | Wake up |
| 2:45 AM | Prayer time |
| 3:15 AM | Breakfast |
| 3:40 AM | Workout A |
| 5:30 AM | Post-workout meal |
| 6:00 AM | Shower |
| 7:30 AM | Golf |
| 8:00 AM | Snack |
| 9:30 AM | Cryo chamber recovery |
| 10:30 AM | Snack |
| 11:00 AM | Family time / meetings / work calls |
| 1:00 PM | Lunch |
| 2:00 PM | Meetings / work calls |
| 3:00 PM | Pick up kids from school |
| 3:30 PM | Snack |
| 4:00 PM | Workout B |
| 5:00 PM | Shower |
| 5:30 PM | Dinner / family time |
| 7:30 PM | Bedtime |
Don’t Be Too Hard On Yourself
Before you beat yourself up over your life choices, I want you to stop and consider that this routine isn’t as hard as it first appears.
You see, I’ve noticed lots of people heaping unnecessary pressure on themselves in the wake of seeing this post:
“How does he workout twice a day, spend time with his family, and make millions of dollars?!”
The answer is because this routine isn’t hard at all!
Let’s break it down.
- He gets more sleep than you
It looks crazy that he wakes up at 2:30 AM, but this is counter-balanced by the fact that he goes to bed at 7:30 PM.
Heck, that’s earlier than my kids.
That means he’s getting a solid seven hours of sleep each night, which is actually more than most people. A 2014 report found that 33% of Americans get insufficient sleep, and this can be catastrophic from a lifestyle and fitness perspective as it can lead to low testosterone, muscle loss, and poor training performance. (1, 2, 3, 4)
- He has time to train twice per day
Mark follows an AM/PM double split, the first workout focusing on weight training and the second workout being one hour of cardiovascular exercise.
This type of training requires a lot of free time – and he has it!
Financial restrictions mean that most people cannot commit to this type of routine, because they have jobs to go to. The reason it’s popular with action movie stars is because they are able to focus entirely on getting in shape for a role, and it just highlights the intense pressure they are under to look perfect on the silver screen. Back in the 1980s, Sylvester Stallone took this type of thing to the absolute limit (his training regimen for Rocky III consisted of 2 hours in the gym, 18 rounds of sparring, 2 miles of jogging, an hour of jump rope, and an hour of swimming every day!).
So don’t be too hard on yourself.
Mark Wahlberg uses a full-body training program, so his early morning workout hits every muscle group. He likes to train with low reps as this allows for the heaviest weights to be lifted. Here’s what a workout looks like:
| Exercise | Sets | Reps |
|---|---|---|
| Barbell Deadlift | 4 | 8 |
| Clean Pull | 4 | 8 |
| Hang Snatch | 4 | 8 |
| DB Rear Lunges | 4 | 8 |
| Push Press | 4 | 8 |
| Bulgarian Split Squats | 4 | 8 |
| Barbell Bench Press | 4 | 8 |
| Bodyweight Inverted Row | 4 | 8 |
| Farmer’s Walk | 2 | 100 yards |
| DB Biceps Curl | 2 | 8 |
| Cable Chest Press | 2 | 8 |
| Leg Press | 2 | 8 |
| Triceps Pushdown | 2 | 8 |
| DB Seated Lateral Raise | 2 | 8 |
The second workout of the day (4 PM) will either be an hour of traditional steady state cardio performed on an exercise bike, or an impromptu HIIT workout performed on his golf course:
“Sometimes I find cardio dull, so I’ll ditch the bike and put in some extra work during my golf rounds. I tee off then literally run around the golf course! We’d hit a drive, then sprint to the ball, and rest until the caddies arrive, then hit another ball and sprint again!”
- He only works 3 hours per day
It turns out a lot of things are possible when you have no financial worries and only work three hours per day.
The sad part is that many readers already have more “extreme” schedules than this, but they don’t realize it.
Heck, the guy who informed me about Mark Wahlberg’s daily routine owns a local restaurant near my gym, and has five kids. His home life sounds like a blender without a lid. I found it heartbreaking listening to him questioning his work ethic, and beating himself up for not being able to dedicate this much time to his family, so if you take anything away from this article I’d like it to be this piece of advice:
Please don’t compare your life to that of a celebrity who has finished their daily work by the time most people have hit their first break.
References:
- Dattilo M., et al. Sleep and muscle recovery: endocrinological and molecular basis for a new and promising hypothesis. Med Hypotheses (2011).
- Halson S. L. Sleep in Elite Athletes and Nutritional Interventions to Enhance Sleep. Sports Med (2014).
- Leproult R., et al. Effect of 1 week of sleep restriction on testosterone levels in young healthy men. JAMA (2011).
- Liu Y, et al. Prevalence of Healthy Sleep Duration among Adults – United States, 2014. CDC (2014).
Who Is Russ Howe PTI?
Russ has been a personal trainer in the UK since 2002, and provided both training advice and full programs on this website since 2011.
His work has been featured in Men’s Fitness magazine, and the content on this website led to him being voted one of the world’s top 50 fat loss coaches by HuffPost.
Russ spends his time coaching men and women inside the legendary Powerhouse Gym, South Shields, and writing training tips for the 114,301 members of his popular free training e-mail (join it below).
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