Tom Cruise, known for his daring stunts and high-energy performances, continues to captivate audiences, especially with the recent release of Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning. At 62, his fitness and youthful appearance are a testament to his disciplined lifestyle. This article explores the workout and diet secrets that keep him in such incredible shape.
Who Is Tom Cruise?
Tom Cruise is a highly-paid Hollywood actor celebrated for his action-packed roles in movies such as Risky Business, Rain Man, Top Gun, A Few Good Men, Edge of Tomorrow, Jerry Maguire, and the Mission: Impossible franchise. He began his acting career in the 1980s and has since become a renowned action star, famous for performing his own daring stunts in science fiction and action films. Despite his long filmography, he is well known for starring in 6 Mission: Impossible films as secret agent Ethan Hunt. He has earned 3 Golden Globe Awards and has also been honored with a star on The Hollywood Walk of Fame.
The Rigorous Workout Routine
Tom Cruise's dedication to fitness is evident in his varied and intense workout routine. He incorporates a mix of strength training, cardio, and adventure activities to maintain his physique and agility.
Diverse Training Approach
Cruise believes in switching up his exercises, from cardio to traditional strength training, and adds sports like sea-kayaking, caving, and rock climbing to his fitness routine. Researchers suggest that simply adding a nature-based outdoor physical activity to your routine can be more beneficial to your health. He loves adventure-based workouts like sea-kayaking, caving, and rock climbing, along with treadmills, weights, jogging, and more.
Incorporating a range of exercises into his routine, a few of Tom's favorites include one-armed barbell presses, weighted lunges and deadlifts. To enhance his overall body function, Tom Cruise incorporates a mix of weight training with unique exercises like one-armed barbell presses, which help him identify weak spots and work on them effectively. His diverse workout keeps him flexible and balanced, contributing to his youthful appearance.
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Sample Workout Components
Tom stays in shape by mixing different types of exercise. He focuses on functional strength and enjoys outdoor activities. His routine includes three days of weight training, several cardio sessions, and adventure activities like hiking, rock climbing, and fencing.
- Weight Training: He lifts weights to build strength, keep his muscles strong, and avoid injuries.
- Cardio: He does cardio exercises that go beyond running on a treadmill. He even mountain bikes, which helps his heart health and burns fat.
- Adventure Activities: Cruise does activities like fencing and rock climbing. These help him stay flexible and balanced, which is important as we age.
- Outdoor Focus: He loves being active outside, which is good for both his body and mind. Hiking and sea kayaking are some other outdoor activities he enjoys and uses for exercise.
- Variety is key: He avoids doing the same exercises all the time. Instead, he challenges himself with new activities.
- Eccentric training: He pays special attention to the lowering phase of exercises, which helps with strength.
Sample Leg Day Workout
A sample leg day, serves as a great starting point to help you build explosive power in your pins, whether you’re running from explosions, or just looking to improve your box jumps. And, as any fan of leg day knows, it will absolutely torch calories. Work through three to four sets of the below, aiming for eight to 12 reps. Start with five minutes of cardio followed by ten minutes of mobility drills, and don’t forget to warm-down with a stretch.
- Trap bar deadlift: Stand inside the trap bar, shins aligned with the centre of the bar. Grip the bar. Back straight, head neutral, chest out, push through your heels, hinging at the hips to lift the bar. Finish by sitting back, bending your knees as you lower the weight.
- Dumbbell reverse lunge: Take a dumbbell in each hand, then step back on one leg, bending at the knee. Push down to return to standing. Complete all reps, then switch legs.
- Bench hip thrusts: Sit on the ground, back against a bench, soles of your feet flat. Hinge at the waist, powering your groin towards the ceiling. You should feel this through your glutes. Too easy? Add a barbell across your waist.
- Alternating dumbbell forward lunges: Like the reverse lunge, but this time you’re stepping forward, swapping your leading foot each time.
- Dumbbell Romanian deadlifts: Place your dumbbells on the ground in front of your toes. Hinge at the hips, keeping your back straight as you lift the weights as you would a barbell in a normal deadlift. Straighten up, then reverse the movement for one.
- Dumbbell calf raises: Stand with your feet shoulder-width apart, a dumbbell in each hand. Rise up on your toes, feeling the burn through your calves.
Daily Training
Cruise treats his workouts like hygiene. ‘For me it’s like brushing my teeth. You gotta brush your teeth - we’re all like, “Oh God, do I really have to?” But it just takes a minute. That’s how I have to train my body.’ That consistency has allowed Cruise to keep doing the things he loves - and the things his movies demand. From piloting jets and helicopters to diving, paragliding, and speed flying, his physical capacity is no accident. ‘I’m training all the time,’ he said. ‘I fly aerobatic airplanes. I fly jets. I fly helicopters. I parachute.’
The Regimented Diet Plan
Tom Cruise is famous for his strong work ethic, and he applies the same dedication to his diet. His approach is all about moderation. Thus, he enjoys a diverse range of foods but keeps an eye on portion sizes. He stays away from processed foods, sugary snacks, and too much alcohol, as they can interfere with Tom Cruise’s fitness plan and well-being.
Small, Frequent Meals
Rather than three large meals, he chooses small portions spread evenly throughout the day, prepared by his personal chef. Instead of three main meals a day, the star reportedly opts instead for 15 small snacks. His decision to snack fits better with his busy lifestyle, with Tom opting for fruit which helps reduce any anxiety in comparison to crisps or chocolate.
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Dietary Choices
When dining out, Tom insists on steamed white fish and vegetables without any butter, sauce, or oil. Instead, he relies on fresh fruit, which he says helps him manage anxiety. Avoiding sugary snacks, processed food, and carbohydrates, Tom favors grilled foods and low-temperature prepared foods cooked for him by his personal chef. Low temperature cooking is reportedly better for you than high-temperature cooking which has been associated with accelerated aging and chronic tissue inflammation. Tom will opt for foods like salmon dark chocolate, raw oats, blueberries, ginger, beets, broccoli, olive oil, tomatoes, and spinach.
Low-Carb Approach
During the filming of Top Gun: Maverick, he reportedly consumed just 1200 calories per day, preferring grilled food and avoiding excess oil. This type of low-calorie diet plan may improve one’s energy efficiency and athletic performance. His friend David Beckham helped design the plan, and it's all about cutting out carbs, like grains and sugar. This may be the secret to Cruise's youthful look, as reducing sugar-rich foods can also prevent the aging of the skin. Likewise, carbs have something called insulin, which is said to be the 'aging hormone'. While the impact of dietary carbohydrates on human aging is not fully understood, clinical studies suggest that a low-carb diet can have positive effects on human health.
Healthy Snacking
He enjoys having fruits as snacks, which can help reduce depression, anxiety, and emotional distress compared to consuming crisps or chocolate. His favorite snack option is dates filled with peanut butter and sprinkled with coconut, as well as delicious truffle balls. By focusing on such whole, unprocessed foods, he gets lots of important vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants that keep him healthy and reduce inflammation in his body.
Intermittent Fasting
Another key part of his diet is intermittent fasting, which has been proven to have lots of benefits. It is a meal plan where people restrict their meal intake to specific times of the day. It helps control insulin levels, supports weight loss, and even encourages the body to burn stored fat for energy. Plus, following this diet can give you more energy, better mental clarity, and overall well-being.
Emphasis on Grilled and Anti-Inflammatory Foods
Cruise follows a balanced diet that mainly consists of grilled and low-temperature prepared foods. This is because high-temperature cooking has been associated with accelerated aging and chronic tissue inflammation. He usually grills anti-inflammatory foods like salmon, dark chocolate, raw oats, blueberries, ginger, beets, broccoli, olive oil, tomatoes, and spinach. However, it's important to be cautious about consuming excessive grilled, barbecued, and smoked meat, as it may increase mortality after breast cancer.
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Antioxidant-Rich Diet
He consumes antioxidant-rich foods like fruits, nuts, and vegetables that are also anti-inflammatory in nature. By reducing inflammation and oxidative stress, it can protect against age-related diseases and keep you feeling younger for longer.
Supplementation
He also makes sure to incorporate antioxidant-rich foods like fruits, nuts, and vegetables that are also anti-inflammatory in nature and supplements his diet with added vitamins and minerals. Cruise supplements his nutrient-rich diet with additional vitamins and minerals. Cruise believes these supplements aid in maintaining his health, supporting vital biological processes, and building muscle mass, but their scientific evidence is lacking. These supplements ensure he covers any nutritional gaps, allowing him to perform demanding stunts without compromising his health. His diet includes omega-3 fatty acids, folic acid, magnesium, and whey protein supplements.
The Mindset
Failures don’t floor Cruise; he uses them to reboot momentum and uncover more of his personal skill set. ‘Never avoid looking at why something went wrong - list all the reasons why it did as soon as you can,‘ says clinical psychologist Dr Abigael San. It could be a relationship or weight loss plan as much as the movie Vanilla Sky. ‘Failure leads to inaction. Planning goals as soon as possible restores a feeling of power and control. If you didn’t get a promotion, do all you can to find out why.’Write notes in a special document or folder on your computer, analysing everything in detail. ‘Physicalising the reasons snaps us out of negativity. Now consider three things you can do immediately with this situation,’ he says. Set yourself a deadline of three months to action what you come up with. ‘Each little success along the way - a new responsibility at work; a date with somebody new - will reframe that initial ‘fail’ as a catalyst to self-development,’ adds Write.
Legacy and Inspiration
Tom Cruise's workout routine and diet are a testament that anyone can maintain a healthy physique at any age. The man, the myth, and the legend - who has been turning impossible missions into possible ones - recently revealed that he is not putting a stopper on action movies. The eighth film in the globally acclaimed ‘Mission: Impossible’ franchise, The Final Reckoning, is being billed as the last go-around for Tom Cruise‘s Ethan Hunt; Cruise confirmed, “It’s the final! It’s not called ‘final’ for nothing.” Nearly two years ago, Cruise was quoted as saying he was inspired by 80-year-old Harrison Ford’s career and wanted to keep making Mission: Impossible films until he was Ford’s age. Now that Cruise is 62, he told The Hollywood Reporter, “I actually said I’m going to make movies into my 80s; actually, I’m going to make them into my 100s.” The Hollywood star added, “I will never stop. I will never stop doing action, I will never stop doing drama, comedy films - I’m excited!”