He might not be eloquent in interviews, but Jason Momoa always makes a statement with the physical prowess he brings to the screen. These are his steps for conditioning body and mind.

Segmenting Goals

While he may look as though he deserves his spot in the iron addicts’ Hall of Fame, Momoa’s pursuit of strength is grounded more in real-world skills.

“Rock climbing is my thing,” he says when pressed about his true fitness passion. “I really love it and it’s something I love doing with my kids. I love being outdoors. In my own life I love rock climbing, surfing, mountain biking, skateboarding – all of that kind of stuff. That keeps me fit. Climbing keeps me humble, rooted, healthy, focused. There’s problem-solving to it, you know your own body through it, there’s fear in it, it’s creative. It’s both a physical and mental test. And when I’m not training for a role, I stay away from the gym – it’s not my thing.”

Proof that you can dip in and out of weights, just as long as you’re getting your strength training from other avenues.

Gym Sucks

What? No, hand calluses from the bells. Yep, that’s what you might be thinking if you read the previous paragraph and you’d be right. Thing is, the big man does lift – he just doesn’t like it.

“When it comes to a role, I commit 100 percent to the training but I do get bored and I do find it monotonous being in a gym,” he says, letting the light glint off his million-dollar grill. “I find it hard to train for vanity, you know? But when it comes to it, I do lock in and I’m fortunate to work with trainers that are awesome.”
Advice that’s easy to follow: if you hate gym, pay someone to convince you to like it, or at the very least make you do it, by hiring a personal trainer and paying for a few sessions upfront.

Powerful Eats

If you think Momoa is the type to go hunting only to have the animals sacrifice themselves at his feet for the honor of being his protein – you’d be half right. The earth provides for the wild man and he doesn’t sniff around with the bad tucker.

“I eat very little processed foods or sweets,” he says. “Instead, I stick with a lot of fish, lean meats and veggies even when I’m not locked in for a role. But when I’m not dieting for a role, I do love pasta and spaghetti and bread with butter. Even when I’m dieting though, I still love a few pints of Guinness at the end of the day to unwind. When I’m in Aquaman mode I eat clean, it’s a lot of lean meats and veggies and good fats. But even then I always have a few pints at the end of the day. A dog needs a bone, and my bone is a Guinness. It helps with the monotony of it all, and it’s a reward for all of that work and eating clean.”

It’s a tactic worth employing because you can easily achieve optimum health by dangling food or a drink as reward at the end of each day, providing you stick to a healthy eating plan. Guinness is one of the better beers, having more fiber and B-vitamins than most other beers. It is still beer though, so stick to one.
Keep your Passion

Strength training can be a little like brushing your teeth – even if you don’t like it, you should still do it. And it doesn’t have to mean you can’t enjoy other passions. “I do continue with the rock climbing when I’m training for Aquaman and other jobs, at least three days a week,” he explains.

“Training and dieting for the role is a necessary evil, and yes it’s for the vanity of it, but even more importantly so you don’t get hurt and you can pull off the role. I sort of just do what I’m told with the training, but it’s basically a mixture of functional, sort of full-body movements and then your normal weight training and isolation moves. We’d lift and do those functional moves four days a week and then climb three days a week. In the gym we’d do a 3-day split: legs one day, then chest, shoulders and triceps one day, and then back and biceps one day. When I’m training for a role, I think of the training and dieting in the sense of how it would help me conquer a really difficult climbing route. I try to think about working towards hitting this really difficult climb. That really fuels me, having that goal.”

Your muscle, strength and diet truly are a puzzle so if you enjoy devoting any time to problem solving – such as a battle on Fortnite – then apply that same brain power to your physique and you’re sure to find success.