82 MAY 2017
he best thing about talking to
Jason Statham is that it’s exactly
what you’d hope talking to Jason
Statham would be like. The voice that
makes gravel sound like sand. The
almost poetically geezerish turn of
phrase that led director Guy Ritchie
nearly two decades ago to cast the
former street trader in Lock, Stock &
Two Smoking Barrels, then promote
him to the lead in Snatch. The only
unexpected bonus is the chuckle.
During our last conversation you were quite
adamant about not working with a PT.
Are you still training yourself?
Yeah. Over the last couple of years I’ve started
to look really closely at doing things correctly
[laughs]. When you’re on your own, you can
do a lot of examination of your movements
and how good or bad they are. There’s so
much information on the internet now. You
can acquire the knowledge to figure out
exactly how to do the big lifts and other stuff
correctly while avoiding injury. It’s been
good. I’m really enjoying the studying and
putting it into practice.And you’re still training by feel rather than following a
designated program?
It’s funny, I did so many years of set
things: cardio this day, weights this day... Some people need structure and to write
everything down. For me, I’ve been there
and done that, so I’m happy to make up my
workouts depending on how I feel each day.
I’ve learnt that the body is like an adaptation
machine: whatever you throw at it, it finds
a way to do that particular thing and you
never make any more gains from that. Doing
my own thing in the gym each day gives me
variety. I’m always trying new things. And it’s
a way for me to figure out how to fix those old
ailments that I’ve gathered over the course of
my silly career.
Plus you don’t have the peer pressure of the gym to
put another plate on the bar and do yourself mischief.
There are benefits to both. Some of my better
days were when someone was hanging over
me and really pushing me. But that’s what >This partly explains Statham’s enormous
popularity, and why his upcoming slate
continues to be packed with sequels: Spy 2,
The Expendables 4 and Fast & Furious 8. Okay,
so he’s only been in three of the latter. But
still, the point remains: audiences, whether
cinemagoers or Men’s Health readers, want
more of him, because what they see is what
they get. Unlike the dodgy watches he used to
flog, Statham is legit. Kosher. Proper.
Of course, a large part of his enduring
appeal is down to the spectacular athleticism
that has seen Statham triple-pike into the best
seat at Hollywood’s top action-hero table.
Impressively knowledgeable and enthusiastic
about his training, Statham can teach even
professional fitness writers a thing or two.
But even if he seems to have it all figured
out, as he approaches his fiftieth birthday
(yes, really), Statham is the first to admit that
he’s still learning all the time.
For the benefit of the reader, can you explain how
we came to be photographing you in New Zealand?
Sure. I was over there shooting a film for
Warner Bros about a big shark [Meg, out in
2018, which sounds ridiculously brilliant, or
brilliantly ridiculous]. I’m very excited about
that. And the good fortune was I was able to
get a great house there and set up a nice gym.
It looks a lot fancier than the set-up you had last time
we spoke. Back then you’d been filming Mechanic:
Resurrection in Thailand and training with barbells
made out of old car axles...
Ha! Yeah, this was a little bit more
streamlined. I had a framework put together
in the backyard, this sort of bar workout area
where I could mount some gymnastic rings.
I’ve been using rings as a part of my training
now for the past 12 months. If you can find
a place to string them up, there’s so much
benefit that can be had in terms of shoulder
mobility and real, usable strength. I really
like them because you’re always trying to
learn a new skill, which makes things more
interesting rather than just repeat, repeat,
repeat. It’s such a difficult piece of apparatus
to master. I’m getting better. But I need a bit
more time in the saddle before I can show you
pictures of the iron cross...What kind of moves do you think you have got nailed
down at the moment?
Well, fortunately I have a bit of a gymnastic
background. So I can get an L-sit; I can get a
handstand. But a lot of the stuff that’s very
beneficial is the muscle-ups and the rotations
through the shoulder: hanging upside down,
moving around and almost creating a kind of
flow. You’re developing strength, but you’re
also developing mobility at the same time. A
lot of people throw around heavy weights but
they don’t take the shoulder joint through its
full range of motion, which is a key problem
for most guys. That kind of training might be
great for that one position, but the shoulder is
a complex joint that requires a fair amount of
maintenance. The rings are perfect for that.