The 2010 MF25
Men’s Fitness Magazines top 25 fittest guys in the world for 2010
On the court, the pitch, or in the ring. in the jungles of Brazil, at the peak of Everest, or throughout the fictional land of Pandora. The guys who earned a place among the 2010 MF 25 are the fittest of the fit.
MARK INGRAM JR.
The Trophy
AGE: 20 CAREER: Student/Athlete, University of Alabama COUNTRY: U.S.
This 5’10” running back, who led the Crimson Tide to a national championship after becoming the school’s first Heisman winner, is the hardest player in the country to bring down. Nicknamed “Little Train,” Ingram conditions with football drills and varied distance sprint intervals, plus explosive compound lifts in the weight room. Last summer he leaned down from 220 pounds to a shredded 212, with a crazy 6% body fat. “When I’m doing my reps, I try and get in extra,” he says. “I think about what the other man’s doing. I’m not going to let him outwork me.”
ALEXANDER OVECHKIN
The Grinder
AGE: 24 CAREER: Wing, Washington Capitals COUNTRY: Russia
A scoring machine, Ovechkin is one of the NHL’s most skilled o..ensive players and the most physical. The force behind that success? His powerful legs. “He’s just got some God-given incredible leg strength— I don’t even think he knows how strong he is,” says Mark Nemish, the Capitals’ strength coach. In season, Nemish trains Ovie just one or two days each week. The workouts focus on low-rep squats (Ovechkin easily reps 300 pounds). In the off-season, Ovechkin trains six days a week back in Russia, combining weights with four-kilometer runs at varied paces. “Without training, I’m nothing,” he says.
See Also: MF’s Exclusive Interview
RYAN & JEREMY BLACK
The Entrepreneurs
AGES: 36, 35 CAREER: Founders of Sambazon COUNTRY: U.S.
Success in the boardroom began on a board for the San Clemente, California—based Black brothers, who discovered acai berries—the purple superfood—during a surfing trip to Brazil 10 years ago. The active pair became the first U.S. supplier of the fruit, giving them plenty of reasons to head back and catch more waves.
See Also: MF’s Exclusive Interview
CRISTIANO RONALDO
The “Footballer”
AGE: 25 CAREER: Soccer player COUNTRY: Portugal
Ronaldo gets about as much attention for his Hulk-like physique as he does for his ball-handling skills. When Real Madrid’s star striker scored a goal in December, he celebrated by taking his shirt off and revealing his rippling muscles. Ronaldo’s six-pack secret: a staggering 3,000 situps a day. When he was younger, he strapped weights to his feet, then dribbled a soccer ball. His next goal? The 2010 World Cup in South Africa as a member of Portugal’s national team.
SHEAMUS
The Piledriver
AGE: 32 CAREER: WWE Superstar COUNTRY: Ireland
The 6’6″, 272-pound WWE champ first learned to work out from his father, an amateur bodybuilder. “That’s how I got into weights,” says Sheamus, who used to train with a four-day-a-week body part split. Since then, he’s been working with strength coach Rob MacIntyre on a variation of deadlifts and Olympic lifts. “I’ve been doing a lot more power exercises where you use the whole body,” he says.
See Also: MF’s Exclusive Interview
PAUL RODRIGUEZ
The Shredder
AGE: 25 CAREER: Pro skater COUNTRY: U.S.
When P-Rod hired trainer Alexandra Laws last year, he gave her one goal: helping him get better—which seemed nearly impossible as he’s already been dominating street-skating for six years. “It’s crazy how genetically gifted this guy is,” says Laws , who focuses on his core training and plyometrics. “I’m having to come up with harder and harder exercises. He likes to train. A lot.”
CRAIG & PAUL PUMPHREY
The Demolition Crew
AGES: 35, 38 CAREER: TV personalities COUNTRY: U.S.
If someone built it, the Pumphrey brothers can destroy it. The stars of G4’s Human Wrecking Balls use their bodies to level whatever they can: boat, car, or plane. Before attacking structures, they hit the weights, powerlifting three days a week in addition to plyometrics, martial arts circuits, and smashing a few concrete blocks. More than 20 years of destruction has left the Pumphreys’ bones denser, which is why they rarely leave with anything worse than cuts and bruises. “It’s our body type,” Paul says. “We’re built to break.”
See Also: MF’s Exclusive Interview
DENIS LEARY
The Fire Breather
AGE: 52 CAREER: Actor COUNTRY: U.S.
“I would have to commit a crime and have cops chase me. That would be the only way to get me to jog five miles,” says FX’s Rescue Me star, whose distaste for regular cardio leads him to organize street hockey games with buddies. “You can chase a ball and beat the crap out of each other for three hours at a time,” he says. “In between games we do pushups and situps and go play the next game.” Leary also stays in amazing shape with weight training and long days of ilming in fire gear. “In a real ire, you’ll be wearing it for 20 minutes,” he says. “We have to wear it for eight hours.”
JAKE GYLLENHAAL
The Surprise
AGE: 29 CAREER: Actor COUNTRY: U.S.
He’s not Donnie Darko anymore. Gyllenhaal’s physical transformation for his lead role in Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time will shock moviegoers. The change comes from a combo of outdoor cardio interval workouts and power circuits in the gym. “He trained like an athlete,” says trainer Simon Waterson, who spent two months getting him armor-ready.
Common
The Evolutionary
AGE: 38 CAREER: Rapper/actor COUNTRY: U.S.
Common sets goals and commits to them completely. Staying fit is one of them. He’s evolved from a skinny Chicago kid who ate “everything under the sun” into a conscious award-winning rapper and actor with muscle to match his star power. To prepare for his role as an NBA baller in the upcoming film Just Wright, he worked with a group of trainers, doing active weight training and intense basketball-specific drills. “I feel like I’m planting seeds when I’m [working out]—making things fruitful and giving back to myself,” he says.
ROGER FEDERER
The Best
AGE: 28 CAREER: Tennis player COUNTRY: Switzerland
Sixteen Grand Slams. More than 60 career singles titles. Federer has lifted enough trophies for it to count as a workout. At this year’s Australian Open he showed he isn’t done yet. To stay at the top, he still works out for nearly four hours a day during the off-season, focusing on exercises like lateral lunges and medicine ball tosses to train his body for in-game movements.
ROGER GOODELL
The Boss
AGE: 51 CAREER: NFL commissioner COUNTRY: U.S.
The NFL’s “Play 60” campaign urges kids to exercise for an hour a day, something the league’s leader takes to heart. “You have to make it part of your routine,” he says. Goodell, who climbed Mount Rainier last year, schedules cardio from 6:45 a.m. to 8 a.m. every day, usually opting for the elliptical or running the stairs. “It makes me feel better, relieves stress, and helps me to be more focused.”
ANDRE JOHNSON
The Hands
AGE: 28 CAREER: Houston Texans wide receiver COUNTRY: U.S.
In addition to leading the NFL in receiving yards for the second straight year, the Texans star is also an alpha dog in the gym. “There are very few athletes his size [222 pounds with 4% body fat] with that type of body control, balance, and speed,” says Ray Wright, the Texans’ former strength and conditioning coach. When training, Johnson favors single-leg squat work to help him stay balanced. “He’s the total package—a rare player.”
RYAN KWANTEN
The Night Owl
AGE: 33 CAREER: Actor COUNTRY: Australia
As oversexed lothario Jason Stackhouse in the HBO hit True Blood, Kwanten’s frequent nude scenes give him plenty of motivation to stay in shape. Not that he needs it. A star athlete growing up in Sydney, Kwanten was a welterweight boxing state champ. He’s also completed several biathlons and is a yoga instructor. “Obviously [my character] Jason is someone who looks after himself,” Kwanten told an Australian news agency. “It’s important that I stay on top of it, but I also enjoy fitness in general.”
VITOR BELFORT
The Phenom
AGE: 32 CAREER: UFC middleweight COUNTRY: Brazil
Fans started calling Belfort “The Phenom” after he became the youngest fighter to ever win a UFC bout. A bum shoulder forced him out of a title fight in UFC 112, but Belfort will get back in Octagon shape quickly. His routine consists of runs and lifts in the mornings but mostly cross training with a focus on grappling, sparring, and striking. “My team always comes up with new stuff,” Belfort says. “I train eight hours a day, like it’s a regular job.”
KOBE BRYANT
The Champion
AGE: 31 CAREER: Los Angeles Lakers shooting guard COUNTRY: U.S.
During last season’s NBA-title run, Bryant brought Michael Jordan’s former trainer Tim Grover on the road to help him bust through some training plateaus. He continued that program into the summer and worked to add some post moves with Hall of Fame center Hakeem Olajuwon. Now in his 14th season, at only 31 years old, Kobe is lean and muscular and poised to play for many more seasons. Do they make thumb-size rings?
JAMIE BESTWICK
The Rider
AGE: 38 CAREER: BMX star COUNTRY: UK
Not only is Bestwick the oldest BMX champ ever, he’s also the fittest. In 2009 he completed his first perfect season, thanks largely to a regimen consisting of weight training, power yoga, Pilates, and road biking (to keep up the short-burst intensity he needs to compete). “I was physically in the best shape I’ve been in my life,” he says. “I was prepared for anything.”
SAM WORTHINGTON
The New A-Lister
AGE: 33 CAREER: Actor COUNTRY: Australia
The former bricklayer dove into the role of paraplegic marine Jake Sully in Avatar, spending months doing physical training and weapons training. He and the cast even went on a jungle boot camp, trekking the rain forest and living tribally. When not preparing for a role, Worthington is an avid skier and snowboarder. “I like to be on the mountain,” he says.
HERSCHEL WALKER
The Ageless Wonder
AGE: 48 CAREER: MMA amateur COUNTRY: U.S.
The former NFL star—he won the Heisman Trophy in 1982, seven years before 2009 winner and current MF 25er Mark Ingram was born—made an impressive MMA debut in a Strikeforce bout in January. Walker (who also performed on the 1992 U.S. Olympic bobsled team, ran track, and earned a fifthdegree black belt in tae kwon do) has always been super fit, thanks to his well-chronicled daily regimen of 1,000 pushups and 1,000 situps. Still, he claims the MMA experience was “the hardest thing I’ve ever done.”
MATTHEW LONG
The Survivor
AGE: 43 CAREER: Firefighter, New York City COUNTRY: U.S.
In December 2005, Matthew Long was run over by a bus and given a 5% shot at life. With multiple fractures and severe nerve damage, the amateur triathlete was told he would probably never walk again. Only two years later, he was back working out—even though he could barely lift his arms. Today, he hits the gym six days a week for low-impact cardio, weight training with resistance bands, and yoga. “I’m pretty banged up, but I’m stronger than I ever was,” he says. He proved it by crossing the finish line at Ironman Lake Placid last summer.
CHRIS HEMSWORTH
The Next One
AGE: 26 CAREER: Actor COUNTRY: Australia
Don’t know who the hell Chris Hemsworth is? You soon will. The Aussie actor appeared briefly in Star Trek as Captain Kirk’s young dad. Next up: November’s Red Dawn remake, then in 2011, it’s hammer time! Hemsworth will pump up even more to play the mallet-wielding Norse god Thor. Luckily the actor possesses the body needed to live up to his rising stardom: “He was constantly bulking up and just getting bigger throughout the entire [filming],” Red Dawn costar Josh Hutcherson told MTV. “The dude’s a beast now.”
JASON STATHAM
The Badass
AGE: 38 CAREER: Actor COUNTRY: UK
What can you say about a guy who manages to look as tough in a suit as in a tank top? Even before acting, the former Olympic diver made a living off his physicality. The movie brawler takes that to a new level as a mercenary in this summer’s The Expendables, starring alongside Sylvester Stallone and nearly every action star of the past three decades. “We’ve got some tough men in this film,” Stallone said during filming. “Some badasses, trust me.” Statham must have felt right at home.
ED VIESTURS
The Adventurer
AGE: 50 CAREER: Mountain climber COUNTRY: U.S.
Last May, Viesturs climbed Mount Everest— for the seventh time. It was the latest prize for the man who became the first American to summit the world’s 14 highest peaks without the use of supplemental oxygen. To train, Viesturs runs eight miles a day, adding three climbing-related weight workouts per week.
LAURENT GRAS
The Kitchen Master
AGE: 45 CAREER: Chef COUNTRY: France
“Between cycling, exercising, and working there just isn’t time to do anything else,” says the chef/owner of Chicago’s L20 restaurant. Gras balances out his 90-hour weeks in the kitchen by cycling the vast open roads of the Midwest at least four times a week, including a 100- miler on his day off. To maintain his 2% body fat (that’s right, T-W-O) through the winter, the Cote d’Azur—raised Gras heads to the gym five days a week for 30 minutes of jumping rope, an hour of spinning workouts, and some lower-body resistance training.
See Also: MF’s Exclusive Interview
SAHR NGAUJAH
The Stage King
AGE: 32 CAREER: Broadway actor COUNTRY: Sierra Leone
In Fela!, based on the life of Afrobeat pioneer Fela Kuti. Ngaujah sings, dances, plays sax, climbs a twostory ladder, and swings around a pole—for two and a half hours. To prep for the role, the actor did countless flat and hilly runs. “I would sprint and sing to expand my lung capacity and strengthen my vocal cords,” he says. Now, he hits the gym daily for a 35-minute circuit of treadmill sprints, lat pulldowns, chest presses, and flys. “It takes hours to come down from this show.”
Via:Mensfitness.com
