MICHAEL B. JORDAN IS one of the most visibly fit actors in Hollywood, capable of bringing a physical presence and muscle to his work alongside his dramatic talents. He’s one of few male stars who has inhabited iconic roles as a superhero (okay technically, a supervillain) in Black Panther and anchored a film franchise that portrayed the rise and fall (and rise again) of a world champion athlete in the Creed series.
That’s all to say that fitness, health, and wellness are a huge component of his lifestyle when he’s off-camera, too—which makes him the ideal partner for a new initiative that aims to provide resources for health and fitness-focused organizations in major cities across the US. The Propel Your City Project from Propel Fitness Water just launched in Jordan’s current hometown, Los Angeles, along with Detroit, Houston, and Atlanta. The project supports a specific partner organization in each city, allowing these groups to remove barriers around access, expand their programming, and serve their communities.
We spoke with Jordan ahead of the campaign’s launch to learn about his own fitness community, how he takes workout cues from the greats that came before him, and the changes he’s made to his health and wellness regimen as he’s gotten older and stepped behind the camera as a director and producer (2022’s Creed III marked his directorial debut).
This interview has been condensed and edited for clarity.
MH: What is your fitness community? Do you have a specific a specific group of folks that you train with? Is there any place that you hold near and dear to you and your health and wellness routine?
MBJ: Really, my close circle of friends. We get it in and work out as much as they can keep up, but my fitness journey is a bit different than most. Because I don’t really go to gyms like that, I kind of stay isolated as I’m working out. But when I do get around my friends, we’re competitive, so we like to do competitive things—sports, we’re playing pick-up ball, like going from football, golf, stuff of that nature. But when I’m trying to get real work in and really, you know, like work out, it’s usually me and my trainer solo.
Outside of your friends and your trainer—or maybe he’s the best example here—are there any notable figures who have helped to develop your fitness journey?
It’d probably be Corey [Calliet, Jordan’s trainer]. Corey was probably the guy most consistently from around Creed one, Fantastic Four up to Creed III. I think we’ve like kind of established a fitness routine and physique. We’ve been rocking at it for a really long time.
We never really looked up anybody, besides maybe from Creed, we were watching old Rocky joints where you got Sly and Carl Weathers that are in like, incredible shape. We’re like, ‘Oh my god—This is what we got to do. We got to beat that. How can we beat that? Let’s work towards that.’ So that was kind of like the bar that we set years ago and we’ve been trying to raise it ever since.
Are there any any costars who’ve pushed you along the way?
There are sparring partners. When it comes to Creed specifically, I’m playing a boxer, so I get a chance to work out with professional fighters. So I’m learning from them all the time. You got Terence Crawford in there, learning from him, Andre Ward learning from him—these are guys that are World Champs, that do it for a living. To be able to be in those spaces with those guys, I take a page out of their book. That’s one of the best, great things about being an actor: You get a chance to put on different hats and you humbly step into other people’s professions and trades and you learn. I got an opportunity to learn from from some of the best in the world.
Have there been any shifts to your health and wellness routine now that you’ve taken on so much more responsibility on the projects that you’re doing? Creed III you directed, you’re also producing—that’s a lot of hours behind the camera and in editing rooms, making big decisions. What has changed?
I think for me—as we get older, our body does not respond the way it used to. So there’s a lot more warm ups, and cool downs, a lot of stretching, that normally when you’re younger, you don’t really pay as much attention to. I think about what I eat, how that has a direct effect on my productivity and what I can do, and how long I can function and what mood I’m in and how present I can be, which is the game when it comes to directing: being as present as possible in a million different ways. And supplements, what I’m hydrating with—Propel has been a key part of that the last couple of years since our brand partnership, so that’s been in the fold as well. And being consistent. I think having a routine that you can stick to as much as possible will really help you out at this ripe old age of 36.
Other actors who are doing athlete roles, superhero roles, things like that—they’re typically not behind the camera, too. So looking at the way your physique still showed out for Creed III, even though other guys that you might be using as a measuring stick aren’t doing those things that come with directing and producing, that was impressive. Do you ever feel like, ‘oh, I’ve got to match the way some other guy showed up in another film?’
No, not when it comes to the movies. I don’t. I think for this one [Creed III], knowing that I wasn’t gonna have the time to work out as much as I was before, I tried to get in shape as quickly as I could. So I used pre-production to like, prep for the film, but I used that to also try to get in the best shape as I could. But it also kind of worked in my favor because I was playing a character that was retired. So like, the fact that I wasn’t like, as super, super, super, super ripped as I can be—I think it played naturally for the character and the story that I was telling him very well. So it worked out exactly how it was supposed to work out. But I think there is only so many hours in the day to work out, to prep. Directing is so much prep, but you also have to listen to what it’s telling you it needs. So throughout the day, you gotta make decisions, sacrifices—you can’t do everything. So you gotta do as much as you can at the best of your ability. That’s a lot of decisions that you gotta make when you’re directing and starring in something.
This content is imported from youTube. You may be able to find the same content in another format, or you may be able to find more information, at their web site.
Does it also help that you can set some of the schedule as director and producer, that you can decide?
That too—but at the same time, once you’re up and shooting, that movie is going to be finished with or without you. You’re either going to be driving it or they’re going to be dragging you along. It’s a monster, for sure.
What would an ideal wellness and fitness routine look like separate from these projects?
I think for me, at the end of the day, one of the best things about fitness is it’s to the person. It’s like, what does fitness look like for you? What are your goals? Everybody can’t eat the same things and do the same exercises to get the same results. So I think finding out what works for you is really important. For me, the ideal situation would be being able to get up at an hour where I got enough rest. That means going to sleep early enough, then being able to get up to do some fasted cardio, get a good meal after, workout at some point during the day, and do whatever else you need to do throughout, you know, your regular human life. And then maybe if I get a second one in, and that’d be great, too. It depends on what you’re trying to do. I think just to maintain, baseline is doing 300 pushups a day, 200 situps. If you do that daily, I think that’s a baseline level of fitness. My dad was in the Marine Corps. He had a routine; he was waking up, doing push ups, bed was made. There are certain things that you carry on throughout your life. And I think that’s something that I’ll probably baseline always do—get up, do pushups, do situps, get that together. And then if I don’t get a chance to workout, I know I did my bare minimum. I think trying to find your version of that, it would be really helpful.
Is there a specific initiative out of the Propel Your City campaign that really resonates with you?
WalkGood LA was probably the one that spoke to me the most because obviously it’s where I live. I knew a lot of the people that were involved and I knew that they need it. One of the things I like about this initiative in general is we’re going to each city that we’re having a presence in and we’re really listening to the companies and the organizations that already exist and hearing what they need so we can know how to show up. Not just coming in with this cookie cutter program to be like, ‘alright cool, this is the curriculum, this is what we’re doing, you guys jump on, figure it out.’ We’re really listening to what the issues are to figure out how we can actually better serve the areas that we’re in. So WalkGood LA is amazing—you get out hiking, we have a lot of trails out here, a lot of vistas, a lot of views. [Being] outdoors in that mental space, to be in nature, to meditate, to breathe—it’s really important to your your overall health and wellbeing. Yoga, sound baths—they have a lot of great things. It really touched me to be able to connect with this one in a real way. And now we’re trying to find what those things what those programs are in other cities that may be unique to that area, and figuring out how to show up from there.
Brett Williams, a fitness editor at Men’s Health, is a NASM-CPT certified trainer and former pro football player and tech reporter who splits his workout time between strength and conditioning training, martial arts, and running. You can find his work elsewhere at Mashable, Thrillist, and other outlets.
Comments are closed.