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Influencer StackWhat the influencers actually use.

Hugh Jackman

Actor · Wolverine and The Greatest Showman

Australian actor and stage performer who played Wolverine across two decades of X-Men films and led The Greatest Showman and Broadway's The Music Man. He learned Transcendental Meditation at drama school and has kept it up since his twenties; for years his mornings ran coffee, cold shower, thirty minutes reading aloud with his then wife Deborra-Lee Furness, then meditation. Getting back into Wolverine shape in his mid-fifties put his training, fasting and eating for size back in the headlines.

Entries
25
Does
16
Recommends
5
Discusses
4

The gear and products they use

All 9 products in this stack

Protocols

9 entries

Repeatable, mostly free routines with a defined trigger and dose.

  • Resistance trainingDoes it$$$Cheap: Roughly under $50, or under $15/month.

    Progressive overload built around the classics: barbell bench, deadlifts, squats, weighted pull-ups, presses and dips, split by muscle group across the week, with supersets and circuits added to finish the muscles off. Form and smarter prep, he says, are why the later films came without the injuries of the first ones.

    Source: TRAIN: Hugh Jackman Workout and Nutrition Tips
    Backed by 37 of 44 stacks
  • Deliberate cold exposureDoes it$$$Cheap: Roughly under $50, or under $15/month.

    A cold shower every morning, before the reading and the meditation. He picked up ice baths from The 4-Hour Body while preparing for Wolverine and used them through the later films, where he credits them as a great way to lose fat.

    Source: The Tim Ferriss Show #444 transcript
    Backed by 23 of 44 stacks
  • Time-restricted eatingDoes itFREE, no cost

    Runs a 16/8 window when bulking so the size goes on without fat. He finds it far easier than eating every two to three hours, which he found brutal, and says he sleeps much better on it. Spoken in 2017, around the Logan press tour.

    Source: TRAIN: Hugh Jackman Workout and Nutrition Tips
    Backed by 21 of 44 stacks
  • Protein-forward eatingDoes it$$$Cheap: Roughly under $50, or under $15/month.

    Bulking for Deadpool & Wolverine meant a chef-prepared day of black bass, Patagonia salmon, two chicken burgers and two grass-fed sirloins, upward of 8,000 calories, after building from 4,500 while still doing The Music Man. He told Chris Wallace he did it the old-school way and apologized to the chickens of the world.

    Source: Variety: Hugh Jackman Is 'Bulking' Up for Wolverine by Eating Over 8,000 Calories a Day
    Backed by 19 of 44 stacks
  • Pull-upsDoes it$$$Cheap: Roughly under $50, or under $15/month.

    Press-ups, varied pull-ups and dips make up a big bodyweight block in his training. Weighted sleds and heavy ropes too. He says the combination helps the agility and flexibility the stunt work needs.

    Source: TRAIN: Hugh Jackman Workout and Nutrition Tips
    Backed by 3 of 44 stacks
  • Transcendental MeditationDoes it$$$Expensive: Several hundred dollars and up.

    Learned TM at drama school and has kept the mantra practice since. He describes the settling as a cloudy glass of water clearing, and says he comes out with a finer energy and clearer intention rather than a burst of drive. Falling asleep mid-session, in his view, is fine and probably what his body needed.

    Source: The Tim Ferriss Show #444 transcript
    Backed by 2 of 44 stacks
  • Dance trainingDoes it$$$Mid: Roughly $50 to $500, or up to $50/month.

    Much of the physical prep for Deadpool & Wolverine was dance training with stunt coordinator Brian Smrz, he told People. His body was sore at first but still responding, and the surprise for him was how good it is for the brain.

    Source: Fox News: 'Wolverine' star Hugh Jackman says it took a team of 8 people to get him into superhero shape
    Backed by 1 of 44 stacks
  • The 85 percent ruleDoes itFREE, no cost

    He trains with Beth Lewis, a former powerlifter and dancer, and credits her for much of his thinking on relaxation over strength. What he thinks is called the 85 percent rule: athletes told to run at 85 percent often run faster than at full effort because form and relaxation improve. He applies it to fight scenes, which he calls dance. He prefers a Wednesday matinee six weeks in to opening night.

    Source: The Tim Ferriss Show #444 transcript
    Backed by 1 of 44 stacks
  • BreathworkDiscussesFREE, no cost

    A trick from his singing teacher: as you breathe in, imagine you are breathing out. Tense singers pull the larynx up as they inhale, he explains; the ones who make you melt inhale as if relaxing, so they are prepared before the note arrives.

    Source: The Tim Ferriss Show #444 transcript
    Backed by 6 of 44 stacks

Habits

7 entries

Daily practices held long enough to become default behavior.

  • Daily readingDoes itFREE, no cost

    Every morning he and his then wife Deb read the same book aloud to each other for at least 30 minutes, splitting it half and half, before they meditate. He nicked the idea from Patrick Stewart, who wakes 30 minutes early to read whatever his call time. The day invariably gets away from you, he says, so doing it first means the time together has already happened.

    Source: The Tim Ferriss Show #444 transcript
    Backed by 19 of 44 stacks
  • Daily meditationDoes itFREE, no cost

    Twice a day for decades, from age 23. A few years before the interview he dropped the sense of duty and now sits every morning without fail, adding a second session around lunchtime whenever he is on a film set or in a theater run. Restless legs make late-afternoon sitting uncomfortable, so the second one comes earlier.

    Source: The Tim Ferriss Show #444 transcript
    Backed by 17 of 44 stacks
  • Daily designDoes itFREE, no cost

    Every morning he writes the day as if it has already happened, in past tense and in specific detail, then texts it to his coach for accountability. That night, or the next morning, he rereads it and scores the day out of ten. He recommitted to the same practice daily through the shoot of The Greatest Showman.

    Source: The Tim Ferriss Show #444 transcript
    Backed by 1 of 44 stacks
  • Jigsaw puzzlesDoes it$$$Cheap: Roughly under $50, or under $15/month.

    After a show he would happily eat and then spend an hour on a puzzle, and has to set an alarm to make himself go to bed. Thousand-piece Wentworth puzzles of places he has been are the pick. Probably another form of meditation, he thinks, and his restless legs never trouble him while he is doing one.

    Source: The Tim Ferriss Show #444 transcript
    Backed by 1 of 44 stacks
  • Working with a life coachDoes it$$$Expensive: Several hundred dollars and up.

    Has worked with life coach Lauren Zander, whom he found through Dr. Mark Hyman, for four years, and says the work has changed his life. Her job, as he tells it, is to call him on perfectionism and safety-net thinking. Federer has a full-time coach, he points out, so why not invest the same in the art of living.

    Source: The Tim Ferriss Show #444 transcript
    Backed by 1 of 44 stacks
  • Daily sunscreenRecommends$$$Cheap: Roughly under $50, or under $15/month.

    After repeated basal cell carcinoma biopsies on his nose, he has used each one to ask people to wear high-SPF sunscreen, saying the damage from 25 years earlier is only coming out now. If it reminds even one person, he says, he is happy.

    Source: NBC News: Hugh Jackman posts video on new skin cancer scare and urges fans to 'please wear sunscreen'
    Backed by 1 of 44 stacks
  • Cutting out alcoholDiscussesFREE, no cost

    He is not teetotal. But on Broadway and on tour he never drinks before a show, and really limits it after. Waking up in catch-up mode before a performance means drawing on reserves that do not come back.

    Source: The Tim Ferriss Show #444 transcript
    Backed by 12 of 44 stacks

In their own words

Checked word for word against the linked source

Stack notes are paraphrased. Anything in quotation marks is a short excerpt copied from the transcript it links to. Not medical advice. Not affiliated with, endorsed by, or reviewed by anyone listed. How this works.