There is nothing that can stop the legendary energy of Mark Wahlberg to train at 4 in the morning.
“Today, even with a stiff and sore neck, I’ve been working out for an hour and a quarter,” the actor tells Men’s Health. The day before, he’d hurt his neck on the golf course, but still got up in the wee hours for one of his trademark “4am club” training sessions.
The day before, he had trained a group of fellow early risers in a hellish pre-dawn sit-up sequence. “We did a lot of ab wheeling, a lot of leg raises and some Supermans on the TRX, all at a pretty high pace,” he explains of the session. In the video he posted on Instagram afterwards, Wahlberg called this team “the A-Team.”
The star key to enjoying all of this long before the sun rises? “The great secret, gentlemen, is to go to sleep earlier”, says. “I have my wife and four kids. Between my prayer time and script reading and all the things I have to do… if I also want to incorporate some golf or some other ‘me time’ activity, you have to get up before the others.”
Between his 2:30 a.m. wake-up call and an early bedtime, Wahlberg engages in an absurd amount of activities: long sessions of prayer and fasting, videos and events to promote his own brand of tequila, reshoots for an upcoming film, Our Guy from Jersey. , in which he stars alongside Halle Berry, and visits to the premises of the F45 gym chain. Wahlberg, who is an investor in F45 and now serves as the company’s Brand Director, leads the “Wahlberg Week”, a package of seven free workouts scheduled in conjunction with trainer Gunnar Peterson with titles inspired by the life of the actor. There’s “Swagger,” like his character in Shooter, and “Southpaw,” a nod to The Fighter.
The actor took time with us – after sunrise – to give tips on starting your own team at 4am, talk about how his training has changed over the decades, and share one of his favorite fitness challenges. Wahlberg Week.
If MH readers want to join the 4AM team, what’s the secret? What tips do you have for becoming an early riser?
Take the band-aid off one day. Set the alarm clock and don’t hit the snooze button. By the time you exercise, eat and continue with the rest of the day. I would say that at 15 or 16 hours of the day you will be quite tired. So if you go to bed early at night, you’ll still be on schedule. You’ll be able to sleep eight hours and wake up early enough to be at the 4am club.
I started doing it so early because I have a wife and four children. Between my prayer time, reading the scripts, and all the things I have to do—especially if I play golf or incorporate a “me” activity—you have to get up before everyone else.
Some people prefer to exercise at night, but I am always so busy that I have no energy to do anything. When I get home and have already eaten, I am about to fall.
You have fasted throughout Holy Week. Now that it’s over, will you continue with that regimen?
Intermittent fasting has worked very well for me and has helped me stay lean. I used to eat eight small meals a day and had to push myself triple doing cardio. I would do cardio in the morning, then come back in the afternoon and jump rope again. And he certainly wasn’t digesting all the food or protein he was consuming. Once I started fasting, I had to do a lot less cardio. I only went to the gym five days a week, and I certainly never had to come back in the afternoon for cardio.
I would eat my first meal at noon and then eat again at three in the afternoon, and then eat again just before six. And that would be all. But [durante la Cuaresma] I did a couple of 24 hour fasts. I did 48 hours, and I got as lean as I haven’t been in a long time, pretty quickly.
Has this been one of the biggest changes in your training in recent years?
Absolutely. He was so stubborn that he did not listen to anyone. He thought he had it all figured out. He had that old school bodybuilder mentality where he eats little every two hours or so. He just wasn’t able to digest all that food. So he had intestinal problems and things like that. With the fast, he had more energy. I lost weight faster. It’s not for everyone, but it certainly works for me.
Has fasting helped you lose weight for the roles? Is there anything you have trained for recently that has helped you?
Yeah, it’s a movie with me and Halle Berry called Our Guy from Jersey. He’s kind of a blue-collar version of James Bond, a guy who gets thrown into a world of secret agents and stuff. He’s a guy who would do anything to impress his high school girlfriend. And she comes back to her life and drags him into this world. It’s a lot of fun, but I had to be lean and fit.
I started this movie shortly after Father Stu. So I had put on weight [para ese papel]. It was quite a challenge. For me, it was easier to lose weight than to gain weight. But I just wanted to lose as much weight as possible. And when I started fasting, it became much easier for me to lose weight. I’ve gone from 15 percent body fat to single digits, while still building lean muscle.
Have you made any other changes in the way you train going from the age of 40 to 50?
Especially as you get older, you want to be able to move. All the dynamic movements and exercises have changed the way I train. Instead of being on any kind of stationary equipment… it’s movement, lateral movement.
Those things are the most important. Getting on a stationary bike is good for bodybuilding, sculpting, shaping, all of that. But getting out there, doing a lot of lunges and things like that, that’s what’s going to keep me going.”
Next week is “Wahlberg Week” at F45. Are there any signature workout challenges that you really enjoy?
The Pullups: A slow, disciplined pullup for 40 seconds, trying to do as many as possible. Anyone who has done F45 knows that you can challenge yourself at any time during any part of training. You just have to work hard. … [Y durante la semana Wahlberg,] There’s a little something for every day of the week for your different body parts to push yourself a little harder.