Hugh Michael Jackman (born 12 October 1968) is an Australian actor.

Morning Routine

From an interview with Tim Ferriss in 2020:

We wake up whatever time we’ve got to get up, I go down, I make a cup of coffee for me, a cup of tea for Deb. We come back up, I have a cold shower first—another thing I learned from you, from your 4-Hour Body book when I was getting ready for Wolverine, the old cold bath. So I have a cold shower every morning.

And then we go back and we read. And we read for at least 30 minutes, and then we meditate together. And that way—it’s become our favorite time of the day as a couple. And we know that, no matter what happens in the day, which invariably gets away from you, you’ve had that quality time together. And so that’s just been a godsend. It’s been an absolute blessing.

We read out loud to each other. So we split it up. We do half/half, and we read out loud to each other.

Meditation

• “The trick to life is to not letting the mind be your master but let it be your servant” – Hugh Jackman
  • Meditation allows you to quiet your monkey mind
    • “I have a feeling of coming home, a feeling of experiencing my true self and not just being caught up in the monkey mind or being reactive to life” 
      • After meditating, Hugh feels that his attention is clearer and he can listen better
• Hugh meditates twice a day almost every day
  • He uses Sam Harris’s Waking Up app

Broadway Routine

• When Hugh is on his Broadway tour:
  • He doesn’t drink alcohol
    • “It’s really important for me to wake up in a good frame of mind” – Hugh Jackman
  • He doesn’t go out and party afterwards
    • “The party I had on stage is better than anything I can imagine anywhere else”
  • He limits the amount of coffee intake
  • He tries to quiet his monkey mind before going on stage by stretching and doing his warm-ups

Workout

• Hugh is a big fan of the rowing machine
  • “The rowing machine—I think if you add in some chest work, some pushups, that’s everything you need to keep fit, healthy, strong.” – Tim Ferriss
    • Rowing is one of the best ways to get lean:
      • “Seven-minute row, four times a week, and the goal is 2,000 meters. And when you try it, at some point, you’re going to hate me for it, but still. That’s the quickest, best way.

The Wolverine Diet

Now again this is definitely one of the more intense workouts, but of course the diet comes with it as well.  The diet always has to take more precedent because the way you look is going to be determined on 70% of the diet then the other 30% comes from the actual training according to Hugh.

The diet is a very strict carb cycling, calorie cycling, and intermitent fasting regimen.  It is usually around the 4,000-4,500 calories per day unless he is really attempting to lean up to where he would drop down to a 3,500 calorie diet. He eats around 6 meals a day all consisting of protein.

The intermitent fast comes on a 16/8 schedule. Meaning that he will fast for 16 hours followed up by an 8 hour window of eating.  Sometimes he drops it to a 15/9 schedule.  The eating window will always come immeditely after the morning workout sessions.  You don’t ever want to fast for more than 3  hours after the workout.  More times than not you want to be eating immediately after.

The Wolverine Workout

Hugh Jackman’s workout is obviously just as intense as his dieting.  He usually works out for about 3 hours a day. 45 minutes of low intensity cardio and weight training first thing in the morning.  Followed by an afternoon session high intensity cardio.

Sources:

• http://savvystrength.com/jackman-workout-diet-fitness/
• https://simple.life/blog/hugh-jackman-intermittent-fasting/
• https://tim.blog/2020/06/30/hugh-jackman-transcript/
• https://podcastnotes.org/tim-ferris-show/hugh-jackman-on-the-tim-ferriss-show/