“Cobra Kai”’s Ralph Macchio and William Zabka Still Do Karate to Stay Fit: ‘You’re Never Too Old for Anything’ (Exclusive)
The actors, who are 62 and 58, tell PEOPLE how they remain in shape off-screen, four decades after 1984’s ‘The Karate Kid’
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William Zabka (left) and Ralph Macchio on July 17, 2024With Cobra Kai in its sixth and final season, William Zabka is comparing training for the Netflix series since 2018 to “running a marathon.”
Zabka, 58, and Cobra Kai costar Ralph Macchio, 62, spoke to PEOPLE about how they stay fit off-screen, four decades after they debuted their characters in 1984’s The Karate Kid.
“You have to be an athlete to do this show, and it’s kept us in shape,” says Zabka, who plays longtime foe Johnny Lawrence to Macchio’s Daniel LaRusso in Cobra Kai. “As much as it's an ‘I'm too old for this,’ it's also like, ‘Hey, you're never too old for anything.’ ”
Macchio agrees, saying that baseline martial arts techniques are great for his muscles, strength, focus, balance and core.
“It's funny, back in 1980-whatever, I was like, ‘Well, thank God, I don't have to do this ever again!’ ” Macchio says. “Little did I know, and now I'm like, ‘You know what? I'm taking pride in it because at my age right now, this is good. This is really good. And I am prideful of it.’ ”
Curtis Bonds Baker/Netflix
William Zabka, Ralph Macchio and Yuji Okumoto in a 'Cobra Kai' scene“But youth is wasted on the young, and sometimes time and wisdom give you the wherewithal to know what might be beneficial,” Macchio adds.
Zabka remembers training for three months to do the final fight for the movie, but admits that there’s much less time to prepare for scenes for the TV series because of how fast-paced taping more footage can get.
“Sometimes we're shooting 200 moves, 10 different times in a day, and it's physically exhausting and you have to keep stretched out,” says Zabka, who references as an example the fight scene at the end of season 5 when he faced five guys and had to “throw them into a TV and dodge a knife.”
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Charley Gallay/Getty
William Zabka (left) and Ralph Macchio on July 17, 2024Aside from karate, Zabka loves to spend time outdoors surfing, scuba diving and river rafting with his kids to stay active.
“And I keep coming back to karate … and now I'm really training and I love it,” Zabka emphasizes. “It's part of life now. And I'll continue doing that and may even help teach in the school I’m training in right now. I've got a great sensei who worked with me really hard for the last years.”
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Macchio quips, “That would be cool.”
“Martial arts has been a blessing in my life from the time I was 18 years old until now,” Zabka adds. “And it’s great for your mind and soul and body, and so passing that on would be good. So I'll be doing that to stay in shape, too.”
Cobra Kai kicked off its final season with the first of three parts on July 18 on Netflix. Part 2 premieres Nov. 28 and the grand finale drops in 2025.
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