Mark Wahlberg Explains Why He’s Slowing Down His Fitness Routine at Age 52
Mark Wahlberg is getting realistic about his fitness goals as he gets older. The 52-year-old star of Apple Studios’ upcoming comedy The Family Plan spoke to Fox News about his refreshed fitness goals.
Years of making “all the mistakes possible” while performing strenuous stunts took a toll on the Mile 22 actor, who now finds himself tending to recurring "problems with shoulders, knees, [and my] back.” At this point, Wahlberg is more worried about recovering than getting ripped.
"I just, you know, get more and more injuries and [am] not recovering the way I should," he said. "There's no reason why anybody, never mind somebody at 52 years old, needs to be training, seven days a week and then doing two a days. You're just putting a pounding on your body and recovery. God has given us the best possible gifts. One of them is sleep right to recover and to heal."
Wahlberg went on to detail his daily wellness plan, which is less relentless than it used to be. The star previously told Men’s Journal that he “thrives on the grind,” with his days beginning at 2:30 a.m. Before 6 a.m., Wahlberg would polish off two meals and a 95-minute workout, the latter occasionally with Marines at the star’s F45 Training gym. The avid golfer, who showed off his remarkable skills for a 2022 MJ cover story, would then hit the links before the workday began. But these days, his routine is more about quality than quantity.
"Taking a cold plunge, resting two days a week, and really kind of just focusing on being able to move and feel good for the long haul,” Wahlberg noted of his current fitness plan. “Hopefully [I’ll] drag this beautiful thing called life for as long as possible, as opposed to just worrying about aesthetically trying to get bigger and stronger and then ultimately getting injured.”
The Uncharted actor gave a few tips for leading a vibrant life, specifying that striking a “balance” between fitness and enjoyment was vital. “You have to find balance. You don't want to live a boot camp type of existence,” Wahlberg said. “You want to be able to go out, have fun, reward yourself for your hard work. I think everybody wants to go celebrate their accomplishments as they should be able to. Then you get up the next day and you get after it and I think finding a nice balance and a nice routine is the key."
He admitted that cold plunges have aided him immeasurably in his older years. Wahlberg starts each day with one, though he admittedly doesn’t appreciate the full effect until it’s over. "It's definitely something that I look forward to in the morning,” he said, before cracking, “Not necessarily getting in, but the feeling I have after for sure."
Wahlberg’s philosophy towards wellness has been evolving for a while now. Earlier this year, he told GQ that he’d recently discovered intermittent fasting as a diet alternative that allowed him to “indulge more often” while remaining slim.
"I’ll kinda splurge here and there,” Wahlberg said of his current dietary method, “but it’s frustrating because later on in life I found the secret to being able to eat more—or indulge more often—was intermittent fasting. So finding out about fasting when I was 50 years old was a little bit frustrating! I feel like the [intermittent] fasting thing works the best."
Wahlberg can next be seen in the action-comedy The Family Plan, which debuts December 15 on Apple TV+.
