To be the proper size and shape for their profession and passion, these great men not only make themselves look good, but also train hard to be fit. The following are world's top 50 men from many who stay in great shape.
50. Daniel Craig
Die-hard fans of the Bond franchise bemoaned the choice of Daniel Craig to replace popular leading man Pierce Brosnan in 2006. At the time, Craig was a well-respected character actor—and he was blonde and a little rough around the edges, which broke the dark-and-handsome mold. Here’s how Craig also went against type: His portrayal was fitter, meaner, angrier, and darker than any Bond in the history of the franchise—and that’s why Craig’s Bond is also one of the best. He looks like the kind of Bond you could imagine a henchman legitimately running from—cobblestone abs, monster traps, and hardly an ounce of fat anywhere. In other words, he’s the Bond who finally made kicking ass in a tuxedo believable again.
49. Roberto Clemente
Stats tend to overwhelm baseball analysis these days, but you don’t need any fancy advanced metrics to come to this conclusion: Roberto Clemente was one of the greatest athletes in the sport’s history. A pure five-tool player with a lifetime batting average of .317, the Pittsburgh Pirate outfielder had a rocket arm honed from years throwing javelin in high school (some thought he could have been an Olympic champ) and was known for a balls-out style of play that enthralled the Forbes Field crowds. Over the course of his 17-year major league career, Clemente won four National League batting titles, an MVP Award, and a World Series. He was also the first Hispanic ballplayer to join the 3,000-hit club and get elected to the Hall of Fame. But his greatest accomplishments may have been off the field, serving as a goodwill ambassador for Latin American nations. On New Year’s Eve 1972, Clemente was delivering supplies to earthquake-ravaged Nicaragua when a plane crash tragically cut his life short—but not before he left a lasting legacy.
48. Jet Li
American audiences first noticed Jet Li when he left Riggs and Murtaugh writhing in pain throughout Lethal Weapon 4. But before Li ever started earning his income whupping ass in Hollywood, he’d amassed considerable honors back home in Beijing. That’s where he became the first-ever fighter to win the Chinese national wushu championship five times. It helps when you win your first championship at age 11—Li was the youngest guy to ever grace the podium. With each subsequent win, his star power grew—he performed for Richard Nixon, started acting in Chinese action films, and by the late ’90s, he was headlining major movies. Not that he ever let the success go to his head. “I'm not a hero," he told Men’s Health. "I just spent a lot of time learning martial arts. Maybe that's a unique thing. And I try to show you what I can do, but a lot of people can do it. I'm not anything special. So I never say I'm the best fighter in the world. You make enemies with your ego.” Need an assist keeping your ego in check? You’re not alone.
47. Oscar Pistorius
If there was a more inspiring sight at the 2012 Olympics than Oscar Pistorius, we’re not sure what it was. Born without any fibulas, Pistorius had both of his lower legs amputated when he was just 11 months. But Pistorius’ family never treated his prosthetics as a limitation. Instead, they encouraged him to play rugby, water polo, anything he wanted to try. And Pistorius not only learned to play, he dominated. After taking up running to help recover from a knee injury, Pistorius quickly became one of the biggest stars in running, earning a place at the 2004 and 2008 Paralympic Games (where he won four gold medals), and finally, on the 2012 South African Olympic squad. Pistorius didn’t medal in London, but that didn’t make his appearance any less memorable. “Just getting to that point, to be able to line up on the starting blocks at a race like that,” he told Today, “means so much.”
46. Dwyane Johnson
It’s hard to believe Dwyane Johnson almost never became The Rock. And the irony is that it was his failure in one arena—literally—that led to his success in another. Johnson was on a full scholarship at the University of Miami, suiting up with Ray Lewis and Warren Sapp. When a back injury sidelined his career for good—even the CFL couldn’t find a place for him—he turned to pro wrestling. Unbelievably, that required trimming down—going from 280 to 260 pounds. Under his new persona, The Rock, Johnson quickly became a fan favorite—and it wasn’t long before Hollywood saw his potential as a bankable star. And so for his role in The Mummy Returns, The Rock slimmed down yet again, shedding another 15 pounds in 4 months using a high-intensity resistance-training program.
45. Mitsuyo Maeda
It’s one thing to master the art of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. It’s another thing to help invent it. Mitsuo Maeda was the original mentor to Carlos Gracie, the patriarch of the famed Gracie family. And if you know Jiu-Jitsu, you know the Gracies: Their family has produced 13 black belts—all sixth-degree or higher. Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu was popularized around 1914 “when Japanese master Maeda traveled to the Amazonian port town of Belem, where he met Gastão Gracie, a wealthy dynamite wholesaler and politician. Maeda had come to visit Belem's tiny Japanese community, but he stayed to teach Gastão's troublesome street-fighting son, Carlos, the rudiments of his martial art,” according to the New York Times. And that planted the seeds of an entire martial arts movement.
44. Miguel Indurain
If you grew up in the era of the Tour de Lance, we’d forgive you if the name Miguel Indurain slipped under your radar. In the early to mid-‘90s, Indurain was without question the world’s greatest cyclist. He won the Tour de France five consecutive times—the first man to pull off that feat—between 1991 and 1995. Many people thought Indurain’s 6-foot-2 frame would be a hindrance in the mountainous parts of the course. But he more than held his own, then crushed rivals in the flatter sections, especially in time trials. In 1994, Indurain set a world record for the farthest distance biked in one hour when he pedaled nearly 33 miles. Thankfully, you don’t need to bike 33 miles to get fit. A shorter ride to the office will do just fine.
43. Charles Atlas
Posters plastered with Charles Atlas’ physique promised that if any “scrawny weakling” tried his workouts, they’d be turned into a mass of muscle. Indeed, the man was a shrewd marketer of the muscled male body: his bodybuilding program’s advertising campaign is considered one of the most successful, memorable, and longest-lasting in history. And the programs worked wonders. Focusing mainly on bodyweight exercises that anyone could do anywhere, his ultra-effective concepts about fitness and muscle are still inspiring—and used by—top trainers today.
42. Alexander Zass
Zass' raw strength was mind-boggling: the 5-foot-5, 165-pound weightlifter could bend iron bars, break chains, carry horses on his shoulders, and catch a 200-pound cannon ball shot from a cannon he built himself (seriously). More importantly, Zass is proof that the strongest guy in the room isn't always the biggest or fittest-looking. He proved to men everywhere that even so-called average guys can do extraordinary things.
41. Laird Hamilton
When big just wasn’t big enough, this surfer helped develop tow-in surfing, which gets surfers atop seemingly insurmountable waves with Jet-Skis and other personal watercrafts. Now, having conquered 80-plus-feet swells, Hamilton is taking his native Hawaii’s standup paddleboarding to the mainland and revolutionizing on-water workouts.
40. Karl Malone
Standing 6-foot-9 and 265 pounds, “The Mailman” racked up 36,298 points—the second-most in NBA history—over a 19-year career with the Utah Jazz and Los Angeles Lakers. As a rookie, Malone weighed 250 pounds with 10.5 percent body fat. An unparalleled work ethic and a rigorous, self-designed training regimen eventually cut the latter number to a miniscule 4.8 percent. “Karl Malone was not a Michael Jordan when he came into this league,” said former Utah Jazz coach Jerry Sloan. “He made himself a great player through hard work.”
39. Georg Hackenschmidt
Hackenschmidt is the reason that Eastern Europeans are feared strong men. Nicknamed "The Russian Lion," Hackenshmidt was a world champion wrestler, having fought about 3,000 matches and lost only two in his long career. Along with his wrestling skill, he was incredibly intelligent and well spoken—a combo that made him immensely famous during the early 1900s. Teddy Roosevelt, in fact, even once stated, “If I wasn’t president of the United States, I’d like to be Georg Hackenschmidt.”
38. Walter Payton
The man whom fans and teammates affectionately referred to as “Sweetness” was anything but sweet on the field and in the gym, choosing instead to plow through defenders and reps with the same unrelenting force. Payton’s personal motto was “Never Die Easy,” which prompted the late Bears running back to take hit after brutal hit just to net a couple measly extra yards. It worked—Payton finished his career in 1987 with an astonishing 16,726 total yards, good for second on the NFL’s all-time list. Payton’s intense offseason training also sparked his record rushing; according to some reports, he’d run sprints through sand traps and up slopes in the blistering Mississippi heat to prepare his legs for quick cuts. Payton left the world at a too-young 45 (due to a rare liver disease), but his legacy and training regimen live on in some of today’s premier running backs.
37. Ed Viesturs
It’s safe to assume that Ed Viesturs harbors no fear of heights. The world-class climber has ascended Mount Everest an astounding seven times. And Everest isn’t the only jewel in Viesturs’ crown: He’s climbed all 14 of the world’s tallest peaks, a journey he described in his book, No Shortcuts to the Top. In it, he talks about conquering Annapurna—a series of high peaks in the Himalayas. “Every person has his or her Annapurna,” Viesturs wrote. “Your Annapurna might be a tough project at work, a bad illness, or the breakup of a marriage, but the trick is to find a way of converting adversity into something positive, a challenge to look forward to.”
36. Paavo Nurmi
When he showed up to Paris for the 1924 Olympics, expectations were riding high for Paavo Nurmi. He’d already earned three gold medals at the previous Olympics in Antwerp, Belgium, and people were hoping for a repeat performance. Nurmi didn’t disappoint. The five golds he won that year in Paris were at the time the most taken home by any athlete in a single Olympic Games. Nurmi crossed the finish line first in the 1,500- and 5,000-meter races, the individual team cross-country races, and one more time in the 3,000-meter team race. But it wasn’t until 2005 that Nurmi achieved the highest honor of all—a shout-out on The Simpsons. “"Did you know,” Mr. Burns says of his antique automobile, “that this car once outraced the Flying Finn, Paavo Nurmi?"
35. Kelly Slater
Surfing’s biggest star is proof that age is just a number. Slater’s both the youngest (at age 20) and oldest (at age 39) to win the Association of Surfing Professionals World Championship. As if that weren’t enough, he won it a record seven more times in between, earning him the title of the best competitive surfer ever. Luckily, even land lovers can stay young forever with these
34. Chris Sharma
Before the age most of us could drive, Chris Sharma had already conquered some of the world’s most daunting climbs. Looking back, it’s hard to find a time in Sharma’s life when he wasn’t an elite climber. At 14, Sharma took first in the Bouldering Nationals—the Super Bowl of the climbing world. By his 19th birthday, Sharma was more than doubling the score of his closest competitors. So what do you do when you’ve hit most of your biggest athletic goals before your 20th birthday? Invent new ones—and then overcome them. In 2008, Sharma completed a climb of Clark Mountain, a 250-foot-high slab of limestone on the border between California and Nevada. So far, nobody else has replicated the feat.
33. Bo Jackson
Before a hip injury ended his football career and nearly derailed his baseball career, Jackson was the biggest two-sport star America had seen since Jim Thorpe. After passing up an offer to play for the New York Yankees right out of high school, Jackson attended Auburn University on a football scholarship. In 1985, he won the Heisman Trophy as the nation’s best college football player and hit .401 with 17 home runs for the baseball team. During his career, Jackson rarely lifted weights, instead focusing on a regimen of calisthenics and water aerobics.
32. Willie Mays
It wasn’t just Mays’ grace and athleticism patrolling center field for the New York Giants that made him a hero to an entire generation of kids; it was that he brought it directly to them. Every morning during the baseball season, Mays played stickball on the street with groups of children in his Harlem neighborhood. After his morning game, Mays would cross 155th Street and go down a massive flight of stairs to the Polo Grounds. “If you look at how steep these steps are, you can see why Willie Mays was in such great shape,” said New York Times columnist William Rhoden in a short film about Mays’ Harlem. “Trust me, this was a workout.”
31. Carl Lewis
Between 1983 and 1996, Carl Lewis was the unrivaled star of international track and field, and America’s most visible and popular Olympic athlete. He won gold nine times in four different Olympic events and eight times in World Championship competition. But he left his most lasting impression in the long jump, where he amassed 65 consecutive victories. One of his world records still remains. That’s part of the reason why the International Olympic Committee once named Lewis “Sportsman of the Century.”
30. Ranulph Fiennes
Being third cousin to British actors Joseph and Ralph Fiennes and distantly related the Queen is perhaps the least noteworthy aspect about Sir Ranulph Fiennes. After all, he’s also the first person to reach both the North and South Poles by overland travel, to cross Antarctica on foot, and to traverse both polar ice caps. When five fingers turned black from frostbite after one Arctic expedition, Fiennes sawed off the tips with a handsaw to avoid a $10,000 surgery bill. And in 2003 he ran seven marathons on each of the seven continents in seven days, helping him earn the title as the world’s greatest living explorer from the Guinness Book of World Records. At age 68, Fiennes is currently training for his first crossing of Antarctica during the southern winter.
29. Jesse Owens
Is it possible for someone who moves so fast and fluidly to be defined by a still image? Take, for example, the famous photograph of Olympian Jesse Owens, standing proudly at the podium after winning the long jump gold medal at the 1936 Summer Olympics in Berlin, his hand raised to his brow in a deferential salute as an entire stadium of Germans extend their arms. For many, this was the picture of American defiance in the face of hate and fascism, displayed by a track star whose feats eviscerated Nazi propaganda about Aryan superiority. Indeed, Owens—who matched the 100-meter sprint world record while in high school—won four golds in all during those controversial Games and raised the profile of African-American athletes everywhere in an era of segregation. This made him an icon. So it may be easy to forget that the man was damn quick, even by current Usain Bolt standards. After all, the Ohio State legend set three world records and tied another in less than an hour at the Big Ten Track & Field Championships a year before his Olympic triumphs. As Owens once put it, “I let my feet spend as little time on the ground as possible. From the air, fast down, and from the ground, fast up.”
28. Lou Gehrig
Poor Wally Pipp. On June 2, 1925 the New York Yankees starting first baseman (who had a decent career until that day) was removed from the starting lineup after complaining of a headache. A young upstart from Columbia University named Henry Louis Gehrig took his place—and continued to do so for 2,130 straight games, a streak unmatched until Cal Ripken, Jr. broke the record in 1995. It was a testament to Gehrig’s endurance and strength that he not only showed up every day for work, but excelled at a Hall of Fame level, amassing 493 home runs, 1,995 RBI, and 2,721 hits in his legendary 17-year career. It was only until he first discovered symptoms of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (now known as ALS or Lou Gehrig’s disease) that the Iron Horse finally slowed down. Even though that devastating battle robbed him of his physical gifts, Gehrig’s fortitude never wavered, as he declared himself “the luckiest man on the face of the Earth” in his farewell address at Yankee Stadium. Ironclad to the end.
27. Steve Reeves
Before Goliaths like Arnold Schwarzenegger and Lou Ferrigno were taking up roles in Conan the Barbarian and The Incredible Hulk in the ’70s and ’80s, a single big man dominated the big screen: Steve Reeves. Build like a semi-truck, he was the first strongman with recurring roles in films such as Troy, A Fistful of Dollars, Hercules, and Goliath. Like the recent movie 300, which made guys around the world work for the physique of a Spartan warrior, Reeves’ every movie inspired men of the era to flock to the gym.
26. Mariusz Pudzianowski
In the early 2000s, Mariusz Pudzianowski was the Michael Jordan of heavy lifters. In the annual World’s Strongest Man competition, he placed first five times—the only competitor ever to do so—and finished second twice between 2002 and 2009. Elsewhere, his performances were even more remarkable—he’s racked up an astounding 16 first-place finishes in the Strongman Super Series. His most impressive feats: Once, during an event called the Asia Stone—which involves walking a 400-pound weight as far as the competitor can—Pudzianowski smashed a world record by traveling more than 375 feet. As one of his peers, Magnus Samuelsson, put it, “[Mariusz is] really fast, extremely strong and probably the most efficient strongman there has ever been.”
25 & 24. Rick & Dick Hoyt
Stories don’t come much more inspirational than the one about Rick and Dick Hoyt. Together, the father and son form Team Hoyt. As their website none-too-subtly puts it, “Team Hoyt is the story of a father, Dick Hoyt, who pushes his son, Rick Hoyt, in a wheelchair in marathons and triathlons across the country.” If you know anything about Team Hoyt, you know that’s unfairly modest. When Gary Smith profiled the duo for Sports Illustrated in April 2011, Dick had already pushed—and sometimes pulled, in a special boat—his son through 1,036 races. Why? Because his son—who was diagnosed with cerebral palsy at birth—never feels better than he does during those races. And so Dick keeps going—despite warnings from his doctors, despite stents in his arteries, despite surviving a heart attack. Think about that the next time you’re trying to come up with an excuse to skip your morning run.
23. Bruce Jenner
Depending on your appetite for reality TV, you probably know more than you’ve ever wanted to know about Bruce Jenner—or nothing at all. The stepfather of Kourtney and Kim Kardashian remains a tabloid fixture today for his role in the hit series Keeping Up With the Kardashians. But in the mid-’70s, Jenner commanded the spotlight entirely on his own. He won an Olympic gold medal in the decathlon while setting the world record (8,618 points). More significantly, Jenner recaptured decathlon gold from the Soviets at the height of the Cold War. His victory lap while waving an American flag remains one of the most iconic images of the Olympic Games, and it earned Jenner a place in one of the most American traditions of all: His face on a Wheaties box.
22. Gerard Butler
Until 2007, Gerard Butler was just another handsome leading man carving out a respectable career in Hollywood. And then 300 happened. And brother, how things did change. As the ultra-shredded Spartan king Leonidas, Butler redefined what it meant to look ripped. To get the otherworldly six-pack he sported on screen, Butler committed to a fierce, 300-rep (get it?) training regimen that remains one of the most popular routines Men’s Health has ever featured. It goes like this: 25 pullups, 50 deadlifts, 50 pushups, 50 box jumps, 50 floor wipers, 50 single-arm clean-and-presses, and then (yes) 25 more pullups—all without rest. That may seem excessive (and we didn’t even get to the tire-flipping), but it put Butler in the proper mindset for the role. "You know that every bead of sweat falling off your head, every weight you've pumped—the history of that is all in your eyes," he told Men’s Health of his routine. "That was a great thing, to put on that cape and put on that helmet, and not have to think, ‘Shit, I should have trained more.’ Instead, I was standing there feeling like a lion."
21. Michael Jordan
Dream Team debates aside, few people dispute that Michael Jordan is—statistically speaking, anyway—the greatest basketball player of all-time. But he didn’t get there on raw talent alone. In 1989, trainer Tim Grover read an article about Jordan wanting to begin strength training to better prepare for the physical style of play he would face against the Chicago Bulls’ chief conference rivals, the Detroit Pistons. Jordan was afraid to hit the weights for fear it would affect his game. Grover contacted the Bulls to offer his services. “[Jordan] said he’d try it out for a month, and it ended up being 15 years,” Grover told ESPN in 2009. Fueled by the added muscle, Jordan led the Bulls to six NBA titles and a Hall of Fame career.
20. Richard Simmons
The Richard Simmons you know—the ebullient man with short-shorts, white sneakers, and a bigger-than-life personality—wasn’t always a model of health and fitness. Simmons graduated high school pushing 268 pounds. After failing to lose weight with fad diets, he turned to the method he’s preached for the past 30 years: exercise and healthy eating. “There is no magic milkshake or workout machine,” Simmons told Men’s Health in an interview earlier this year. “My formula has always been love yourself, move your body, watch your portions. And it sounds so easy, but it is not.” That simple formula has helped Simmons’ clients and fans lose a collective 3 million pounds and counting.
19. Eugene Sandow
While performing feats of strength in front of the World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago in 1883, Sandow realized that the crowd was more fascinated with his massive muscles than with his strength. After that, he began what he called, "muscle display performances," and the sport of modern bodybuilding began. From there he went on to open an early bodybuilding gym, and publish a monthly fitness and bodybuilding magazine. Indeed, Sandow was the first person to bring muscle-building culture to the masses. (And we’ve been more than happy to improve on his methods.)
18. Chuck Norris
Chuck Norris’ tears cure cancer—if only he would ever cry. Chuck Norris counted to infinity—twice. But well before there was Chuck Norris the myth, there was Chuck Norris the man. And believe it or not, his achievements were almost as impressive. Here are some actual facts we know about the guy: Norris was voted into the Black Belt Hall of Fame three times—first as a fighter in 1968, again as an instructor in 1975, and yet again as Man of the Year in 1977. (That last one sounds dangerously like a myth.) He was the first person from the Western Hemisphere to earn an 8th degree black belt in Tae Kwan Do, and was a six-time undefeated world champion. He starred as Bruce Lee’s foe in Way of the Dragon—and, we’ll add, put up a pretty decent fight, all things considered. Norris even once taught Bob Barker how to throw a punch, a skill the Price is Right host put to good use in Happy Gilmore. No word on whether Chuck also taught him how to count to infinity.
17. Mark Wahlberg
There’s a good reason why Mark Wahlberg winds up on the cover of Men’s Health more than almost any other A-lister: The dude simply never lets himself go. He refuses. Search back as far as the ’80s, and you’ll get Wahlberg the Calvin Klein underwear model and leader of Marky Mark and the Funky Bunch, showing off a six-pack not unlike the one he’s still rocking today. Clearly, the man isn’t planning on entering his Marlon Brando phase anytime soon.
Of course, staying fit past 40 requires considerably more effort than it did when Wahlberg earned his keep appearing on billboards in the buff. "My life has evolved so drastically over the years in every aspect. I embrace it,” Wahlberg told Men’s Health. Just as he evolved from playing tough guys to porn stars to voicing bawdy-but-somewhat -lovable teddy bears, Wahlberg also continues to tweak his routine in the gym to fit the changing demands of his body. For his role in The Fighter, he combined classic exercises like medicine ball twists and pushups to build his character’s rock-hard core.
16. David Beckham
"You'll never play for England, because you're too small and not strong enough."
Heard at age 13 from one (really bad) soccer teacher, those words only fueled Beckham’s resolve to master the game. He not only played for England—first in 1996—but served as its captain for six years. Beckham went on to win six Premier League titles with Manchester United and two FA cups. How’d he do it? Conditioning played a big part. While he wasn’t always the most-skilled player on the field, Beckham knew he could outwork his opponents. “I am a very stubborn person,” Beckham told Men’s Health, “I think it’s helped me over my career. I’m sure it has hindered me at times as well, but not too many times. I know that if I set my mind to something, even if people are saying I can’t do it, I will achieve it.” Now, having firmly established himself as a soccer icon, Beckham’s working to get the rest of the world onboard, playing for Major League Soccer's Los Angeles Galaxy. And he has no plans to slow down: “Even at 36, I’m still running 12 miles a game. But I’ve definitely become more aware on the field. I know what my limits are, what I can achieve, and which passes I can play. I have adapted to my age.”
15. Muhammad Ali
Plenty of boxers can hit hard. But what made Muhammad Ali a champion was his ability to slip past punches and hop around the ring—to “float like a butterfly, sting like a bee,” in the sometime-poet's own words. That skill helped Ali apply a beat-down to other heavyweight legends including Sonny Liston, Joe Frazier, and George Foreman. And Ali's personal life was a sports journalist's dream: His name change from Cassius Clay after converting to the Nation of Islam, refusing to report for the draft during the Vietnam War (a case that was eventually decided by the Supreme Court), and his ability to spout a near-constant stream of quotes and witticisms all made Ali a cultural icon and a revered competitor.
14. Jackie Robinson
What’s not commonly known is that before Robinson ever played professional baseball, he was one of the country’s greatest all-around amateur athletes. In high school, he lettered in four sports and was an accomplished tennis player. While at UCLA, he was the point guard on the basketball team, a quarterback, running back, and safety on its football team, a shortstop and leadoff hitter for its baseball team, and the most accomplished long and broad jumper on its track team. By the time he joined the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1947—becoming the first black man to play in the majors— Robinson’s endurance wasn’t a question. That season, he took home Rookie of the Year honors, and two seasons later was voted the National League’s MVP. Today his uniform number, 42, remains the only one to be retired across all Major League teams.
13. Greg Lemond
In the late ’80's and early ’90's, the only name you needed to know in competitive cycling was Greg LeMond. In 1986 he became the first American—the first person from anywhere but Europe, for that matter—to win the Tour de France. The next year, LeMond took an accidental shotgun blast in the back during a turkey hunt. After two years recovering, LeMond still had get on the bike with more than 30 shotgun pellets embedded in his body. But that didn't stop him from winning two more Tours de France before he retired from cycling in 1994.
12. Sylvester Stallone
Here’s the thing you need to respect about Sly: When he commits to a role, he trains for it like no other actor. While filming Rocky, he cut his body fat to as little as 3.8 percent, and bulked up to nearly 200 pounds. Five Rocky sequels later, he’s the undisputed king of the workout montage. What’s most surprising is that Stallone hasn’t gone the way of Jack Nicholson and other icons. If anything, his success only seems to fuel his fitness obsession more. He recently became one of Hollywood’s more unlikely comeback stories, starting with the resurrection of Rocky in 2006 and Rambo in 2008. Recently, he fired up the pyrotechnics once more when he starred in The Expendables 2, which he also wrote and directed.
11. Ashton Eaton
If you want to know why Ashton Eaton can vie for the title of world’s greatest athlete, first you need to know something about the decathlon. The Olympic event combines 10 disciplines—stuff like long jumping, shot putting, sprinting, and javelin throwing—and in 2012, Eaton rocked them all. During the U.S. Olympic Trials, he set a new world decathlon record of 9,039 points, barely edging out Roman Sebrle’s mark (9,026 points) that had stood for 11 years. To earn that staggering point total, Eaton finished first in the 100-meter dash (10.2 seconds), the long jump (27 feet), the high jump (6.7 feet), and the 400-meter dash (46 seconds). And just when things couldn’t look any better for the 24-year-old, he opened the 2012 Olympics with even more bests, smashing a 44-year-old decathlon record in the 100-meter dash (10.3 seconds) and finishing first in the long jump. Any questions?
10. Bjorn Daehlie
Norwegian Olympian Bjorn Daehlie may be the fittest man ever to strap on a pair of skis. Between 1992 and 1998, he took home 12 Olympic medals—eight golds and four silvers—the most ever by a winter athlete. But it’s not just his medals that earn him a place here. It’s also a number: 94. That’s the score Daehlie reportedly registered in the VO2 max, a test of how efficiently the body uses oxygen. Generally speaking, the higher the score, the longer it takes your muscles to fatigue. The average guy would likely score in the 35-40 range. Tour de France champions like Lance Armstrong and Miguel Indurain have reportedly reached the 80s. Daehlie’s unprecedented score blew even the elite cyclists away.
9. Manny Pacquiao
Born impoverished in Manilla, Philippines, Manny Pacquiao rose to become one of the highest-paid athletes in the world. He left home at 14 seeking a better life, entering quasi-legal bouts. Pacquiao is just 5-foot-6, but he's worked his way up through eight of boxing's weight classes, winning championships in divisions ranging from the 112-pound flyweight through the 154-pound light middleweight. And no one would make the mistake of thinking that added weight is anything but pure muscle: Pacquiao is often ranked as the best pound-for-pound fighter in the world. Outside of the ring, he's been a reservist in the Philippines Army (currently holding the rank of lieutenant colonel) and in 2010 he was elected to the Philippine House of Representatives.
8. Lance Armstrong
Lance Armstrong is the cyclist that became an entire fitness brand. Weirdly enough, it started with a diagnosis in 1996 of stage 3 testicular cancer that had spread to Armstrong's lungs and brain. Already a very promising cyclist, Armstrong chose a course of treatment that would spare his lungs’ robust aerobic capacity. He not only survived the cancer, but just three years after that original diagnosis Armstrong became the second American to win the grueling 21-day-long Tour de France. The next year he won the Tour de France again, and the year after that, again, and again, and again, and again, racking up seven consecutive victories between 1999 and 2005. Despite a recent decision by the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency to vacate 14 years of results (including his 7 Tour de France titles) based on the testimony of former teammates, Armstrong remains the face of cycling to most Americans. “I know who won those seven Tours,” Armstrong said in a statement after deciding not to contest the USADA decision. “My teammates know who won those seven Tours, and everyone I competed against knows who won those seven Tours.”
Beyond his accomplishments on the bike, Armstrong has used his celebrity to build the Lance Armstrong Foundation, a massive non-profit that through those ubiquitous yellow wristbands and events in 65 nations has raised more than $470 million for cancer education and to support cancer patients.
7. Cristiano Ronaldo
At 27, the famously fast, strong, and agile striker has more than lived up to his soccer-legend namesake. Known for his wicked step-over, Ronaldo leaves even the best defenders flat on their grass-stained keisters. There’s no question why, in 2009, with numerous scoring records and PFA, FWA, and FIFA awards under his cleats, it took $131.6 million for Real Madrid to snatch him away from Manchester United. He’s now the most expensive footballer of all-time.
6. Jim Thorpe
In retrospect, Jim Thorpe simply wasn’t fair. Known for his freakish talents across multiple sports, including baseball, basketball, and football (imagine a football-playing Albert Pujols rushing for 2,000 yards), it was his awe-inspiring feats in the 1912 Summer Olympics that cemented his place as the greatest athlete who ever lived. Thorpe walked away from Stockholm with two gold medals in the pentathlon and decathlon, finishing first in eight of the 15 individual events, including the long jump, high jump, and 200-meter dash. Such an impressive body of work requires an equally impressive body—and though we can’t find workout records from the early 20th century, rest assured that Thorpe didn’t make history by sitting on his couch.
5. Herschel Walker
When Herschel Walker walked away from the NFL at age 35, after 13 years of highlight-reel runs and hard-fought touchdowns—not to mention one of the most dominating college careers of all time—most people assumed he’d rest his body and retire to the broadcasting booth. But the All-Pro running back couldn’t stay sedentary for long, and instead emerged in his 40s kicking ass in an entirely different, but equally demanding sport: mixed martial arts. Walker has won two pro MMA bouts to date—chalk that up to his brutal daily regimen of 3,500 situps, 1,500 pushups, and an 8-mile run—and recently indicated that he’s even flirting with returning to the gridiron ... at age 50. Take that, AARP membership.
4. Jack LaLanne
Long before people like Jane Fonda and Richard Simmons began promoting fitness, there was Jack LaLanne. Now called the "godfather of fitness," all modern gyms descend from the one that LaLanne opened in 1936 at just 21 years old. After that, he'd go on to write now-classic books on fitness, and would host the longest-running fitness show ever, “The Jack LaLanne Show.” His message was simple: The overall health of the United States depended on the health of its people.
3. Arnold Schwarzenegger
There’s hardly a realm of American life the Terminator-turned-Governator hasn’t conquered, and yet despite the gains he’s made in the political realm, Arnold’s most impressive feats remain in the gym. We’ll let the numbers speak for themselves: In his prime, Arnold boasted a 470-pound squat, a 440-pound bench press, and a 680-pound deadlift. Feats of strength like those allowed Schwarzenegger to capture the Mr. Olympia title at age 23—he remains its youngest champion—and repeat seven times after that. They also enabled him to be the first call for casting directors when searching for the next Hercules, Conan the Barbarian, Army commando John Matrix, and the Terminator. Today he’s the namesake of the annual Arnold Classic—one of the world’s most profitable bodybuilding competitions—and, despite pushing 70, is still landing ass-kicking leading roles in high-octane action flicks like The Expendables 2. Don’t look too surprised. Arnold always said he’d be back.
2. Bruce Lee
On paper, Bruce Lee might not strike the average guy as all that impressive. Arguably the most influential martial artist of all time, Lee stood just 5-foot-7 and weighed as little as 125 pounds for a large part of his acting and fighting career. When Lee was at his leanest, his waist measured just 26 inches. And he got that way not only because of his insatiable work ethic, but because of the way he continuously evolved his training regimen. In his book, The Art of Expressing the Human Body, Lee advocates the sort of resistance training and core-strengthening routines now championed by programs like P90X. That’s part of the reason even Hollywood’s strongest men felt inspired by his fitness level. “Bruce took off his T-shirt, and I marveled again, as I always did every time I saw his physique,” Chuck Norris once said. “He had muscles on muscles.” Even Arnold was impressed. “Bruce Lee had a very—and I mean a very—defined physique,” Schwarzenegger once said. “He probably had one of the lowest body-fat counts of any athlete around ... He was one of a kind, an idol.”
1. Michael Phelps
Just call him a gold digger: Michael Phelps’ otherworldly dominance of the 2008 Olympic Games was a once-in-a-lifetime feat to witness. Nobody’s likely to break the American swimmer’s record of 22 Olympic medals—including 18 golds—anytime soon. Getting his conditioning to such an elite level meant committing to five hours of working out every day—whether it was in the pool or doing dry-land resistance exercises. And fueling those workouts wasn’t easy: Phelps reportedly stuck to a 12,000-calorie daily diet, which, according to the Wall Street Journal, included three fried-egg sandwiches topped with cheese, one five-egg omelet, a bowl of grits, three slices of French toast, and three chocolate-chip pancakes. And that’s just breakfast. While his recent retirement came as a surprise to some—Phelps is only 27—we concede that he’s earned the right to some R&R. But, Mike, we’re just saying: Rio de Janeiro is downright lovely in the summer.
Originally by Men'sHealth with Photographs courtesy of: Getty Images.
50. Daniel Craig
Die-hard fans of the Bond franchise bemoaned the choice of Daniel Craig to replace popular leading man Pierce Brosnan in 2006. At the time, Craig was a well-respected character actor—and he was blonde and a little rough around the edges, which broke the dark-and-handsome mold. Here’s how Craig also went against type: His portrayal was fitter, meaner, angrier, and darker than any Bond in the history of the franchise—and that’s why Craig’s Bond is also one of the best. He looks like the kind of Bond you could imagine a henchman legitimately running from—cobblestone abs, monster traps, and hardly an ounce of fat anywhere. In other words, he’s the Bond who finally made kicking ass in a tuxedo believable again.
49. Roberto Clemente
Stats tend to overwhelm baseball analysis these days, but you don’t need any fancy advanced metrics to come to this conclusion: Roberto Clemente was one of the greatest athletes in the sport’s history. A pure five-tool player with a lifetime batting average of .317, the Pittsburgh Pirate outfielder had a rocket arm honed from years throwing javelin in high school (some thought he could have been an Olympic champ) and was known for a balls-out style of play that enthralled the Forbes Field crowds. Over the course of his 17-year major league career, Clemente won four National League batting titles, an MVP Award, and a World Series. He was also the first Hispanic ballplayer to join the 3,000-hit club and get elected to the Hall of Fame. But his greatest accomplishments may have been off the field, serving as a goodwill ambassador for Latin American nations. On New Year’s Eve 1972, Clemente was delivering supplies to earthquake-ravaged Nicaragua when a plane crash tragically cut his life short—but not before he left a lasting legacy.
48. Jet Li
American audiences first noticed Jet Li when he left Riggs and Murtaugh writhing in pain throughout Lethal Weapon 4. But before Li ever started earning his income whupping ass in Hollywood, he’d amassed considerable honors back home in Beijing. That’s where he became the first-ever fighter to win the Chinese national wushu championship five times. It helps when you win your first championship at age 11—Li was the youngest guy to ever grace the podium. With each subsequent win, his star power grew—he performed for Richard Nixon, started acting in Chinese action films, and by the late ’90s, he was headlining major movies. Not that he ever let the success go to his head. “I'm not a hero," he told Men’s Health. "I just spent a lot of time learning martial arts. Maybe that's a unique thing. And I try to show you what I can do, but a lot of people can do it. I'm not anything special. So I never say I'm the best fighter in the world. You make enemies with your ego.” Need an assist keeping your ego in check? You’re not alone.
47. Oscar Pistorius
If there was a more inspiring sight at the 2012 Olympics than Oscar Pistorius, we’re not sure what it was. Born without any fibulas, Pistorius had both of his lower legs amputated when he was just 11 months. But Pistorius’ family never treated his prosthetics as a limitation. Instead, they encouraged him to play rugby, water polo, anything he wanted to try. And Pistorius not only learned to play, he dominated. After taking up running to help recover from a knee injury, Pistorius quickly became one of the biggest stars in running, earning a place at the 2004 and 2008 Paralympic Games (where he won four gold medals), and finally, on the 2012 South African Olympic squad. Pistorius didn’t medal in London, but that didn’t make his appearance any less memorable. “Just getting to that point, to be able to line up on the starting blocks at a race like that,” he told Today, “means so much.”
46. Dwyane Johnson
It’s hard to believe Dwyane Johnson almost never became The Rock. And the irony is that it was his failure in one arena—literally—that led to his success in another. Johnson was on a full scholarship at the University of Miami, suiting up with Ray Lewis and Warren Sapp. When a back injury sidelined his career for good—even the CFL couldn’t find a place for him—he turned to pro wrestling. Unbelievably, that required trimming down—going from 280 to 260 pounds. Under his new persona, The Rock, Johnson quickly became a fan favorite—and it wasn’t long before Hollywood saw his potential as a bankable star. And so for his role in The Mummy Returns, The Rock slimmed down yet again, shedding another 15 pounds in 4 months using a high-intensity resistance-training program.
45. Mitsuyo Maeda
It’s one thing to master the art of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. It’s another thing to help invent it. Mitsuo Maeda was the original mentor to Carlos Gracie, the patriarch of the famed Gracie family. And if you know Jiu-Jitsu, you know the Gracies: Their family has produced 13 black belts—all sixth-degree or higher. Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu was popularized around 1914 “when Japanese master Maeda traveled to the Amazonian port town of Belem, where he met Gastão Gracie, a wealthy dynamite wholesaler and politician. Maeda had come to visit Belem's tiny Japanese community, but he stayed to teach Gastão's troublesome street-fighting son, Carlos, the rudiments of his martial art,” according to the New York Times. And that planted the seeds of an entire martial arts movement.
44. Miguel Indurain
If you grew up in the era of the Tour de Lance, we’d forgive you if the name Miguel Indurain slipped under your radar. In the early to mid-‘90s, Indurain was without question the world’s greatest cyclist. He won the Tour de France five consecutive times—the first man to pull off that feat—between 1991 and 1995. Many people thought Indurain’s 6-foot-2 frame would be a hindrance in the mountainous parts of the course. But he more than held his own, then crushed rivals in the flatter sections, especially in time trials. In 1994, Indurain set a world record for the farthest distance biked in one hour when he pedaled nearly 33 miles. Thankfully, you don’t need to bike 33 miles to get fit. A shorter ride to the office will do just fine.
43. Charles Atlas
Posters plastered with Charles Atlas’ physique promised that if any “scrawny weakling” tried his workouts, they’d be turned into a mass of muscle. Indeed, the man was a shrewd marketer of the muscled male body: his bodybuilding program’s advertising campaign is considered one of the most successful, memorable, and longest-lasting in history. And the programs worked wonders. Focusing mainly on bodyweight exercises that anyone could do anywhere, his ultra-effective concepts about fitness and muscle are still inspiring—and used by—top trainers today.
42. Alexander Zass
Zass' raw strength was mind-boggling: the 5-foot-5, 165-pound weightlifter could bend iron bars, break chains, carry horses on his shoulders, and catch a 200-pound cannon ball shot from a cannon he built himself (seriously). More importantly, Zass is proof that the strongest guy in the room isn't always the biggest or fittest-looking. He proved to men everywhere that even so-called average guys can do extraordinary things.
41. Laird Hamilton
When big just wasn’t big enough, this surfer helped develop tow-in surfing, which gets surfers atop seemingly insurmountable waves with Jet-Skis and other personal watercrafts. Now, having conquered 80-plus-feet swells, Hamilton is taking his native Hawaii’s standup paddleboarding to the mainland and revolutionizing on-water workouts.
40. Karl Malone
Standing 6-foot-9 and 265 pounds, “The Mailman” racked up 36,298 points—the second-most in NBA history—over a 19-year career with the Utah Jazz and Los Angeles Lakers. As a rookie, Malone weighed 250 pounds with 10.5 percent body fat. An unparalleled work ethic and a rigorous, self-designed training regimen eventually cut the latter number to a miniscule 4.8 percent. “Karl Malone was not a Michael Jordan when he came into this league,” said former Utah Jazz coach Jerry Sloan. “He made himself a great player through hard work.”
39. Georg Hackenschmidt
Hackenschmidt is the reason that Eastern Europeans are feared strong men. Nicknamed "The Russian Lion," Hackenshmidt was a world champion wrestler, having fought about 3,000 matches and lost only two in his long career. Along with his wrestling skill, he was incredibly intelligent and well spoken—a combo that made him immensely famous during the early 1900s. Teddy Roosevelt, in fact, even once stated, “If I wasn’t president of the United States, I’d like to be Georg Hackenschmidt.”
38. Walter Payton
The man whom fans and teammates affectionately referred to as “Sweetness” was anything but sweet on the field and in the gym, choosing instead to plow through defenders and reps with the same unrelenting force. Payton’s personal motto was “Never Die Easy,” which prompted the late Bears running back to take hit after brutal hit just to net a couple measly extra yards. It worked—Payton finished his career in 1987 with an astonishing 16,726 total yards, good for second on the NFL’s all-time list. Payton’s intense offseason training also sparked his record rushing; according to some reports, he’d run sprints through sand traps and up slopes in the blistering Mississippi heat to prepare his legs for quick cuts. Payton left the world at a too-young 45 (due to a rare liver disease), but his legacy and training regimen live on in some of today’s premier running backs.
37. Ed Viesturs
It’s safe to assume that Ed Viesturs harbors no fear of heights. The world-class climber has ascended Mount Everest an astounding seven times. And Everest isn’t the only jewel in Viesturs’ crown: He’s climbed all 14 of the world’s tallest peaks, a journey he described in his book, No Shortcuts to the Top. In it, he talks about conquering Annapurna—a series of high peaks in the Himalayas. “Every person has his or her Annapurna,” Viesturs wrote. “Your Annapurna might be a tough project at work, a bad illness, or the breakup of a marriage, but the trick is to find a way of converting adversity into something positive, a challenge to look forward to.”
36. Paavo Nurmi
When he showed up to Paris for the 1924 Olympics, expectations were riding high for Paavo Nurmi. He’d already earned three gold medals at the previous Olympics in Antwerp, Belgium, and people were hoping for a repeat performance. Nurmi didn’t disappoint. The five golds he won that year in Paris were at the time the most taken home by any athlete in a single Olympic Games. Nurmi crossed the finish line first in the 1,500- and 5,000-meter races, the individual team cross-country races, and one more time in the 3,000-meter team race. But it wasn’t until 2005 that Nurmi achieved the highest honor of all—a shout-out on The Simpsons. “"Did you know,” Mr. Burns says of his antique automobile, “that this car once outraced the Flying Finn, Paavo Nurmi?"
35. Kelly Slater
Surfing’s biggest star is proof that age is just a number. Slater’s both the youngest (at age 20) and oldest (at age 39) to win the Association of Surfing Professionals World Championship. As if that weren’t enough, he won it a record seven more times in between, earning him the title of the best competitive surfer ever. Luckily, even land lovers can stay young forever with these
34. Chris Sharma
Before the age most of us could drive, Chris Sharma had already conquered some of the world’s most daunting climbs. Looking back, it’s hard to find a time in Sharma’s life when he wasn’t an elite climber. At 14, Sharma took first in the Bouldering Nationals—the Super Bowl of the climbing world. By his 19th birthday, Sharma was more than doubling the score of his closest competitors. So what do you do when you’ve hit most of your biggest athletic goals before your 20th birthday? Invent new ones—and then overcome them. In 2008, Sharma completed a climb of Clark Mountain, a 250-foot-high slab of limestone on the border between California and Nevada. So far, nobody else has replicated the feat.
33. Bo Jackson
Before a hip injury ended his football career and nearly derailed his baseball career, Jackson was the biggest two-sport star America had seen since Jim Thorpe. After passing up an offer to play for the New York Yankees right out of high school, Jackson attended Auburn University on a football scholarship. In 1985, he won the Heisman Trophy as the nation’s best college football player and hit .401 with 17 home runs for the baseball team. During his career, Jackson rarely lifted weights, instead focusing on a regimen of calisthenics and water aerobics.
32. Willie Mays
It wasn’t just Mays’ grace and athleticism patrolling center field for the New York Giants that made him a hero to an entire generation of kids; it was that he brought it directly to them. Every morning during the baseball season, Mays played stickball on the street with groups of children in his Harlem neighborhood. After his morning game, Mays would cross 155th Street and go down a massive flight of stairs to the Polo Grounds. “If you look at how steep these steps are, you can see why Willie Mays was in such great shape,” said New York Times columnist William Rhoden in a short film about Mays’ Harlem. “Trust me, this was a workout.”
31. Carl Lewis
Between 1983 and 1996, Carl Lewis was the unrivaled star of international track and field, and America’s most visible and popular Olympic athlete. He won gold nine times in four different Olympic events and eight times in World Championship competition. But he left his most lasting impression in the long jump, where he amassed 65 consecutive victories. One of his world records still remains. That’s part of the reason why the International Olympic Committee once named Lewis “Sportsman of the Century.”
30. Ranulph Fiennes
Being third cousin to British actors Joseph and Ralph Fiennes and distantly related the Queen is perhaps the least noteworthy aspect about Sir Ranulph Fiennes. After all, he’s also the first person to reach both the North and South Poles by overland travel, to cross Antarctica on foot, and to traverse both polar ice caps. When five fingers turned black from frostbite after one Arctic expedition, Fiennes sawed off the tips with a handsaw to avoid a $10,000 surgery bill. And in 2003 he ran seven marathons on each of the seven continents in seven days, helping him earn the title as the world’s greatest living explorer from the Guinness Book of World Records. At age 68, Fiennes is currently training for his first crossing of Antarctica during the southern winter.
29. Jesse Owens
Is it possible for someone who moves so fast and fluidly to be defined by a still image? Take, for example, the famous photograph of Olympian Jesse Owens, standing proudly at the podium after winning the long jump gold medal at the 1936 Summer Olympics in Berlin, his hand raised to his brow in a deferential salute as an entire stadium of Germans extend their arms. For many, this was the picture of American defiance in the face of hate and fascism, displayed by a track star whose feats eviscerated Nazi propaganda about Aryan superiority. Indeed, Owens—who matched the 100-meter sprint world record while in high school—won four golds in all during those controversial Games and raised the profile of African-American athletes everywhere in an era of segregation. This made him an icon. So it may be easy to forget that the man was damn quick, even by current Usain Bolt standards. After all, the Ohio State legend set three world records and tied another in less than an hour at the Big Ten Track & Field Championships a year before his Olympic triumphs. As Owens once put it, “I let my feet spend as little time on the ground as possible. From the air, fast down, and from the ground, fast up.”
28. Lou Gehrig
Poor Wally Pipp. On June 2, 1925 the New York Yankees starting first baseman (who had a decent career until that day) was removed from the starting lineup after complaining of a headache. A young upstart from Columbia University named Henry Louis Gehrig took his place—and continued to do so for 2,130 straight games, a streak unmatched until Cal Ripken, Jr. broke the record in 1995. It was a testament to Gehrig’s endurance and strength that he not only showed up every day for work, but excelled at a Hall of Fame level, amassing 493 home runs, 1,995 RBI, and 2,721 hits in his legendary 17-year career. It was only until he first discovered symptoms of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (now known as ALS or Lou Gehrig’s disease) that the Iron Horse finally slowed down. Even though that devastating battle robbed him of his physical gifts, Gehrig’s fortitude never wavered, as he declared himself “the luckiest man on the face of the Earth” in his farewell address at Yankee Stadium. Ironclad to the end.
27. Steve Reeves
Before Goliaths like Arnold Schwarzenegger and Lou Ferrigno were taking up roles in Conan the Barbarian and The Incredible Hulk in the ’70s and ’80s, a single big man dominated the big screen: Steve Reeves. Build like a semi-truck, he was the first strongman with recurring roles in films such as Troy, A Fistful of Dollars, Hercules, and Goliath. Like the recent movie 300, which made guys around the world work for the physique of a Spartan warrior, Reeves’ every movie inspired men of the era to flock to the gym.
26. Mariusz Pudzianowski
In the early 2000s, Mariusz Pudzianowski was the Michael Jordan of heavy lifters. In the annual World’s Strongest Man competition, he placed first five times—the only competitor ever to do so—and finished second twice between 2002 and 2009. Elsewhere, his performances were even more remarkable—he’s racked up an astounding 16 first-place finishes in the Strongman Super Series. His most impressive feats: Once, during an event called the Asia Stone—which involves walking a 400-pound weight as far as the competitor can—Pudzianowski smashed a world record by traveling more than 375 feet. As one of his peers, Magnus Samuelsson, put it, “[Mariusz is] really fast, extremely strong and probably the most efficient strongman there has ever been.”
25 & 24. Rick & Dick Hoyt
Stories don’t come much more inspirational than the one about Rick and Dick Hoyt. Together, the father and son form Team Hoyt. As their website none-too-subtly puts it, “Team Hoyt is the story of a father, Dick Hoyt, who pushes his son, Rick Hoyt, in a wheelchair in marathons and triathlons across the country.” If you know anything about Team Hoyt, you know that’s unfairly modest. When Gary Smith profiled the duo for Sports Illustrated in April 2011, Dick had already pushed—and sometimes pulled, in a special boat—his son through 1,036 races. Why? Because his son—who was diagnosed with cerebral palsy at birth—never feels better than he does during those races. And so Dick keeps going—despite warnings from his doctors, despite stents in his arteries, despite surviving a heart attack. Think about that the next time you’re trying to come up with an excuse to skip your morning run.
23. Bruce Jenner
Depending on your appetite for reality TV, you probably know more than you’ve ever wanted to know about Bruce Jenner—or nothing at all. The stepfather of Kourtney and Kim Kardashian remains a tabloid fixture today for his role in the hit series Keeping Up With the Kardashians. But in the mid-’70s, Jenner commanded the spotlight entirely on his own. He won an Olympic gold medal in the decathlon while setting the world record (8,618 points). More significantly, Jenner recaptured decathlon gold from the Soviets at the height of the Cold War. His victory lap while waving an American flag remains one of the most iconic images of the Olympic Games, and it earned Jenner a place in one of the most American traditions of all: His face on a Wheaties box.
22. Gerard Butler
Until 2007, Gerard Butler was just another handsome leading man carving out a respectable career in Hollywood. And then 300 happened. And brother, how things did change. As the ultra-shredded Spartan king Leonidas, Butler redefined what it meant to look ripped. To get the otherworldly six-pack he sported on screen, Butler committed to a fierce, 300-rep (get it?) training regimen that remains one of the most popular routines Men’s Health has ever featured. It goes like this: 25 pullups, 50 deadlifts, 50 pushups, 50 box jumps, 50 floor wipers, 50 single-arm clean-and-presses, and then (yes) 25 more pullups—all without rest. That may seem excessive (and we didn’t even get to the tire-flipping), but it put Butler in the proper mindset for the role. "You know that every bead of sweat falling off your head, every weight you've pumped—the history of that is all in your eyes," he told Men’s Health of his routine. "That was a great thing, to put on that cape and put on that helmet, and not have to think, ‘Shit, I should have trained more.’ Instead, I was standing there feeling like a lion."
21. Michael Jordan
Dream Team debates aside, few people dispute that Michael Jordan is—statistically speaking, anyway—the greatest basketball player of all-time. But he didn’t get there on raw talent alone. In 1989, trainer Tim Grover read an article about Jordan wanting to begin strength training to better prepare for the physical style of play he would face against the Chicago Bulls’ chief conference rivals, the Detroit Pistons. Jordan was afraid to hit the weights for fear it would affect his game. Grover contacted the Bulls to offer his services. “[Jordan] said he’d try it out for a month, and it ended up being 15 years,” Grover told ESPN in 2009. Fueled by the added muscle, Jordan led the Bulls to six NBA titles and a Hall of Fame career.
20. Richard Simmons
The Richard Simmons you know—the ebullient man with short-shorts, white sneakers, and a bigger-than-life personality—wasn’t always a model of health and fitness. Simmons graduated high school pushing 268 pounds. After failing to lose weight with fad diets, he turned to the method he’s preached for the past 30 years: exercise and healthy eating. “There is no magic milkshake or workout machine,” Simmons told Men’s Health in an interview earlier this year. “My formula has always been love yourself, move your body, watch your portions. And it sounds so easy, but it is not.” That simple formula has helped Simmons’ clients and fans lose a collective 3 million pounds and counting.
19. Eugene Sandow
While performing feats of strength in front of the World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago in 1883, Sandow realized that the crowd was more fascinated with his massive muscles than with his strength. After that, he began what he called, "muscle display performances," and the sport of modern bodybuilding began. From there he went on to open an early bodybuilding gym, and publish a monthly fitness and bodybuilding magazine. Indeed, Sandow was the first person to bring muscle-building culture to the masses. (And we’ve been more than happy to improve on his methods.)
18. Chuck Norris
Chuck Norris’ tears cure cancer—if only he would ever cry. Chuck Norris counted to infinity—twice. But well before there was Chuck Norris the myth, there was Chuck Norris the man. And believe it or not, his achievements were almost as impressive. Here are some actual facts we know about the guy: Norris was voted into the Black Belt Hall of Fame three times—first as a fighter in 1968, again as an instructor in 1975, and yet again as Man of the Year in 1977. (That last one sounds dangerously like a myth.) He was the first person from the Western Hemisphere to earn an 8th degree black belt in Tae Kwan Do, and was a six-time undefeated world champion. He starred as Bruce Lee’s foe in Way of the Dragon—and, we’ll add, put up a pretty decent fight, all things considered. Norris even once taught Bob Barker how to throw a punch, a skill the Price is Right host put to good use in Happy Gilmore. No word on whether Chuck also taught him how to count to infinity.
17. Mark Wahlberg
There’s a good reason why Mark Wahlberg winds up on the cover of Men’s Health more than almost any other A-lister: The dude simply never lets himself go. He refuses. Search back as far as the ’80s, and you’ll get Wahlberg the Calvin Klein underwear model and leader of Marky Mark and the Funky Bunch, showing off a six-pack not unlike the one he’s still rocking today. Clearly, the man isn’t planning on entering his Marlon Brando phase anytime soon.
Of course, staying fit past 40 requires considerably more effort than it did when Wahlberg earned his keep appearing on billboards in the buff. "My life has evolved so drastically over the years in every aspect. I embrace it,” Wahlberg told Men’s Health. Just as he evolved from playing tough guys to porn stars to voicing bawdy-but-somewhat -lovable teddy bears, Wahlberg also continues to tweak his routine in the gym to fit the changing demands of his body. For his role in The Fighter, he combined classic exercises like medicine ball twists and pushups to build his character’s rock-hard core.
16. David Beckham
"You'll never play for England, because you're too small and not strong enough."
Heard at age 13 from one (really bad) soccer teacher, those words only fueled Beckham’s resolve to master the game. He not only played for England—first in 1996—but served as its captain for six years. Beckham went on to win six Premier League titles with Manchester United and two FA cups. How’d he do it? Conditioning played a big part. While he wasn’t always the most-skilled player on the field, Beckham knew he could outwork his opponents. “I am a very stubborn person,” Beckham told Men’s Health, “I think it’s helped me over my career. I’m sure it has hindered me at times as well, but not too many times. I know that if I set my mind to something, even if people are saying I can’t do it, I will achieve it.” Now, having firmly established himself as a soccer icon, Beckham’s working to get the rest of the world onboard, playing for Major League Soccer's Los Angeles Galaxy. And he has no plans to slow down: “Even at 36, I’m still running 12 miles a game. But I’ve definitely become more aware on the field. I know what my limits are, what I can achieve, and which passes I can play. I have adapted to my age.”
15. Muhammad Ali
Plenty of boxers can hit hard. But what made Muhammad Ali a champion was his ability to slip past punches and hop around the ring—to “float like a butterfly, sting like a bee,” in the sometime-poet's own words. That skill helped Ali apply a beat-down to other heavyweight legends including Sonny Liston, Joe Frazier, and George Foreman. And Ali's personal life was a sports journalist's dream: His name change from Cassius Clay after converting to the Nation of Islam, refusing to report for the draft during the Vietnam War (a case that was eventually decided by the Supreme Court), and his ability to spout a near-constant stream of quotes and witticisms all made Ali a cultural icon and a revered competitor.
14. Jackie Robinson
What’s not commonly known is that before Robinson ever played professional baseball, he was one of the country’s greatest all-around amateur athletes. In high school, he lettered in four sports and was an accomplished tennis player. While at UCLA, he was the point guard on the basketball team, a quarterback, running back, and safety on its football team, a shortstop and leadoff hitter for its baseball team, and the most accomplished long and broad jumper on its track team. By the time he joined the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1947—becoming the first black man to play in the majors— Robinson’s endurance wasn’t a question. That season, he took home Rookie of the Year honors, and two seasons later was voted the National League’s MVP. Today his uniform number, 42, remains the only one to be retired across all Major League teams.
13. Greg Lemond
In the late ’80's and early ’90's, the only name you needed to know in competitive cycling was Greg LeMond. In 1986 he became the first American—the first person from anywhere but Europe, for that matter—to win the Tour de France. The next year, LeMond took an accidental shotgun blast in the back during a turkey hunt. After two years recovering, LeMond still had get on the bike with more than 30 shotgun pellets embedded in his body. But that didn't stop him from winning two more Tours de France before he retired from cycling in 1994.
12. Sylvester Stallone
Here’s the thing you need to respect about Sly: When he commits to a role, he trains for it like no other actor. While filming Rocky, he cut his body fat to as little as 3.8 percent, and bulked up to nearly 200 pounds. Five Rocky sequels later, he’s the undisputed king of the workout montage. What’s most surprising is that Stallone hasn’t gone the way of Jack Nicholson and other icons. If anything, his success only seems to fuel his fitness obsession more. He recently became one of Hollywood’s more unlikely comeback stories, starting with the resurrection of Rocky in 2006 and Rambo in 2008. Recently, he fired up the pyrotechnics once more when he starred in The Expendables 2, which he also wrote and directed.
11. Ashton Eaton
If you want to know why Ashton Eaton can vie for the title of world’s greatest athlete, first you need to know something about the decathlon. The Olympic event combines 10 disciplines—stuff like long jumping, shot putting, sprinting, and javelin throwing—and in 2012, Eaton rocked them all. During the U.S. Olympic Trials, he set a new world decathlon record of 9,039 points, barely edging out Roman Sebrle’s mark (9,026 points) that had stood for 11 years. To earn that staggering point total, Eaton finished first in the 100-meter dash (10.2 seconds), the long jump (27 feet), the high jump (6.7 feet), and the 400-meter dash (46 seconds). And just when things couldn’t look any better for the 24-year-old, he opened the 2012 Olympics with even more bests, smashing a 44-year-old decathlon record in the 100-meter dash (10.3 seconds) and finishing first in the long jump. Any questions?
10. Bjorn Daehlie
Norwegian Olympian Bjorn Daehlie may be the fittest man ever to strap on a pair of skis. Between 1992 and 1998, he took home 12 Olympic medals—eight golds and four silvers—the most ever by a winter athlete. But it’s not just his medals that earn him a place here. It’s also a number: 94. That’s the score Daehlie reportedly registered in the VO2 max, a test of how efficiently the body uses oxygen. Generally speaking, the higher the score, the longer it takes your muscles to fatigue. The average guy would likely score in the 35-40 range. Tour de France champions like Lance Armstrong and Miguel Indurain have reportedly reached the 80s. Daehlie’s unprecedented score blew even the elite cyclists away.
9. Manny Pacquiao
Born impoverished in Manilla, Philippines, Manny Pacquiao rose to become one of the highest-paid athletes in the world. He left home at 14 seeking a better life, entering quasi-legal bouts. Pacquiao is just 5-foot-6, but he's worked his way up through eight of boxing's weight classes, winning championships in divisions ranging from the 112-pound flyweight through the 154-pound light middleweight. And no one would make the mistake of thinking that added weight is anything but pure muscle: Pacquiao is often ranked as the best pound-for-pound fighter in the world. Outside of the ring, he's been a reservist in the Philippines Army (currently holding the rank of lieutenant colonel) and in 2010 he was elected to the Philippine House of Representatives.
8. Lance Armstrong
Lance Armstrong is the cyclist that became an entire fitness brand. Weirdly enough, it started with a diagnosis in 1996 of stage 3 testicular cancer that had spread to Armstrong's lungs and brain. Already a very promising cyclist, Armstrong chose a course of treatment that would spare his lungs’ robust aerobic capacity. He not only survived the cancer, but just three years after that original diagnosis Armstrong became the second American to win the grueling 21-day-long Tour de France. The next year he won the Tour de France again, and the year after that, again, and again, and again, and again, racking up seven consecutive victories between 1999 and 2005. Despite a recent decision by the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency to vacate 14 years of results (including his 7 Tour de France titles) based on the testimony of former teammates, Armstrong remains the face of cycling to most Americans. “I know who won those seven Tours,” Armstrong said in a statement after deciding not to contest the USADA decision. “My teammates know who won those seven Tours, and everyone I competed against knows who won those seven Tours.”
Beyond his accomplishments on the bike, Armstrong has used his celebrity to build the Lance Armstrong Foundation, a massive non-profit that through those ubiquitous yellow wristbands and events in 65 nations has raised more than $470 million for cancer education and to support cancer patients.
7. Cristiano Ronaldo
At 27, the famously fast, strong, and agile striker has more than lived up to his soccer-legend namesake. Known for his wicked step-over, Ronaldo leaves even the best defenders flat on their grass-stained keisters. There’s no question why, in 2009, with numerous scoring records and PFA, FWA, and FIFA awards under his cleats, it took $131.6 million for Real Madrid to snatch him away from Manchester United. He’s now the most expensive footballer of all-time.
6. Jim Thorpe
In retrospect, Jim Thorpe simply wasn’t fair. Known for his freakish talents across multiple sports, including baseball, basketball, and football (imagine a football-playing Albert Pujols rushing for 2,000 yards), it was his awe-inspiring feats in the 1912 Summer Olympics that cemented his place as the greatest athlete who ever lived. Thorpe walked away from Stockholm with two gold medals in the pentathlon and decathlon, finishing first in eight of the 15 individual events, including the long jump, high jump, and 200-meter dash. Such an impressive body of work requires an equally impressive body—and though we can’t find workout records from the early 20th century, rest assured that Thorpe didn’t make history by sitting on his couch.
5. Herschel Walker
When Herschel Walker walked away from the NFL at age 35, after 13 years of highlight-reel runs and hard-fought touchdowns—not to mention one of the most dominating college careers of all time—most people assumed he’d rest his body and retire to the broadcasting booth. But the All-Pro running back couldn’t stay sedentary for long, and instead emerged in his 40s kicking ass in an entirely different, but equally demanding sport: mixed martial arts. Walker has won two pro MMA bouts to date—chalk that up to his brutal daily regimen of 3,500 situps, 1,500 pushups, and an 8-mile run—and recently indicated that he’s even flirting with returning to the gridiron ... at age 50. Take that, AARP membership.
4. Jack LaLanne
Long before people like Jane Fonda and Richard Simmons began promoting fitness, there was Jack LaLanne. Now called the "godfather of fitness," all modern gyms descend from the one that LaLanne opened in 1936 at just 21 years old. After that, he'd go on to write now-classic books on fitness, and would host the longest-running fitness show ever, “The Jack LaLanne Show.” His message was simple: The overall health of the United States depended on the health of its people.
3. Arnold Schwarzenegger
There’s hardly a realm of American life the Terminator-turned-Governator hasn’t conquered, and yet despite the gains he’s made in the political realm, Arnold’s most impressive feats remain in the gym. We’ll let the numbers speak for themselves: In his prime, Arnold boasted a 470-pound squat, a 440-pound bench press, and a 680-pound deadlift. Feats of strength like those allowed Schwarzenegger to capture the Mr. Olympia title at age 23—he remains its youngest champion—and repeat seven times after that. They also enabled him to be the first call for casting directors when searching for the next Hercules, Conan the Barbarian, Army commando John Matrix, and the Terminator. Today he’s the namesake of the annual Arnold Classic—one of the world’s most profitable bodybuilding competitions—and, despite pushing 70, is still landing ass-kicking leading roles in high-octane action flicks like The Expendables 2. Don’t look too surprised. Arnold always said he’d be back.
2. Bruce Lee
On paper, Bruce Lee might not strike the average guy as all that impressive. Arguably the most influential martial artist of all time, Lee stood just 5-foot-7 and weighed as little as 125 pounds for a large part of his acting and fighting career. When Lee was at his leanest, his waist measured just 26 inches. And he got that way not only because of his insatiable work ethic, but because of the way he continuously evolved his training regimen. In his book, The Art of Expressing the Human Body, Lee advocates the sort of resistance training and core-strengthening routines now championed by programs like P90X. That’s part of the reason even Hollywood’s strongest men felt inspired by his fitness level. “Bruce took off his T-shirt, and I marveled again, as I always did every time I saw his physique,” Chuck Norris once said. “He had muscles on muscles.” Even Arnold was impressed. “Bruce Lee had a very—and I mean a very—defined physique,” Schwarzenegger once said. “He probably had one of the lowest body-fat counts of any athlete around ... He was one of a kind, an idol.”
1. Michael Phelps
Just call him a gold digger: Michael Phelps’ otherworldly dominance of the 2008 Olympic Games was a once-in-a-lifetime feat to witness. Nobody’s likely to break the American swimmer’s record of 22 Olympic medals—including 18 golds—anytime soon. Getting his conditioning to such an elite level meant committing to five hours of working out every day—whether it was in the pool or doing dry-land resistance exercises. And fueling those workouts wasn’t easy: Phelps reportedly stuck to a 12,000-calorie daily diet, which, according to the Wall Street Journal, included three fried-egg sandwiches topped with cheese, one five-egg omelet, a bowl of grits, three slices of French toast, and three chocolate-chip pancakes. And that’s just breakfast. While his recent retirement came as a surprise to some—Phelps is only 27—we concede that he’s earned the right to some R&R. But, Mike, we’re just saying: Rio de Janeiro is downright lovely in the summer.
Originally by Men'sHealth with Photographs courtesy of: Getty Images.
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