Last updated on March 10th, 2021 at 09:51 am
Tom Hopper is jacked.
It’s as simple as that.
He’s also been in some pretty amazing roles.
Most recently he’s starring in The Umbrella Academy as Luther, a show based on a comic book series, and a character who has super-strength.
Prettttyyyyy awesome.
He’s also been in Black Sails, Game of Thrones, Northmen, Doctor Who, and Merlin – to name a couple others.
My kind of shows…!
Tom Hopper Stats:
Height: 6’5
Weight: (approximate) 230 lbs.
Age: 34 years old
Now we know why he was cast to play a behemoth with super-strength.
He IS a behemoth.
The average height falls in the range of 6’1-6’3 with celebs like Chris Pratt, Chris Hemsworth, Chris Evans, Adam Driver, Stephen Amell, Clive Standen and so many more.
Guys around 5’10-6’0 are dudes like Brad Pitt, Matt Damon and Jason Statham, but the ACTUAL shorter range is filled with guys like Mark Wahlberg, Zac Efron, Kit Harington, Tom Holland and more.
Even taller than them are guys like The Mountain, Joe Manganiello, Ben Affleck, Jason Momoa, Ray Fisher, Winston Duke, Alexander Skarsgard and a few others.
But, don’t worry either way.
We write these routines to be utilized by any shape and size.
Take The SHJ Program Quiz and find the perfect program for YOU.
Tom Hopper Diet and Nutrition
It’s safe to say I’m a fan of Tom Hopper’s diet.
Well, because it’s pretty similar to my own.
In an interview with Men’s Health discussing the intense programming Hopper and his other cast mates from Black Sails were put through, we find out this about their nutrition:
White knew that working the actors into cover-model shape would require nutritional adjustments. His solution: a fasting diet that allowed eating only from noon to 8pm. This helps your metabolism fire more efficiently, because your body burns fat reserves for fuel.
The men’s energy levels needed time to adjust, but it worked, and they slept better too, says White. “The training was effective, but I think the diet is even more powerful,” says Hopper. It emphasised meat, vegetables, eggs and salads, and avoided sugar. “We never ate late, and we had two protein shakes a day,” Hopper says. “Not eating before a workout went against everything I’d understood before. But as long as you’re eating correctly, you’ll have all the energy you need, and I actually find it easier to exercise on an empty stomach because I don’t feel sluggish.”
And, their workouts were INTENSE, so this is saying a lot.
But it worked for Hopper, as you can tell by his chiseled physique. It’s what he was able to find sustainable within his training, and has kept up with it.
We see a lot of celebs opt for a sustainable approach like this.
That’s why our Academy Nutrition Classes (Monks, Minimalists, SuperHumans, Vikings, Spartans, Hunter Gatherers, Greek Gods, Samurais) revolve around helping you find the specific diet that is right FOR YOU.
Of course, there are a lot of reasons to HAVE the strict guidelines.
We’ve seen a lot of celebs opt for specific restrictions.
For example: Dwayne Johnson and Kevin Hart incorporate 80/20 dieting with big weekly cheat meals, Hugh Jackman, Benedict Cumberbatch and Terry Crews utilize intermittent fasting(something I use daily as well), Mustafa Shakir and Madelaine Petsch are vegans, Brandon Routh and Frank Grillo opt for paleo, and tons of others utilize their own variations as well.
And, that’s just to name a few celebs from each, by the way.
You can check out our Nutrition Pillars for more information and articles on all of the above and more.
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Tom Hopper Workout Routine Research
Hopper was already quite lean and skinny before Black Sails and bulking up for other roles, but then he took it to a whole new level.
His Black Sails training started him off, and he never looked back.
For that reason, we’re going to be starting there.
Here’s a fun fact about where he first started:
As soon as actors Tom Hopper, Toby Stephens and Aussie Luke Arnold arrived at Roark Gyms in Cape Town, South Africa, to start their Black Sails boot camp, strength coach James White issued them a challenge: row 2000 meters on a machine in seven minutes. In his first session, Hopper almost fainted. Stephens felt close to a heart attack. Arnold considered faking an injury. The test left them gasping for air, fighting panic and questioning their manhood. They went to dark places in their psyches. That journey may be the critical part of White’s fitness formula, as all three men lost more fat and built more muscle in eight weeks than they’d thought possible.
Their trainer, White, continues with:
“These guys needed to look like pirates who fought one another, lifted cannonballs, pulled sails and climbed ropes,” says White. “They needed to become lean and strong. So I said to focus on the numbers and the aesthetic results would be guaranteed.”
With mere weeks to produce results, White threw all three men into the deep end. “I used short intervals,” he says. “I wanted to keep their heart rates high and put them in a panic to see how they’d react.” As he watched their responses, White knew how to move forward. “Everyone panics when given a situation that’s tough enough, but you want the guy to hang in and finish regardless of how long it takes,” he explains. “You can work with that.”
And finally he continues by sharing the exact type of training they did:
Each session would begin with a 20-minute warm-up: 10 minutes of rowing or running, and then 10 minutes of body-weight moves. Next, the actors did a combination of heavy weighted total-body moves, like squats, deadlifts and sled pushes. Each workout was capped with a finisher, a vicious test designed to exhaust their bodies. After eight weeks of training five days a week, the transformation was stunning. Stephens had carved more than 10 points off his body-fat percentage. “This was revelatory,” he says. “I’d done a lot of gym work throughout my life, rugby training at school, and lots of running, but the kind of intensity that James works at was new. It was about pushing myself further than I felt comfortable, and feeling the euphoria and sense of achievement afterward.”
Now we’re talking!
Even some sled pushes in there.
To help us with these “finishers” I pulled some more information from an interview with Muscle and Fitness:
A special emphasis is placed on body weight exercises. “I don’t think you can call yourself an athlete unless you can do pullups or pushups properly,” White opines. To this end, in most workouts, he has the actors perform 17 supersets consisting of 10 pushups followed immediately by three pullups. “What we want to do is hide a lot of the work. If you ask them after a workout what they did, none of them mention the 170 pushups and 51 pullups, but that’s actually a shitload of work. That’s more than most people would ever consciously do in a workout, but they’ll just do it and not notice it. Then they’ll come in and do it again the next day.”
We even get some good information from Hopper as well, starting with:
“I’ve been in a number of action hero roles –like in Merlin, where I played Sir Percival – so I’ve always trained, and I worked out by lifting heavy with the aim of getting bigger,”
And my favorite part:
“This isn’t a Hollywood secret. It’s a simple formula that relies on hard work and a willingness to go deep.” The best part for Hopper? “You gain more self-respect.”
That’s what I like to hear.
Pound that truth in.
Are you ready to do it?
Check out all The SHJ Programs and start unleashing your inner SuperHuman.
Tom Hopper Workout Routine
Training Volume:
5 days per week
Explanation:
We’re going to train 5 days a week just like Hopper did, and it’s going to follow the exact same format he utilized as well.
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Tom Hopper Workout Day One: Bench Press
Warm Up:
10 minutes of run or row
10 minutes of bodyweight training
Try (Scaling is Fine):
3×5 Pull Ups
3×5 Dips
3×10 Air Squats
3×10 Push Ups
Workout:
Bench Press
5×12,8,5,5,5
Farmer’s Carry
5×50 yds.
Finisher:
Three rounds for time:
400m run
21 kettlebell swings at 53 pounds
12 pullups (band-supported if needed)
Tom Hopper Workout Day Two: Deadlift
Warm Up:
10 minutes of run or row
10 minutes of bodyweight training
Try (Scaling is Fine):
3×5 Pull Ups
3×5 Dips
3×10 Air Squats
3×10 Push Ups
Workout:
Deadlift
5×12,8,5,5,5
Sled Pushes
5×50 yds.
Finisher:
Three rounds, one-minute per exercise, with one-minute rest between rounds:
Wall balls at 20 pounds with 10-foot target
Sumo deadlift high-pull at 75 pounds
20-inch box jumps
Push-press at 75 pounds
Rowing machine
Tom Hopper Workout Day Three: Military Press
Warm Up:
10 minutes of run or row
10 minutes of bodyweight training
Try (Scaling is Fine):
3×5 Pull Ups
3×5 Dips
3×10 Air Squats
3×10 Push Ups
Workout:
Military Press
5×12,8,5,5,5
Kettlebell Swings
5×12
Finisher:
21/15/9 reps for time:
Thrusters at 95 pounds
Pullups
Tom Hopper Workout Day Four: Squats
Warm Up:
10 minutes of run or row
10 minutes of bodyweight training
Try (Scaling is Fine):
3×5 Pull Ups
3×5 Dips
3×10 Air Squats
3×10 Push Ups
Workout:
Back Squats
5×12,8,5,5,5
Sled Pushes
5×50 yds.
Finisher:
For time:
150 wall balls at 20 pounds with 10-foot target (stopping before complete failure)
Target times:
Level 1: 8:00-10:00
Level 2: 5:00-8:00
Level 3: 4:00-5:00
Elite: < 4:00
Tom Hopper Workout Day Five: Clean and Press
Warm Up:
10 minutes of run or row
Light Stretching
Workout:
Clean and Press
3×5
Turkish Get Ups
3×5
Finisher:
For time:
1-mile run
100 pullups
200 pushups
300 air squats
1-mile run
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