Ahead of England’s World Cup clash with Erling Haaland‘s Norway, social media quickly settled on one solution to football’s most terrifying centre-forward: Dan Burn.
At 6ft 7in, the Newcastle defender was cast as the man capable of doing what few others can – matching Haaland physically. The memes wrote themselves. If anyone was going to outmuscle the seemingly unstoppable Norwegian, it was the towering Geordie.
On paper, it’s easy to see why. Burn is the tallest player in the England squad, has made a career of dominating aerial duels, and has built a reputation as one of the Premier League’s most physically imposing defenders. Even Newcastle boss Eddie Howe has highlighted his value against powerful opposition, praising Burn’s ‘height and physicality’ when selecting him for specific tactical battles.
But that raises an obvious question: if Burn really is England’s strongest player, what does he actually do in the gym?
What Dan Burn’s Gym Routine Looks Like
The honest answer? Not a lot is publicly known.
Unlike athletes in rugby or American football, Premier League clubs rarely publish lifting numbers or detailed strength programmes, and Newcastle are particularly guarded about what happens behind closed doors. What they have revealed, however, paints a clear picture of the philosophy behind Burn’s preparation.
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Rather than chasing ever-bigger squat or deadlift numbers, Newcastle’s coaching staff prioritise keeping players available.
Speaking at the start of pre-season in 2023, Howe explained that players had returned in outstanding condition because of ‘the programmes they’ve been on and the various schedules that we’ve individualised’, adding that ‘the test results that we got today were as good as we’ve seen’.
That emphasis on individualisation appears to sit at the heart of Newcastle’s performance model. Every player is managed according to their position, injury history and physical profile, rather than being funnelled through a one-size-fits-all programme. Availability is the real performance metric.
For a player like Burn, whose value lies as much in reliability as raw power, that philosophy makes perfect sense. Staying fit for 40-plus matches is arguably a greater achievement than adding another 10kg to a lift.
The Bottom Line
While we don’t know exactly what’s written on Burn’s programme card, we can make some educated guesses. Like most elite footballers, Newcastle’s players are likely to rely on a blend of heavy compound lifts – think trap-bar deadlifts, split squats and Romanian deadlifts – alongside unilateral work, loaded carries, Copenhagen planks, medicine-ball throws and sprint-conditioning drills designed to build power, reduce injury risk and keep them available for the only strength test that really matters: Saturday afternoon.
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With almost 18 years in the health and fitness space as a personal trainer, nutritionist, breath coach and writer, Andrew has spent nearly half of his life exploring how to help people improve their bodies and minds.
As our fitness editor he prides himself on keeping Men’s Health at the forefront of reliable, relatable and credible fitness information, whether that’s through writing and testing thousands of workouts each year, taking deep dives into the science behind muscle building and fat loss or exploring the psychology of performance and recovery.
Whilst constantly updating his knowledge base with seminars and courses, Andrew is a lover of the practical as much as the theory and regularly puts his training to the test tackling everything from Crossfit and strongman competitions, to ultra marathons, to multiple 24 hour workout stints and (extremely unofficial) world record attempts.
You can find Andrew on Instagram at @theandrew.tracey, or simply hold up a sign for ‘free pizza’ and wait for him to appear.
