You’ve almost certainly seen the photos of J.K. Simmons, biceps bulging and veins popping, looking less like an Oscar-winning actor and more like a man who actually could go toe-to-toe with Spider-Man himself. Now 71, Simmons remains in formidable shape.
But despite possessing some of Hollywood’s most viral arms, the one exercise Simmons would keep above all others isn’t a curl, press or heavyweight compound movement.
Asked on an episode of the Men’s Health Built for Life podcast which single exercise he would choose for the rest of his life, Simmons doesn’t hesitate: ‘Dead bugs.’
Simmons was introduced to the core exercise by his trainer Charles Cooperman – and believes its benefits go far beyond simply building a stronger set of abs.
‘It’s such a great overall body exercise, especially if you add some dumbbells,’ he says. ‘More and more, I’ve learned over the years something that my wife, who was a dancer, has always known: core, core, core. If you’ve got a strong core, you can protect your back and everything else will follow.’
Why Dead Bugs Are His Exercise for Life
That last point is the crux of Simmons’ choice here. His approach to training is less about chasing numbers and more about lifting ‘without abusing my knees and shoulders and wrists and every other joint in my body’.
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Dead bugs fit that brief perfectly. Commonly prescribed by physios and strength coaches, they’re an ‘anti-extension’ exercise, teaching the muscles of your midsection to brace and prevent your lower back from arching while your arms and legs move independently.
That ability to create stiffness through the torso is useful whether you’re deadlifting, running or simply hauling the shopping out of the car. Dead bugs also fit with the ‘spine-sparing’ philosophy popularised by renowned back expert Professor Stuart McGill – building stability without repeatedly flexing or heavily loading the spine.
Add light dumbbells, as Simmons suggests, and you can increase the challenge while still keeping the movement controlled.
Simple, scalable and capable of building the foundations for almost every other movement you perform, dead bugs are about as close to a Swiss Army knife as core exercises get.
For Simmons, the move factors in no matter how much time he has. On busier days, his entire session could be ‘30 minutes on the exercise bike and some dead bugs on the bench’.
They’re unlikely to make for the same kind of viral photos as those sleeve-splitting arms. But if dead bugs help keep you healthy enough to continue lifting into your seventies, they might just help you build them.
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