Jack Lowden has emerged as one of the favourites to become the next James Bond – and if he does land the role, he’ll have big shoes to fill following Daniel Craig.

It’s a good job the 36-year-old has been preparing himself physically over the past few years, then.

While it’s unlikely Lowden would need to emerge from the Bahamian sea in quite the same way Craig did in Casino Royale, appearing physically imposing in a perfectly tailored suit has long been part of the Bond blueprint.

In recent years, traditional gym exercises have formed the backbone of the Scottish actor’s workouts. Barbell curls, incline curls, incline bench press, chest-supported rows, upright rows, suitcase carries, single-leg leg press, and cardio exercises such as rowing and cycling have all featured in footage shared online, while he naturally lives a very active lifestyle even when he’s not specifically preparing for a role.

In addition to kayaking Scotland’s Great Glen Way, Lowden also has a passion for wild swimming off the coasts of Ireland and Scotland after reading about it in Amy Liptrot’s memoir, The Outrun, which he later co-produced as a film alongside his wife, Saoirse Ronan.

Lowden is no stranger to transforming his body for specific roles, too. For Fighting With My Family in 2019, he spent seven weeks training at a CrossFit gym to bulk up for his portrayal of Zac Zodiac Bevis. His training focused heavily on every minute on the minute (EMOM) and ‘Death By…’ workouts, incorporating plenty of deadlifts, bench presses and push presses.

‘The first session was a complete baptism of fire,’ Lowden told the CrossFit YouTube channel. ‘For the first week I couldn’t walk. We just got used to very hard work, but that’s essentially what it was for me: getting used to pain.’

Adding size also meant plenty of eating, with Lowden even creating his own high-protein shake.

‘A go-to thing I do is crack four eggs into a NutriBullet with massive handfuls of spinach, a banana and frozen raspberries. Whizz that up and you’ve had four eggs,’ he told Soho House. ‘But you wouldn’t know because it doesn’t taste minging. And it works – none of my clothes fit me after that.’

For The Gold, meanwhile, Lowden went from 79kg to 90kg in just three months while working with personal trainer Chris Ball, an ex-professional boxer from south London. Lowden needed to add size to play Kenneth Noye, who was convicted over the 1983 Brink’s-Mat robbery, meaning he spent plenty of his time eating and training.

‘I personally put on quite a lot of weight for the role. I did think it was quite a strange choice for myself to play this part and I thought I needed to have a bit more beef. I worked with a very talented personal trainer called Chris and he kicked the living hell out of me in three months, including over Zoom,’ Lowden told The Express.

And, in true Bond fashion, he’s even practised vaulting over fences, while for Slow Horses he frequently trains the running sequences required for the role.

Ryan is a Senior Writer at Men’s Health UK with a passion for storytelling, health and fitness. Having graduated from Cardiff University in 2020, and later obtaining his NCTJ qualification, Ryan started his career as a Trainee News Writer for sports titles Golf Monthly, Cycling Weekly and Rugby World before progressing to Staff Writer and subsequently Senior Writer with football magazine FourFourTwo.

During his two-and-a-half years there he wrote news stories for the website and features for the magazine, while he also interviewed names such as Les Ferdinand, Ally McCoist, Jamie Redknapp and Antonio Rudiger, among many others. His standout memory, though, came when getting the opportunity to speak to then-Plymouth Argyle manager Steven Schumacher as the club won League One in 2023.

Having grown up a keen footballer and playing for his boyhood side until the age of 16, Ryan got the opportunity to represent Northern Ireland national futsal team eight times, scoring three goals against England, Scotland and Gibraltar. Now past his peak, Ryan prefers to mix weightlifting with running – he achieved a marathon PB of 3:31:49 at Manchester in April 2025, but credits the heat for failing to get below the coveted 3:30 mark…

You can follow Ryan on Instagram @ryan.dabbs or on X @ryandabbs_