At 64, Tom Cruise is still jumping off cliffs, clinging to airborne planes, and – famously – still sprinting full tilt in every movie he’s in – and according to the Mission: Impossible star himself, it’s all thanks to a habitual, consistent workout routine.

Speaking to Entertainment Tonight at a press junket for Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning, Cruise explained that his approach to training is what allows him to keep living a lifestyle men half his age might deem ‘a bit extreme’.

‘I work seven days a week. I live on movie sets and editing rooms and that’s been my life. I look at a body kind of like a car… I have to take care of it,’ he said. To keep the engine running, Cruise treats his workouts like hygiene. ‘For me it’s like brushing my teeth. You gotta brush your teeth – we’re all like, “Oh God, do I really have to?” But it just takes a minute. That’s how I have to train my body.’

Cruise’s Varied Routine

This consistency involves a variety of different activities. From sea-kayaking, caving, fencing, treadmill running, weight-lifting, rock-climbing and hiking, it’s almost impossible to find something Cruise doesn’t do. It’s what has allowed the 64-year-old to remain able to do the things he loves – and the things his movies demand. From piloting jets and helicopters to diving, paragliding, and speed flying, his physical capacity is no accident.

‘I’m training all the time,’ he said. ‘I fly aerobatic airplanes. I fly jets. I fly helicopters. I parachute.’

Unlike other Hollywood actors, Cruise’s ability to perform death-defying stunts – and look jacked while doing it – isn’t the result of a last-minute bootcamp or crash diet. It’s the product of a lifetime of consistent daily effort. Just like brushing your teeth, as Cruise says: ‘You just gotta do it.’

Staying in Top Condition

Nick Lower, who trained Simon Pegg for Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One, saw first-hand just how dedicated Cruise is to staying at his peak.

‘Tom trains religiously, and he obviously eats very well,’ Lower told GQ, adding that Cruise’s team helps stay on top of all the latest fitness science and technology.

‘There is no bullshit. He does his own stunts. He’s in top condition all the time. He uses this very expensive, high-end machine that instead of just being a normal chest press machine, for example, it works you on your eccentric load, pushing you back. So instead of doing a set of 10, you could do a set of five and you’ve done just as much work. Whatever he’s doing, it works. You meet him in the flesh and he looks 10 years younger.’

And as for his peers, well, Brad Pitt has even offered high praise, highlighting just how hard he works physically.

‘Hell no,’ he told Etalk when asked if he wanted to emulate Cruise’s iconic action scenes. ‘I couldn’t keep up with Tom anyway – I leave the tough stuff to him.’

If there’s one thing Kori Sampson knows, it’s how to optimise your body composition for performance. To tap into his knowledge as an elite athlete and coach, we asked him to create a 4-week plan to help you move faster, recover quicker and keep pushing when the fatigue sets in – all while improving your muscle-to-fat ratio.

Ready to build muscle, burn fat and come out the other side looking, feeling and performing better? CLICK HERE to get 14 days of free access to the plan via the Men’s Health app.

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.

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_