A PAIR OF Weights sit in one corner of the small basement room Stephen Lang calls his gym, and 10-pound plates are scattered on the floor. Lang is standing in the center of the room, grinning broadly. “Here,” he says, “is where I do most of my training.”
It doesn’t matter that the space is so small that when Lang raises his arms to the side, he almost brushes against the walls. The 70-year-old actor best known for his breakout role as the sadistic Colonel Miles Quaritch in 2009. Avatar, grabs a homemade doll roller from the ground. It’s a simple tool (he loves to DIY his own exercise equipment), a foot-long stick with a weight attached to it by a piece of string. Holding the club and both hands, extend your arms, then flex your wrists, one after the other, rolling your weight toward the club. He does several reps like this, then lowers the roller. “At this point in my life,” she says, “what’s important to me is flexibility, stamina, and strength. And I’ve added another thing to that, which is alignment.
He chases that alignment by walking into this room at his home in upstate New York at least four days a week for a workout mix he’s perfected over the past 12 years. His training consists of yoga, weight training sessions, and karate. Some days she does all three, but she prioritizes yoga. It’s a regime that has kept him fit to fight, a key reason he still looks menacing as the sinister Colonel Quaritch in Avatar: The Path of Watercomes out this month
He hints that he’s in better shape today than he was when he was making the original Avatar. He then signed on with a pumped-up 190 pounds for the role, thanks to a lot of old-school weight training sessions. But all that muscle didn’t make his body feel good. So a year later Avatar, he changed his training style. He’s down to 155 pounds now, but says his frame carries this lighter load “much more comfortably.” “I would date it to 2010 when I fully committed myself for the rest of my life to staying as fit and flexible as possible,” she says. “Because you realize your advanced age; you feel your age. And it’s not a question of avoiding age. You can’t do that. But what you can do is make the most of what you have.”
This workout does that, especially today, since you’re mixing all three of your disciplines into one session. Lang leaves the room, then gets into a pushup position, doing 11 reps (her superstition of him) so easily he hardly notices his hands. Instead of having his palms on the ground, he supports his upper body with just his fingertips, a grueling push-up style he learned in karate.
After several sets, he is back in his “gym”. She is now standing on her left leg only, her right foot pinned to her left thigh, doing a yoga tree pose. However, she modified the move: Instead of simply clasping her hands above her head, she holds small grips in each hand, squeezing each one hard to challenge his forearms. “They’re kind of opposites in a way,” she says of her three favorite training styles. “But there’s a sweet spot where they really come together.”
In fact, the combination of ideas has helped him build muscle while avoiding pain. He battles arthritis in his hands and still does those fingertip pushups. In 2014, he underwent a left hip replacement, but still switches to a fighter’s stance at the end of this session to work on kata, a classic karate flow.
It all helps you move and feel better, while leaving room for the fun of bicep curls. As the session draws to a close, he grabs a dumbbell, squats down and presses his triceps against his thigh, then performs repetitions of concentration curls (sitting with legs slightly apart and elbow in the crease of the knee, providing stability for exercise). curly). “I do it too, frankly, out of vanity,” he says of training him. I am quite vain. Hey, any motivation that works.
Do it yourself
When Lang doesn’t have weights, he gets creative with bodyweights and whatever equipment he can find. Let him try his three favorite moves anytime, anywhere.
brick transport bucket
Take a large bucket and fill it with bricks, or whatever you choose. Raise it to the waist, then walk or march in place.
Work for 30 seconds, then rest 30; do 3 sets.
tree pose
Stand up, then lift your right leg up, bend your right knee, and plant your right foot on your left inner thigh. Raise your hands above your head, palms together. Hold for 30 seconds. Do you want more challenge? Squeeze towels or vise grips to test your forearms.
Lizards
Reliable old man. Do 10 repetitions. Too easy? Try to place only your fingertips on the ground; now do 10. Do 3 or 4 sets.
A version of this story originally appeared in the December 2022 issue of Men’s Health, under the headline “6 AM WITH…THE HEAVY AVATAR.”
