Jai Courtney is an Australian actor best known for his roles in action movies like Jack Reacher, A Good Day to Die Hard and The Exception. He is one of the actors that stand out from the lot due to extremely well maintained physiques and insane fitness levels. This is his biography, dietary preferences, training routine as well as statistics.
Jai Courtney
| Full Name: Jai Courtney (Actor) | ||
| Weight | Height | Age |
| 89kg (198 lbs) | 6′-1″ (185.31 cm) | 39 years |
| Date of Birth | Birthplace | Nationality |
| March 15, 1986 | Sydney, Australia | Australian |
Jai Courtney Biography
Early Life
Jai Courtney was born on 15th March 1986 in the Cherrybrook suburb of Sydney to Chris and Karen Courtney. His father worked for an electricity company while mother was a teacher. Jai also has an elder sister. As a teenager, Jai Courtney participated in Rugby and Cricket. He was involved in the drama club of his school as well. The Spartacus actor graduated from the Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts in 2008. He joined the Ballet course during his college days but did not find any success there.
Career
Jai Courtney started his career as far back as 2005 through a short film named Boys Grammar. After working in a few TV shows and films, Jai got the biggest break of his career up to that point and played Varro in the series Spartacus for 10 episodes. The year 2012 brought a huge opportunity for the Australian actor as he worked alongside the legendary Tom Cruise in Jack Reacher. The same year, Courtney worked with Bruce Willis in Good Day to Die Hard where he played the role of John McClane’s son Jack.
Courtney has other successful projects like Terminator: Genisys on his resume. He also played the role of Captain Boomerang in the DC Extended Universe movie Suicide Squad. His portrayal of a villainous FBI agent in the movie Honest Thief was also praised by the critics.
Jai Courtney Workout
Jai Courteny is one of the few celebrities that are fully aware of their body and train with a cerebral approach rather than relying on trainer’s guidance alone. Here are some of the training principles that he endorses and follows religiously.
The 37-year-old feels that although the dynamic and high energy workouts are more popular in the fitness circuits, it is the less flashy training sessions that keep the metabolism high and make the body fat adaptive. As a result, low impact cardio is one of the integral parts of Courteny’s training routine
“I’ve been doing a lot of low-impact cardio, which is a great way to burn fat,” Jai Courtney told Men’s Health Australia in an interview.
A good example of this would be a weekly session on the elliptical trainer. The focus here should be to put the body through resistance as long as possible by pushing out the lactic acid.
“Consider it your six-pack supporting act,” Courtney says.
Avoid Junk Training
The Terminator: Genisys actor likes to train mindfully and avoids doing junk training. Courtney believes that one should and must do the exercises that feel uncomfortable. The reason? Well, the whole purpose of training is to challenge your physical and mental abilities and push them further. The moment an exercise starts becoming enjoyable, you have probably grown out of it and need something that can challenge your abilities further. It will be painful but you need to make the pain your training partner if you want to grow.
A lot of people start their fitness journey for a singular goal of an aesthetic looking physique. However, Jai Courtney does not fall into that category of gym-goers. Functional strength, athleticism, flexibility, speed and endurance are the attributes that everyone needs to strive for. As long as you achieve those, aesthetics become an inevitable by-product of the efforts you put in.
“I wish I did something like Yoga and Pilates. All the people who I know do it tell me it’s incredible. So that’s probably the direction I move in next,” Jai Courtney told the Men’s Health magazine in an interview.
He is a big believer in bodyweight training and trains intensely for approximately 30 minutes with different bodyweight exercises. He wastes no time in long rest periods or setting up the equipment. Courtney feels that if you’re completely tired after a workout and every single muscle is used during those exercises, it is ‘much more effective than sitting lifting weights and looking in the mirror’.
Choose a fitness activity that you can sustainably do over long periods of time
An outdoorsman by nature, jai Courtney has played sports like Rugby and Cricket. He was also involved in athletics. Most of his initial gains were made during these activities. The 37-year-old actor advises to skip the gym if it is nothing more than a mundane chore. You should rather do the activity that you are actually interested in doing.
“Keep yourself honest with the sport: It’s a workout you won’t even notice you’re doing. Just make sure you win, whatever you’re playing,” Jai Courtney said in an interview.
Jai Courtney’s typical work week includes three Intense full body training sessions. He mostly relies on bodyweight and free weight compound movements to improve functional strength and other attributes. However, isolation movements are almost totally absent from his training routine. As mentioned before, Jai Courtney is more of an outdoorsman and performs exercises that yield benefits in terms of functional strength, flexibility, speed, endurance and agility.
A typical work week in Jai Courtney’s training routine looks like this:
Monday
Warm-up – 5 to 10 minutes jogging
- Diamond Push-Ups – 3 to 6 sets of 10 to 20 reps
- Inverted Rows – 3 to 6 sets of 10 to 20 reps
- Bodyweight Bulgarian Split Squats – 3 to 6 sets of 10 to 20 reps
- Floor Crunches – 3 to 6 sets of 10 to 20 reps
- Jump Squats – 3 to 6 sets of 10 to 20 reps
Finish the training session with 5 to 10 wind-sprints of short distance
Tuesday
Warm-up – 5 to 10 minutes jogging
- Diamond Push-Ups – 3 to 6 sets of 10 to 20 reps
- Medium Grip Chin-Ups – 3 to 6 sets of 10 to 20 reps
- Box Jumps – 3 to 6 sets of 10 to 20 reps
- Pike Push-Ups – 3 to 6 sets of 10 to 20 reps
- Hanging Leg Lifts – 3 to 6 sets of 10 to 20 reps
Finish the training session with 40 minutes of steady state cardio exercise of choice
Wednesday
Rest
Thursday
Warm-up – 5 to 10 minutes jogging
- Feet-Elevated Inverted Rows – 3 to 6 sets of 10 to 20 reps
- TRX Push-Ups – 3 to 6 sets of 10 to 20 reps
- V-Ups – 3 to 6 sets of 10 to 20 reps
- Walking Lunges – 3 to 6 sets of 10 to 20 reps
- Goblet Squats – 3 to 6 sets of 10 to 20 reps
Finish the training session with 5 to 10 wind-sprints of short distance
Friday
Warm-up – 5 to 10 minutes jogging
- Dumbbell Deadlifts – 3 to 6 sets of 10 to 20 reps
- Depth Push-Ups – 3 to 6 sets of 10 to 20 reps
- TRX Rows – 3 to 6 sets of 10 to 20 reps
- Single Leg TRX Squats – 3 to 6 sets of 10 to 20 reps
- Planks – 3 to 6 reps of 10 to 20 seconds
Finish the training session with 40 minutes of steady state cardio exercise of choice
Saturday
Rest
Sunday
Rest
Jai Courtney Diet
Jai Courtney had to appear shirtless a number of times during his roles and a project like Spartacus required him to expose his physique for the most part. As a result, maintaining an aesthetically appealing physique is not just a choice but a professional requirement for him. The Australian actor does not believe in ‘fit for all’ dietary trends or fad diets that promise excellent results. Instead, he is a big believer of the fact that a person has to find right dietary practices and training methods that suit them at an individual level. Here are some of the dietary principles and past experiences that he has shared during various interviews.
Jai Courtney’s role in Spartacus was the first instance in his career when he was required to follow a restrictive diet and get a very specific body composition. However, he was much younger at the time which helped his body sustain the arduous diet and training routine. Courtney advices to give more time towards recovery and proper Nutrition as you get older.
“It’s remarkable how things do shift and you can become more prone to injury and need to treat your body a little more carefully. But it also allows you to evolve the way you do things to get the right results. You can try different ways of training and new approaches to eating to find the right way that works for you,” Jai Courtney told Coach Mag UK in an interview.
Losing weight for Terminator
To get the necessary body composition for Terminator: Genisys, the Australian actor had to shed about 12kg of his body weight. According to Courtney, that was one of the most challenging things he had done until that point.
“I’m naturally a bigger framed guy and it meant that I could always get away without doing an awful lot and still look in reasonable shape. When it came to Terminator, put simply, they told me I needed to drop a bunch of weight, about 12kg. That wasn’t something I’d ever had to focus on before. They wanted me to get away from being thick and muscle-bound and get really stripped down. So it was a totally different approach. I couldn’t lift any weights and my training was all low-impact cardio and a more restricted dietary regime than anything I’d ever done before. Honestly, it was pretty mind-bending,” Jai Courtney said in a Muscle Mag UK interview.
His coach later revealed that Jai was following an ultra low calorie diet for his role in Terminator: Genisys and therefore his energy levels were severely depleted a lot of times depending upon the shooting schedule and the amount of quality sleep he got at the time.
A trick to speed up fat burning process
During an interview with Men’s Health Australia magazine, Jai shared a tip to intensify the fat burning process in the body. He suggested that doing a little bit of exercise before every meal to see the difference.
“If you get just a bit of exercise in before every meal, you’ll really see a difference. Perform 50 press-ups, sit-ups or prisoner squats, broken up into as many sets as you need before eating. It will force your body to access fat stores for fuel,” Jai Courtney stated.
And finally, the supplements. In the modern world where consuming large quantities of food frequently can be very challenging for most people with busy routines, dietary supplements offer convenient means to meet the daily nutritional requirements. Courtney uses dietary supplements as well. However, he does not like overusing them. While it is difficult to eat nutrient dense whole foods for every meal considering the busy work schedules, Jai tries to consume whole foods as much as possible and keeps the supplement intake in check. After all, dietary supplements are supposed to assist the actual meals and not replace them.
“I would much rather have a couple of hundred grams of chicken in the afternoon than neck a shake,” says Courtney. “You’re better off just keeping your diet relatively lean and eating simply.”
The most amazing thing about Jai Courtney’s fitness journey is that he has not only maintained excellent physical fitness through training and diet but has also overcome his addiction to smoking. Yes, Courtney is an ex-smoker but he has gone to great lengths to stay away from the habit and adopt a healthy lifestyle. Needless to say, the results have been outstanding!
Jay Courtney Personal Life
Jai Courtney was in a long-term relationship with fellow Australian actress Gemma Pranita. The couple was together for almost eight years before calling it quits in 2013. Courtney has been dating Australian PR Coordinator Mecki Dent since 2016.
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