It’s hard to talk about Sylvester Stallone without spouting worn-out clichés. Words like “ultimate badass,” “fitness icon,” and “never too old” tumble from our mouths as we try to adequately describe the man.
But we just can’t avoid terms like those, and damn it, we don’t want to. Sylvester Stallone proves you’re never too old to be a fitness icon and the ultimate badass. The guy has more muscle mass than most of the 20-somethings headlining movies these days, and thanks to his surprisingly active Instagram — this guy loves Instagram — we’ve gotten a peek at one his grueling workouts.
He posted the video below with the caption, “Another easy workout! You’re only as old as you and your joints feel!LOL”
The angle makes it pretty hard to tell just how high he got, but that’s a 100-pound weighted pull-up from a guy who’s approaching his 72nd birthday. Plus those handles appear to make the lift closer to a towel-grip pull-up — they’re vertical — which is extra taxing on the grip.
Stallone goes hard in the gym, and we’ve seen him take that hundred-pound dumbbell for a walk before.
Pushing the limits! 100 pounds – This one hurt, I think I’ll go home and take a nap… Bye.
[Read more: The 8 Most Impressive Feats of Strength from Hollywood Actors.]
In his prime, this man was pushing the limits of the human body. In a widely-covered post from 2017, he went into detail regarding his extraordinary prep for Rocky III. The photo shows him doing a handstand between takes of his fight with Mr. T’s Clubber Lang “to get some blood back into my head so I could carry on with the complicated fight choreography.”
Between rounds I would get lightheaded and quite exhausted. I was on a very high protein diet which did not provide much physical or mental energy. During the period I only ate very small portions of oatmeal cookies made with brown rice and up to 25 cups of coffee a day with honey and a couple of scoops of tuna fish. Sounds incredible right?
At the time my body fat got down to 2.9 (percent) which is a really dangerous level. I may have looked pretty good on the outside but inside it was very dangerous thing to do. But I wanted the movie to be about change. How people have to adapt to different challenges because if they don’t they will be conquered. I will always believe the adaptation is the key to survival and that’s what this story was all about.
He takes it a little easier these days, but he keeps up his combat training by occasionally attempting to murder his brother Frank.
Gotta stay young somehow.
Featured image @officialslystallone on Instagram.
