How Daniel Craig worked out to get James Bond’s body at age 52

If moobs and a paunch shape your middle-aged physique, then Daniel Craig’s rippling torso may make you wonder where it all went wrong.

Daniel Craig for April GQ cover shoot. Picture: INSTAGRAM

If moobs and a paunch are what you have to show for your middle-aged physique, then images published this week of Daniel Craig’s rippling torso may make you wonder where it all went wrong.

Craig is 52, not that you would know it from his appearance in April’s GQ magazine, where he looks buffer, if not better, than when we saw him emerge from the sea as James Bond in Casino Royale. Fourteen years on, returning for his fifth and final outing as 007 in No Time to Die, his hair may be tinged with grey, but his body has defied the march of time spectacularly. How has he done it — and could you come close to achieving the same?

It does not come easy even if you are as genetically blessed as he is. Craig describes how the physical demands of the role became a burden and the delayed delivery of scripts required him to work out intensely between films, putting in several hours of hard training a day.

Matt Roberts, the personal trainer and author of Younger, Fitter, Stronger (Bloomsbury), says that, at any age, honing a physique like Craig’s requires effort, but that after 45 it becomes high-maintenance to a level that many of us would consider extreme. However, he says he has seen how his 50-something (and older) clients want that toned torso and are prepared to make the kind of physical demands of their bodies that used to be expected only by those in their 20s.

Hello? It’s Daniel Craig for April GQ Picture: INSTAGRAM

“You can achieve a high level of fitness with a certain amount of effort,” Roberts says. “But if you want to look like Daniel Craig, it’s taking things up another level.” A mistake that many older men make, Roberts says, is to ramp up endurance exercise with more cycling, running and swimming in an attempt to stave off a paunch.

“While some aerobic exercise is important for health, you will probably find it isn’t enough to achieve the physique you want as you get older,” Roberts says. “You need to switch to training that helps stimulate production of male hormones such as testosterone and human growth hormone that fall naturally when we’re past our 40s.”

Since these male hormones are implicated in regulating muscle growth, fat levels and metabolism, it’s no surprise that dwindling levels make it harder for men to build muscle and burn calories. Coupled with rising levels of the female hormone oestrogen, this leads to fat being deposited in the chest area and around the middle. Only with a regimen of weight training and high-intensity workouts can you reboot your hormone production, Roberts says.

Daniel Craig on GQ’s Instagram

Recovery, which slows with age, also becomes more important. “It’s getting a careful balance of less volume and more quality, a progressively harder weights program with good recovery and sleep patterns,” he says. “You also need to cut down on alcohol, sugar and processed foods and increase your consumption of foods that might help to counter the production of oestrogen.”

Craig’s fitness regimen is rumoured to be along these lines. He is believed to have worked with strength and conditioning coach Simon Waterson to prepare for his final Bond appearance, following a program of full-body power circuits and weights. “He would be at the extreme end of hard training,” Roberts says. “You would be looking at everything from supplementation with nutrients that maximise hormonal production along with massage, saunas and cryotherapy.”

Dalton Wong, a celebrity trainer in his mid-40s, agrees. “He has not got that look by running on the treadmill a few times a week,” Wong says. “It’s an entire lifestyle dedicated to his body.”

A body that is pushed to perfection is likely to pay the price in terms of wear and tear and Craig’s is no exception. He says that he has seen signs of arthritis in his joints, probably down to the damage incurred in a list of injuries he reels off to GQ that would rival those of any professional athlete.

All of which raises the question: is an ageing body up for the demands required to look that good? “It will undoubtedly be harder in your 50s,” Roberts says. “But don’t use that as an excuse not to work hard — anything is achievable.”

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