About fifteen minutes into our interview, after hes just detailed his stretching routine, a five-step core circuit, and his yoga practice, Wilson Cruz says something mind boggling: That was just a warmup. What follows for the 46-year-old actor is another hours worth of strength training, which hes lately been doing using TRX straps and a flywheel machine at home.
Cruz wasnt always a pre-workout workout type guy. He gradually picked up healthy habits while he was playing Angel in the original Broadway run of Rent, where he rapidly lost weight dancing around under layers of costumes. I had to make up for it by eating a lot, he says, so he started paying attention to what he was putting in his body. Once the show wrapped and he felt ready to take on TV roles, he started learning how to lift. These days, hes careful to keep his body looking sharp as Dr. Hugh Culber, a doctor aboard the USS Discovery in CBSs Star Trek spinoff. Plus, he likes to use his muscles for good every so oftenhe's been known to drop an annual thirst trap in honor of Pride Month or, more recently, to get out the vote.
GQ caught up with Cruz, whos tuning into Season 3 of Discovery while prepping for a new role in Toronto, on how hes fine-tuned his routine.
GQ: Whats your morning routine like right now?
Wilson Cruz: On a normal day I get up around 7:00 and have black coffee. Ill get things done and answer e-mails and try to let that coffee kick in. Then Ill work out from around 9:00 to 11:00. I'll continue to drink my black coffee through my morning workout 'cause I'm an addict.
Let me preface this by saying, I'm gonna be 47 years old in December, so my workouts are very different than they were 20 years ago. I have to put everything in place these days when I wake up [laughs]. So I get up and readjust my 47-year-old back so that I can walk through the day. A lot of it is waking up the body and getting it ready for physical exertion. Priming it. I'm stretching, I'm working on my flexibility, I'm working on my stabilizing core muscles.
I do about 30 minutes of core before I work out, because your core is everything. If your core isn't awake and ready, your workout is useless. It's an entire routine that consists of bird dogs, shoulder taps, the ab wheel, planks, and the one where you're on your back and you kinda hollow everything out.
I do my yoga after my core routine, for about 20 minutes. And then I can work out.
What does the main workout typically look like?
I'll pick a couple of body parts that I combine, and do about an hour, which usually gets me about eight different setups. Nowadays, I'm working out at home, so it's all right here. I have my TRX, I have my pull-up bar. I bought this new machine that my trainer introduced me to in the early days of shelter-in-place called the flywheel. However hard you pull, it'll pull back.
Do you always work out in the morning?
If I had my druthers I'd get up, have my coffee, and go. The earlier the better. But you have to be willing to adjust with filming schedules. Sometimes, like early in the week, it's easy to do it in the morning before work. Later in the week is harder. Sometimes it's just about sneaking it in where you can. Or you skip the day and make up for it the next day. I try to look at the whole week. As long as I'm getting a workout in five out of seven days a week, I'm doing all right.
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Star Trek: Discovery's Wilson Cruz Works Out Before His Workout - GQ
