Tom Holland's Boxing Workout Is Going Viral – but His CrossFit Score Is Even More Impressive

It's been a busy few weeks for Tom Holland.

His latest turn in the red and blue spandex, Spider-Man: Brand New Day, has been breaking box-office records, while Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey has added another blockbuster to his increasingly ridiculous CV. The lad's done well, hasn’t he?

Now, an old Men’s Health interview with the actor has started doing the rounds again – and it's left the internet in disbelief at how fit Holland really is.

When MH caught up with Holland last year, he told us that one of his favourite workouts when he’s short on time is the classic CrossFit protocol ‘Cindy’.

This bodyweight classic is one of the simplest CrossFit workouts going, but it’s also one of the most effective. And Holland's personal best score is seriously impressive.

Set a timer for 20 minutes and perform as many rounds as possible of:

5 pull-ups
10 push-ups
15 bodyweight squats

That’s it.

You simply work around the three movements as many times as possible, aiming to accumulate as much high-quality, muscle-building, fitness-boosting volume as you can using nothing more than your own bodyweight, a pull-up bar and a stopwatch.

‘I think my record is 27 rounds,’ Holland told us.

For the mathematically astute among you, you’ll have already realised that’s comfortably more than one round per minute.

In fact, Holland would have had to finish each round in an average of just over 44 seconds – for the entire 20 minutes.

That adds up to:

135 pull-ups
270 push-ups
405 squats

Or 810 reps in total, averaging more than 40 reps every minute.

Every single minute.

For 20 minutes.

Holland also told us that when he’s feeling tired, he’ll occasionally turn the workout into an EMOM – performing one round at the beginning of every minute and using whatever time is left to rest. This is similar to another CrossFit workout, Chelsea, only in that workout you push the EMOM out to 30 minutes.

If you're not familiar with CrossFit benchmarks, you might not realise just how good 27 rounds of Cindy really is.

Commonly used Cindy benchmarks put five to 10 rounds in the beginner category, 11 to 16 at intermediate, 17 to 23 at advanced and anything above 24 rounds firmly in elite territory.

Holland’s 27-round score doesn’t just suggest he’s in good shape ‘for an actor’. It puts him comfortably above the level most regular gym-goers – and plenty of experienced CrossFitters – will ever hit.

Of course, standards matter. There’s a big difference between strict pull-ups and fast butterfly reps, chest-to-floor push-ups and short-range press-ups, or full-depth squats and increasingly optimistic knee bends.

Either way, moving through 810 reps in 20 minutes requires a serious engine, excellent muscular endurance and enough experience to pace the workout without fading around the 10-minute mark.

The resurfaced Cindy clip isn’t Holland’s only recent fitness flex, either.

Footage of the actor working the pads has also been making its way around social media, with boxing fans and coaches praising his speed, combinations and movement.

We spoke about the power of pad work when Holland's Marvel co-star Chris Hemsworth shared a few rounds of his own. It's a shockingly effective way to build your engine.

Beginner: 5–10 rounds
Intermediate: 11–16 rounds
Advanced: 17–23 rounds
Elite: 24 rounds or more
Tom Holland: 27 rounds

The only question left is: how many rounds can you make it through?

If there’s one thing Kori Sampson knows, it’s how to optimise your body composition for performance. To tap into his knowledge as an elite athlete and coach, we asked him to create a 4-week plan to help you move faster, recover quicker and keep pushing when the fatigue sets in – all while improving your muscle-to-fat ratio.

Ready to build muscle, burn fat and come out the other side looking, feeling and performing better? Click here to get 14 days of free access to the plan via the Men’s Health app.

Andrew Tracey

With almost 18 years in the health and fitness space as a personal trainer, nutritionist, breath coach and writer, Andrew has spent nearly half of his life exploring how to help people improve their bodies and minds.    

As our fitness editor he prides himself on keeping Men’s Health at the forefront of reliable, relatable and credible fitness information, whether that’s through writing and testing thousands of workouts each year, taking deep dives into the science behind muscle building and fat loss or exploring the psychology of performance and recovery.   

Whilst constantly updating his knowledge base with seminars and courses, Andrew is a lover of the practical as much as the theory and regularly puts his training to the test tackling everything from Crossfit and strongman competitions, to ultra marathons, to multiple 24 hour workout stints and (extremely unofficial) world record attempts.   

 You can find Andrew on Instagram at @theandrew.tracey, or simply hold up a sign for ‘free pizza’ and wait for him to appear.