Jeremy Allen White's physique looks like the product of hours spent under a barbell. In reality, the Bear star spends much of his training time doing pull-ups, push-ups, dips and skipping workouts in New York's outdoor gyms.
It's an unconventional approach by Hollywood standards, but one that's helped him stay lean, athletic and camera-ready. Though, as White discovered while training alongside a group of Copenhagen chefs, fitness isn't always as simple as it looks.
'I find a park with an outdoor gym – that's how I like to exercise,' he told GQ. 'I'll bring a jump rope, and I'll do some pull-ups, push-ups, dips. I like exercising outside, especially in New York in the outdoor gyms in the park, because there's always going to be someone there that's tougher than you, so I find I get quietly competitive and I'll end up training a little bit harder.'
Circuit Training for The Bear
Allen White even took getting in shape for The Bear one step further in season three – by working out with professional chefs in Copenhagen. It allowed him not just an insight into how hard they work, but also a chance to compete.
'They are incredible people to spend time with, but they are a little crazy,' Allen White said on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert. 'I got invited to go train with some of the chefs, and I heard about this from our producer, Courtney Storer.
'She said, "The chef would like to train with you." Great, I'll get in the kitchen with him and go over some stuff. No, he'd like to physically train with you. And I was like, "What's that?" She said it was a circuit training sort of deal – so I agreed. I was going alone with all these chefs, and these guys are like 45, 50, and they look like they are fit, but they don't look like they are in crazy shape or anything.
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'I exercise a lot, so I felt like I got this. It's going to be fine. And, man, we did 30-minute circuits. The first circuit was an assault bike, and then we did bench presses and burpees and dips. We did ten rounds of this. After the fifth round, I had to excuse myself to go throw up. And I did. I really embarrassed myself. These really incredible chefs and maniac masochists. I thought I'd be okay. I really did. They crushed me.'
Bulking Up for The Iron Claw
However, the leaner physique built from bodyweight movements and cardio didn't quite cut it for the film, The Iron Claw. Allen White plays Kerry Von Erich, a member of the famous wrestling family, and needed to add 18kg of mass to star alongside Zac Efron. Not that he knew specifically how to achieve those results.
'I knew I had to eat more, so I ate more. I knew I had to lift heavy things, so I lifted a lot of heavy things – and I tried to stay away from cardio,' Allen White explained to Jimmy Kimmel. 'I like to run, I like to jump rope in my everyday life – that makes me feel good. These guys [wrestlers] didn’t do a lot of that stuff. It was just lifting.'
The heavy lifting helped Allen White build a much bigger physique than fans were used to seeing, but it wasn't a look he kept for long. Once filming wrapped, he returned to his preferred style of training ahead of a Calvin Klein campaign.
By swapping heavy weights for running, skipping and calisthenics – and significantly reducing his calorie intake – Allen White arrived at the 2024 shoot in arguably his leanest shape yet.
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Ryan is a Senior Writer at Men’s Health UK with a passion for storytelling, health and fitness. Having graduated from Cardiff University in 2020, and later obtaining his NCTJ qualification, Ryan started his career as a Trainee News Writer for sports titles Golf Monthly, Cycling Weekly and Rugby World before progressing to Staff Writer and subsequently Senior Writer with football magazine FourFourTwo.
During his two-and-a-half years there he wrote news stories for the website and features for the magazine, while he also interviewed names such as Les Ferdinand, Ally McCoist, Jamie Redknapp and Antonio Rudiger, among many others. His standout memory, though, came when getting the opportunity to speak to then-Plymouth Argyle manager Steven Schumacher as the club won League One in 2023.
Having grown up a keen footballer and playing for his boyhood side until the age of 16, Ryan got the opportunity to represent Northern Ireland national futsal team eight times, scoring three goals against England, Scotland and Gibraltar. Now past his peak, Ryan prefers to mix weightlifting with running – he achieved a marathon PB of 3:31:49 at Manchester in April 2025, but credits the heat for failing to get below the coveted 3:30 mark…
You can follow Ryan on Instagram @ryan.dabbs or on X @ryandabbs_
