Terry Crews Swapped Some Runs for the StairMaster—Here's What Lifters Can Learn
UPLIFT IRON CLUBWhy Terry Crews Now Trains for Staying Power
Terry Crews is still built like the guy who could carry the entire cast of Brooklyn Nine-Nine out of a burning building. The interesting part of his training now, though, is not another giant bench-press number. At 58, the actor and former professional football player has increasingly described fitness in terms of endurance, energy and being able to keep doing the work. He still lifts. He simply no longer treats every session as a contest to prove he can move the heaviest possible load.
Crews has described getting up around 5:30 a.m. and beginning his day with exercise. In earlier decades he made running a regular fixture alongside strength training, sometimes covering roughly four miles after lifting. His current emphasis is different: maintain a serious strength habit while giving cardiovascular fitness more deliberate attention. That is a shift in priorities, not an announcement that muscle no longer matters. His muscular build is the product of years of resistance training, not a StairMaster subscription.
There is a useful distinction between being strong for a few seconds and being fit enough to sustain activity for a long time. Heavy presses, squats and rows train high-force production and preserve muscle. Aerobic work improves the ability to sustain effort and recover between bouts. Both qualities matter to an athlete who wants to perform well, but also to someone who wants to walk up flights of stairs without sounding like a malfunctioning leaf blower. A great physique can coexist with poor endurance; looking athletic and being broadly conditioned are overlapping, not identical, goals.
The lesson is not to copy a celebrity's wake-up time or training volume. Crews has an unusual professional schedule, decades of lifting experience and resources most people do not. The lesson is that priorities can evolve without abandoning an identity as a lifter. If your knees dislike running, change the cardio tool. If heavy sessions leave you exhausted for days, adjust the dose. Progress should be measured by what you can repeat consistently, not by how much punishment fits into one heroic workout.
One important date check: the current discussion of Crews's routine largely revisits details he has shared in previous interviews, rather than documenting a brand-new training transformation. That makes the practical question more valuable than the headline: how can a committed lifter build endurance while keeping the strength and muscle that took years to earn?
Why the StairMaster Replaced Some of His Runs
For years, Crews was associated with regular running, including four-mile sessions that would sound like a complete workout to many recreational lifters. More recently he has described hip and knee discomfort when running too often and using a stair-climbing machine instead. His reported sessions can run about 45 to 50 minutes. The significant change is the choice of movement, not the decision to stop doing cardio. He kept the training quality he cared about while modifying the repeated impact that was becoming less comfortable.
A revolving stair machine is deceptively demanding. Every step raises body mass against gravity, so the heart and lungs have to keep supplying oxygen while the glutes, quadriceps and calves repeat a large amount of submaximal work. Unlike outdoor running, the feet are not repeatedly landing after a flight phase. That can make climbing a useful alternative for someone bothered by running impact, although it is not automatically painless or suitable for every knee or hip problem. Step height, speed, posture and individual symptoms all matter.
Do not assume a 50-minute celebrity session is an appropriate starting point. For a beginner, five to ten minutes at a pace that allows short sentences can be plenty. Add two to five minutes only after the previous dose feels manageable and recovery is good. Use the rails for balance rather than hanging your bodyweight from them, keep steps controlled and avoid leaning so far forward that the machine is doing your postural work. If the machine provokes sharp or increasing joint pain, stop and choose a better-tolerated option.
The useful comparison is not StairMaster versus treadmill as a moral contest. A bike, elliptical, brisk walk, rower or stair climber can all contribute to aerobic fitness when the effort and total weekly work are appropriate. Short stair-climbing interventions have improved cardiorespiratory measures in previously inactive participants, but that does not mean a single machine has unique fat-burning properties. Cardiovascular adaptations come from repeatable training stress, not a logo on the equipment.
Crews's adjustment illustrates an underappreciated form of progression: maintaining a long-term habit by changing the exercise before discomfort turns into forced inactivity. If you enjoy running and tolerate it well, there is no reason to abandon it. If your joints prefer another mode, the best cardio choice is often the one you can perform regularly without sacrificing tomorrow's strength session.
He Still Lifts: Why Cardio Does Not Replace Muscle
The actor's move toward endurance does not erase his lifting background. Crews has long been associated with dedicated chest-and-arm training, compound exercises and a bodybuilding-style split. His physique is a reminder that resistance training remains part of the equation. Cardio develops a different set of qualities; it does not replace the progressive mechanical tension needed to maintain or build substantial muscle.
For most lifters, a sustainable strength base is two to four sessions per week that cover a squat or knee-dominant pattern, a hip hinge, a press and a pull. Start with two or three working sets per movement, generally six to twelve repetitions, and leave one to three repetitions in reserve on most sets. Progress by adding a rep, improving control or increasing load gradually. You do not need a two-hour celebrity workout to get a meaningful strength stimulus, especially when consistency is already difficult.
Combining aerobic and resistance work is often called concurrent training. The old gym myth says any meaningful cardio immediately eats muscle. Research is more nuanced. Some analyses find small interference effects in specific measures of muscle-fiber growth, particularly with high running exposure, while whole-muscle outcomes and practical programming depend on dose, training status and recovery. An easy cycling or climbing session is not the same physiological stress as repeated hard intervals after brutal leg training.
If strength or hypertrophy is your main goal, put the demanding lifting work first on days when both are performed. Keep most cardio easy to moderate, and separate hard lower-body endurance sessions from your heaviest leg day when possible. If cardiovascular performance is the priority, reverse the order or use separate days. Nutrition, sleep and total workload often matter more than obsessing over whether a ten-minute warm-up has sabotaged your gains.
Crews can afford to train frequently, but most people improve faster with a smaller plan they can actually recover from. Two full-body sessions and three moderate aerobic bouts beat an ambitious six-day split that survives for one Monday. Track strength numbers and cardio duration separately. If lifts stall, legs stay heavy and enthusiasm collapses, reduce endurance intensity or total volume before blaming your age. The objective is a bigger engine and a sturdy chassis, not winning a daily argument between them.
Early Mornings and Meal Timing: What Actually Matters
Crews has described starting his day with training before most people have opened their inbox. An early session can work beautifully when it fits a stable schedule, but it is not automatically superior to training at lunchtime or after work. The body responds to the work performed and recovered from, not to a clock reading. Morning exercise is especially useful for people whose evenings are unpredictable, while later sessions can be easier for those who need more time to wake up and prepare.
Build a repeatable start rather than an elaborate ritual. Lay out your clothes, plan the first exercise and begin with five minutes of easy movement. Add warm-up sets before heavy lifts and let the first working set tell you how the day is going. On a low-energy morning, reducing load slightly while maintaining good technique is more productive than forcing a personal record.
Crews has also spoken about keeping meals within a consistent daily window. Meal timing can make a schedule simpler, but the important questions for active people are whether they can eat enough to support training, include adequate protein and feel energetic during sessions. An early workout does not demand a complicated supplement routine. Water, a realistic training plan and ordinary food can cover the basics for many people.
For longer or more demanding workouts, carbohydrate availability can influence how strong and energetic the session feels. Some lifters prefer a light snack before lifting; others feel comfortable exercising first and eating afterward. Either approach can be reasonable when overall nutrition and recovery are handled. What matters is the pattern across the week: productive sessions, adequate meals, reliable sleep and enough energy for normal life outside the gym.
The biggest mistake is treating a celebrity's exact timetable as the secret ingredient. A person who sleeps six hours to reach the gym at dawn may be making a worse trade than someone who sleeps eight hours and trains later. Protect bedtime, make the routine fit your actual commitments and choose a training hour you can sustain. Discipline is repeating a sensible plan, not collecting points for being awake before sunrise.
Recovery Is a Training Skill, Not a Sign of Weakness
Crews's approach has become more adaptable as his training history has grown. Years of hard exercise create experience, but they also teach that recovery is a real part of the program. He has discussed choosing lighter sessions, resistance bands and high-repetition movement on days when maximal effort is not the priority. The idea is not that light weights magically outperform heavy ones. It is that an easier day can preserve the habit while leaving enough capacity for the next productive session.
A useful warm-up has a purpose. Start with several minutes of comfortable movement to raise temperature, then perform a few controlled mobility drills that resemble the session ahead. Before lower-body lifting, that might mean bodyweight squats, hip hinges and a split-squat pattern. Before upper-body training, try controlled shoulder circles, light rows and progressively heavier warm-up sets. You are preparing to perform the exercise, not auditioning for a separate endurance event.
Joint discomfort is information, not a challenge to win. Changing from running to cycling or stair climbing can reduce one kind of repetitive loading, but every activity has its own demands. A stair machine still loads the knees and hips. The correct choice depends on what feels tolerable, how symptoms respond afterward and whether training can progress without accumulating trouble. Persistent or worsening discomfort deserves a qualified professional assessment rather than an endless search for the perfect internet exercise.
Sleep is the unglamorous multiplier. More training is useful only while the body can adapt to it. If you regularly arrive at the gym drained, move fewer quality reps and stay sore longer than usual, look at sleep, overall training volume and daily stress before adding another intense conditioning session. The best recovery method is often doing slightly less of the thing that created the problem.
Try a simple traffic-light check before training. Green means energy and movement feel normal: follow the plan. Yellow means poor sleep or unusual heaviness: keep the session but trim sets or intensity. Red means significant pain or illness symptoms: prioritize recovery and seek appropriate advice when needed. That framework is less exciting than a heroic workout video, but it is far more likely to keep you training for another decade.
A Four-Week Strength-and-Cardio Plan Worth Copying
The best version of a Terry Crews-inspired routine is not a copy of his daily schedule. It is a plan that keeps strength work meaningful, adds cardiovascular training you can tolerate and gives recovery a real place in the calendar. If you currently do almost no cardio, start with two short bouts instead of jumping straight to 50 minutes on the stair machine. If you already run comfortably, there is no need to trade your favorite route for a machine simply because an actor did.
Here is a realistic starter week for a lifter who wants more endurance without abandoning muscle. Monday: full-body strength, including a squat, press, row and hinge, for two to three working sets each. Tuesday: 20 minutes of easy stair climbing or cycling at a conversational effort. Wednesday: rest or an easy walk. Thursday: another full-body lift, changing the exercise variations while covering the same movement patterns. Friday: 20 to 25 minutes of steady cardio. Saturday: optional 10 to 15 minutes of gentle conditioning or recreational activity. Sunday: recover.
During week two, add roughly five minutes to one or two cardio sessions if the previous week felt manageable. During week three, keep total time similar but introduce a short controlled effort, such as four rounds of one minute moderately hard followed by two minutes easy, only if recovery and joints feel good. In week four, maintain the workload or reduce it slightly while reviewing progress. The point is to earn additional work, not schedule fatigue in advance.
Use three measurements that tell different stories. First, log your main lifts: are reps, loads and technique at least stable? Second, track the duration and perceived difficulty of your cardio: can you do the same session more comfortably? Third, note how your legs feel when you return to strength training. A rising heart rate at the same easy workload, persistent soreness or falling performance can signal that the total program needs adjustment.
An ambitious celebrity workout can be motivating, but ordinary training succeeds through boring decisions made repeatedly. Choose a cardio machine that suits your body, keep lifting enough to preserve muscle, eat and sleep to support the work, and let the schedule evolve as life changes. Crews's most useful example is not the size of his arms or the number of minutes on a stair climber. It is the willingness to keep training while changing the details that no longer serve him.
Cardio and conditioning gym gear for runners, endurance athletes and anyone who earns the sweat.
EXPLORE COLLECTION
