Fitness
The Enduring Cool of Josh Brolin
Josh Brolin holds his laptop askew off the balcony of his room above the plaza near La Fonda, an old adobe-walled hotel in Santa Fe. In the Zoom window on my computer screen, tourists amble around in the late Saturday afternoon light below the Gothic Revival spires of the Loretto Chapel. Brolin, in his scraggy-timbred voice, tells me he’s spent the last hour in one of its pews. He says he’s just been sitting. Not praying. Not meditating. Just sitting.
“I’m not particularly religious,” says Brolin. “I’m just tired. Man, things get weird when you get tired.” Brolin says he worked all night and is in the last week of a seven-month shoot where he’s playing a Wyoming rancher on Outer Range, a mystery series set to premier next spring on Amazon.
Down at the church, he says he’s gone unnoticed. This is not uncommon. Despite Brolin’s very recognizable look—a topographic map of lines between his temples, a head that he’s described as an “oversized vegetable” and a body detailed in one movie as having “Flintstone proportions”—he somehow manages, most of the time, to evade getting ID’d.
This seems difficult to fathom. In 2018 and 2019, movies Brolin starred in made a combined $5.7 billion worldwide, including Avengers: Endgame, where the actor completed the character arc of Thanos, the would-be destroyer of the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
“I can still kind of go everywhere I want. Part of the reason might be that in the biggest movie that ever was, I was the, y’know, 700-pound purple guy.”
What exactly has the actor been up to in the time since the entertainment press dubbed 2018 the “Summer of Brolin,” where three films he appeared in, including Sicario, Avengers, and Deadpool sequels, took top spots on box-office charts? “I took a long break,” he deadpans.
Brolin unplugged. He surfed. He ate. He relocated, for a while, to Atlanta, where Kathryn, his wife since 2016, was raised. Then Covid hit.
“People dealt with it in one of two ways. You either went insane or you shifted into reprioritizing your life.” Brolin’s reprioritizing, in part, resulted in conceiving another kid. Chapel was born on Christmas Day 2020, joining Westlyn, now 2 and a half.
It’s not Brolin’s first go-round at fatherhood. Now 53, he’s been a dad since age 20—essentially, his whole adult life. With first wife Alice Adair, an actress, he had Trevor, now 33, and Eden, now 27. This iteration of family life, Brolin says, has been a long time coming and very welcome.
“I’ve been with a lot of people in my chosen industry. A while back, something shifted in me—like a psychic shift. And then I met this woman. She didn’t need me in any way.” Kathryn (she was once Brolin’s assistant) runs the boutique jeans brand Midheaven Denim and is a photographer. She took the shots here, in locations across New Mexico, from the Bisti Badlands to Georgia O’Keeffe’s Ghost Ranch.
Ripped and Ready
During his long break, Brolin said no to most projects. But after some cajoling, he was roused from the house to join the cast of Dune, Denis Villeneuve’s adaptation of Frank Herbert’s 1965 novel, slated to open in late October. It’s an epic, in every sense.
“I’m into sci-fi. I’ve been a big Isaac Asimov fan since I was a kid, and Ray Bradbury was a hero of mine. Of course I read Dune. It just had me,” says Brolin.
If you think Marvel has some fanboys, try listening to the feedback from acolytes of the best-selling sci-fi novel of all time. Roughly 80 trillion keystrokes have been expended opining about a new Dune adaptation since it was announced in October 2016. Brolin says he wasn’t concerned by the difficult conversion from page to screen, as he’d worked with Villeneuve on Sicario, and was familiar with his similarly ambitious Blade Runner 2049.
Dune is a stunner. A golden, gauzy space epic set to a throbbing Hans Zimmer score. It’s a visceral experience—you leave the theater with ringing ears and sandstung nostrils. Villeneuve’s treatment of the desert planet Arrakis is replete with monstrous sandworms in serious need of an oversize ear trimmer. They seem to be highly interested in offing the protagonist, Paul Atreides (Timothée Chalamet). Brolin plays a war master named Gurney Halleck, responsible for training Paul in desert combat.
“The thing about Dune was that I had to get back in shape—and there wasn’t a cell in my body that had any interest in doing that,” he says. “Because of the baby, for one. I was in a different mode.” Brolin eventually returned to his old standby, Gold’s Gym, as a multimillionaire with plenty of options does.
The results of his efforts can be seen onscreen, where Halleck spars with Atreides. Despite his physical prowess, Halleck is trash-talked by Atreides’ version of the ultimate insult: “old man.” It’s kind of a shock to hear. Is that 17-year-old in the ripped sweatshirt and bandanna from The Goonies really being called old?
“It’s just inevitable, man,” says Brolin, laughing. “It’s like, I’ll put up a photo on Instagram, and every time, somebody says, ‘You look old.’ I’m like, yeah, no shit! That’s what happens, man. You get older! I could care frickin’ less.”
Character Builder
The universe of Dune is ruled by “spice,” an “awareness spectrum narcotic” that can provide intuitions to its user. It allows Atreides to peer into his future. Has Brolin, a former teen in a surf gang who has talked of experimenting with drugs, ever experienced psychedelic premonitions about his life to come?
“I did do psychedelics, yeah. But what I felt didn’t have anything to do with my future. For me it had to do with getting rid of the idea that you have to be a certain way in order to validate yourself. Not that I ever used psychedelics properly, but they did give me moments of revelation that all fear is self-created. None of it’s real. Those experiences kind of enabled me to get into ‘fuck it’ mode.”
Brolin’s post-Goonies career was slow going. He eventually landed a TV western called The Young Riders that ran on ABC from 1989 to 1992. “Afterward, I remember very clearly saying I’d rather not act than do that again. Some people like their life being consumed by acting and celebrity. But it felt like an infection to me.”
“I DON’T WANT TO GET TOO FAR INTO THIS, BUT THE IDEA OF SAFETY SOUNDS LIKE DEATH TO ME.”
By the early 2000s, Brolin was spending more time studying stocks than reading scripts. He became a day trader, learning algorithms, mastering charts. “It was just another circus to learn,” he says. Then came a call from the Coen brothers, and a career-remaking performance as Llewelyn Moss, a Vietnam vet on the run from a psychopathic hit man, in 2007’s neo-western-noir No Country for Old Men—which, Brolin says, “changed everything for me.”
No Country won four Oscars, including Best Picture, leading to Brolin’s Oscar-nominated role as a gay-hating murderer in Gus Van Sant’s Milk to the hilariously melancholic, banana-fellating cop in P.T. Anderson’s Inherent Vice to an unforgettable performance as a morally conflicted Hollywood studio fixer in the Coen’s Hail, Caesar!—played out in an impressively risky and rangy mix.
“I’m just a junkie at heart. You know what I mean? I don’t want to get too far into this, but the idea of safety sounds like death to me.”
Similarly, the fear of boredom is what led Brolin to go sober nearly eight years ago. “The philosophy that I came to is that it’s my responsibility to live bigger than my greatest romance of what drinking was to me before.”
Heavy Mettle
Sobriety has helped Brolin reflect on an improbable spectrum of life experiences. Just a smattering of them: His mother, Jane Cameron Agee, crashed into a tree and died on Josh’s 27th birthday, in 1995. She was an actress and wildlife activist who kept exotic pets. He recalls helping birth mountain lions and being woken up by bobcats nipping his face. Later on, there would be more resilience tests. Days before shooting No Country, Brolin broke his collarbone in a motorcycle accident, and thought he’d blown it all. A few years later, he came down with Bell’s palsy—a partial paralysis of the face—another possible career killer.
“When you glance in the rearview, see your face hanging off your skull and don’t know if it’s coming back, that’s a shocking thing,” says Brolin.
Thumb through the Brolin’s Instagram feed and it’s clear he’s still processing stuff, amid photos from old sets paired with free-associated musings about his past, shots of his wife and kids—plus some classic Josh Brolin Kodak moments: e.g., sipping coffee naked on a desert patio while seated on his kid’s training potty. All in character.
The pastiche approach to recording his life makes sense to Brolin, who, at 23, took a writing class with Allen Ginsberg. He’s been keeping journals since he was a teenager, and just had about 90 of them digitized. Some of his writing will soon find its way to print. On the set of Dune, director of photography Greig Fraser shot behind-the-scenes images using “fucked-up old flea market cameras.” Brolin wrote accompanying text passages for the selects—or what he calls “esoteric shit, some of it made up, whatever comes to mind.” The limited-edition collaborative book is due out in December.
Brolin’s approach to writing might just match his approach to work, and life, too: “I’m trying to describe this fucking bizarre circus labyrinth that we’re traveling through. I’m not so much trying to figure it out as I am just trying to not take anything too seriously…. Because this is all pretty ridiculous, isn’t it?”
The key to 360-degree muscle: 90-degree eccentric isometrics. It might seem like we’re throwing a lot of geometry at you, but the concept behind time under tension (TUT) is simple, says Joel Seedman, PhD, owner of Advanced Human Performance: “Perform the lowering phase of a movement in a slow, controlled fashion, usually 3 to 5 seconds; pause in the stretched position, typically around 90 degrees; then perform the lifting phase in a powerful yet controlled fashion.” Believe us, a time-under-tension workout can humble even seasoned lifters…Eccentric isometrics are like the pressure cooker of training.
“Rather than mindlessly performing slow-tempo reps, you’re using the increased time under tension as a means to fine-tune your body mechanics and alignment, which requires more mental engagement and focus,” Seedman adds.
If you want to forge functional muscle mass and strength while simultaneously bulletproofing the joints and connective tissue, give this 10-move, full-body eccentric isometrics workout a go.
Directions
Perform the following moves as 90-degree eccentric isometrics following the above protocol. Use heavy weight, but not at the detriment of proper form. Rest 60 to 90 seconds between sets and 2 minutes between circuits. Perform once every 2 to 4 days for optimal results.
Best Time-Under-Tension Workout for Total-Body Strength
Circuit 1
A. Barbell Back Squat
Set a squat rack up with heavy weight, then grasp bar and step under it. Squeeze shoulder blades together, then stand to unrack bar and step back with feet shoulder-width apart. Inhale, hinge at hips and slowly bend knees to 90 degrees. Pause, keeping natural arch in low back, then extend through hips to powerfully stand. 3 x 4-6 reps
B. Renegade Row
Start in the top position of a pushup with hands shoulder-width apart on moderate-to-heavy dumbbells (shown). Explosively drive right elbow back to row dumbbell toward ribs while balancing on opposite hand and feet. Pause, then slowly lower weight, stopping a few inches above floor. Switch sides after all reps are done. 3 x 5 reps each side
Circuit 2
A. Dumbbell Bentover Row
Stand with feet hip-width apart, holding two moderate-to-heavy dumbbells in front of thighs, palms facing you. Push hips back and hinge torso forward so it’s nearly parallel to floor, soft bend in knees. Dumbbells should be near shins. Drive elbows back to row weights toward ribs. Pause, then slowly lower down for 3 to 5 seconds. 3 x 4-5 reps
B. Incline Dumbbell Chest Press with Legs Raised
Set an adjustable bench to a 30- to 45-degree angle and lie back with dumbbells in either hand. Engage core and lift legs off floor, flexing feet. Press weights overhead, palms in. Slowly lower to 90 degrees, staying tight and compact. Pause, then drive weights up directly over chest. 3 x 4-5 reps
Circuit 3
A. Dumbbell Bulgarian Squat
Stand lunge-length in front of a flat bench, holding heavy dumbbells in each hand by your sides, palms facing in. Rest the ball on top (shoe’s laces) of your right foot behind you on the bench. Slowly lower your body until your front thigh is parallel to the floor. Pause, then drive through your heel to stand. Switch sides after all reps are complete. 2 x 3-4 reps each side
B. Single-leg Romanian Deadlift
Stand with feet hip-width apart holding dumbbells or kettlebells. Drive right leg up, foot flexed, knee aligned with hip, making a 90-degree angle. Hinge at hips as you slowly lever your torso toward floor, lowering weights and driving right leg back for counterbalance. Hold, then squeeze glutes to reverse. 2 x 3-4 reps each side
Circuit 4
A. Pullup
Hang from a pullup bar using an overhand grip with legs extended and feet flexed. Engage lats and draw shoulders down your back, then pull yourself up until chin is higher than hands. Pause at the top, then slowly lower. Pause at bottom, then reset before your next rep. 2-3 x 4-5 reps
B. Kneeling Overhead Barbell Press
Hold a bar with moderate-to-heavy load at shoulder level with forearms perpendicular to floor. Kneel at end of bench with feet flexed to grip edge for support. Inhale, engage your core and glutes, then press the bar overhead, pushing your head forward so it passes your face, exhaling at the top.
Slowly lower until elbows are at 90 degrees, then hold to maintain tension. Begin your next rep from here. 2-3 x 4-5 reps
Circuit 5
A. Dumbbell Pushup
Place hands on dumbbells (this provides greater range of motion) at shoulder width and feet wider than shoulder width with just toes touching the ground. Keep head neutral and hips high to increase tension on core, chest and tris and reduce stress on spine. Slowly lower to the floor. Stop
once elbows hit 90 degrees, pause, then push up to start. 1-2 x 6-8 reps
B. Biceps Curl
Stand with feet hip-width apart with moderate-to-heavy dumbbells in each hand hanging by sides. Engage biceps to curl the weights up, keeping upper arms still. Pause at the top, then lower slowly. Don’t let arms drop all the way down to keep greater time under tension on biceps. 1-2 x 6-8 reps
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