Jake Gyllenhaal covers the April 2011 issue of Men’s Journal. What a dreamboat! Grooming by Molly R. Stern for Starworks Artists Source: starworksartists.tumblr.com
Jake Gyllenhaal jogging at Runyon Canyon at 4th March 2011"Jake Gyllenhaal is something of a cardio monster. You might not guess this at first glance. At 6 feet and about 180 pounds, the 30-year-old is visibly in shape, but he doesn’t sport the typical road-biker, my-body-fat-is-lower-than-your-mortgage-rate frame.
For his past two action roles, as the title character in Prince of Persia last spring, and as Captain Colter Stevens in the new thriller Source Code, he’s cultivated more of a military build. But left to himself, what he likes to do is run or bike. Inevitably, though, he pushes hard, even too hard. He says he suffered shin splints before he started barefoot running. “I’ve had to teach myself to slow down a bit,” he confesses. “Because I get so into it, it becomes a real addiction. But it’s like a New Year’s resolution.”
“To sit down and read a book. Life’s not a bike ride. I wouldn’t say exercise less, but sit with myself.” Good thing there’s the action-star loophole — Jake believes he can “sit with himself” while he’s running. “It’s not: ‘I’m having a shitty day and I’m going to go for a run,’ but ‘I’m having a shitty day and I’m going for a run and I’m going to try to work out what’s going on.’ Not just get my serotonin levels up and feel good. I’m going to think about things. And the only way you can do that is to slow the pace down.”
“I like to think of my toes as always moving forward,” he says. “Don’t push down. Try to even out the forces between pushing and pulling. Find a cadence and stay in it.” This works almost instantly; I close in on him and feel the way up the road getting easier. “Stay relaxed. You ever see the riders in the Tour de France getting up in the saddle? They’re not rocking from side to side. Their spines are loose, and they look like fish.” He stands on his pedals and turns to me. “When I start getting tense, I breathe out.” Source: www.mensjournal.com
