Michael Trucco’s Home Workout Routine Combines Strength, Cycling and Outdoor Activity

Michael Trucco’s approach to fitness is built around making movement part of daily life. The 56-year-old actor combines strength training, cycling, circuit workouts and outdoor activity, with an emphasis on staying capable over time. His routine has also changed in light of a serious car accident and spinal surgery, though he hasn’t left resistance training behind.

Trucco, whose screen credits include The Guilt, Battlestar Galactica, Average Joe, Citadel and Fire Country, says organized workouts first entered his life through high school sports. He played some football and wrestled, despite feeling that competition wasn’t really his calling. The experience introduced him to structured training.

Weight training later became more personally meaningful. As he grew taller during his sophomore year and eventually reached 6 feet 3 inches, he found that resistance work helped him feel more at ease in his body. The actor’s interest in lifting weights developed into a lasting part of his routine.

Training for function and consistency

In 2007, Trucco was involved in a serious car accident that left him with four fractured cervical vertebrae and led to spinal fusion surgery. He recovered and continues to work out, but says his current mix places value on longevity and function. Alongside weights, he cycles, plays pickleball and does circuit training.

Work has sometimes called for a more demanding level of preparation. For his role as a U.S. Navy SEAL in the 2018 film Hunter Killer, Trucco completed an intensive daily bootcamp that included pushups, situps and squats. He recalls becoming leaner than at any other point in his life. That experience reflects a readiness mindset, but his regular routine also makes room for training that can be sustained.

His home setup is deliberately practical. In his garage, he has a Peloton bike, dumbbells, resistance bands, a universal cable machine and padded mats. The equipment lets him move between cardio and strength work without needing a separate gym or a single type of workout.

The Peloton has offered more than cycling sessions. Trucco says he initially didn’t realize the platform included strength programs and other routines, and he now uses both cycling and strength classes, trying sessions led by a range of instructors. This variety gives him different ways to train within the same home setup.

Short circuits, with room to adapt

Trucco also uses the MadMuscles workout and nutrition app. Its sessions commonly group six to 10 movements into a repeated sequence, with timed work and rest periods. He described one 39-minute full-body workout built around six exercises: 20 squats, a one-minute plank, a one-minute Superman hold, 40 reverse crunches, 24 shoulder-tap pushups and 20 short crunches. He repeated the sequence four times.

That example shows the structure of the workout he described, but it shouldn’t be read as a routine that suits everyone. A circuit’s pace and exercises can feel demanding, and people’s abilities and health needs vary. Anyone considering a new or more intense exercise program, particularly after an injury or surgery or when managing a health condition, can discuss suitable activity with a doctor or physical therapist.

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Movement beyond the workout

Fitness for Trucco also includes getting outside when work takes him to another city. He especially enjoys Vancouver, where he walks along the seawall near Coal Harbour and False Creek, or through Stanley Park. On days off, he heads out from his hotel on foot and explores, making a walk part of the day rather than treating exercise as a separate obligation.

He also keeps a bicycle at a friend’s home in Vancouver, which gives him another way to get around when the weather is pleasant. Walking and cycling offer a lower-key counterpoint to strength circuits and structured classes; they’re forms of movement he enjoys for the experience as well as the activity.

Golf has provided another reason to practice. Trucco is set to appear in the second season of the golf comedy Stick, though he didn’t need to play golf for that production. For the Netflix thriller Poser, he did need to hit a ball on screen. With cast and crew watching, he felt pressure to make the shot count. Practice at a driving range helped, and he says he struck the ball cleanly.

Trucco’s guidance for people over 50 is to set expectations they can live with and treat themselves with kindness. He doesn’t see perfection as a useful fitness target. Feeling good about yourself, he says, matters more. His routine suggests that staying active can draw on different kinds of movement, from resistance exercises to a walk through a favorite city, and that consistency can look personal rather than perfect.

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