UrbanUpdate

Isaiah Mustafa and Terry Crews are the men Old Spice wants you to smell like. Chances are, you’d be just as happy looking like them. But that will probably take some serious time in the gym. Before becoming “The Man Your Man Could Smell Like” (Mustafa, 42) and the preposterously ripped, perpetually screaming other Old Spice guy (Crews, 47), both played professional football. So fine, maybe they had a head start. Still, they both say they’re in the best shape they’ve ever been. So listen up, no matter your age.

Terry Crews — AGE: 47Isaiah Mustafa — AGE: 42

So, how did you get your body?Terry Crews: My dream as a kid was to be strong. My dad was very abusive to my mom; I felt like I needed to protect her, and I looked at myself as if I was a superhero. I remember being 3, 4 years old, trying to lift couches. I gave myself a hernia when I was 5. As a teenager, I lifted weights until I gave myself cramps. But my neck and shoulders came from hitting people at 25 miles per hour. I did seven years in the NFL, five in college, three in high school. I was a linebacker. People think I got my body in the gym, but it’s really designed from impact. This is 100 percent car crashes.

Isaiah Mustafa: I played football just like homeboy, but realized my body won’t be like that forever. I’m on this new ABC show Shadowhunters, and the other actors, they’re all like 25 and shredded. I was like, “Fuck this shit. I’m the Old Spice guy!” So I went on Instagram and found some trainer named Dickerson Ross who was doing chest exercises I’d never seen. I looked up his website. Paid my $45. He sent me his program, and now I’m using his shit to the hilt. I also do yoga. Yoga is the best thing in the world. I sleep better. I eat better. The sex is better. Instagram and yoga are the answer to everything.

When did you first really start noticing yourselves getting big?TC: My hands and my feet grew faster than the rest of my body. My hands are the same size as Shaq’s hands. I’m only 6’3”, but I have huge hands, huge feet. Probably by 15, 16 years old, I started having guns. People were like, “He’s got a grown man’s arms. And he’s only, he’s 16 years old.” Growing up in Flint, Michigan, I got beat up a couple times. We had the crack epidemic that was coming up. And we had gangsters, man. And when I say gangsters, I mean people who make Suge Knight look like a Boy Scout. I remember kids coming to school and getting turned up on their heads, and breaking collarbones. I remember getting strong enough to, when someone fought me, I fought ’em back and beat ’em. Like, “Wow, I did not get my ass whupped. I got kicked out of school, but he got a lesson, not me.”

IM: I got big for a commercial. And then afterwards, it’s hard to lose that weight. So I just kinda stayed that size for a second. And then I was like, “I’ve got to get in shape.” I was slimming back down. I wasn’t lifting any weights. I was just doing cardio, running, jumping rope, and stuff like that. And then I got the Old Spice audition. They called me and I went in there and I didn’t feel like I was cut. I was like, “I’m just a blob.” But fuck it. It worked.

You were both college and professional athletes. How does your body compare now to what it could do and how it would feel when you were younger?TC: I would say I feel 16 years old. I’m not kidding you. I run four miles a day. I’m very, very cardio-heavy. But I can bench more than I’ve ever benched. I end my sets with four plates, which is about 405. I squat 500 pounds, I deadlift 500 pounds. And I know more. What people have to understand about exercise is that it’s a series of mistakes that you just have to fight through. It’s kind of like life. You have to try and fail.

IM: I haven’t bench-pressed more than 215 pounds in years. And when I was in college, I was a wide receiver. You know how they have the rep test? I had the record at Arizona State: 18 reps at 225! Man, I was killing it. Now, I play hockey five nights a week, and I burn an average of anywhere from 1,200 to 1,500 calories every time I skate. So I figure right now I’m in the best shape I’ve ever been in.

So there’s hope to get in the best shape of your life, late in life. What workout advice would you give a guy to get off his couch and make that happen?TC: Do not treat the gym like a dungeon. This is where people have a wrong mentality: It’s like, “We’re gonna go down and we’re gonna pay the price and we’re gonna blast off and we’re gonna RAWR!” You cannot sustain that. Eventually, all pain must stop. You’re going to quit working out. You always have to equate it with pleasure, so I tell people, treat it like a spa. Go in, do what you do, and make sure it feels good. But do only that and stop and get out.

IM: I would look at Instagram. Honestly, swear to God, go on Instagram, start scrolling through #fitness. You can get advice from people, but everybody has their own way that they do it, so I think it’s just a matter of trial and error. The best thing to do would be to look at somebody, a dude who you want to be like. If you want to have muscles like Terry, read up on what Terry Crews is doing. If you want to have muscles like me, read up on what Dickerson Ross is doing. [laughs]

So even though you are two big dudes, it’s not just about being big?TC: To me, any bigger is just for ego and all that stuff. I want to look like I can run you down. [laughs] The guys I’ve always looked up to are the guys who can jump, run, lift, and do it all. Not a guy who’s like, I can lift 400 pounds, but running around the block I’m dead. I want to look like that guy who can do a triathlon. I know guys that just ride bikes, and they will kick my ass in being in shape.

IM: I remember when I played for the Titans, I had to gain like 30 pounds to play H-back, and I do remember going into bars being 246 and being like, “Damn. I’m pretty big.” I could handle myself. And I remember back then when I was 24 or 25 years old, I was into being big. But after I got out of football, I realized there was no point in being big. It’s about being efficient. I think having confidence and being able to do some yoga poses is more impressive than being able to lift a bunch of weights.

Location: Beverly Wilshire, A Four Seasons Hotel

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Clay Skipper is a Staff Writer at GQ.XInstagram