Mens Fitness – JESSE METCALFE
Age: 32
Height: 5’11”
Weight: 180 lbs
Body of Work: Chase, John Tucker Must Die, Desperate Housewives
Most guys (and women) know him as the shirtless pool boy from Desperate Housewives. But Jesse Metcalfe has moved on—literally and physically. “My body has developed quite a bit since then,” he says. In the NBC drama Chase, the 32-year-old actor plays a government agent. “These U.S. Marshals, they’re pretty thick,” he says. “They have a swagger about them that only a person with a certain amount of muscle is going to have.” To stay buff , Metcalfe now works out five or six days a week. Three of those workouts are heavy lifts, split by body part: chest and triceps, back and biceps, and shoulders with legs. “I love lifting weights,” he says. “It anchors me in everything that I do.”
But what really gives Metcalfe his edge is MMA training. He works with Freddie Poole at his academy in Dallas, where the show is filmed. “He loves training on all levels,” says Poole, who is also Metcalfe’s stunt double, “but MMA has really helped him to prepare for the show’s hand-to-hand combat scenes.”
“I do a lot of striking and jiu-jitsu . It’s a different form of conditioning.” Metcalfe has added five to seven pounds of muscle since he began sparring. “I start nearly every day with a workout,” he says. “It sets my day in a positive direction, and when you release those endorphins, you just feel good.”
JESSE’S WORKOUT
WARM-UP
Jump Rope
Time: Three minutes
Sets: 3
STRETCH
Time: 10-15 minutes
PAD ROUNDS
Have a partner holding pads call out punches, combos, and movement instructions for you to follow.
Sets: 5-6
Time: Four minutes
Rest: One minute
CONDITIONING ROUNDS
Throw punches as fast as you can for 15 seconds, then as hard as you can for 15 more seconds before resting.
Sets: 3
Time: Two minutes
Rest: 15 seconds
In the same way Justin Timberlake transformed from Tiger Beat staple to cool guys’ guy, Jesse Metcalfe is morphing from the stuff of a teenage girl’s dreams to badass actor. Metcalfe became a household name during his six years playing the love interest of Eva Longoria’s character on Desperate Housewives when he caused Suzy Homemakers all over America to fantasize about the prospect of an illicit affair with the pool boy. Then in 2006 he was a high school heartthrob who juggled three girlfriends at once in John Tucker Must Die. Metcalfe has dated pop stars and models—hell, he was even tapped as one of People magazine’s 50 Hottest Bachelors during his precious stage. But now Jerry Bruckheimer has cast the 32-year-old as hard-boiled, gun-toting U.S. Marshal Luke Watson on NBC’s Chase, and things are changing. In the hit show, which manages to balance rhetoric on immigration law and violent thrills, Metcalfe’s character feels like the guy who will take Jack Bauer’s place in a few years. That and his tattoos make us think he’d be a great guy to have a beer with, which we did at a sports bar in Dallas. 
