Netflix’s upcoming survival thriller Apex is set to showcase Taron Egerton’s leanest, most muscular physique yet. Releasing at the end of April, the film sees Egerton hunt co-star Charlize Theron for sport in the Australian wilderness, with the trailer highlighting his ripped physique through a series of intense action scenes.
Egerton worked with celebrity trainer Jason Walsh for the role. Walsh previously got the 36-year-old ready for Tetris in 2023, with the partnership continuing for his latest film. ‘One of the hardest working clients I’ve had the privilege to train,’ Walsh wrote on Instagram. He also told GQ, ‘I just recently trained Taron Egerton. Taron is great. Another success story. That guy is fantastic. Did everything I asked him to do.’
To achieve a lean, athletic and muscular physique, Egerton’s training combined heavy weightlifting, intense daily cardio and functional movements. Before working with Walsh, he trained with Dalton Wong for the Kingsman films, helping him build much of the muscle and athleticism he still carries today.
Wong built Egerton’s training around clear goals and structure – not just creating a strong physique, but ensuring his body could handle the demands of a busy filming schedule.
‘Lifting is sexy, but you can’t just lift all the time,’ Wong told Men’s Journal. ‘Flexibility is just as important as strength. During pre-production, it was all about lifting and strength training. But during production, it was all about maintenance and recovery. We needed to make sure his body was structurally sound.’
Upper body was a clear focus, with chin-up variations, chest work and arm training all key to developing Egerton’s on-screen look. ‘For every chest workout, he does a push-up series, activating the chest, triceps and rotator cuffs. [He uses] dumbbells, cables, elastic pulleys, each for two to three sets,’ Wong added.
‘We focused a lot on bodyweight training, doing different types of chin-ups to define his back, using grips of varying sizes. People at home can wrap a towel around their bar to imitate a fat grip. For chin-ups, most people’s limiting factor isn’t their back, it’s their grip strength.
‘Like most guys, he doesn’t like doing legs. I had to add arms to our leg days. Everyone likes to do arms, after all.’
Related Stories
Ryan is a Senior Writer at Men’s Health UK with a passion for storytelling, health and fitness. Having graduated from Cardiff University in 2020, and later obtaining his NCTJ qualification, Ryan started his career as a Trainee News Writer for sports titles Golf Monthly, Cycling Weekly and Rugby World before progressing to Staff Writer and subsequently Senior Writer with football magazine FourFourTwo.
During his two-and-a-half years there he wrote news stories for the website and features for the magazine, while he also interviewed names such as Les Ferdinand, Ally McCoist, Jamie Redknapp and Antonio Rudiger, among many others. His standout memory, though, came when getting the opportunity to speak to then-Plymouth Argyle manager Steven Schumacher as the club won League One in 2023.
Having grown up a keen footballer and playing for his boyhood side until the age of 16, Ryan got the opportunity to represent Northern Ireland national futsal team eight times, scoring three goals against England, Scotland and Gibraltar. Now past his peak, Ryan prefers to mix weightlifting with running – he achieved a marathon PB of 3:31:49 at Manchester in April 2025, but credits the heat for failing to get below the coveted 3:30 mark…
You can follow Ryan on Instagram @ryan.dabbs or on X @ryandabbs_
