Johnny Knoxville Says He Does 150 Push-Ups a Day

The Jackass show and movies are a beloved fixture of the MTV Generation. The chaotic and dangerous franchise elevated the starring stuntmen to superstardom. Best known out of the entire crew is Johnny Knoxville, the belligerent ringleader who’s headlined the series since 2000. While the human crash test dummy has mostly retired after all this time, he still does his best to stay active. These days, though, he’s traded in jumping off roofs and getting launched from cannons with something more reasonable.

Knoxville exercises to stay in shape after retirement

As one might expect from a man like Knoxville, he isn’t spending his retirement lounging around on a lawn chair. While making a video with Wired, the stuntman detailed the ways he’s kept himself in shape since putting his high-flying days behind him.

“I like taking hikes and I’ll do 150 push-ups a day,” he said. He’s obviously burying the lede a bit, as his stunt work has no doubt helped him keep trim over the years. As a new retiree, though, exercise like this will have to get him through the day. Notably, he did joke that he wasn’t in the greatest shape at the moment, saying, “Christmas got me.”

The ‘Jackass’ star’s career was defined by extreme stunts and danger

Knoxville made a career out of performing extreme stunts on camera. From the original Jackass TV show all the way to the latest movie, crowds have gone crazy watching him and his friends blow things up and smash into stuff. While the things he and the boys did were undeniably dangerous, their status as stuntmen helped ensure things went smoothly more often than not.

Even more famous than when the stunts went right, though, was when they went wrong. A major part of watching the show and movies is seeing things go awry and the cast get hurt. Knoxville and the gang have been very candid about their broken bones, concussions, and torn urethras. In the past, they tended to laugh it off and just keep shooting.

As the years went by, though, it was hard to deny how much the films were getting to him. No longer the young man screwing around in a backyard, Knoxville had to contend with his age and injuries in his latest outings. Famously, the production for Jackass Forever, the series’ planned swan song, was derailed due to his and Steve-O’s injuries early during filming.

After a while, he knew it was time to hang up the safety equipment

Knoxville is notoriously spry for a 51-year-old, but all good things must come to an end. Filming the Jackass series has taken a major toll on his and his friends’ bodies. After a while (and multiple concussions), he finally made the decision to retire the Jackass series.

At present, Knoxville hasn’t called it quits on acting, as he’s still appearing in non-stunt roles. However, he’s said that Jackass Forever and the upcoming Jackass 4.5 will be his last outings in his famous series. As many noted, Forever has a big sense of “passing the torch” with all the new faces inspired by the original series, so Jackass itself may still live on. It’s going to have to make do without its star, though.

All that having been said, that doesn’t mean Knoxville is entirely done fooling around. Most recently, he took on Sami Zayn at WrestleMania 38. In a predictably goofy match, he managed to get the win over the wrestler with a little help from his friends and a giant mousetrap.