How does Alex O’Loughlin,the Aussie star of Hawaii Five-0, prepare for the third season of the worldwide TV hit? The same way he approaches everything:  he works his butt off.

By Mark Morrison

Alex O’Loughlin was six years old when he started studying Shobukai karate in his hometown, Canberra. On the first day, he slipped into his pint-size gi with its crisp white belt and bowed before entering the dojo. Inside, he met the sensei, watched the other kids practise, and couldn’t wait to be part of the action. “I picked it up quickly,” he remembers. By the time he was 10, he’d earned a brown belt. “It was a huge part of my life, man,” he says. “I wouldn’t miss it.” But even more important, it was the beginning of a commitment to fitness that has served the 35-year-old actor well throughout his life — not to mention when playing Detective Steve McGarrett in Channel 10’s turbo-charged cop series, Hawaii Five-0.

Over the years, O’Loughlin has dabbled with other forms of exercise. “In my early 20s, I did a lot of weights. I was huge — closer to 90kg,” says the 187cm actor, who clocks in today at a solid 80kg. “For lunch I’d have a chicken, a loaf of bread, two litres of milk and a bag of chocolate biscuits. Then I’d go to the gym and bench 110kg. That’s a young man’s thing.”

Today, he pulls up to a roadside cafe in Malibu for his MF interview and jumps out of his black Porsche Cayenne, looking tanned and happy in a grey T-shirt and khaki cargo shorts, a plastic jug half-filled with water dangling from his hand.

It’s been a big two years for O’Loughlin. “Epic,” he says.

After two previous TV series disappointments — 2007’s vampire-detective drama Moonlight and 2009’s even shorter-lived Three Rivers — he scored his breakout role in 2010’s Hawaii Five-0. In addition to discovering stardom, the actor has discovered that island living has its perks. For one thing, he’s finally taken up surfing — a sport he tried when he was 18, but gave away after getting caught in a steep, fast break. “Surfing is my great passion in Hawaii,” he says. “I have a bunch of boards — all of which I ride badly.”

His co-star, Scott Caan, 35, who plays Danny “Danno” Williams on the series, reports otherwise.

A long-time surfer, he says that O’Loughlin is progressing “on a very advanced level”. Of course, there’s nothing like sport to bring out competition among cast mates. “Scotty is a machine,” says O’Loughlin. “I’ll never be as good as him. And I’ll never match his jiu-jitsu, either. But if we’re in a ring together — fists and stand-up fighting — I’d lick him standing up.”

Caan laughs when he hears this. “We have a great respect for each other,” he says. “We are completely comfortable working together and going for each other’s throats without worrying that we’ve crossed a line. Alex is a natural leader. He takes control and makes things happen on-set — and in his personal life too. He’s The General, and I think that comes across in this role.”

Of course, even for The General, chasing bad guys every week — pretend or not — can take its toll on the body. “I’m damaged a bit,” O’Loughlin admits. His injuries include tendinitis in his bicep and a torn shoulder. So he’s spending his time off getting his core energy up, stabilising his back and healing his  shoulder. “I’m going to come in like a bull at the top of Season 3,” he promises.

When it comes to body transformation (and maintenance), O’Loughlin turns to Los Angeles-based trainer Jeff Blair, whom he met in 2010 while playing Jennifer Lopez’s baby daddy in the romantic comedy, The Back-up Plan, which required him to look lean and ripped, fast. “He put me on this nutrition program — and he changed my life.”

PORTION CONTROL

These days, O’Loughlin makes sure to drink about seven litres of water a day (which explains the jug he carries). Breakfast consists of a half-cup of oats, a banana, a few almonds and a splash of reduced-fat milk. Lunch and dinner include a balanced combo of protein, vegies and carbs — and he has a simple paradigm for portion control. “If you look at your open hand, the size of your palm is the amount of protein you should take — about two-thirds of a chicken breast. Your splayed four fingers equal the amount of space you should have for vegetables.

“If you do one exercise after another without a break, you bump up your metabolic rate to create a ‘furnace effect’. That’s my ideal place to be.”

And the triangular area between your index finger and thumb is for carbs — brown rice or wholemeal pasta. The key is to have a very low-sodium diet and understand that 80 percent of [the process] happens in the kitchen, not in the gym.”

When it comes to workouts, though, the actor is no slouch. “I like to circuit-train,” he says. “If you do one exercise after another without a break, you bump up your metabolic rate to such a place that you create what’s called a ‘furnace effect’ — your metabolism is firing at such a high rate that you can go to sleep and you’ll burn calories through the night. That’s my ideal place to be.”

For The Back-up Plan, O’Loughlin worked out for two hours a day, six days a week, and was able to get his body fat to under seven percent. Now he’s slightly bulkier, as befits an ex-Navy SEAL. “Alex probably trains harder than anyone  I have ever worked with,” says Blair. “He [seems to have] an extra gear in training intensity, mental focus and his commitment to nutrition.”

This is particularly impressive for a guy who was plagued by attention deficit disorder while growing up. “It went undiagnosed and I managed to keep it hidden, but it caused me a lot of frustration,” he says. Yet, whenever he did martial arts or any form of exercise, the problem seemed to disappear. “When I stopped being cerebral and became physical, my mind cleared. That’s probably why I like to be so active today. It’s a huge part of the balance of who I am.”

RUNNING STRONG

If he had his way, though, O’Loughlin would avoid indoor workouts altogether. “I much prefer being in the canyons or the hills or the ocean — being outside and using the resistance of the earth and gravity and my own body weight,” he says. “I’d rather hang from trees and do pull-ups than be in a gym surrounded by people in spandex.”

Maximising every opportunity, he combines indoor circuit-training with hill running, improvising some resistance exercises along the way as a bonus. “During the run, I’ll stop and drop straight into lunges,” he says. “Running is my cardio preference. My sister Jackie has this theory that through the course of evolution we’ve devolved. We used to get up, kiss the kids, walk outside the cave, scratch your bum, and then you’d run — to catch the meal for the family or to get away from whatever was trying to catch you. We were constantly using these bodies God gave us, and that’s why for the most part we were fit and strong and we were warriors. When I’m running and my breath’s right and I get in the zone — there’s something very powerful and primal about it.”

O’Loughlin says it feels “fantastic” to turn 35. The light dusting of grey in his close-cropped brown hair doesn’t faze him a bit. “I’m on the Clooney train to freedom,” he cracks. “I love it.” He also loves being able to share this time with his 15-year-old son, Saxon, who lives in Australia with his mother. In fact, one advantage of working in Hawaii is that it’s so much closer to Australia, and his son has been able to visit more often. “These are the most amazing years of my life. My son is not only the greatest thing that ever happened to me, but he’s also my greatest success, my greatest inspiration. I’m getting to pass on all the good things I’ve learned in life to another human soul.”

BUILDING MUSCLE

These “good things” include his fitness philosophies. “The other day, Saxon and his mate were at my house and they were buggering around, and I thought, ‘What am I going to do with these kids?’ So I put them through their first calisthenics workout — sit-ups, push-ups and planks. At the end, they were dripping with sweat and saying, ‘This is the stupidest thing ever.’ I threw them in the pool and made them smoothies. And I talked to them about the feeling they were experiencing, and about nutrition, and about the way their muscles were now open and building.”

Whether or not father knows best, O’Loughlin remembers what being a 10-year-old brown belt meant to him and has high hopes for his son. And for himself — since he’s determined to stay healthy and live long. “I don’t know what pushes me out of bed some days,” he says. “I’m running up that hill cursing at the mountain, or at myself. But I also find it exhilarating. There’s something validating about reaching the top of a mountain and looking back.” And after that? “You enjoy the view,” he says. “And then you walk down.”

FIVE-O  FITNESS

Former attorney Jeff Blair (above) became a full-time personal trainer in 2002. Today he studies the human body the way he once studied the law. “My objective for Alex was to resistance-train the greatest amount of muscle fibre possible to increase his metabolism and get him as lean as possible as fast as possible.” Here’s a snapshot of O’Loughlin’s regimen:

WARM-UP (about 15 minutes)

• Foam rolling on calves, hips, iliotibial band, thoracic (back) area and lats
• Dynamic mobility exercises, which are essentially moving stretches such as cat-camel, bird-dog, dynamic hamstring stretches, hip swings, toy soldiers and dynamic calf stretches

Once warmed up, O’Loughlin dives into his workout session, resting for 30 seconds between exercises. Sometimes he may do supersets, performing one set of Exercise 1, then one set of Exercise 2 without rest, then going back to Exercise 1, and then 2, until two exercises are complete.

1. Dumbbell row: 4 sets of 6
2. Dumbbell bench press: 4 sets of 6
3. Barbell deadlift: 4 sets of 6
4. Abdominal curl-ups: 3 sets of 12
5. Barbell lunges: 4 sets of 8
6. Side planks: 1 set each side for 90 seconds
7. Push-up variation (weighted push-ups, diamond push-ups, feet elevated or hands staggered, walking — aka “alligator push-ups”)
8. Dumbbell split squats: 4 sets of 8
9. Face pull (rotator cuff): 3 sets of 8
10. Single-leg calf raises: 3 sets of 12
11. Rear delt fly: 3 sets of 12
12. Medicine ball reverse woodchop (kneeling): 3 sets of 10 each side

10 minutes of traditional stretching to end the workout