Randy Couture’s body might still look 35. But to hear him tell it, that’s not how it feels nowadays.
“Used to be, I woke up and my body hurt because I worked out too hard and I was sore,” Couture says while racking 45s on a squat rack. “Now, it means I probably slept wrong.”
He moves through the Xtreme Couture MMA gym in Las Vegas without a shirt, setting up equipment for his daily eight-exercise circuit. Fifteen reps per station, four times through. His record is 21 minutes.
He is somehow leaner and more muscular than during his early fighting days, inspiring any man with working eyesight to think, “I need to look like that when I’m 60.” Though he looks nowhere near his 62 years, Couture still acknowledges he can’t quite work out like he used to.
“When I was younger, I’d knock out 35 of these,” he says as we look up at a pull-up bar. “Now, I like the (assist) band. It’s easy to travel with, and I can still do 15 pull-ups with it.”
It’s a humbling admission from a man who once seemed ageless, almost superhuman. He won six UFC titles, becoming the oldest champion ever at 45 years old and the first to win both heavyweight and light heavyweight belts. Despite all that, Couture exudes a calm confidence, the same kind you find in Navy SEALs and other people who don’t need to advertise their badassery.
“I try and keep a simple motto, and it starts with humility,” he says, the opposite of UFC’s brand of unabashed bravado. “Every single person I meet is better than me at something, so I keep an open heart and an open mind. I have a chance to learn from that person and become a better human because of that interaction. And it starts with humility.”
A Calm and Calculated Path Toward Success
Part of Couture’s peaceful humility stems from his upbringing. He was born to a single mother in Everett, Washington, about half an hour north of Seattle. He had little contact with his father, Ed, a welder who didn’t want much to do with Randy and his two sisters. So, Couture did what any boy does when his dad won’t pay attention to him: He tried to get it.
“I got into wrestling to get the attention of a deadbeat dad, and he never did see me wrestle a single match,” he says with a matter-of-fact vulnerability, like he might tell you he bought a car because he liked the color. “But I found the place where I flourished. Those coaches kind of filled that void. They were the ones who stepped up and kicked me in the ass. And when I needed a little encouragement, a little arm around the back, they were the ones that did that, too.”
Couture was a prolific high school wrestler, winning the Washington state championship his senior year. The following fall, he walked on at Washington State University, but when he came home for the holidays, he learned his girlfriend was pregnant.
“I wasn’t gonna be a deadbeat like my dad, so I got married and joined the Army,” he says. “I thought wrestling was done for me.”
He was wrong. Couture wrestled for the U.S. Army — he served for six years, from 1982 to 1988, attaining the rank of Sergeant in the 101st Airborne — ultimately earning a spot as an alternate on the 1988 U.S. Olympic team. After the Army, he wrestled for Oklahoma State University, finishing second in the national championships in 1991 and 1992.
These high-level defeats taught Couture lessons he’d apply when he was pitted against Vitor Belfort in only his second UFC fight.
“I walked out onto that mat in some of the biggest matches you could ever be in, and lost,” he says. “So, I had developed mental skills to embrace that adversity. Wrestling and fighting are problem-solving at its finest. That guy I step in the cage with poses physical problems I gotta figure out how to solve. And sometimes you get it right, and sometimes you get it wrong.”
There is no mania in his voice, no psychotic violence. Everything about his approach to both fighting and life is methodical and mapped.
“When I decided I wanted to win the state championship, it was about drawing that map and how I was going to get there,” he said. “So now I just need to replicate that for whatever it is down the road that I want to achieve.”
From The Expendables To Working With Vets
His calculated approach to every endeavor is why he’s been successful for over a decade after stepping out of the octagon, whether acting, running veterans’ programs or his latest adventure—drag racing.
He landed a role in The Expendables (2010) after mega fight fan Sylvester Stallone asked him to read for the part of Hale Cesar. Ultimately, Terry Crews got that part, but Sly liked Couture so much he wrote the part of Toll Road for him. Four movies later, he’s still at it.
Couture also spearheads Merging Vets and Players, or MVP, where former athletes and veterans get together to work out and talk about life after taking off the uniform. MVP was founded by Jay Glazer and Nate Boyer. Randy opened the Nevada chapter of vetsandplayers.org at Xtreme Couture MMA.
“I found a synergy between the two groups, that when they retire, they struggle with transition issues,” he says. “Part of your identity goes with that uniform, whatever it is.”
MVP hosts regular sessions—no families or civilians allowed—where his instructors run vets through a rigorous MMA workout. Then afterward, those who want to can take part in relaxed group therapy.
“You get some PhD from Stanford in a bow tie in here, what the f**k does he know about what we’ve been through? What we’ve seen, how we’ve been programmed?” he says. “We’re our own worst enemy sometimes because we’re taught not to show vulnerability, not ask for help and stay on task and accomplish the mission. So, this is a safe space, and there’s something about sweating together that breaks down those boundaries. After the workout, when it comes time to sit down, they’re a lot more likely to open up.”
Couture also helps vets immensely with his Xtreme Couture GI Foundation, which puts on charitable golf, 5K Virtual Ruck-Run-Walk, and fight events. But Couture’s favorite XCGIF events are the “Ride For Our Troops” days. XCGIF’s mission statement is simple: Serving Combat & Injured Veterans In Need — It’s Our Turn To Serve.
Mapping Success On The Hunt
The six-time UFC champ is also an avid hunter, another sport he got into while seeking attention from his father.
“The only time I’d ever really get to see my dad was when he’d take me out of school to take me hunting,” he says. “That was the only time we’d ever have to bond, so I’ve been an avid outdoorsman ever since. I don’t think I ever shot a deer or elk with my dad, it was just about being outdoors.”
In junior high and high school, he moved on to bowhunting with his first stepfather.
“I shot an elk with him, I think he was a better hunter,” Couture says. “The trade-off was that he was a verbally abusive asshole. But he was a man’s man. Worked construction, worked on cars, which as a young boy is the stuff you wanna be around. I didn’t like him very much, but I liked the stuff he did.”
After high school. Couture took a decade-long hiatus from hunting. When he returned to the Pacific Northwest to become the wrestling coach at Oregon State University, a group of his wrestlers invited him bowhunting, and his passion was reignited.
“It’s up close and personal,” he says. “You have to make a good shot, especially with elk and the rut. You get to talk to the animals. Same with turkeys. You call ’em and they come, they answer, they talk. It’s a very personal thing.”
As he picks up a pair of 45-pound dumbbells, Couture says he only likes to hunt stuff he eats, preferring elk meat to beef.
“Bear is pretty good, if you grind it up and season it right,” he says with a wink before launching into 15 quick reps.
PFL (Professional Fighters League) and A Foray Into Drag Racing
Later, as we lounge in his home on a quiet Las Vegas cul-de-sac, Couture offers us some LMNT electrolytes, pulling a jug of water from his refrigerator plastered in magnets from places he’s traveled.
“They hand these (electrolytes) out at PFL events for all the fighters, so I’ve got a ton of ’em,” he says, pouring each one into a branded PFL Yeti. Couture’s a minority partner in the fledgling Professional Fighters League, an MMA organization he says is trying to “do the right thing, treat fighters better.”
It’s a light allusion to his disagreements with Dana White over the control of Randy’s ancillary rights and what he calls bullshit UFC contracts.
Despite those legitimate issues, he’s still proud of all he’s accomplished within the UFC. Upstairs in his office, Couture casually walks us through his trophy case, which takes up half of one wall. It’s complete with MMA hall of fame induction plaques and six UFC title belts.
Also conspicuous on his trophy case is a feathered helmet from the Prince of Monaco’s palace guards, for whom Couture conducted a hand-to-hand combat clinic many years ago.
“You know I’m French,” he adds, handing me the Monegasque hat. “In name only. A few years ago, I did one of those DNA tests and it turns out the guy I thought was my dad wasn’t my dad, which I guess explains a lot about why he was the way he was.” He mentions this as flatly as you might mention learning you were sending your electric bill to the wrong address.
After spending your life trying to get your father’s attention, learning he’s not actually your father would be Earth-shattering news for some. For Randy Couture, it was yet another problem to be solved, another solution to be mapped. Without raising even an eyebrow, he tells me he found out who his real biological father was. But that man had been dead for years, so there wasn’t much to be done.
Couture’s next world to map is drag racing, a sport he was invited into by longtime friend and Lifehouse guitarist Ben Carey. Carey had recently started a nitro car series with the NHRA and invited Couture to be a driver. The former UFC champ has already scored a major sponsorship deal with Scag Power Equipment and plans to race four races this year.
Or, should I say, planned. Three days after our interview, Randy Couture wrecked during a training drive near Kansas City. Though the social media rumor mill said he wasn’t critically injured, our Editor-in-Chief John Radzwilla still reached out to make sure everything was OK. We didn’t expect a response, given his condition. But a few minutes later, Couture responded: “Hey John. Headed home, couple broken ribs and a couple burns, but otherwise OK.”
Calm, stoic, efficient. And exactly the response you’d expect from a man who seems impossible to rattle. For more exclusive video content with Randy Couture, visit hookandbarrel.com.
Working Out With Randy Couture
Wonder how Randy Couture stays so fit, even after 60? Life as an elite wrestler and MMA legend gave him a head start, but these days he keeps in top shape with a pretty simple workout. The routine combines two exercises each of push, pull, core and legs.
The Routine:
Perform 15 reps of each exercise, then move to the next exercise with minimal rest. Complete the entire circuit three times. Randy’s record is 21 minutes. See if you can beat it.
Exercise 1: Reverse Crunches
With your knees slightly bent, tap your heels on the ground, then raise both legs over your head and push your feet toward the ceiling without using momentum.
Exercise 2: Weighted Lunge Jumps
With a dumbbell in each hand, lunge forward with one leg, then jump as you move your back leg to the front, and front leg to the back. Each jump is one rep.
Exercise 3: Chest Press
Laying on a bench with a dumbbell in each hand, press the dumbbells up toward the ceiling like you would with bench press.
Exercise 4: Seater Shoulder Press
Sitting straight up on a bench with a dumbbell in each hand, press dumbbells straight over your head. Bring biceps down to parallel with the ground, and repeat press up.
Exercise 5: Seated Bicep Curls
Sitting straight up on an incline bench with a dumbbell in each hand, curl both dumbbells simultaneously toward your shoulders.
Exercise 6: Wide-Grip Pull-Ups
Perform a wide-grip pull-up on a pull-up bar. If you can’t reach 15 reps, use a support band.
Exercise 7: Barbell Squats
Load a barbell with a weight you can squat 15 times. Put the barbell behind your shoulders and lower your hips until your thighs are parallel with the ground. Push up through your heels until standing.
Exercise 8: Decline Crunches with Plates
On a decline bench, hold a weight plate straight out in front of you. Lay back on the bench and crunch back up, keeping the plate out in front of your chest, arms extended.
Get More Info and Follow Randy Couture Here:
- Official Randy Couture Website
- Xtreme Couture Training
- Xtreme Couture GI Foundation
- Randy Couture on Instagram
- Randy Couture on X
This content originally appeared in the September-October 2025 print edition of Hook & Barrel magazine.
