‘Reacher’ Star Alan Ritchson Quit Drinking And Grew Even Stronger: ‘It Just Sort Of Stuck’

If your New Year’s goal was to get shredded, then muscular actor Alan Ritchson may have the cheat code for you.

Ritchson has been around for two decades, modeling before striking it up as an actor. His first big role was as a recurring character in season 5 of “Smallville” as water based hero Aquaman. 

He then made his name known on the comedy series “Blue Mountain State” as starting linebacker and team captain Thad Castle. Finally, after landing his biggest roles in the silver screen’s “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows” and DC Universe streaming series “Titans,” he became a household name in Prime Video’s “Reacher.”

Throughout each part he’s played, Ritchson seemed to grow slightly more muscular. In “Reacher,” he appears to be an almost unstoppable behemoth. 

He says he attributes his ongoing muscular definition to his lack of drinking.

Ritchson has Gone Six Years Without a Drink

Although he loves his adult beverages, Ritchson tells the “Thomas DeLauer Podcast” (via Men’s Health) the move to stop drinking stemmed from his wife, Catherine’s, thinking. Ritchson says he is six years sober after starting out taking it one month at a time before ultimately giving it up entirely.

“Sober October became whatever rhymes with ‘Sober March,’” he tells DeLauer.  

The move turned out to be a good one because he is not recovering as long as he used to. Nor are they dedicating any extra energy to buying or planning their lives around alcohol.

“The amount of hours I’ve saved and calories I’ve saved not recovering from that all the time is great,” he admitted. 

Not the First Time He’s Talked about his Health

In 2024, Ritchson gave Men’s Health a tour of his fridge as well as his home gym. He told the magazine his usual staples include eggs, pizza, no baked cookie dough, fruit, hot dogs and other variety of healthy and non-healthy foods.

The actor also says he eats at least hourly throughout the day.

On the workout front, Ritchson prefers to spend five weekdays in the gym, using his weekends to recover. Additionally, he prefers the limit his gym time to a half hour in order to reduce wear and tear on the body.

He also revealed he does not enjoy working on his legs.

Ritchson is also an avid meditator. “Meditation is about manually shifting back into a calmer brain state,” he tells Men’s Health. The actor also spends time in the sauna.