Now is not the time for Riley Green to slow down, even if the difficulty is slowly catching up to her.
By all accounts, the “Worst” singer is living his best life. Their 2026 North American leg Cowboy As It Gets The tour is in full swing, with only a few months left of sold-out shows in Australia. On the charts, their hot streak hasn’t cooled down – “Change My Mind” reached No. 1 in June, they recently released the video for their latest single “Pretend like I’m drunk,” And September 18th has already been fixed for the release of their next album, that’s me.
And now the five-time ACM-award winner’s reach has now extended to the small screen after landing her first major acting role in Taylor Sheridan. Marshall. Join a co-host program on ABC’s broadcast of CMA Fest and make a fresh announcement as one of the coaches on NBC’s latest season. soundAnd Green’s calendar looks completely full.
While Green is garnering praise at almost Swiftian levels, the former college quarterback-turned-multi-platinum headliner has also managed to remain country music’s fitness gold standard. Accumulating seven No. 1 songs and still flashing a six-pack year after year isn’t accidental; for Green, it’s the result of a very simple and consistent pecking order of priorities that he’s developed throughout his still-blossoming career.
“I would say fitness is second only to the investment I’ve made in writing songs,” says the former Jacksonville State signal caller. “When I wake up in the morning, a part of me is always thinking I should write today. It’s always a constant feeling in my mind. And I feel like getting some kind of exercise — whether it’s first or second thing in the morning — is also something I’m thinking about and trying to incorporate into my day somehow.”
Like any other person with a very busy schedule, there are bumps in the road when he tries to keep both pillars at peak levels – especially when the job means traveling cross-country on a tour bus for a large part of the year. The profession has athletic facilities – it’s hard to refuse 18 holes at Sawgrass or BP with the Philadelphia Phillies. However, with a full schedule there are certain periods during the year when Green’s energy levels can dip deep into the red. He admits that sometimes it can be a struggle.
“I go through waves of extreme motivation where I’m like, ‘I’m on the road, I’ve got the next three weeks after this.'”
Green thinks he’s settled that issue. He has replicated his huge home gym into a miniature traveling version that travels with him across the country during his current tour. “Having a gym on site makes it a lot easier to get there,” he says. “I think 90% of my fight is motivation. So if I have something that’s here and it’s easy and convenient for me, I’ll probably work out.”
Efficiency and intensity are the goals of each workout, whether it’s his classic bro split or stadium runs when he can squeeze them in. And at 37, with a lifetime of physical wear and tear, Green has incorporated more core work and stretching into his routine, much like his football-playing days — and if there’s a problem, he still trusts himself to fix it.
“I’ve always been the kind of guy that when there’s something wrong with my body, I feel like I’m the only one who can fix it,” he says.
Playing an athlete is not a job
If you’ve seen any appearances by Riley Green Pat McAfee ShowYou know the 6’4″ former three-sport high school athlete can still unleash the tight deep ball. He has also shown that his fastball has some heat left and enough bounce to throw down a monster dunk on the basketball court.
Bottom line: Whenever there’s an opportunity to jump into something athletic, Green, like other former athletes turned artists, will gladly accept the challenge. Whether he’s beating out infield hits as a pinch hitter for the Savannah Bananas or launching souvenirs into the seats during batting practice in the big leagues, he keeps proving that there’s still an athlete living inside the artist.
“I still haven’t gotten over it,” he admits. “I still love going out there and hitting balls in a major league stadium. It’s a good thing they let me do that.”
So far, of the six MLB ballparks Green has been invited to, he has left three of them—Philadelphia, Toronto and Cincinnati—with home runs. He says the bucket-list goal is to swing at every stadium. “I still have 24 more to go,” he says.
As many fans know, hunting remains Green’s passion, but with turkey season having ended a few months ago, he will sometimes sacrifice a leg day for 18 holes. Whether it’s top-tier courses like Sawgrass or off-the-beaten-path tracks, golf still provides a solid workout.
“I really like the ones where there’s no one,” he says. “You can find a course in the middle of nowhere. They’re still beautiful courses and challenging, but it’s not really crowded.”
During the dog days, Green can also swap layups for a solid round. “Now I’ll keep the clubs with me a little bit, and it’s a bit of a compromise, because if I go play 18 holes of golf in the heat of the summer, I’m not as motivated to work out,” he says. “So I have to get up, work out in the morning, or change it for golf, one or the other.”
When old injuries strike, Green created a core routine to fight them
When Riley Green is swinging or throwing you will be hard pressed to see any struggle in his rotational power. But Green, who grew up shooting in his Alabama backyard troy aikman jersey, Admits that some old football damage still lingers – notably two separated shoulders from his playing days. “From time to time my right shoulder flares up and gives me a little trouble,” he says.
He remembers every morning the fluid in his knees that sometimes needed to be drained. “When I wake up, I feel like an old man – cracking, cracking and all that,” he says, and after football, he hasn’t forgotten the early process of working with a hammer and nails to be able to play six strings at night. “When I worked construction, I was in pain every day,” he adds. “There wasn’t a day that went by that I woke up and I wasn’t hurt by something, and it wasn’t an injury that was, you know, just from working.”
Now, at the age of 37, even small things cause major anxiety. An example of this is that sleeping on the wrong mattress has become an issue, especially after traveling for long periods of time on a tour bus. He says, “It took me a while to figure it out, but sleeping on a mattress that’s too soft will actually make me walk a little hunched over in the morning, and it’ll take me until about noon to really feel comfortable.”
He says that chronic lower back pain inspired him to revamp his abdominal routines – something he admits he had neglected for most of his career. He added, “I think I’ve always been able to skate without doing a lot of work, because I’ve always been pretty fit.”
instead of Invest in a trainer, Green has created his own quick and efficient ab workout, which he mainly relies on on the road. He targets his lower abs in a 20-minute core circuit built around The hanging leg rises, Weighted leg raises, and flutter kicks to take care of your obliques and upper abdominals, then finish with bicycle crunches. He says the results are already showing benefits.
“I can do it in a short cycle and my abs get destroyed,” he says. “I think it’s something I’m trying to focus on a little bit more, just to get rid of some of that back pain, to strengthen my core a little bit.”
However, his investment is a smaller version of the home gym he built post-COVID. With his speed, there is a shortage of time – which is why a fully equipped travel gym has become non-negotiable. Mounted on the back of one of their buses, it is equipped with a Smith machine and all the equipment they need, and allows them to work out as often as they can. “I used to try to go to Planet Fitness every once in a while, it’s become too difficult to do,” he says.
Once again, Green prioritizes the efficiency of quick and steady workouts rather than throwing around heavy weights and busting out 1RMs. He relies on old workouts that he prepared himself. “If I’m doing chest exercises, I’m doing bench presses—flat bench, incline bench, and decline pushups—and I’m doing them all as quickly as I can,” he says. “Then I’m going to another group of about three or four moves and mixing flies with incline dumbbells and dips, and doing all three at the same time for three or four sets of eight to 10. That’s about 30 to 45 minutes and I’m kind of out.”
The new twist he is implementing on this tour is an important return to his football roots: at the age of 37, more stretching and real warm-ups have become more important than ever. While the aesthetics are clear, the former signal caller is now paying more attention to the finer details of training.
“When I used to play sports, we would spend 30 minutes resting and warming up before any kind of activity,” he says. “It’s kind of crazy to think about, because we’re all so much older now than when we used to play.”
These days, he’s taking time to stretch before and after workouts and sometimes before showtime, and Green says he’s feeling a difference. “Spending a little more time stretching before and after workouts is probably the biggest game changer for me.”
DIY creates space for teamwork
In Green’s world, the relationship between music and sports is simple: Do the work and results eventually follow. Like the workouts he designed for himself, he often takes a DIY approach to songwriting – and it pays off.
With “Worst Way” and “Don’t Mind If I Do” topping the charts, Green became the first artist since Taylor Swift to have back-to-back solo-written No. 1 singles on Billboard’s Country Airplay chart. It’s a rare songwriting feat, but for him it’s just a reward for prioritizing writing as often as possible. “
My mentality is, write as many songs as you can,” he says. “If you write 30 mediocre songs, you’ll almost certainly write one good song for every 30. And then sometimes some of those mediocre songs turn out to be better than you thought.”
He says that kind of consistency makes it easier to perform without a lot of pre-show jitters at this stage of his career. “There’s not really a lot of pressure playing a show anymore,” he admits. “I’ve been doing it for so long, it feels quite natural.”
Performing in front of the camera can be nerve wracking. Acting wasn’t always his goal, but seeing other actors make the leap convinced him it was at least worth a try. “I remember watching Tim McGraw 1883 And just thinking how good he was,” says Green. “He wasn’t an actor his entire life. He was a traveling artist like me. So the fact that he was so good at that craft gave me a little hope that maybe it was something I could do.
The one time being alone wasn’t an option was his role as ex-Navy SEAL Garrett Garvey. Marshall. Even for someone as self-reliant as Green, not everything can be done alone – especially acting, in which she relied on actor and singer Luke Grimes to ease her difficult introduction to acting.
“Acting makes me nervous more than anything I’ve done in a while, just because it’s so new,” he says. “There are a lot of people on set who trust me to do my job correctly before I go out there.”
Adding acting as another layer to his already busy schedule can be a challenge, but Green has consistently shown that he’ll find a way to get the job done. And unless the trailer pulling his gym gear runs out of gas, there’s a good chance he won’t either.
“As long as I’m working out consistently enough, I’ll be in good shape,” he says. “I just have to keep finding ways to do it with everything else going on.”
