‘Cobra Kai' stars William Zabka, Ralph Macchio proud of grueling karate training

As Cobra Kai’s sixth and final season begins streaming, William Zabka and Ralph Macchio are sharing their pride in their training for the show.

Macchio, and Zabka, first played their famed Karate Kid characters in the 1984’s The Karate Kid. Macchio starred as the karate kid Daniel LaRusso, taught karate by Mr. Miyagi to defend himself against bullies led by Zabka’s Johnny Lawrence.

Zabka, now 58, compares training for the show to “running a marathon.”

“You have to be an athlete to do this show, and it’s kept us in shape,” he told People. “As much as it's an ‘I'm too old for this,’ it's also like, ‘Hey, you're never too old for anything.’ ”

Zabka went on to note that shooting for a TV show requires more fast paced training than shooting for The Karate Kid films in the ‘80s.

“Sometimes we're shooting 200 moves, 10 different times in a day, and it's physically exhausting and you have to keep stretched out,” he noted.

Macchio agreed, saying, “It's funny, back in 1980-whatever, I was like, ‘Well, thank God, I don't have to do this ever again! Little did I know, and now I'm like, ‘You know what? I'm taking pride in it because at my age right now, this is good. This is really good. And I am prideful of it.’ ”

“But youth is wasted on the young, and sometimes time and wisdom give you the wherewithal to know what might be beneficial,” Macchio noted.