How To Workout Like a Movie Star

By Tom On September 23, 2014 In Training No Comments

Getting into a great shape does not have to take ages to accomplish. I can tell you that it is possible to achieve an incredibly great shape in less than six months. While that is not an easy fete, it is definitely achievable.

It is common practice in the movie industry to have movie stars get to a certain shape to play a certain role in a movie, but I can tell you that the movie stars use many tricks to achieve that look you so much love to see in their movies.

To do a role, the movie stars typically have 3-6 months to prepare. The selection of a cast for a movie is done in the very initial stages of its pre-production. A movie’s pre-production usually lasts for months.

Not all movie superstars have to go through intensive workouts to achieve that crazy shape; some of them do workouts as part of their everyday life. Some good examples include Hugh Jackman, Dwayne Johnson and Sylvester Stallone. For them, training does not start after landing a role in an upcoming film.

In working out, movie stars have some advantages:

Genetics

A good number of movie stars have good genetics. I have seen untrained movie stars who can easily put on some muscle or drastically reduce weight if a role they are about to play calls for that. Being a movie star is in their genes; therefore, movie star workouts may be carried out with a little more ease than other people trying to do the same.

Work Ethic

To be an actor, you have to be extremely hard working. Movie business is not as easy as the movie stars make it seem. If you thought acting is the easy way out, you are mistaken.

Movies characteristically run 24/7 with very strict time frame and strenuous hours. It is hard to faultlessly learn your lines and even harder to convey them believably.

I know movie stars who have to wake up at dawn to take breakfast and spend the hour after in the gym. Soon after the gym, they go through their lines as they go through their makeup routine.

A typical day on set includes pages of dialogue which they must have perfected.

It is therefore not an exaggeration when I say that to be a movie star you have to be hard working. You cannot make any headway in the movie business otherwise. Thinking of actors who work very hard, Tom Cruise and Keanu Reeves come to mind. Watch a few of their movies and you will get the picture.

Drugs

Some movie stars do take PEDs (performance enhancing drugs). Unlike athletes, it is not considered cheating if a movie star does this. In any case, they don’t get tested for drugs. No one cares that Arnold may have taken drugs during the shooting of The Terminator or Conan. Movie lovers just want to see their favourite movie star look the part and execute his role for a great watching experience.

Tricks

Some movie stars use some tricks to build that incredible shape you admire in their films. A good number of them achieve this by carrying out a water-carb trick that gets them lean in a matter of days.

For this to work, however, the actor must have been in still pretty good shape. This is how the trick works: reduce your intake of carbs and increase your sodium intake for a period of 3-5 days. As a result, the body experiences a deficiency in carbs and the muscles start appearing flat. They now start ‘loading’ their bodies with water, sometimes taking as much as a gallon daily.

Finally, they stop taking water and go back to taking carbs to get the muscles looking full again. When they stop water intake, the body gets rid of the body water that is now in excess because the overloads of the last few days tricked the body into losing water. The excess water is gone leaving full muscles that have no water underneath.

Training

Every movie star workout is unique. All the same, I will outline for you some movie star workout routines that I have used before.

Legs Training

There are people who will say that you should do the deadlift or the squat. While deadlift is a good exercise, it is possible to become strong without adding weight.

The squat on the other hand demands an increase in body weight with the increase in weights. So, I recommend you squat.

Training for width is preferable to training for depth. It is very easy to lose your powerful looking chest if you have no width to back it up.

Aim for Becoming Athletic

In my line of work, I have in certain circumstances had to teach actors that were otherwise pretty good to appear in fight scenes, but all they had is the illusion of being good but nothing to back it up.

While in movies it is possible to cheat in certain things, it is not possible to cheat a sloppy mover or a runner with two left legs. In acting, movement in training is just as essential as adding up some muscle.

Consider this movie star workout routine schedule for a week:

Day 1