Daniel Craig Workout

Our most recent Mr. Bond, Daniel Craig, has always been an actor in good shape, going back to Layer Cake and his other films. Still, for Casion Royale and then Quantam of Solace, he got in even better shape. Unlike a number of celebrity workouts, the Daniel Craig workout was put together by a qualified personal trainer who has trained previous Bonds, and whose system would be effective for you or I.

Daniel Craig on the Beach

Daniel Craig on the beach...at 40. If he can look like that at his age, so can you

To start with, Craig’s workout was built on him doing serious training Monday to Friday, then being free to eat and drink as he pleased on the weekends. He did give up smoking, but otherwise from following this workout just five days a week he was able to get in fantastic shape while having freedom on the weekends.

Craig’s workout week began and ended with circuit training days on Monday/Friday. These were a series of full-body exercises, cycled through with no rest between exercises and several minutes between sets. You see a similar setup in a number of CrossFit workouts, and this is a proven way to both work your muscles and your cardio at the same time. There are a number of studies that found a good metabolic effect from this, where your body remains in a heightened fat burning state for 48 hours afterwards. The circuits help you build up stamina while still working on muscle.

During the middle days of the week, Tuesday through Thursday, the Daniel Craig workout consisted of isolation exercises. Tuesday was chest and back day, Wednesday covered the legs, and Thursday focused on the shoulders and arms. Here are the individual circuits:

Monday/Friday: these exercises are done as circuits, where each exercise is done one after the other with no rest between each. Then, rest for 3-4 minutes after each set for a total of 3 sets.

a. Clean & Jerk
b. Squat
c. Bench Press
d. Pull-ups/Chin-ups
e. Tricep Dips
f. Barbell Curls
g. Dumbbell Lateral Raises

Tuesday: Chest & Back isolation exercises, for all do 4 sets of 10 reps
a. Incline Bench Press — do the heaviest weight that you can with good form for all sets
b. Pull-ups
c. Incline Push-ups
d. Incline Dumbbell Flys

Wednesday: Legs isolation exercises, for each do 4 sets of 10 reps
a. Squats
b. Straight-leg Deadlifts
c. Hamstring Curls
d. Weighted Lunge

Thursday: Isolation day for Shoulders & Arms. For all exercises do 4 sets of 10 reps
a. Incline Bicep Curls
b. Tricep Dips
c. Lateral Raises
d. Shoulder Press

Friday: repeat Monday’s whole body circuit training

Saturday & Sunday: R&R day with the option of light cardio only

Daniel Craig Shirtless Quantum Of Silence

Daneil Craig shirtless in Quantum of silence

Let’s take a moment to analyze this workout. The circuit training days are good for the metabolic conditioning effect and for hitting everything at once, kick-starting muscle growth. The isolation exercises in the middle cover bulking and toning individual muscle groups. Note too the heavy use of the basic all-body exercises: pull-ups, deadlifts, and squats. These are the corner of most celebrity workouts, and should definitely be in your arsenal.

Now, as with the majority of actors, Daniel Craig was already in good shape before preparing for the Bond films. This workout would not have been nearly so effective if he first needed to drop a ton of fat or if he had not already worked out and built up some muscle before training. The way it’s structured, there will be some fat loss and significant toning and development of the muscles, but it would not take someone from out of shape into 007 shape.

If you are starting from scratch you can absolutely use this as a model, but would be advised to scale down the reps and weights to what you can safely handle, and also paying especial attention to diet as you get started. For your muscles to show as well as his, your body fat needs to be quite low (~10% should do it for most men). The average guy is well above this, so if that’s you begin by getting the diet under control.

Otherwise, the Daniel Craig Workout is one of the more well-rounded Hollywood fitness systems that I’ve seen and is well worth trying out. While we will probably never get to be James Bond, there is no harm in emulating the character’s fitness and style.

For more information on how to get a Hollywood body in the real world, check out the free Hollywood Fitness Guide to learn how to get yourself in Brad 007-worthy shape: it goes over just what it takes to slim yourself down to that <10% body fat level and build up the right kind of muscles to pull off the celebrity look
Click here for a free Hollywood Fitness Guide

Brad Pitt Workout

I remember going to see Fight Club in theaters, and being not only blown away by the message but also getting jealous of Brad Pitt’s body. The guy looked both strong and sexy, and listening to girls at school go on about him convinced me that was the body to have. Naturally, that left me curious what the Brad Pitt workout was…and having checked it out, there are both some good and bad aspects to it.

Celebrity Fitness Brad Pitt in Fight Club

Brad Pitt ready to step in the ring in Fight Club

As is often the case with celebrity workouts, Pitt’s approach is only going to work if you are already lean, and most likely will have to get even leaner. In his Fight Club days, Pitt was at around 6% body fat, which is the same level that competitive body builders reach for events. To give some perspective, most guys will show six-pack abs with around 10% body fat, and your “average” young adult male is anywhere from 14 to 24%. So, if you are not already in six pack abs territory, you should start working on that before radically changing your exercise.

Now then, when Pitt was training for Fight Club he followed a fairly standard split strength training routine. This is where you focus on a single muscle group each day, rotating to different ones throughout the week. This works because of how the body builds muscle: you break them down on workout days, then they respond by building up on the rest cycle. The alternation of working different muscle groups on different days gives each group time to recover and grow between sessions.

For the actual workouts, Pitt followed the same template: his goal was 3 sets of each exercise, and each set aimed for 15 reps of proper form when using weights, and as many reps as possible when using bodyweight. He would then rest for 60 seconds after each set.

Here are the exercises per day…
Monday: Chest
a. 3 sets of 75 pushups
b. 3 sets of benchpress, with first 25 reps of 165lb, then 15 reps of 195lb, and then 8 reps of 225lb
c. 3 sets of nautilus press, using first 80lb, then 100lb, and lastly 130lb
d. 3 sets of incline press with the same weight progression as nautilus press (80lb, then 100lb, then 130lb)
e. 3 sets on the pec deck machine, using 60lb then 70lb and finally 80lb

Tuesday: Back
a. 3 sets of 25 pull-ups
b. 3 sets of seated rows, using 75lb, 80lb, and 85lb
c. 3 lat pull down sets of 135lb/150lb/165lb
d. 3 t-bar rows, using 80lb/95lb/110lb

Wednesday: Shoulders
a. 3 sets of arnold press using 55lb for each
b. 3 sets of lateral raises using 30lb for each
c. 3 sets of front raises with 25lb for each

Thursday: Biceps/Triceps
a. 3 sets on the preacher curl machine using 60lb/80lb/95lb
b. 3 sets of EZ cable curls using 50lb/65lb/80lb
c. 3 sets of hammer curls using 30lb/45lb/55lb
d. 3 sets of push-downs using 70lb/85lb/100lb

Friday and Saturday: Static cardio sessions on a treadmill, maintaining 80 to 90% of maximum heart rate throughout.

Celebrity Fitness Brad Pitt Not Shirtless

Brad Pitt with his shirt on: notice that his physique looks solid without the excessive bulk of a bodybuilder

What is interesting about Pitt’s training is not so much the workout–which, honestly, is quite conventional–but the dramatic effect that it had. His physique has been the envy of most men, yet he followed a less intense program that most of them. That is because this particular system played well to Pitt’s natural strengths: he was already quite lean and in good shape, so to make him work for Fight Club he effectively needed a little more leaning up and only minor bulking to get in such amazing shape.

The thinner you are, the more your existing muscles pop out. In Pitt’s case, adding a little bulk and getting to super-low leanness was all it took to look the part of a serious street fighter. This is not to take away from Pitt’s discipline to get in such great shape–it is no easy task to get that lean and to keep working out this consistently–but rather, he could have likely gotten in equally great shape with most any exercise program once his body fat level was so low.

For the Brad Pitt workout to help you, first address the leanness issue. If you are not already in the <=10% body fat club, you will have better results following a program using HIIT (High Intensity Interval Training) and other metcon tactics, and will need to aggressively work on your diet. Using something like intermittent fasting, or adhering to the Paleo diet may be needed to get you into the same levels of leanness where you can build up the same bulk. After that, the split set strength training outlined here will certainly work, though at that point most any consistent bodybuilding technique will work.

Check out the Hollywood Fitness Guide to learn how to get yourself in Brad Pitt shape: it goes over just what it takes to slim yourself down to that <10% body fat level and build up the right kind of muscles to pull off the celebrity look
Click here for a free Hollywood Fitness Guide

Matthew McConaughey Workout

A well-known actor who has appeared in movies since the early 90′s through today, Matthew McConaughey has long had a body to envy. Like many stars, he definitely has good genetics and base looks…but a body likes his has to be earned, and as always by following a system like the Matthew McConaughey workout you can work your way towards the same shape.

Matthew McConaughey After Sahara Training

Matthew McConaughey showing off his body after training for Sahara

The first step as usual is to be in good basic shape. Around the time of movie roles like Sahara, Matthew McConaughey stayed at a body fat of around 10%. This is no easy weight for most people to reach–the American average is more like 20%–so to start with, you need a good diet for getting and staying cut. If you are not already there, you should start by getting your diet under control and working towards leaning up.

Now then, how about the celebrity fitness part of this? McConaughey talked about his workouts when he was filming Sahara, and one of his favorite ways to train was through supersets.

In bodybuilding, a traditional set is where you pick a single exercise, such as bench press, and do X number of reps. Many bodybuilding systems would have you do 3 to 5 sets of that single exercise, then move on to multiple sets of another exercise.

Supersetting is where you instead put together a series of several exercises that you treat as a single set, and then do multiple sets of these combination exercises. For example, instead of doing sets of bench press followed by ab crunch, you would do a superset of bench press/ab crunch/bench press/ab crunch/etc.

Here is one of McConaughey’s Sahara superset routines:

Set 1: repeat 2 to 4 times in order…
a. Dumbbell Fly
b. Incline Chest Press
c. Weighted Swiss Ball Crunch

Set 2: do only one set of…
a. Angled Pull-up
b. A one minute forward run on an elliptical followed by a one minute backwards run

Set 3: repeat 2 to 4 times…
a. Bench Dip
b. One-armed Tricep Extension, using a rope
c. Medicine Ball Lunge, going from your upper left to your lower right

Set 4: Repeat 2 to 4 times
a. Medicine Ball Slam: take a heavy ball and slam it on the floor, then catch and repeat
b. One to Two minutes of wall climbing
c. Step through the sides of a ladder as fast as safely possible, back and forth several times

Set 5: Do 2 to 4 sessions of…
a. Calf Raises, with one foot slightly ahead of the other
b. Twisting Shoulder Press, using torso rotation to first one side of the body and then the other
c. Lay on your back and take a medicine ball from one side to the other of your body

Set 6: Do only once…
a. Ride an exercise bike for one minute sitting then do another minute standing
b. Do one minute on a stairclimber

Matthew McConaughey Jogging Shirtless

Matthew McConaughey Jogging Shirtless

Here’s the crazy thing: this one group of six supersets is just one day of the Matthew McConaughey workout when he was shaping up to be on screen and shirtless! His full training covered many other exercises over the course of a week. At the same time, you can figure out how he trained by looking at the components of this workout.

McConaughey hit a series of both strength and cardio conditioning challenges, working on the whole body throughout. The supersets had complimentary exercises that worked different muscle groups without exhausting any one, making for both comprehensive and efficient training.

Unfortunately, this full workout can be a bit much for someone to squeeze in the evening after work and before dinner. In order to fit this into your day-to-day life without having to spend two hours in the gym, focus on the core principles of the workout and find what fits into your lifestyle.

One way to do this to take a couple of the supersets above, then expand them somewhat and combine together. This gets that sequencing of strength training and cardio conditioning, while fitting into a 30-minute workout time slot. You can slice and dice the various supersets here together for a starting point, and add other exercises in for variety and to add some muscle confusion.

Doing the Matthew McConaughey workout in your home gym would certainly be a challenge, but one that is both worth it and in your reach as long as put in the time and effort.

Here is a video of a workout inspired by McConaughey’s insane training regiment:



If you found this helpful, check out the Hollywood Fitness Guide: it goes over just what it takes to slim yourself down to that 10% body fat level and build up the right kind of muscles to pull off the celebrity look
Click here for a free Hollywood Fitness Guide

Hollywood Fitness — What is It?

One common word tossed around is someone having “Hollywood Fitness“…but what exactly is it? Whether fair or not, actors sometimes have a reputation for being more style than substance, however, there is no denying that many girls consider them to have the best bodies. Let us look at just what qualifies as celebrity fitness.

Justin Timberlake shirtless in Alpha Dog

A fine example of Hollywood fitness: Justin Timberlake in Alpha Dog, with low body fat and good muscle tone

For one, celebrities almost universally have lean builds. The majority show six pack abs, which means that the guys keep their body fat level around 10% or lower. For most men, this is the max amount of fat that still shows the abs, and some prefer the even sharper look that being at a body fat of 8% gives. Meanwhile, a guy considered of average weight has a body fat more in the 18 to 22% range.

Now, part of what makes Hollywood fitness so appealing is that getting your body fat down to around 10% does much more than just make your abs visible. Slimming down pulls fat from all over the body, including on the face. This is part of why Hollywood leading men tend to look so handsome: they have such a low body fat that all of their face’s angular features come out. If you take Brad Pitt in his prime and have him put on 20lbs from eating brownies, even his face would not look so great when it was much more rounded.

So at a minimum, a Hollywood fit actor has that low body fat and leanness. What about the actual “fit” part of this? There have been a number of studies done on what makes for an attractive male body, and one common finding is that women appreciate a guy with muscle…but not too much muscle. They would rather see a build like Justin Timberlake in Alpha Dog or Brad Pitt in Fight Club than a bulky body builder.

What distinguishes those guys looks–and what most male actors maintain–is a build with visible toned muscle but no excess bulk. For an example, compare an old school wrestler like Hulk Hogan to a more recent example like Mickey Rourke starring in, well, The Wrestler. Hogan showed more of a bulky look, with big muscles but little tone. Though Rourke definitely packed on some lean mass, he also went for some serious tone. Most people would see Rourke as much closer to Hollywood fit than Hogan.

Hulk Hogan in his glory days

Not to knock the champion here, but this is an example of too much bulk for Hollywood fitness

At the same time, you do not necessarily want even as much muscle as Rourke put on for his character. Better role models include Ryan Kwanten or Alexander Skarsgard, both of whom have solid muscles but more of a toned rather than bulky look.

Fortunately, getting that much muscle is in the reach of most guys, regardless of genetics. Men who are true hard-gainers (the type who was always lanky and has a hard time putting on mass) may have some difficulty getting the build, but nowhere near the challenge they would face if they were trying to be body builders.

Achieving Hollywood fitness for most men comes down to getting their body fat to a quite low level–no more than 10%–and combining it with some solid toned muscle. For most guys, this means following some kind of high-protein diet for leaning up while preserving muscle, as well as following workout programs with good compound exercises (squats, deadlifts, pull-ups), with a number of high-rep workouts for extra toning.

Click here for a free Hollywood Fitness Guide

Ryan Kwanten Workout

Many celebrities are actors first and athletes second, if at all, but sometimes there are exceptions. Ryan Kwanten started as a competitive triathlon years before going to Hollywood, and the Ryan Kwanten workout is a reflection of his serious training before he came to the US.

Ryan Kwanten Shirtless

Ryan Kwanten Shirtless

Fortunately, Kwanten is open about how he trains, and it is easy to piece together the kind of workouts that it takes to get his build. He is a firm believer in the power of muscle confusion, where you rotate different exercises and intensity levels so that your body can never fully adapt to any one way of training.

This forces your muscles to constantly adjust to new challenges, keeping them improving on a regular basis. Many times people reach plateaus in the gym because they do not rotate the exercises, and the body reaches a comfort level that slows down muscle gains.

Anyway, Kwanten trains more outside than he does in a gym. He regularly runs through forest trails, goes biking, swimming, and has been known to go bungee-jumping and other thrill-seeking behaviors. For strength training, he does many of his workouts at home, using body weight exercises such as sit-ups, pull-ups, push-ups, and jump rope.

One mistake that many aspiring body builders make is thinking that it takes constant work with heavy weights such as doing deadlifts and bench press to get stronger. These exercises definitely play a role in bulking up, but are not needed for most to get the lean-and-toned Hollywood physique. You can go far with body weight exercises and HIIT (High Intensity Interval Training).

Here is one Ryan Kwanten workout that you can do at home. Kwanten uses this as a go-to routine when he needs to workout wherever he is without having time to go to a gym or get specialized equipment. Note how the routine combines HIIT and body weight exercises.

Over 20 minutes do the following:

  • Warm-up with 2 minutes of running as a fast as possible
  • Do 2 minutes of push-ups, ideally without stopping. Rest as little as possible
  • Over 7.5 minutes, do six rounds of: 30-second sprints and 45 seconds rest. This is classic HIIT, by having you train at max intensity then rest over short intervals
  • Do 2 minutes of planks only resting if necessary
  • 2 minutes of supine jackknifes. A supine jackknife consists of you laying flat on your back while raising your legs straight into the air, putting you into an L-shape. Then use a crunch motion to curl up your shoulders off the ground while extending your arms out to your toes. While keeping your legs straight, raise and lower them six inches off of the ground. When raising your legs, hold them with a one-second pause at the top for each rep
  • Finish with 4.5 minutes of shadowboxing. To get the right kind of intensity, visualize yourself in the last round of the grand championship, and put everything that you have left into the fight

Bear in mind that this is a single workout, and Kwanten’s full exercise regime goes through many different ones. At the same time, this is something that you can do with just some floor space and room to sprint outside. Also, if you have experience with CrossFit or related systems the general setup of this workout should be familiar: while Kwanten does not reportedly follow CrossFit, this workout would definitely mesh with that system’s approach.

Now, while this workout covers quite a bit of ground, if you simply repeat it over and over again you will be back in the position of reaching a plateau and not advancing. To get muscle confusion, you would need a series of workouts like this and then regularly rotate them in and out.

Anyway, this type of training will get you the muscle tone for the ripped look that Kwanten pulls off. In order to also have your muscles show as well as his, you would need to get your body fat quite low. Kwanten is a fan of the Paleo diet, though he does not follow it strictly–he has been known to have a beer or two, sometimes even before competing! Either way, you definitely need a good diet for getting cut if you are not already there before you can pull off looking like Jason Stackhouse from True Blood.

To do a good Ryan Kwanten workout at home, you should check out programs that give you a mix of HIIT and muscle confusion style training. Getting your cardio conditioning in by running outside and biking/hiking/etc. would certainly help as well.

Click here for a free Hollywood Fitness Guide

Lastly, here is a video that takes a good look at Ryan Kwanten’s True Blood workout:

Celebrity Fitness Starts With The Diet

Most people tend to focus on one thing with celebrities: how they exercise and train. You will find tons of posts about how this celeb got in shape for that movie, or the crazy exercise that singer does before she tours. Yet, not enough attention is paid to the diet part of good celebrity fitness.

The fact of the matter is that no matter how hard you workout, without good diet you are not going to look like a cover model. Worse yet, you may even fall into the track of looking way too bulky without actually improving your appearance. Think of the bodybuilders that you see in the gym who are obviously huge…but have bulging bellies and jeans that fit too tight.


Justin Timberlake With ~10% Body Fat

To pull off a Hollywood look, then, you need to mind the diet. For your muscles to show to their fullest, you want to get your body fat percentage down to around 10%. Competition lifters will go lower–some down to 6% or less–but even the hardcore can’t keep up that low between events, and for most people 10% is already challenge enough.

In order to get your body fat that low while simultaneously building or at least maintaining muscles, you need to devise a low-calorie diet that gives you plenty of protein. There are many ways to do that, including diets used by power lifters such as Paleo or zoning systems. To make this more accessible, I’ll focus on what you can do now without having to suddenly change all of your habits.

First, figure out how much protein you need to maintain/build muscle mass. As a rule of thumb, take your weight in pounds and aim for that many grams of protein. This means that a 185lb man needs 185 grams. Heavy lifters will go higher–sometimes as much as double grams of protein per pound–though to begin with, try to get at least one gram per pound.

To give you some perspective, here is an example of what that 185lb man would have to consume to get that much protein in a day:
1. 1 lb of chicken breasts (128 grams or so) divided into a chicken wrap for lunch and a half-pound of chicken in a light stir fry for dinner

2. One post-workout protein shake (anywhere from 32 to 64 grams of protein depending on the whey protein mix and quantity)

3. A cup of fat-free cottage cheese for dessert (28 grams of protein)

This is definitely doable in a day, but can be a challenge for someone who is not already minding their protein loads. This is also necessary for getting your body fat down–protein cannot be stored between meals, so your metabolism needs regular doses in order to have fuel for recovery and maintaining muscle mass.

Next, there is the question of carbs and fat. At the risk of being obvious, you do need to stay away from the especially unhealthy choices of greasy foods and high-fat desserts. Beyond that, your best bet is to find relatively light ways to include these–such as using wraps instead of bread, very small portion sizes of carbs, and moderate use of cheese and condiments–so that you do not start craving them, while not overloading your diet.

Good celebrity fitness always includes a healthy diet, as those six pack abs don’t carve themselves. In order to get your body fat down and start showing those muscles that you are working on, you will need some variation of high-protein meals combined with controlled amounts of everything else. The trick is to figure out meals that give you what you need while not depriving yourself so much that you go on rebellion binges.

Click here for a free Hollywood Fitness Guide

Alexander Skarsgard Workout

A fine example of celebrity fitness is Alexander Skarsgard, who has become a sensation in the States since True Blood became a TV show hit a few years back. He plays an arrogant yet charming old vampire, Eric Northman, and has plenty of opportunities to show off his physique. The question is, what would an Alexander Skarsgard workout look like?


Alexander Skarsgard in True Blood

The man himself is rather tight-lipped about how he trains…he has only revealed that he “lifts weights and runs”. To which anyone who has studied fitness, is about as interesting as saying that he also eats protein and watches his figure. Clearly, to be in as good of shape as he, Skarsgard has put some time in.

To figure out how he trains, it helps to take a look at him personally. I’ve included a helpful shirtless pic on the right showing off his physique. Skarsgard is quite tall, and at first glance he probably used to be lanky…he seems to have the build of that guy who was a 6’4″ beanpole back in High School.

Since then, though, he has definitely put some muscle on. He has well-defined arms and abs, yet there is no excess bulk. Clearly, he’d pull off the V-shape look that girls would–and do–swoon for.

Now, how does that help us? By looking at what the Alexander Skarsgard workout might be, we can figure out how to use it for our benefit. First off, you do not get a build like his without a good diet. You would need to get your body fat quite low–at least 10%–while consuming lots of protein to maintain your muscle mass and fuel the actual exercising.

In terms of the workouts themselves, there are a couple ways to go. I would recommend a program using High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT) that has you work in bursts of max intensity followed by short rest periods. This off-and-on cycle challenges your muscles and cardio both, and has been shown to spike your metabolism for up to 48 hours after working out.

The next part is that you need to do some serious lifting, but probably not what you expect. Traditional big-3 lifts like squats, deadlifts, and bench press will boost your strength…and might give you a bulky look, rather than the nice toned look that Skarsgard sports. In other words, you need to add strength without puffing out and getting bulky.


Alexander Skarsgard in…Bed

You want to follow a program that takes you through a variety of training exercises to build the two types of strength: sarcoplasmic and myofibrillar. Sarcoplasmic training is what potentially creates the large fluffy look, while myofibrillar development is what gives you the tight muscles fibers that seem to pop out like you see here.

Too much sarcoplasmic training and you’re puffy, while too much myofibrillar training and you end up looking small. You want to hit a middle ground like what you see here.

While we may not know the exacts, I can tell you that the Alexander Skarsgard workout has to cover both of these concepts. The man is strong and toned without being a cheesy puffed up lifter, and getting that look is more complicated than just “lift weights, eat less fat”.

If you’d like to read about a program that does just that, check out the free Hollywood Fitness Guide which takes you through each of these pitfalls, and shows you how to adapt whatever type of strength training you do now and make it work for getting ripped.

Click here for a free Hollywood Fitness Guide

Why Study Celebrity Fitness?

A simple question to consider is this: what gain is there from studying celebrity fitness? For one thing, many famous people are considered little more than pretty figureheads by common people. For another, you can also claim that they have experts to keep them in shape at all times anyway.

My counter is that while many celebrities do indeed have personal traininers–and equally importantly, personal nutritionists–they still have to be the ones to do the work and get the body to show off. If Ryan Kwanten or Jude Law really wanted to drink themselves into a beer belly, do you think that personal chef can stop them? While the actors have people giving them good advice and guidance, it is still up to them to put in the work and actually get in shape.

For another, even if you consider many celebrities vapid you have to acknowledge that much thought and effort goes into their images. Those images only work if the underlying actor or singer is an attractive person to begin with, so it’s critical that they stay in that great shape to be worthy of their constructed image.

So, I consider celebrity fitness well worth studying. While many of the rich and famous arrive at the same place in terms of body fat and a nice ripped physique, they came from many backgrounds. Some were heavy or thick in their youths and got thin later on. Some are naturally lanky types that can only put on muscle with serious training. The fact that by and large they all get to the same place just means that there is a lesson for every body type to be found in studying them.


Ryan Kwanten shirtless: a real athlete?
Hint: those muscles don’t make themselves

Knowing that, let’s consider what value can be found in looking at the training programs of celebrities. In order to get the extremely low body fat that most of them show, you need the right kind of disciplined diet. This means eating moderate-to-high protein with an acceptable but not excessive load of carbs and fat. This rules out the typical American diet, and while many of us don’t have to go as far as they do, we definitely need to watch and restrict our diets to stay in good stead.

The next element worth examining and learning from is the different ways in which they train. Oftentimes, famous people need to get in a certain shape fast. That goes as much as looking like the skinny guy to appearing more like a meathead. This exposes them to a variety of different training types, some of which they love and others that they hate.

One example is the Mickey Rourke workout from when he was training for The Wrestler. He spent six months intensely bulking up, adding an ungodly amount of muscle to transform himself into the beast that you saw on the screen. This took massive commitment, especially given Rourke was pushing 50 at the time. Still, he followed an exhaustive program, and got the body to show for it. I’ll write more about his training later on.

While many people mistakenly consider celebrity fitness to be trivial, I believe there is much to be learned from it. I will be writing about various celebrity’s workouts going forward, such as the Jude Law workout from last week. Next up, I’m thinking either Ryan Kwanten or Alexander Skarsgard from True Blood…

Click here for a free Hollywood Fitness Guide

Jude Law Workout

A great example of celebrity fitness is Jude Law, who went from behind-the-scenes to headliner actor in the last ten years. As he has adopted himself for different roles, he has worked on his body and gotten more and more in shape. More recently, the Jude Law workout that he went through had him in tip-top shape for Repo Man, and with his upcoming role in Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows you can be sure that he will be staying in that condition.


Jude Law Showing Off

Before getting into how he trains, think of the type of build he has. The man is clearly strong, but not overwhelmingly so like many body builders aspire to. This is actually an aesthetic choice, as many women find the muscle-bound jock look to not be all that appealing. By and large, they prefer the lean and strong, or ripped, look that Jude Law pulls off in spades.

In order to look like this, several elements of appearance and physique have to come together. For one, you need to be quite lean. Before the Jude Law workout would give you the Hollywood look, you need to get your body fat to 10 to 12% to be thin enough.

Secondly, you absolutely need to build up your muscles…but you need to do it the right way. Many of the traditional training programs would have you add bulk in the wrong way, where you end up with large but soft muscles, without the nice tone that gives you the ripped look.

If you simply do power lifts all day, you will certainly put on the muscle. At the same time, you’ve probably seen lifters at your gym who end up with a very rounded look, where their thighs seem to wrap out and in, and they have to wear baggy clothes to be presentable. You’re better off going for the look that Jude Law pulls off, where you’re toned and firm.

As an example of the kinds of total-body training that get you looking like you stepped off of a movie set, try something like this workout that Jude Law did for Repo Man:


Jude Law During a Repo Man Workout

1. Warm-up with squats using just body weight, then a light set of overhead squats and Turkish get-ups
2. Row 250 meters

3. Do a number of kettlebell swings, basing the weight off what you can handle. You should do at least one pood (roughly equal to 32kg), and up to two.

4. Go through two pull-up ladders with one to six reps per each cycle

5. Do one to twenty kettlebell swings across a kettlebell ladder (where you start with one rep, then go to two, then three, etc.) with a 20kg kettlebell

This series of exercises hits the entire body across all major muscle groups as well as taxing your cardio. In order to get your body in optimal fat burning shape, you need something of this intensity level. Doing a handful of workouts like this each week is all it would take to et your body in the right kind of shape.

That is, provided that you take care of your diet as well. The best workouts in the world will not get you ripped if you’re eating 4,000 calories a day, even if half of it is protein shakes. Many body builders fall into the trap of overheating, and end up impressively strong but also way too bulky.  In order for you to look like you’ve gone through celebrity fitness training, you will need to avoid these traps.

The Jude Law workout can be done by any man with a willingness to work on his diet and exercise, and who will put his pride aside to learn something new. Getting the Hollywood ripped look is no easy task, but is definitely doable and is an option for those with the willpower to see it through.

Click here for a free Hollywood Fitness Guide

Celebrity Fitness Workouts Are Coming

Welcome!  In today’s pop culture world, we have all heard of countless actors famous and not-so-famous.  One thing that separates them from us is that they have professional personal trainers and nutrition specialists that help them stay in tip-top shape.  Fortunately, they still use techniques that any of us can use, and get a degree of Celebrity Fitness for our own lives.

This site is a collection of celebrity workouts and training programs for many different names, both big and small.  The goal is to show you a number of different approaches to getting in great shape and then staying there.  Some celebrity techniques will work great for you, while others will not…your challenge is to find the ones that make the most sense you and put them to use.

Watch this spot, more to come!