THE PREDATORS WORKOUT

I recently had the chance to watch the movie "Predators".Great action movie, but I personally feel that it kind of pales in comparison to Arnold’s 1987 classic.The writers and director obviously wanted to make it bigger and more exciting than the original, but failed to make the story become totally engaging. The star of the film, Adrien Body, while a great actor, is also no Arnold Schwarzenegger, so that’s something that was probably eating at the back of my mind during the entire film.

But while Brody is no Austrian Oak, he nonetheless still worked tremendously hard to build a very impressive physique for this film. Entertainment.gather.com has a great article about his transformation:

“When asked about how he prepared for this action hero role, Brody noted that he was doing a "challenging" six days a week of training and diet. He was also shooting for the movie 12 hours per day. Brody said during preparation he wasn't drinking alcohol, wasn't consuming any refined sugars and was having no sex. He said he did all that he could to harness a "ferocious" mentality and persona for this character"


While Brody never revealed the specifics of the workout he used for “Predators” (as far as I know, though I’d love to be proven wrong), Entertainment.gather.com suggests that he might have used a Scrawny to Brawny workout,as published by Men’s Health, when Brody made the cover of the magazine because of how he buffed up his physique for the 2005 version of King Kong:


“Adrien Brody achieved results for our December 2005 cover in 3 weeks. For you, Mejia suggests a training schedule of 8 to 12 weeks, although the same discipline is required. Just avoid these two mistakes.

1. Lifting too much. "What you really need is less volume but more intensity," says Mejia. This strategy actually simplifies your workout--only four exercises every session. For the first three, do five sets of five reps. Rest no more than 2 minutes between sets. For the last exercise, do two or three sets of eight to 12 reps, as this targets smaller muscles in your core or shoulders.


Monday: Squat, barbell incline bench press, pullup, weighted situp 
Wednesday: Hang clean and press, deadlift, dip, side-lying external rotation 
Friday: Front squat, dumbbell bench press, bent-over row, back extension


2. Eating too little. To build new muscle, you need calories. "Guys don't eat nearly enough, says Mejia. "They're reluctant--rightfully so--about putting on body fat."


To avoid that, "you must count calories," says Mejia. Figure out your body's optimal caloric intake, then add 300 to 500 calories to that total to determine how much you need to pack in every day.”

PREDATORS MOVIE TRAILER:

Check out more information, complete with pictures for each exercise you need to turn from scrawny to brawny like Adrien Brody over at Men’s Health.com!

All images used in this article are taken from IMDB's amazing Predators page.

JAKE GYLENHAAL'S PRINCE OF PERSIA WORKOUT

Times Online has a fascinating article on how movie stars transform their bodies to suit particular roles, but the most interesting thing about it is that it details Jake Gylenhaal’s current diet and fitness routine for his newest movie, “Prince of Persia”:

“5.30am Pre-workout snack: half a banana, some nuts and an espresso.

6am An hour-and-a-half cardio outdoors workout while wearing a 20lb flak jacket to simulate the weight of armour. Interval training - 10min uphill sprint, followed by abs exercises, eg, sit-ups, at the top of the hill. Repeat sequence five times, then a 10min run, followed by stretching exercises.


7.30am An egg-white omelette, a small protein shake and an isotonic drink to replenish salts lost during training.

Lunch Baked potato with tuna and salad.

6-7pm An hour of resistance training using cables to simulate sword fights, pull-ups, press-ups, abs exercises using weights; finish with stretching.

7-8pm: An hour-long deep tissue massage

Dinner: Soup and a protein shake

Snacks/supplements Two litres of water, protein bars, dark chocolate, supplements rich in omega-3, 6 and 9. No foods containing refined sugar, occasional glass of wine allowed."



Fascinating stuff. Some of you may be wondering what an “isotonic drink” is, though. Well, they’re basically sports drinks like Gatorade, but I believe that a homemade fruit shake is better since it serves the same purpose but delivers more vitamins and minerals. Read more about this in my article about keeping properly hydrated.

Also curious to see what that “hour of resistance training” specifically is? Well, Weight Loss & Training.com has an excellent article that simulates what specific exercises Gylenhaal would have done to get the body he has in the movie, complete with detailed pictures!

I’d also assume that the supplements would be taken at different, set times throughout the day as prescribed by Gylenhaal’s nutritionist (or team of), and that the snacks would be consumed throughout his training schedules. Please take note that not only did Gylenhaal perform the routines here on (what I assume is) pretty much a daily basis, he also regularly did stunt training such as horseback riding, sword fighting and so on, mostly under the burning sun, as the film is largely set in a dessert environment, burning up a tremendous amount of calories. The snacks would make up for the extremely lean diet he has described here.

If you want to try this out yourself, though, please be wary of the snacks since too much of those can be counterproductive of your calories losses. Energy replenishing though they may be, too much calories are still too much and will ruin your energy balance, which will thus make you fatter, instead of leaner.

I’d also like to caution against those uphill sprints because, despite the fact that they are indeed an excellent form of exercise, too much of them can cause too much strain on the joints and can result in injuries, especially if you plan on suiting up with armor like Jake did. Gylenhaal obviously has a team of experts to keep an eye on him to make sure he doesn’t get injured and that nothing else goes wrong, as well as daily massages and such, which, I’m sure, not everybody has access to, unfortunately.

In any case, I personally feel that it’s a tremendous and effective fitness regimen if monitored closely and carefully. I also am personally very much hyped about this particular movie. I played the original game back when I was a kid, but didn’t play any of the more modern iterations, so I completely lost touch with the franchise. This movie could be a perfect reintroduction to it, and I’m very much looking forward to it.

Check out my other features on celebrity workouts here!

ROBERT DOWNEY JR'S IRON MAN 2 WORKOUT

US Magazine has a great article about how Robert Downey Jr. quickly bulked up for his role as Tony Stark in Iron Man 2. Downey apparently used very unconventional methods in order to gain over 20 pounds of muscle mass in less than a month's time:

"Instead of doing regular bench presses, we used a bamboo bar... and we would hang plates on rubber bands off the bar... so it was like trying to bench press a snake!" Bose explains. "It bounced all over the place."

Downey Jr. also pushed "a custom-built wheelbarrow that we modified with 600 to 700 lb. weight stacks" around an obstacle course.

"We went out and bought truck tires, and we used sledgehammers -- anywhere from, two 4-lb. sledgehammers in each hand, all the way up to a full 20-lb. sledgehammer -- and we were just beating tires with it. We used fire hoses that we filled with sand and water... and we'd drag and whip them to build the shoulder muscles and pecs back up."

They also juggled "weighted Indian clubs," hulled around kettle bells and even used a war machine, which Boyes explains is "like a rope with handles on it with a pulley -- you suspend yourself from it," says Bose.

I've never heard of the bamboo barbell with rubber bands, but the rest of those sound very much like Caveman Training, which many UFC fighters, including Sean Sherk and Brock Lesnar, currently utilize.

Read the rest of the article over at Yahoo.

Check out my other features on celebrity workouts here!