How to Look like Ryan Reynolds in Blade 3

Posted at May 26, 2009

For part 1 in the “look like a superhero” series, we’ll be taking a look at Ryan Reynolds for his role in Blade 3.

Blade 3 Straight onSo you want to look like Ryan Reynolds in Blade 3 huh?  Sure he might be a jackass, and most likely full of himself…but DAMN the man is cut.  First and foremost, let’s get a few things out of the way: RR was already in decent shape and had a low body fat percentage before he started his six months of training for Blade 3.  Secondly, he has great genetics, he got paid insane amounts of money for this role, and he had a personal trainer and dietitian to keep him on track.  I guess when you don’t have a day job or kids, working out for 3 hours and eating 8 meals a day is actually an option.  Keep this in mind when you don’t look like this overnight.

As a guy who was already in great shape, had a low percentage of body fat, and only had to worry about adding lean muscle, Ryan only had to worry about adding good weight and cutting the little fat he had.  You can see where this is going: Ryan was already in shape and had to get to an almost unhealthy body fat percentage for this role.  As soon as the role was done, he took a break, because training this much was beyond crazy.

Diet

Damn Van Wilder!

I’m going to start with the diet first, because it is absolutely the most important thing.  I worked out for YEARS and couldn’t put on any weight; it wasn’t until I fixed my diet and I got big almost overnight.   Ryan ate right and it shows. His diet consisted of eating between 6 and 8 meals a day, every 2 hours, with a lot of protein and complex carbohydrates in throughout the day and just protein (no carbs) after 8pm.  He also ate a lot of protein and carbs immediately after his workouts to promote growth; the carbs to refuel his body so the protein can be recruited by the body to JUST BUILD MUSCLE.  Where did he get all that protein?  A lot of eggs, chicken, steak, protein bars, and protein shakes. For his carbs, he ate a lot of oatmeal!  Good ole fashioned oatmeal (without added sugar).  Sounds boring?  It’s because it IS BORING.  Ryan had it down to a science and treated his body like a machine, getting the exact amount of nutrients necessary to gain mostly muscle and not fat.  My guess is that he probably spent the first four months putting on 15 lbs (10 of which is muscle, 5 of which is fat), and then the last two months cutting the fat, leaving just the muscle.  If you’re going to gain weight, this is how it’ll happen.

Read more about why protein is so important here.

I’ve found a few different places where it lists a typical day for Ryan.  From sixpackabs.com:

Supplements

Not only did Ryan eat 8 meals a day, but he also took supplements to help him get there.  No, not steroids.  He did take creatine (a BIG boost for building muscle), L-glutamine, conjugated linoleic acid (CLA), whey protein powder, and a multivitamin.  Three years ago, when I put on 18 lbs. in 30 days, I was taking a meal replacement supplement that had creatine in it, so I can attest to the fact that it does in fact work.  However, I stopped using it since and have managed to gain plenty of healthy weight without it.  I can tell you that it does work, I just choose not to take it.

Workout

Blade 3 shirtRyan worked out for probably 3 hours a day to prepare for this role.  Now, that’s not three hours of weight training, but weight training and fight training and stuff like that.  However, he did do some form of weight training six days a week.  Ryan would work out a specific body part to almost absolute failure each day.  Example: Chest on Monday, Legs on Tuesday, Back on Wednesday, Shoulders on Thursday, Arms on Friday. When I say failure, I mean FAILURE: he would absolutely destroy his chest on Monday, and then not work it again until the following Monday.  To get maximum muscle building potential, Ryan would keep the number of reps in his sets between 6 and 12.  (Why between 6 and 12 reps?  Read here).

I don’t have his specific routine but I can guess his chest routine: Bench press (bar or dumbbells): 12 reps at a certain weight, wait only 1 minute, add weight, do 10 reps, wait 1 minute, add weight and do 8 reps, wait 1 minute, add weight and do 6 reps.  Then repeat this with incline dumbbell flys (same structure of increasing weight, wait, and reps).  Then repeat with another chest exercise until your body physically cannot lift anything.  Want to get more complex?  Superset some of these exercises with each other.  Make sure you have a spotter for each exercise, because you want to struggle with your last few reps.  If you can do it without a trainer, you should be probably be lifting heavier weights.  A warning: You will be sore. Very sore.  Which is why you won’t work that muscle group again for another week.

Now, He also exercised his abs religiously, and did so by allegedly doing between 500 and 1000 situps to start each workout.  GOOD LORD. Personally, I don’t have time to do 1000 situps.  Also, I don’t want to do 1000 sit ups! Eff that.  I believe your abdominal muscles need rest in between workouts  like every other muscle (although the do recover faster than other muscles, some say), so I would recommend giving yourself at least a day off in between ab exercise days.  As for how to do the workout, once you can do more that 25 sit-ups at a time, doing MORE and MORE of them is a waste of time.  I’d recommend adding weight (doing sit ups on a ball, with a 25 lbs plate on your chest, for example) instead of adding reps.  Your workout stays the same length of time, you just up the intensity.

Cardio?

RR was already in great shape, and did NOT want to lose any weight, he needed to gain 10-15 lbs. of muscle.  Because he was doing intensive fight training along with the weight training, cardio was definitely not something that would not be beneficial for him.  By exercising daily, and doing the exercise and routines that I talked about above, Ryan was able to work his cardio INTO his weight training by minimizing downtime between sets.

Here is a training video from the set of Blade 3:


Blade 3 Training Video

So there you have it. Just think, if you have millions of dollars, great genetics, and all the time in the world to train, of COURSE you can look like this. If you don’t have those things, you just have to make do with what you have.  I don’t have the time to train 3 hours a day and I don’t have somebody to prepare my meals, but I’ve managed to go from 173 lbs to 184 lbs. (keeping my body fat percentage at 9%) working out just 3 hours a week over the past two months.  You can read about my current routine here.  Once I get to 185 lbs, my goal weight, I’m going to REALLY analyze my diet, add in some extra sprints, and maintain my weight while decreasing my body fat.  I don’t think I’ll be able to get down to 3% like Van Wilder here, which is fine.  I work a full time job and I run this blog, so I don’t have the time or resources to get there.  Ryan didn’t even maintain that level of fitness after the movie finished shooting, because THAT LEVEL OF FITNESS IS CRAZY!  I’m sure he was glad to have his life back afterward.

My recommendation – read this story for entertainment, and then find a way to pick and chose parts of it that can help you become who you want to be. Find a way to be in shape, and be happy with that level of fitness.

Any questions regarding this routine leave a comment and I’ll certainly help out.

-Steve

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  • Kevin
    Hey Steve -

    Great article! It is amazing the results that are achievable with unlimited time and resources. I do think that us (in the real world) can also produce similar gains if we set our minds to it.

    This is by far the most dramatic of transformations I have seen from a Hollywood actor. RR got so shredded for Blade and Amityville, he was nearly unrecognizable from his Van Wilder days. Geez, I think I have a bit of a man-crush on him. 4% BF, it's nutz!

    I really enjoy these celebrity transformation posts, they showcase the reward of proper fitness and nutrition in a demonstratable fashion.

    If I may, here are some other famous actors who you could spotlight in the future:

    * Tobey Maguire (Spiderman)
    * Will Smith (Ali / I Am Legend)
    * Ed Norton (AHX)
    * Christian Bale (American Psycho)

    Keep up the great work!
    Kevin
  • Hey!

    Great article, my aim is to reach a good physical fitness, although RR is not a model to follow in regards of body building for me, but I would like to reach his level of ripped body and abs, however I have started to train in gym for now over 2 weeks, and I plan on sticking to it, because all what I care about now is to increase my level of performance when I go out surfing, I am a skinny guy, and I do not have as much as waves as other spots do (I live in Dubai)

    Anyway, sorry for the long introduction what I am interested to know is, whether I should follow the whey protein, and is there any side effects, lets say at some point I stop training, what would happen to me, although during that time, I have taken whey protein, but instead of just building muscles, I went to lets say martial arts...

    Thank your for the article and your time!
    Arzo
  • NerdFitness
    Hey Arzo!

    Thanks for reading the article man, glad you liked it. I didn't even know
    you can surf in Dubai, that is awesome!

    As far as whey protein, it's really just an extract that helps you get
    enough protein each day. Adding protein, even when you're not lifting
    weights, won't really make you fat or have any other adverse side effects.
    I'd recommend going with the purest whey protein you can find. When doing
    martial arts, you'll still be building muscle, and your muscles need protein
    in order to get built.

    They say the best measurement is around .5g to 1g of protein per pound of
    lean muscle mass. Let's say you way 180 pounds and you have 10% body fat.
    That means you have 162 pounds of lean muscle, so you'd want to eat at least
    81 grams of protein a day, and probably closer to 162 grams if possible.
    Somewhere in the middle is good. If you're a skinny dude and trying to bulk
    up, you need that much protein plus enough calories a day for you start
    putting on some weight. just keep eating, try to eat healthy stuff.

    Email me at steve @ nerdfitness.com if you have any other questions!

    -Steve

    2010/1/20 Disqus <>
  • Joe
    I gained 50 lbs over two years after I joined the powerlifting team in high school, eating nothing but cafeteria food and home cooking (stayed around 10% bf). If I had just lost the body fat to try to look big I would be around 95 lbs instead (hello The Machinist). I would hope to expect similar gains if I could devote all my time to fitness for half a year :D. I enjoy this article cause it's a testament to how hard work and consistency can pay off -- keeps me motivated.
  • Nick Scott
    What the F****, This is the stupidest and most misleading thing in the world, Ryan renolds did not put on 20 pound for this show, believe me if he did he would not be as jacked and he would be way bigger, Ryan renolds is atleast a 6-7 % Bf for this part, he engaged in a extreme fat loss for this, There is no way in the time limit for a basic human without drugs to put on 20 pounds and still achieve that BF %, Even Alwyn Crosgrove, the top trainier who knows his shit, qouted Ryan went on a extreme fat loss diet to achieve this, welcome to body building its called creating the illussion, the leaner you are the more definition and density, if you have any fat covering the muscle, You wont look good no matter what you think, for example a Fat power lifter, nope looks fat to me, but carry huge amounts, tell him to cut that fat off, and watch him look phenominal at the end of a change, get your facts straight!

    one more thing, where the hell did that split come from, I gaurentee you are way off, Chest on monday, back on tuesday a classic bodybuilding split What the hell....
    unless he was taking steroids there is no way you can follow that split without qoute STEROIDS and still make gains from that, and Faulire every day, dude are you dillusional, there is now way to recover that fast, as a natural athlete....go back to school , realize how much it really takes for a muscle to recover and also take a lesson learn in CNS improvement, that is so much stress on the body, everything you wrote would just screw someones body over , BULL CRAP
  • Hey Nick,

    Thanks for the comment, although I have to respectfully disagree with you on almost all of your points. I'll address the first part of your first sentence: "ryan did not put on 20 pound for this show believe me if he did he would not be as jacked and he would be way bigger." Have you seen Ryan Reynolds in Van Wilder? He was a beanpole. If he engaged in extreme weight loss, he'd probably whither and die. The reason I said 3-4% body fat is because this is the figure given by the director of the film who worked with Ryan (actually, the exact amount was 3.8% body fat).

    As for your quoting of Alyn Cosgrove, I'm guessing you're referencing the article "20 Pounds of Hollywood Muscle," on Tmuscle.com. If you read the article closely, he says that he would guess most actors go on an extreme weight loss diet, not citing Ryan Reynolds specifically because Ryan added 10 pounds of muscle: "So even though the original question called for 20 pounds of muscle, I may be tempted to just go with extreme fat loss." Ryan bulked up for this role, and then cut fat at the end. I bet Ryan did something like bulk up for 4 months (16 weeks) to add 10-12 lbs of muscle mass gain, and then spent two months continuing to slowly build muscle while shredding the fat off his body).

    Secondly, that article deals with only having 12 weeks to train, and they also assume the actors had never lifted weights before. Ryan had 6 months or more to prepare for this role, was already in shape, and had double the time needed compared to the article I'm assuming you're using. Mr. Thibaudeau says, "So gaining 6-12 pounds of muscle in 12 weeks is reasonable if everything is done perfectly." With perfect genetics, multiple personal trainers, a dietitian, millions of dollars, and no other job, I'm quite confident that Ryan would have no probably gaining 10-15 pounds of muscle in 6 months (24 weeks, double the time of the article you're referencing).

    I don't understand your animosity and confusion regarding Ryan's work out. By working out his chest on Monday, and then not again until the following Monday (like my article says), he has 7 full days of recovery before working out his chest again. Maybe you thought I meant "back" as in "back to chest" on tuesday? Personally, i'm not a big fan of isolating individual muscles like Ryan did, I'm merely passing along what he did to prepare for this role. I'm a far stronger supporter of either full body routines or upper/lower splits myself.

    To use one more quote from your Alwyn Cosgrove article, "Think about it, could you lose a pound of fat and gain a pound of muscle this week if you were super motivated and only had to train? So you train, eat, recover and repeat – no having to go to work or do anything else. Of course you could! These guys have the perfect situation for training. They can train multiple times per day and have all their meals prepared. So you look at the results you could get in this situation, magnify that with a multi-million dollar movie as motivation, multiply it by 12 weeks, and you can see pretty amazing results."

    This article, as I state, was written for entertainment purposes, and that everything had to line up in order for Ryan to get the results he did. Plus, when filmed at the right angle, with proper lighting, and after he probably banged out 50 pushups and 50 arm curls RIGHT before the camera started rolling, his hard work looks even more impressive.

    -Steve
  • Wow.. This is by far the most thorough synopsis of what Ryan Reynolds went through for Blade Trinity that I've found so far on the net. I've been struggling to find out more about how he went about doing this. I knew that he did one body part per day for 6 days a week, but didn't understand how you could weight train one muscle group for 2 - 3 hours each day. You explained that he had fight training in with it.

    I guess that could be considered cardio, so to say that he didn't do any cardio at all is kind of misleading. I am right now working out 3 times per week with 2 muscle groups per day, along with 30 minutes on the recumbent stationary exercise bike. I do abs all 3 of these days, then take a break for the whole week until monday rolls around again. So I go monday, tuesday, and wednesday, then take the whole week off to let my muscles recover. Not sure if this will get me as buff as RR in only 5 months time, but I think the body needs more rest time than most bodybuilders give it. Thanks for this article.
  • Hey Mark, glad to hear that you liked the article!

    Yeah, "no cardio" like he says is very misleading. Probably two hours of sword, martial arts, and stunt training is PLENTY of cardio. I think your routine is fine, as long as it works for you and you're not doing the same muscle group two days in a row. Let me know how you're splitting up your muscle groups and see if I can help there in any way. I'd say you could get away with doing abs on just Monday and Wednesday, and give them a day to recover on Tuesday.

    Email me at steve@nerdfitness if you have any more questions and I'll gladly help out. If you don't look like RR in 5 months, don't get disappointed. This guy has great genetics, like 3 personal trainers, a dietician, tons of money, and ALL the time in the world.

    -Steve
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