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MCU fans rejoiced earlier this year when news broke that not only would Ryan Reynolds be returning for a third Deadpool film, he’d be joined by Hugh Jackman’s previously retired Wolverine. The upcoming Deadpool 3 will reportedly see both characters catapulted into the main Marvel cinematic continuity via some multiverse shenanigans. All in all, it sounds pretty great.
But you don’t need to be a comic nerd to appreciate the pairing. Both Jackman and Reynolds are notoriously stacked making their inevitable muscle-bound face-off the most exciting gym-bro film since The Expendables.
It’s thanks to celebrity coach and fitness entrepreneur (and now Lumen ambassador) Don Saladino that Ryan Reynolds has been able to put the ‘super’ in superhero. Ironically enough, they were first introduced 14 years ago through Jackman, and have worked together on numerous projects ever since.
“We just hit it off, we had very similar fitness goals and a similar fitness outlook,” says Saladino of his first meeting with Reynolds. “We even had similar body types!"
The Mission
Unlike the CGI-heavy Green Lantern, Reynolds wanted Deadpool to feel authentic, which meant really feeling the role, physically. Whereas most actors work towards a certain day where they’ll be shirtless on set, Reynolds wanted to remain in top shape throughout, to really help him inhabit the role.
“I really respected that,” says Saladino. “For Deadpool, underneath the suit, his body looks incredible, but it's not like he's shirtless all film.”
To achieve this all-round fitness, Saladino says the emphasis was on “almost trying to become that person. To do that, you have to take ownership over the process; putting in those hours in the gym wherever we can, putting that time into the nutrition.”
In other words, like Deadpool himself, shit got pretty intense.
Battling It Out
When it comes to sculpting a superhero body, Saladino’s core tenet is movement.
“I would never do just straight bodybuilding, because he has to do so many of his own stunts,” Saladino says, explaining that while big muscles might look the part, they can be pretty restrictive when it comes to jumping through windows, rolling around with katanas, or just lifting your arms over your head. For Reynolds’ fight scenes across the three Deadpool movies, it was important he could move like an athlete.
It was also key to take a slow and measured approach to his workouts to retain a symmetrical figure, and to prevent his body type changing too much throughout filming. “The [Deadpool] suit is very tight—it's perfectly fitted,” explains Saladino. Get too big, or lose too much weight and Reynolds simply wouldn’t fit in the suit.
Back to movement, each workout would begin with loosening up and foam rolling. “It was all about a dynamic warm-up,” says Saladino. “We might clean up in his thoracic extension by hanging from a pull up bar, with some thoracic rotations.”
Saladino likens the process of helping an actor move as efficiently as possible to flossing your teeth. “We'll segmentally look at his body and we'll just try and grease it,” he says. “When you’re flossing your teeth, you're just making sure it's smooth, and it's clean. Like, I want to make sure that his joints are really flossed. So that's like, number one focus early on.”
After 10 minutes of warm-ups, they’d go into a jump/carry portion which might be medicine ball carries paired with box jumps to get the blood pumping and joints moving.
How Reynolds trains depends on where he is, too. If he’s on the road, Saladino is conscious of wearing him out, so swaps high-intensity cardio for low-impact walking. “We're having him doing a lot of walking,” he says. “And then when we get home, and we're feeling a bit energetic, we could throw in a little bit more high intense bursts, you know, keeping his cardiovascular a bit shorter, maybe like five to 10 minutes.”
Fuelling the Fire
Superheroes can’t run on empty stomachs. Refreshingly, Saladino is reluctant to put a label on Reynolds’ food plan—it wasn’t keto, for example. “He will consume animal protein, he will consume very fine carbs, and he will consume healthy fats,” Saladino says.
Unlike the carb-conscious cutting mentality, Saladino says he has never shied away from carbs, instead opting for “metabolic flexibility” manipulating macros based on external factors like time of year or how his body feels, but never restricting calories. “You should not be living in a cut. People screw up because they start limiting calories and their bodies start basically shutting down,” he says. “You need to slowly start introducing calories and building that up.”
As such, instead of aiming for a certain weight, Saladino focused on body composition, the number on the scale be damned. He asks his clients “If I increased your body weight by 10 pounds, but you were able to look exactly the way you wanted to look naked. Would you take it?” It’s a much healthier approach to building a body, and one that ensured Reynolds kept energy levels high at all times, helping him push harder and further.
Bringing the Attitude
Any Wrexham AFC fan will tell you Reynolds has a happy-go-lucky public persona. But he’s also an astute businessman whose time is money. When it comes to the gym, Saladino says his approach is a mixture of the two.
“It's business,” he says. “He's coming in and we're and it's business. We’ve known each other for 14 years so I'm not worried about entertaining him, and he's not worried. We're like family. So it's just like, ‘Alright, man, how you feel today? Great, what's going on?’ And we put our head down and we get it done.”
“When he comes in here, we’re here to train, we're there to feel good,” Saladino adds. “I'm there to get him in and out and be able to attack his day. We get out and go about our day, and then we rinse and repeat.”
Saladino says that in a decade and a half he can’t remember ever hearing Reynolds complain. “He’s not a complainer. Like anyone, there are certain movements we have to work on, and we decide our training plan around that, which allows us to be successful every day. A boring answer, but it’s the truth.”
The Workout
After seven years training Reynolds for the role of Deadpool, Saladino is officially releasing his fitness plans for each film, with the first out now.
And here’s a sample from a nine-week transformation program.
For 60 minutes, five days a week, Reynolds might work through a split like this: 1. Legs, 2. Chest, 3. Arm Day, 4. Back, 5. Shoulder & Abs. You’ll need access to a gym, naturally.
To start you off (and make sure you aren’t skipping the tough stuff) here’s a sample workout based on Saladino's Deadpool leg day program. Warm up, then get to work with three sets of 12 reps of each.
Leg Press
Adjust the machine to the right weight. Take a seat, with your knees bent. Grip the handles with your hands as you extend your legs, pushing the weight platform away from you. Do not lock your knees. Hold, then slowly bring your knees to your chest for one.
Leg Extension
Adjust the machine to a comfortable weight. Sit with the foam bar across your shins. Facing forward, chest and head high, grip the handles as you exhale, extending your legs, and lifting the bar up and away. Hold, and reverse to return to the start.
Leg Curl
Similar to the previous exercise, this time you’ll be laid on your front with the bar behind your calves. This works in the same way as a bicep curl, but for your hammies.
Seated Calf Raise
You can do this with a machine, or a barbell across your lap. Either way, adjust your set-up so that you’re comfortable. Keeping your back straight, you’re going to raise your heels off the ground, so your weight is on your tip toes. You should feel this all down your calf. Hold, then slowly return your whole foot to the ground for one.
This story originally ran on British GQ with the title “The workout and diet that got Ryan Reynolds in superhero shape for Deadpool."