Ryan Reynolds Workout and Diet Plan For Ripped Abs
Posted by Brad Campbell
30
Oct, 2009
A Celebrity Workout and Diet Review on Blade Trinity Actor Ryan Reynolds…by Brad Campbell
After making us all laugh our asses off in the classic comedy Van Wilder, Ryan Reynolds transformed his already lean body into a ripped masterpiece for his role in Blade Trinity.
Reynolds reportedly gained an impressive 20 lbs of lean muscle and cut his body fat from just over 11% to a ridiculous 3% (although I’d say this is slightly exaggerated). He accomplished this stunning body transformation in about 5 months of following a very strict workout and diet plan.
Reynolds has a jaw-dropping physique, highlighted by a set of ripped abs that probably made some bodybuilders jealous.
It would be a crime not to include him in the discussion of one of the absolute best male celebrity bodies, with the likes of Brad Pitt in Fight Club and Cam Gigandet in Never Back Down.
So the question everyone wants to know is: What workout and diet plan did Ryan Reynolds follow to get into such killer shape for his character in Blade Trinity? First, let’s take a look at his nutrition plan, since this is by far the most important factor for anyone to get lean and ripped.
Ryan Reynolds Diet Plan:
–> Ryan ate something every 2-3 hours throughout the day and focused on keeping the portions of food small, without ever letting himself get overly hungry.
–> He drank a ton of water to ensure he stayed well-hydrated – this also allows your body to burn fat more efficiently by freeing up your liver to ‘do it’s thing.’
–> A typical day of eating for Reynolds would look like this:
- Breakfast would consist of a couple of eggs, some healthy fats from avocado or almond butter and a cup of steel cut oatmeal with applesauce and cinnamon added for taste.
- Midmorning snack would often be something simple like a low-sugar protein bar
- Ryan’s lunch was generally an albacore tuna wrap with veggies or grilled chicken and salad
- Afternoon snack was again something high in protein and low in calories, like whey protein mixed with water, another protein bar or a small apple with a handful of almonds.
- Ryan’s dinner would consist of broiled fish or more grilled chicken, brown rice, veggies and more salad.
- Bedtime snack would be another whey protein shake mixed only with water to keep calories low.
- All in all, Reynolds snacked on as many as 10 small meals throughout the day, with the majority of his carbs consumed post-workout.
After reading this, it shouldn’t surprise you that Ryan was able to build such an impressive body with ripped abs. He followed a fairly basic bodybuilder’s diet that focuses on lean proteins, low carbs, lots of veggies and moderate amounts of healthy fats eaten every couple hours throughout the day.
Ryan’s diet plan gave him enough protein to promote the rebuilding of lean muscle, but was just low enough in calories to create a deficit and allow him to burn off excess body fat.
Overall, I give Ryan’s diet plan an A-…I personally like to mix things up a bit more by using one cheat day and one fasting day (to offset the cheat day), with 5 days of normal, clean eating like Reynolds did here. This helps to keep your metabolism high by resetting hormone levels and preventing starvation mode.
Plus, I think it’s important to take a cheat day once weekly to reward yourself, prevent boredom and keep your sanity…it’s just not very realistic to think that the average person can eat this clean each and every day for 5 months without totally falling off the wagon and going on a major binge.
There are thousands of different diets and techniques you can use to accomplish fat loss…and almost all of them will work as long as you’re creating a consistent caloric deficit, like I described in my Fat Loss 101 post. Having said that, it’s easier to eat sensible and clean the majority of the time…and Ryan Reynold’s ripped abs are testament to that.
I could just end this post right here…because like I’ll say over and over again…workouts don’t matter unless you’re diet (I should say nutrition plan because I don’t promote “diets,” but you get what I mean) is maxed out.
By that I mean, if you want to transform your body and you aren’t currently eating an ideal meal plan at a caloric deficit (like Ryan does above)…then you shouldn’t even waste your time trying to find a new workout program because it flat-out won’t help until you’re eating to get lean.
However, I know you’re still dying to know the exact workout plan Ryan Reynolds used to get so lean and muscular for his role in Blade Trinity. So let’s take a look and see if his workout was as solid as his nutrition plan was.
Ryan Reynolds Workout Routine:
–> Ryan worked with a personal trainer who emphasized visualization and the power of seeing yourself at the endpoint, which in this case, was a super lean dude with a kick ass beard and ripped abs.
–> His workouts lasted 2-3 hours per day and started off with sit-ups (ughh…why do celebrities insist on making my job so hard?), which helped with motivation and visualizing the end result.
–> Reynolds used a split routine, working just one body part per day and focused on lifting heavy weights in the 8-12 rep range, 6 days per week.
–> Supplements included creatine, L-glutamine, CLA, whey protein and a daily multivitamin.
–> Being lean to begin with, Reynolds focused primarily on bulking and kept traditional cardio to a bare minimum.
I give Ryan Reynold’s workout program a C+…as we’ve seen before in all of my other celebrity workout reviews, abdominal training is for some reason the staple of any celeb workout routine. This is dumb and completely unnecessary.
Also, 2-3 hour workouts are more than a lil overboard, as you can only maintain a productive intensity for a short amount of time. After 45 minutes or so, you simply cannot workout hard enough to stimulate changes in your body.
The only benefit of marathon workout sessions like this is that you will burn more calories during the actual workout, since you’re staying active for a longer period of time.
The downside is that you may compromise post-workout calorie burning because of the reduced intensity required to make it through such a long workout. Shame on your trainer, Ryan.
Split routines are great for advanced lifters, who are already relatively lean to begin with…but I wouldn’t recommend splitting up your body parts into separate training days if you still have a significant amount of fat to lose.
Total body workout routines do a much better job of burning stubborn body fat. After you reach your goal body fat level, you can definitely use a split weight training routine, but even then I prefer total body routines because you’re working each muscle group up to 3 times as often (depending on what split you compare it to), making it superior for adding lean muscle as well as burning fat.
Once again, the bottom line is this – even with a mediocre workout routine, Ryan Reynolds was able to sculpt a ripped, fitness model figure…which even he admits is almost entirely due to his strict diet plan.
I suggest following his clean eating habits 5 days per week and adding in one cheat day and one fasting day, as well as learning from his visualization techniques that help maintain focus and discipline. Combine this with some of my advanced fat loss workouts, rather than wasting your time with Ryan’s relatively ineffective split training routine.
Be sure to take your body to the next level by using one of my 300 challenge workouts to monitor your progress. If you’re hitting a weight loss plateau or you can’t seem to add any more lean muscle, try using my explosive training technique during a few of your weekly workout sessions.
Your Coach,
Brad Campbell
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