If you have been watching the famous vampire series, Twilight, then you have watched as Taylor’s character “Jacob,” transformed in front of your very own eyes. We aren’t talking about his on screen transformation from human in to werewolf, but rather the transformation of Taylor into a muscular man from one movie to the next. His portrayal of a werewolf required some SERIOUS workout routines to make his character believable.
Men’s Health featured Taylor and gave the world some insight into his weight gaining routine. Even if your goal isn’t to gain weight, his workout has some good tips to help you find the lean wolf in you!
Taylor gained a total of 30 pounds in one year for his transformation into a werewolf. He did this through hard work and eating right. There are always some tricks of the trade. In his case, he worked on heavy “negative reps.” This means you lift about 50 pounds over your normal weight. With a spotter, start at the top of the rep and slowly lower the weight down (this is the “negative” portion). Since doing heavy weights is hard on your body only preform 2-3 sets and do it every other week.
Among other alterations, Lautner also changed his routine frequently to increase his strength and keep his muscles guessing. This challenges your body and forces it to adapt and change. This is very important in every routine whether your trying to lose weight or gain muscle. Change in routines can be in the form of the exercises OR even the repetitions. If your body is used to 12- 15 reps with light weight, then change it up and do 8-10 with heavier weight.
Challenge all of your resistance points. Resistance bands appear to be easy, but when paired with weights they create a training routine that has tension at every point in each repetition. Lautner used them in combination with a squat bar by using heavy duty tension bands that are anchored to the bar as well as heavy weights on the floor. During most squats, there is a rest period at the bottom and top of each squat. With the tension bands there is no breaking point, creating tension through of the whole set of squats.
Although cardio is great for leaning out, in Taylor’s case, he had toavoid “over doing” the cardio due to his naturally thin physique and tough calorie burning routine. If you are looking to lean up and aren’t concerned about burning too many calories then long bouts of cardio are ok. However, if you are looking to have a natural balance of muscle on your body then you are better off doing moderate cardio and eating a lean diet to have maximum muscle definition.
Don’t over work your abs and do a combination of moves to hit your abs from all points. This is what Taylor does to keep his abs in 6 pack formation for all of his topless shots. I agree with his outlook on abs. Always mix up your ab routine with a variety of different types of ab workouts. You don’t have to only do crunches to get that flat, defined stomach.
Set goals! This pertains to your workouts, your calories, your resting days, and the types of foods you eat. Above everything else, you must have a plan to get cut and lean like Taylor. No one looks this good without goals for every aspect of your routine. If you want an awesome body then you must make goals, plan and watch as your body transforms within weeks! There is a werewolf in us all; when preparation meets execution there is always success.
