How To Adapt An Action Movie Star Workout Into Your Fitness Routine

By Russ Howe


The overwhelming majority of men who own gym memberships will confess that the initial reason they became interested in building a ripped physique was seeing an action hero in a movie while growing up. It's not uncommon to hear movies like Conan and Rocky cited as huge gym influences. Many of them then try to follow the same workout routines of their chosen action hero. The Sylvester Stallone arm workout is a prime example of that mistake.

However, you would be wise to avoid the common mistake of presuming that movie stars have a secret formula or an easy way to sculpt the end product which you see on the silver screen. They do not.

Sylvester Stallone in particular is noted for his almost fanatical devotion to his fitness routine, with many co-stars telling stories of how they had never known a man to train as hard as him for a film.

The workout in question today is a four phase attack on biceps, triceps and forearms. It is to be performed as a circuit workout, with four rounds of a section required in order to progress to the next phase of the workout.

Hammer Curl - 12 reps with a fairly heavy weight to get you warmed up.

Incline Bench Dumbbell Curls - Set a bench to a 45 degree angle and perform dumbbell curls, ensuring you get the twist at the top of each rep to build the peak of your biceps muscle. Shoot for 12-15 reps here.

EZ Bar Curls - Start with 12 standard-grip curls before switching to a wide-grip and forcing out as many reps as you can before failure. This is where most people begin to struggle with the biceps phase, so use a lighter weight if necessary.

Flat Cable Curls - Pull a flat bench underneath a cable pulley station and lie on it. Curl down towards your head. The constant tension provided by the cables will make this variation of a curl much more difficult, so aim for 15 reps with a significantly lighter load.

Twisting Chain Curls - Attach a free weight to a chain and hold the chain so the weight is hanging down. Now perform a curl, while twisting your palms to face away from you at the top of each rep. This engages the muscles in your biceps and forearms. Remember, the forearms are a lot smaller and the instability of a hanging plate is very noticeable, thus a lighter weight is required.

Following 4 brutal rounds of the biceps phase, the forearm specific section awaits your attention. Combine Reverse Curls, Wrist Curls, Handshake Curls and Reverse Wrist Curls in a circuit for 25 reps each before finishing off each round with a 30 second timed hang.

The workout's final stage features it's largest muscle group, the triceps. Go heavy to obtain maximum results but also bear in mind how fatigued you will feel at this point. The first exercise in this phase is Close-Grip Barbell Bench Press for 10 repetitions.

After getting that out of the way, you can move on to Bench Dips to failure. We will immediately follow this up with a set of 12 Triceps Pushdowns and more Dips to failure, before rounding out the phase with 20 Triceps Kickbacks.

For the cool down phase, you will need to perform three body weight planks for 30 seconds each and one single set of Close-Grip Push Ups. Don't be fooled into skipping the cool down phase, for it is vital to ensuring you get maximum results and recovery from your gym session.

The time and dedication which goes into building a physique for the big screen is quite daunting. Rome was not built in a day, as they say, and this workout is certainly structured with that quote in mind. The high intensity circuit style often tricks people into thinking it's going to be easy. You will increase your chances of success if you don't make that mistake.

While everybody has aspirations to train like their favorite action movie star, the Sylvester Stallone arm workout is not for everyone. Before you attempt it, look through each of the exercises and decide upon using significantly lighter weights than you usually would for each move.




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