Robert Downey Junior Iron Man 2 Workout
Over the years there have been many times when people have asked me about a particular celebrity’s fitness regimen. When they see an actor or entertainer on the big screen or in the media who is slender or well built they immediately want to know that person’s secret. Nice lean shoulders accentuate the look of the diva in the sleeve less dress. A muscular or lean physique is helpful for the leading man, especially in action flicks. People notice this. And they want it.
The three questions I get asked the most are:
1. What did that person do to look like that? Did they take steroids, supplements or fat burners? (In other words did they use a “magic” pill, or have some other secret)
2. What type of diet did they follow?
3. What type of workout or training did they do? My normal response to these rapidly-fired queries typically starts with a general explanation of all the factors involved in getting that A-List body. There are a ton of different variables that affect how your body looks – and how good you can make it look.
Just a few of those are:
Genetics: This involves a ton of sub-variables such as your muscle physiology, (do you have more fast twitch or slow twitch muscle fibers – among other things) your build, (are you naturally slender, muscular, or heavy?) your ethnicity (people whose ancestors lived closer to equator are typically carry less body fat) etc.
Training: How long have you trained? Have you ever trained? Usually people with athletic backgrounds or those with a lot of prior training have a big advantage here. If you did train, what type of intensity, frequency and consistency was involved? Was your training anaerobic or aerobic? etc.
Diet: What has your diet looked like lately? What about over the past few months? The past few years? This can get even more involved when you look at individual diet needs. A lot of people think that each person has entirely different nutritionally needs based on their heritage, body type and training.
After I explain all of this to people, the very first thing I say is that often the people who you see – the people who you say you want to emulate – have a whole team behind them. These people have constant access to trainers, fitness chefs, and the like. They also probably have half-way decent genetics, although most of them are far from perfect. They just have a lot of help. I also tell people not to get too caught up in a particular celebrity’s body. They might want the ‘look’ of Brad Pitt in Fight Club or Jessica Biel in, well, whatever. Regardless of whose body they envy the take home message is that you can’t “have someone’s body”. Everyone is completely different (obviously) so we all will respond to training differently and have a different end result. And, while people do get caught up in a certain celebrity’s ‘look’, if they work hard, diet, and stay consistent…they often surprise themselves with their own body when they look in the mirror.
Robert Downey Jr. has had a lot of success lately as a leading man. With a few solidly-positive big budget flicks under his belt he’s definitely got the ball rolling again with his acting career. He’s overcome drug and alcohol problems and made a lot of changes in his life for the betterment of his health. He now works out consistently and has interests ranging from weight training to martial arts, both positive outlets for a guy who might be a little bit naturally inclined towards debauchery.
With ‘Iron Man 2′ having recently opened in theaters, the main man might have another big screen hit on his hands. Aside from honing his acting skills and tinkering with directing, the guy definitely put some time in to train his body for the much awaited sequel. So, let’s get down to business. Let’s kill the suspense. Most people will notice that Rob looks like he’s added some muscle compared to the first ‘Iron Man’ movie. So what did he do to get ripped for the part?
Robert Downey Jr., who was trained by Brad Bose, did what could be referred to as “caveman training” also known by others “chaos training”. The idea behind his training was simple: challenge his body and his muscles in new ways to both avoid training burnout, and spark new muscle growth while also torching body fat. A lot of what makes this type of training effective is that it often challenges the muscles with new and different types of resistance exercises, many of which provide uneven, less stable resistance. With resistance that is less stable or even, the body has to recruit more, often rarely used muscle fibers in the big muscles – as well as rely on the core to pick up some of slack. The other benefit is that it rarely gets dull. His trainer notes “when we did ‘Iron Man 1′, we had five months before the shoot to get ready, so we used more traditional, heavy-weight training.” When they started training for the sequel, Downey, 45, had just wrapped filming for Sherlock Holmes and was down to 151 pounds when he started shooting the sequel.
This time around “…Robert felt kind of bored with it and wanted to do something a little more exciting…so we decided to do what I call a Rocky IV meets high-tech training,” says Bose, who was able to bulk Downey Jr. up to 175 pounds over the course of the first few weeks of filming. Some examples of exercises that were included in his routines were:
Rather than doing regular bench presses, they would use a bamboo bar and would hang plates on rubber bands off the bar. The result is that it feels like you’re trying to bench press a snake – the bar bounces all over the place and challenges the body has to work harder to control it. Truck tires and sledgehammers were also used. When the two first started they went out and bought a bunch of stuff like this and just went to town. They would start with two four pound sledgehammers in each hand, and work all the way up to a full 20-lb. sledgehammer – and just beat tires constantly with it. Also used were fire hoses that were filled with sand and water. They would drag and whip them to add muscle mass to the shoulders and pecs. They also juggled “weighted Indian clubs,” hulled around kettle bells and even used a war machine, which Boyes explains is “like a rope with handles on it with a pulley — you suspend yourself from it,” says Bose.
We tried to find the most unique, and yet funny enough, inexpensive training stuff to use,” he says. “You couldn’t find more practical stuff to use.”
Another funky but ultra- intense activity Downey Jr. learned to like involved pushing a heavy wheelbarrow around an obstacle course. The wheelbarrow had been modified so that it could carry several hundred pounds at a time…
With all of that craziness going on, Rob certainly didn’t go at it everyday. He would meet Brad at 9:30 in the morning and workout for an hour and a half a minimum of three days a week. He also trained kung fu two to three days a week with Eric Oram.
Downey Jr. didn’t run himself into to the ground training for this blockbuster. He had to put on muscle fast so he worked hard but was smart. He had the help of a top-level trainer as well as everyone else on his team. As you can tell, with proper planning and hard work, you can make impressive gains shorter than you might think. The results speak for themselves.
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