Amazon’s new remake of Roadhouse just came out, and unless you’re blind, you probably noticed a couple things.
- Connor McGregor is looking saucy
- Jake Gyllenhaal was absolutely shredded.
In order to get his incredibly jacked physique Gyllenhaal worked with his long time trainer, Jason Walsh for over a year.
In a video with Men’s Health, Walsh detailed the work that went into transforming Jake Gyllenhaal into the beast that he was on film.
Warm-Up
To get started, they would perform a some light movement to get the body temp up and then mobility drills to get the body limber. One of Walsh’s favorite drills is to incorporate stick stretching, which is pictured above. While it may look a little awkward, it’s actually a great way to help increase range of motion.
Once warmed-up, they would move on to the Proteus machine (you probably haven’t heard of it since it’s more common in athletic performance centers rather than your local gym). The Proteus is used to help prime the nervous system, proprioception, warming up the joints, and metabolic work.
If you don’t have access to one of these machines, like most of us, you can shadow box for 30 seconds on, 30 seconds off, for 3-4 rounds.
The Workout
Now that the body is fully warmed up, it’s time to get to to the real hard work. *If you have any questions on what these exercises look like, you can see them demonstrated by Jake himself down below.
Isometric Inverted Row Holds
These are a great way to increase stamina and strength at different angles. They followed a 30 sec on/off regimen for 3 sets.
Sled Work
Gyllenhaal would then attack some timed set sled work. They focused on using heavy stimulus, performing variations such as sled pushes, sled pulls, and sled crawls. All of this is extremely taxing on the body and helps encourage fat burning.
Heavy Basic Lifts
They would always work in some sort of heavy lift, such as safety bar squats or deadlifts. Utilizing 3-4 working sets at 6-8 reps.
(If you don’t have access to a safety squat bar, you can do kettlebell front squats instead)
Forearm Work
Usually ignored for the most part, direct forearm exercises help get rid of one of the most common weak points in the gym, grip failure. While exact sets or exercises weren’t given, using a weighted wrist roller until failure for 3-4 sets is a great way to exhaust your forearms.
Offset Loading Bag Drills
This part of the training falls more under the umbrella of mixed martial arts training. Using an offset bag (could be a boxing bag, or even a duffel bag loaded with soft weight) is great for movements more common in sport.
Gyllenhaal would do exercises such as offset lunges and bag jump-overs (which are great for core work and agility, and will tire you out faster than you would think).
Swiss Bar Floor Presses
These are a fantastic alternative to full bench presses for someone who suffers from shoulder issues. Floor presses limit your range of motion, and really allow you to focus on moving heavy weight (make sure to use a spotter). Walsh recommends changing rep ranges, exercise tempo, and sets to maximize potential of this exercise. A good starting point with these is 2 set of 10-12 reps.
Chain Pushups
The added instability of the chain makes your stabilizer muscles fire up like crazy, making this an excellent finisher for chest work. Shoot for 2 sets of 10-12 reps.
Suspension Trainer Push-Pulls
Suspension push-pulls are an amazing way to train cross-laterally, which is commonly done in MMA training. Hitting your back, arms, shoulders, and core at the same time, these are an absolutely brutal movement. Shoot for 3 sets of 6-8 reps for each side.
Push-Pull Rips
These are a full-body exercise that utilizes two cable pulleys and has a similar upper body motion as the exercise above, pressing with one arm (push) and rowing with the other (pull). You can really challenge yourself by getting low in your split squat during your reps. Just like above, 3 set of 6-8 reps per side.
Climbing Sprints
One of the most intense finishers you could think of, climbing sprints will have you gasping for air by the time your set is done. Do these for 20 sec on, 30 off, for 6-8 rounds.
Recovery and Diet
One of the reasons why Jake Gyllenhaal could train like this for over a year was the fact that his coach made sure recovery was high on the list of priorities. Using ice baths and making sure he was eating clean foods helped keep his physique on track to becoming the finished product you can see in the movie. It should be noted that Walsh also mentioned how Gyllenhaal looked peak form in the movie and we didn’t see the valleys, which naturally come.
Summary
Gyllenhaal has proven he has the mental toughness to do what it takes to reach a high level of shred, and it’s not the first time he’s done it. Check out his physique in Jarhead, Southpaw, and The Covenant.
If you want to look like Jake Gyllenhaal does in Roadhouse, it’s really not that difficult. You only have to 100% dedicate yourself to working out like a mad man and eat extremely clean for over a year. Simple, right?
If you are looking to pack on some muscle, you should check out our Hypertrophy Program.
Prepare to maximize your gains with our exclusive 12-week hypertrophy training program. Choose between a 4 or 5 day training split and gain 2-12 pounds of muscle over 90 days…
You can watch the full video of Jason Walsh talking through the workout plan below.
