You've probably seen the viral video of two chiseled MMA fighters squaring off before a flying knee turns the scene on its head, except that is Jake Gyllenhaal looking like an absolutely ripped fighting machine, not an actual MMA fighter. For Doug Liman's upcoming "Road House" remake, Gyllenhaal took to the cage as UFC middleweight brawler Elwood Dalton and looked every jacked inch the part. The guy from "Donnie Darko" and "Brokeback Mountain" has got some moves, and the body to match.
Now we have a trailer to follow up Gyllenhaal's octagon cameo, showing Dalton go from his UFC pomp to taking on a job as a bouncer, looking after a Florida Keys dive in his own mild-mannered and occasionally hyper-violent style. Looking at his moves - and utterly shredded physique - it's obvious that Gyllenhaal has taken the role to heart. It's a good job, too, with Dalton up against a seriously beefed-up antagonist in the form of Knox - played by Conor McGregor playing Conor McGregor.
Gyllenhaal is no stranger to drastic transformations. For "Nightcrawler," he reportedly ran 12 miles a day, honing his body to get the leaned-out look of a coyote. For Antoine Fuqua’s boxing drama "Southpaw," Gyllenhaal reportedly worked out twice a day, packing on 28 pounds of muscle to play the lead role. To help us understand what it takes to get fight-ready, we called up MMA middleweight Fabian Edwards to get his professional analysis on Gyllenhaal’s training, and what you can borrow to get yourself octagon-ready.
The Origin Story
If we’re talking MMA, Edwards is the man to talk to. The 30-year-old fighter-and brother to champion Leon Edwards-was born in Jamaica before moving to the UK as a child. To date, his record is 11-2, with four wins by knockout. He hasn’t trained with Gyllenhaal (or fought against him), but as a fellow middleweight, a lot of what we see in the Road House clip was familiar to him.
“He’s ripped in this clip, but not too big, and that’s accurate for a middleweight,” Edwards explains. “I’m about 185 pounds now, and he looks similar.” As Edwards explains, it isn’t all about size at this weight class. “You don't want to be carrying too much mass because it slows you down and makes you tired,” he explains. “Gyllenhaal has a solid shape, and it shows he’s worked hard.”
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Fighting Talk
Watching a film with someone who’s really into that particular thing can be tough, as all you hear about is all the mistakes being made. So how did Edwards feel watching this actor have a crack at the sport he’s dedicated his life to?
“I was watching him with one of my friends and we agreed it looked very believable,” Edwards enthuses. Gyllenhaal is known for immersing himself in his roles, but there’s a difference between doing thousands of sit-ups and actually learning a complex sport. Edwards has a few pointers, but overall, he offers a positive appraisal of Gyllenhaal’s efforts.
“The flying kick was good. Solid,” he says. “The only thing I didn't like was him backing up against the cage and taking some unnecessary shots. You don’t want to do that, but he had a great finisher. You can see that he’s put time and effort into this.”
Weighing In
While the trailer shows Gyllenhaal's character in various degrees of painful trouble, most of it is a cakewalk compared to weighing in before a fight. Famously, the weigh-in is a punishing part of a fighter’s preparation, and one Edwards was able to offer some insight into.
“Before a weigh-in and a fight, you’ll typically have about eight weeks’ preparation,” he says. “It doesn’t get easier!” he laughs about cutting weight. “I’ve been doing this for eight or nine years now, but even when I’m tired, I step onto the mats, and I’m good to go. I have a lot more to give.”
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Jake Gyllenhaal’s “Road House” Workout Revealed
It’s difficult to say how much time Gyllenhaal had to get in such great shape before filming, but it’s likely his nutrition followed a similar plan to Edwards’. “You have to start with diet,” he explains. “You need to find a diet that works for you, that’s sustainable. If you have a diet that’s too harsh, you’re going to crash and have a binge.”
Which isn’t to say it’s all about chicken and broccoli. “My nutrition is covered for me, but you can pretty much eat what you want. You just have to make sure the portion size is right,” Edwards explains. (He’s referring here to lean meats and veg, not baked goods, before you get any ideas). “I'll be on three meals a day, and two shakes a day. And I'd be training two to three times a day, six days a week.”
The Workout
“I’d start my day off with a run, followed by a strength and conditioning session later,” Edwards says of a typical pre-fight training camp. “Do that four or five times a week, and in eight weeks, you should start to notice changes.”
Gyllenhaal’s shape here is toned but slim, with a tapering upper back leading to a slim waist. As such, Edwards’ suggested workout is all about explosive movements that burn fat and help you firm up at the same time. Give it a go a few times a week and see if you notice a difference.
- Morning run - 5K
Pre-breakfast means you’ll burn fat stores, not the food you’ve just eaten. If you’re aiming to hit the gym later, short and fast is better than long and slow. It’ll also help you fit it in before work, too.
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- Evening workout
Doubling up won’t be feasible every day, but don’t beat yourself up about it. Work through the below, with one minute’s rest between sets and a longer rest before exercises. If your gym is busy and equipment scarce, feel free to mix the order up, working in certain moves when that particular kit is free.
Workout Exercises:
- Squats - 3 sets of 12
Set your feet. With a straight back and chest facing forward, sit back on an imaginary stool. Go as low as you can, hold, then push through the heels to stand up. Go straight into the next rep to keep your heart rate up.
- Box jumps - 3 sets of 12
Grab a box. If you haven’t done these before, start small. Squat down, then using your arms for momentum, jump explosively up and forward to land on the box with bent knees. Step gracefully down, and repeat.
- Pull-ups - 3 sets of 12
Grab a bar with a wide grip, palms facing away. Pull through the shoulders and upper back, slowly bringing your chin over the bar. Go even slower on the negative until you’re hanging with fully extended arms. Power back up again and feel the burn.
- Sled pushes - 3 sets
Load up a sled with a decent but not too heavy amount of weight. Get down low with extended arms and a flat back. Dig in through your toes as you power the sled across the floor. Keep your head down, and dig deep.
- Crunches - 3 sets of 30
You know the drill. Lie on your back. Engage your core to lift your torso off the ground towards your knees, keeping your hands out of the way behind your ears or across your chest. Make sure your abs are taking the brunt, not your back, and go extra slow on the descent for that extra burn.
Jake Gyllenhaal Diet Plan
As one might suspect, the Jake Gyllenhaal Road House diet plan went big on building mass and keeping fuel in the tank, however, it did come with sacrifice. The actor’s low body fat percentage was achieved via a carbohydrate-cycling protocol and a strict eating regime that saw him cut sweet treats in favour of whole foods and caloric-dense options. Because he was training more than once every day, the actor’s eating habits served a dual role, restoring energy from the previous workout while increasing energy for the next one.
“In this case, there were things that were taken away, but I had a hell of a lot more calories that I could consume,” Gyllenhaal told Men’s Health. In speaking with the publication, trainer Walsh revealed that Gyllenhaal did encounter some trouble digesting whey protein, a common issue in males as they age. As a result, Jake Gyllenhaal’s nutrition team reportedly worked to create a new plant-based protein shake formula, which has since been released to the public under the brand name Rise311.
Outside of this, it’s difficult to chart the specifics of Gyllenhaal’s diet pan, however, his physique does bear a striking similarity to one he possessed in 2015’s Southpaw. For that film, he incorporated tons of protein, ingesting a large amount of fish, chicken, eggs, and other common protein-rich foods. However, he did consume a fair amount of carbs for breakfast, turning the excess fat into muscle at the gym. On the direct heels of any given workout, it was mostly vitamins and proteins, lest those bulging muscles lose their momentum.
Somewhere in there, Gyllenhaal was also reportedly chowing down on Chipotle. We’ll just assume he was getting burrito bowls, but on the other hand, he was trying to build mass so maybe he went all-in on the tortillas. Whatever he was doing, it worked.
Should you adopt the Jake Gyllenhaal diet plan, feel free to eat all the Chipotle you want, presuming you go to the same extremes he did in the weight room and elsewhere. Putting Chipotle aside, Gyllenhaal’s diet focussed on natural foods and avoided anything that was fried. For the most part, he drank lots of water and consumed copious amounts of salads, veggies, and lean meats. That was joined by occasional pasta dishes and things like potatoes or rye bread.
Example Breakdown of Gyllenhaal’s Diet:
- Eggs - Health experts are still hashing it out as to whether eggs are actually good for you, but their value as a source of protein is beyond reproach. Gyllenhaal ate a ton of them and it seemed to work for him. Of course, if you have issues with cholesterol, you should proceed with caution before going hog wild on the omelettes.
- Fruit - Goji berries, apples, bananas, and raisins are some of the fruits Gyllenhaal consumed on the regular.
- Almonds - From each serving of this low-glycemic index food, you get 6 grams of protein, 4 grams of fibre, and a fair amount of vitamins and minerals. A perfect snack.
- Cacao Beans - Presuming you can tolerate their bitter taste, raw cacao beans make for a veritable superfood. Not only are they chock full of flavonols and other antioxidants, but they’re also known to induce a euphoric effect. Just don’t get hooked.
- Vegetables - When Gyllenhaal wasn’t consuming steamed veggies, he was eating them raw. That included broccoli, leafy greens, avocado, and tomato. Yes, we know that avocadoes and tomatoes are fruits. We don’t care.
- Chicken - We have yet to discover a celebrity diet plan that didn’t consist of chicken.
- Fish - Low in calories and high in nutrition, fish is an essential part of any healthy diet.
- Rye Bread - Some fitness freaks might consider bread-even rye bread-an indulgence. We say if it’s fresh-baked and free of preservatives, it’s probably healthier than you think. Regardless, Gyllenhaal clearly made it work.
- Pasta - When you’re working out as much as Gyllenhaal did, you get to eat pasta guilt-free.
- Couscous - Fat-free, sugar-free, and loaded with selenium, couscous is a carb you can trust, especially when it’s the whole wheat variety.
- Potatoes - We’ve been trained to avoid starches, but potatoes are better for you than you might expect. They contain over half your daily value of vitamin C, and more potassium than a banana. They’re also a good source of vitamin B6, fibre, and magnesium.
- Supplements - Vitamin supplements (Vitamins D3 and C, in particular) and protein shakes were a big part of the Jake Gyllenhaal diet plan.
Jake Gyllenhaal Workout Plan
Well, take the late great action star's workout plan and crank up every conceivable dial and you’re now in 2024 territory. No pun intended, but Jake Gyllenhaal put himself through the wringer when preparing for the role of Elwood Dalton. To put things as succinctly as possible, Gyllenhaal trained the way a professional UFC fighter would.
According to Walsh, the goal was to create a balanced and stable platform to build his mobility and make the action sequences believable. As a result, much of the Jake Gyllenhaal Road House workout centres on heavy mobility and flexor work, with a series of lever work thrown in. Admittedly, this workout is not complex but is important to focus on progressive overload. During his training period, the actor increased things like reps, rounds, and weights as he gained strength.
Here’s the Jake Gyllenhaal Road House workout, as per trainer Jason Walsh’s clip with Men’s Health:
- Mobility Movements
As mentioned, Walsh had Gyllenhaal do a significant amount of mobility work in the lead-up to filming Road House. Using mobility sticks and other apparatus, Walsh had the actor work at improving his range of motion and flexibility, which made action sequences throughout the film far easier to achieve. “Generally, we spend a few minutes each session moving, trying to get the core body temperature up before moving into some sort of mobility movement,” Walsh says. “The mobility stick is a great tool to help increase range of motion.”
- Isometrics
A staple for most functional fitness trainers, isometrics help to increase strength and stamina at different joint angles. By holding movements for elongated periods of time, you can better control the movement and add increased time under tension. The benefits of this are twofold; increasing stamina under duress and also helping to strengthen muscle fibres.
- Proteus Motion Machine
A piece of equipment that you may not have seen before, the Proteus Motion Machine works to measure strength and power for movements across different angles. The brand’s patented 3D resistance provides constant resistance in all directions, conducting a full-body power test through 15 exercises. From there, trainers use the results to get a read on an athlete’s strength and power attributes and to tailor training programs aimed at bolstering specific weak spots. “The Proteus is an amazing piece of equipment used mostly by performance centres to help train athletes in every plane of motion and help increase power production,” Walsh says. “We use it primarily for priming the nervous system, proprioception, learning movement patterns and a lot for warming up joints and metabolic training.”
- Heavy Sled Work
Another favourite in functional fitness circles, sled work can help build stamina and improve leg drive. Essentially a compound movement, you are tasked with creating force from your lower body whilst also maintaining stability up top, creating a full-body approach. As Walsh explains, any sled work will be beneficial, but going heavy and working on an AMRAP (As Many Reps As Possible) format in a timed environment will ultimately deliver the best results. “Most of the sets we do are tied sets,” Walsh says. “We try to keep his (Gyllenhaal’s) work capacity up, keeping him moving, keep him sweating, keep him burning fat. We still want the heavy stimulus so we do a lot of heavy sled work.”
- Heavy Compound Lifts
Building a strong posterior chain was a specific focus for Walsh and Gyllenhaal in the lead-up to Road House and the pair were able to achieve this through some traditional strength training. By implementing heavy compound lifts such as deadlifts and squats, they were able to focus solely on strength and stability, which helped to increase the actor’s explosiveness. Interestingly, Gyllenhaal opted for the safety bar when performing squats, which was integral in keeping the weights balanced, taking the pressure off the shoulders and reducing the risk of injury. “We always keep the heavy primitive work, in one way, shape or form,” Walsh explains. “Whether it’s squats or deadlifts and the variations thereof, we want to keep the muscle coordination at a high.”
- Forearm Drills
An often underrated muscle group, the forearms are pivotal in improving grip strength. Walsh made sure to emphasise this through the Road House preparation, peppering in grip work to every session. For new gym-goers or those who have hit a plateau, this is excellent advice. Poor grip strength can be a serious limiting factor in your quest to go heavier and increase progressive overload.
- Cross-Lateral Loading
Cross lateral loading was an important element in Road House preparation as it was more related to MMA training. Walsh worked to keep the body in check with off-set loading and movements more imperative to sports functions. Examples include big jumps and should-loaded lunges, working unilaterally across each side of the body.
- Floor Press
If you’ve seen the photos, you know that Jake Gyllenhaal has put some significant time and work into his chest. The actor has a supremely sculpted set of pecs, which Walsh revealed were largely achieved through a mix of floor press movements. In the clip, Gyllenhaal is seen using the Swiss Bar, which keeps hands in a neutral position, with knuckles facing the roof. This ultimately reduces the influence of the front delt and focuses more heavily on the mid pectoral. “It’s important to keep the stimuli broad with variations of reps, sets, loads and different tempos,” Walsh explains. While the fitness trainer opted to incorporate these movements in a flor-based position, a standard bench will more than suffice. In fact, the apparatus may actually help you to increase your range of motion and add further tension to the muscles.
Jake Gyllenhaal Southpaw Workout Routine
Importantly, Road House isn’t the first movie we’ve seen Gyllenhaal push his body to the limits for. Back in 2015, the actor took on the role of Billy “The Great” Hope in Antoine Fuqua boxing epic Southpaw. Fuqua himself is a boxer and worked extensively with Gyllenhaal to craft a workout that mirrored the actual movements seen in the ring, whilst also bulking up heavily to look his best. The result is nothing short of amazing.
In Southpaw, Gyllenhaal is impossibly shredded and his workout routine was arguably more extreme than that of Road House.
Core Workout Routine
Collectively, the following exercises make up 1 round. Gyllenhaal performed 2-3 rounds total, resting 1-2 minutes between each round.
Jake Gyllenhaal Weightlifting Workout Routine
Collectively, the following exercises make up 1 round. Gyllenhaal...
Jake Gyllenhaal is known for his dedication to fitness and his impressive transformations in movie roles. Just read about his preparation for the movie “Southpaw”. For his upcoming film “Road House,” Gyllenhaal has been back at it and hard at work with a rigorous workout routine to prepare for his role as a UFC Fighter.
Let’s take a closer look at his training regimen and what it takes to get in shape like a Hollywood action star. Gyllenhaal’s training for “Road House” focuses on building strength, agility, and endurance. It may seem counterintuitive to focus on building strength, gaining muscle mass, and retaining agility and endurance at the same time.
Gyllenhaal seems to have pulled it off as he showed up to weigh-ins looking like a real mixed martial artist. Gyllenhaal’s official stats are 6'0” and 184 lbs. To achieve this, Jake (just like in previous roles) likely workout out for several hours a day, six-to-seven days a week. Jake likely worked with a fitness expert to dial in his efforts.
While Jake Gyllenhaal has often been in some sort of shape for majority of his adult career, his transformation is shocking compared to the skinny young actor when he first started. Most notable for playing the title role in the film Donnie Darko, Gyllenhall appeared a goofy scrawny kid caught up in some sci-fi nonsense that eventually found a cult following.
Jake Gyllenhaal worked with celebrity trainer Jason Walsh to prepare for this film. He put together a program mixed with strength workouts, cardio, and fight-specific sessions. Gyllenhaal’s sessions might begin with heavy compound lifts followed by explosive carries followed by fight conditioning, which helped for his role in the movie.
“Jake works his ass off, plain and simple. Walsh had Jake Gyllenhaal on a two-day on, one-day off system where his workouts were hard each day. “He’s a lifer when it comes to his health, and it shows. Walsh continued to discuss how Jake Gyllenhaal needed to proper athleticism and mobility needed to perform some of the moves for his role, as he is playing a fighter.
“There are no secrets. It’s about executing the basics, the meat and potatoes of training, over and over again. Consistency beats complexity.
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