Ryan Reynolds working out in gym with trainer
Fitness

Ryan Reynolds Starts Deadpool 3 Training With a Jab at Hugh Jackman

Plus, how to train like Reynolds to get your own vascular pythons.

Want arms as chiseled as Ryan Reynolds’? Lift heavy, pal. 

The actor’s trainer Don Saladino, who has worked with Reynolds for the last decade, recently posted a photo on Instagram of the Deadpool actor carrying 60-pound dumbbells. And just look at Reynolds’ vascularity here. 

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Saladino wrote in the caption: ”Deadpool 3 training in full effect,” with a hashtag nod to Wolverine aka Hugh Jackman, who will join Reynolds’s character in the upcoming film, due out in theaters November 2024.

Reynolds had frostier words on his own Instagram Story: “I’m not training for Deadpool. I’m training to spend several months with @thehughjackman — who’s not as nice as everyone thinks.”

Jackman fired back with a heart-shaped sticker reading, “Ur cute.”

The playful banter is indicative of the duo’s relationship over the years on and off the screen. Reynolds’s Deadpool actually began life in 2009’s X-Men Origins: Wolverine. And the two enjoy playing up their rivalry online, even if they’re legit friends. 

That testiness will bleed into the hijinks of Deadpool 3, which according to Jackman on a recent Empire Film podcast pairs two characters who have “zero” compatibility, adding that Deadpool and Wolverine are “opposites” who “hate each other.” Sounds like there’s still plenty of comedy to squeeze out of the Deadpool franchise.

First, Reynolds will have to get back into tiptop fighting shape. Here’s what you need to know to replicate the beast mode Deadpool workout.

How to Train Like Ryan Reynolds

Based on what we know about his workouts for Deadpool 2, under Saladino’s expert guidance, Reynolds will ditch many of the core-heavy exercises like crunches of his younger action star days for a lot of heavy-weight training.

“We’ve eliminated a lot of abdominal training,” Saladino told Men’s Health of the routine they’ve developed. “In the beginning, he would start every workout with a lot of abs, but he’s come to realize that a lot of his abdominal work comes down to the heavy lifting, pulling, and squatting he ends up doing. All those exercises are really focusing on that abdominal wall.”

Saladino further notes that the exact exercises change from day to day based on Reynolds’s hyper-busy schedule and the current stresses on his body. The trainer aims for efficiency. “Not every day has to be a Level 10 on the workout meter,” he said.

In addition to training Reynolds, Saladino has also helped shape the physiques of Sebastian Stan, David Harbour, and Liev Schrieber (along with Reynolds’s wife Blake Lively). 

The full-body circuit Saladino had Reynolds crushing to embody Deadpool includes the following:

  • 90/90 elevated breathing (3 minutes)
  • Foam rolling (10 passes)
  • Cat cow (30 seconds)
  • Thoracic rotations (10 reps each side)
  • Hip circle (5 reps clockwise, 5 reps counterclockwise)
  • Kettlebell swing (5 reps)
  • Front squat (5 reps)
  • Bench press (5 reps)
  • Pull-up (5 reps)
  • Carry (one variation of Saladino’s weight carrying moves)

 

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