Vin Diesel Workout Fast Five

At 43 years old (6ft tall and probably 200-215lbs) – Diesel has stayed in action hero shape for the past 12 years! If you are out of shape and want to build muscle – it probably seems like getting a body like Vin Diesel is impossible – this couldn’t be further from the truth! Out of all the action stars, Vin Diesel actually has one of the most attainable bodies – if you’d like to know how to workout to look like Vin Diesel – keep reading! (But first – here’s the trailer for Vin Diesel’s latest movie…)

Vin Diesel Workout

Unlike a lot of Hollywood actors – Vin Diesel has never needed to bulk up for a part. Instead, Diesel spent ten years working as a night club bouncer in New York City while trying to break in to Hollywood. So what to bouncers do all day? They work out and develop a strong, rough, exterior.

According to Men’s Health UK (May 2011), “Diesel uses weight training influenced by old-school bodybuilding techniques to maintain his muscular mass. He then switches to faster, more agile methods such as fight training and free-running in order to strip away fat. The result is a body with both size and definition.

His regime has changed over the years. “At this stage in my life I’m trying to tweak out every body part,” he says. “When I was younger I was trying to gain as much weight as possible. Now I focus on each body part to define it. I shock the muscle with two sets of power lifting and then go into higher-rep sets afterwards.”

How to Build a Body Like Vin Diesel

Many people think that stars like Vin Diesel use steroids. This is honestly not very likely. If you compare Vin Diesel to a competitive bodybuilder – the differences between the two become more obvious.

Here is a picture of Ronnie Coleman -

and here is a picture of Vin Diesel -

Can you see the difference?

So what is creating the illusion of size?

1. Keeping the lower half of your body smaller. Like a lot of guys, Vin Diesel does not train for large legs and glutes. While bodybuilding purists are likely crying bitter tears over this – having a smaller lower body makes Vin Diesel’s upper body look bigger. Essentially – its all about proportion and balance. (If Diesel had larger glutes and legs, the fact that his waist is not tapered would become more obvious. A larger lower half would also make the star look overweight – or at least shaped like a barrel – when wearing regular clothes.)

You can also be larger and still use this general principle -

Side note: Is Vin Diesel the next Arnold Schwarzenegger? This week everyone has been talking about how Vin Diesel will be starring in the next Terminator movie (presuming there is one.) What do you think? I can't imagine replacing Arnold but the series should live on...leave a comment below! (One thing I know for sure - if Diesel wants to be the Terminator, he's going to have to get more ripped! Looking a little soft in Fast Five...)

If you compare Arnold to Ronnie, you can see that Arnold’s lower half is not as wide as his chest/lats while Ronnie’s are almost equal. Of the two, Arnold still looks more impressive even though objectively Ronnie is bigger.

So, while gaining muscle mass is important – where you put the mass matters as much as how much you gain. (If you are unsure where to start – I really like Adonis Index or Visual Impact. Both programs focus on strategic muscle building for maximum visual impact – basically what we are talking about in this article.) Focus on adding muscle mass to your shoulders, chest, arms, and upper back.

Can you still train your legs? Of course. Adding in deadlifts and squats to your routine is a good idea for everyone. Just don’t obsess. Constantly pushing yourself to lift heavier and heavier, as well as doing additional lower body exercises (think hamstring curls, leg extensions, etc) will overtime stimulate your muscle to grow. This is not a bad thing when you are still in a general muscle building phase. This look is not about skinny legs – just a lower body that is slightly smaller proportionately to the upper body.

Once you are happy with your look – don’t feel like you need to keep pushing to lift heavier and heavier – instead, move to maintenance mode. If you want to save even more time, you could maintain your legs just by doing high intensity sprints (this is a method recommended in Visual Impact Muscle Building) while simultaneously burning off surplus fat – easily done in under 20 min.

The Vin Diesel Inspired Workout

Workout following a two days on, one day off schedule for a total of four workouts per week. Pick a couple body parts to work on per session. Example: chest/back, shoulders/traps, lower body/triceps/biceps. This is basically a bodybuilding inspired program. Make sure you do low reps and heavy weight for one exercise per body part per workout. Always choose to go heavy on multijoint exercises like squats, and deadlifts as well as primary exercises like shoulder presses (overhead presses), shrugs, and rows. For lateral raises, bicep curls, tricep extensions, and all remaining exercises in a session – go with a higher rep range 10-12 and lower weights.

Chest options:
Bench press (decline, flat, or incline), dips, flys (standing cable, incline)

Back options:
Chin ups, pull ups, lat pulldowns , rows (seated or bent over)

If you can only do one chinup, try band assisted chinups or negative chinups.

Shoulder options:
Overhead press, upright rows, lateral raises, rear deltoid raises.

Kettlebell Clean and Press

Traps:
Shrugs – any kind.

Lower body:
Squats, deadlifts, romanian, hamstring curls, calf raises

Biceps/Triceps
Curls, tricept extensions – any variety you choose, any angle.

Abs:
Remember the key to having great abs is – a) being able to see your abdominal muscles, so strip off that extra fat b) Having actual abdominal muscle (otherwise your abs will be flat and lack definition.) c) Doing quality exercises. Don’t waste your time doing 1000′s of crunches and situps like people used to do in the 90′s. There are better options…

2. Vin Diesel is not super lean. How can you tell? Despite having  good amount of muscle in his abs – for the most part Vin Diesel does not have a six pack. This is probably why he is mostly shown in sleeveless tops that show off his arms and chest.

The extra fat Diesel is carrying makes him look a little bigger and fuller when his shirt is on. I would estimate Vin Diesel’s body fat levels to be at 10% – 6 pack partially obscured, no visible muscle striations. The good news – this is a good level of body fat to be at. Almost anyone who diets and exercises can get himself to this point without a lifetime of crazily restricted eating. This is just a much more realistic look than say Ryan Reynolds, who is super lean.

That much said, you could easily take the Vin Diesel look to the extreme by being in denial about exactly how much extra you really need to eat to gain muscle. (Likewise, if you are over 200lbs and not 6ft tall, you might want to re-evaluate if you are carrying as much muscle as you *think* you are.) Some bodybuilders think getting fat is an unpleasant necessity when it comes to building muscle. This isn’t completely true. (In fact, some of the latest scientific research is shows that gaining muscle is purely the result of training – ie – lifting heavy forces the body to grow even if you just eat normally.)

Eating to Gain Lean Muscle

To gain muscle you will need to eat more calories but eating too much will just make you fat, not jacked. The extra calories will not go like a laser guided missile straight into your biceps. Instead, surplus calories are stored as fat and hide your muscle and 6 pack abs. Don’t be fooled by supplement scams into thinking you can gain 8lbs of muscle in one week.

The best way to minimize your fat gain while maximizing muscle gain is to a) eat real food, not high calorie processed junk food or low quality meats and carbs b) consider a cyclical diet. In the past, cyclical dieting was as simple as spending months “bulking” (which was gaining as much weight of any kind, including fat, as quickly as possible) and then 6 weeks or so “cutting” (which was losing fat, and sometimes a good amount of hard earned muscle as quickly as possible.) Most people would end up doing multiple bulking and cutting cycles before finally being happy with their bodies.

But wouldn’t it be better just to minimize fat gain to begin with? This would reduce the need for a lengthy cutting session that could end up reducing hard gained muscle. Today, many people do within week cyclical dieting to maximize muscle gain while minimizing fat gain. (A good program to walk you through how to do this is Tom Venuto’s Holy Grail. This program provides three different cyclical diets, shows you how to easily customize any plan for your goal, and provides really simple eating plans that anyone can do.

What you do -

Daily protein intake stays the same but you vary your carbs depending on how intensely you are lifting that day. If it is a very intense day, eat 400-500g carbs – primarily for breakfast and post workout. On moderate days, take the carb level down to 200g, and on rest days, stay very low carb (its okay to boost protein on this day to make up the calorie gap.)

Eat more in the earliest weeks of your workout plan, and gradually taper down. One easy way to do this (assuming a 12 week plan) is to start out eating red meats (higher in fat) as your protein source during weeks 1-4, then switch to chicken and turkey for weeks 5-8, and finally down to super lean fish and shell fish for the last four weeks. This is a dead simple way to keep your existing meal plan but gradually taper down calories while keeping protein levels high. For more ideas, I’d recommend checking out Holy Grail.

If you are frustrated with your current diet and workout, I recommend you try a quality program like Adonis Index, Visual Impact or Tom Venuto’s Holy Grail for custom workout/diet plans. How are they different? VI focuses on quickly building up a dense, super lean body in three stages using specific lifting techniques, high intensity interval training, and intermittent fasting while Holy Grail is geared towards taking a more experienced lifter to the next level – lots of information on carb cycling, varying your within day calorie surplus/deficits to build muscle and lose fat simultaneously, when to do what type of training to maximize your results, etc.

Thanks for stopping by!