Taylor Lautner Workout: What You Need To Get

Ok, so everyone is talking about how the dude cock diesel in New Moon.

So how’d he get so ripped?

Funny, in most interviews he says he “Just worked out a lot and ate a lot”.  That’s the benefit of having a trainer – you don’t actually have to know why you are doing what you are doing, you just do it.

So that’s why the interview with Taylor’s trainer in Men’s Health was so interesting.

Unfortunately, everyone else that’s blogging about it missed the point.

Here’s what you need to get about Taylor Lautner’s “Wolf Pack” Workout for New Moon:

1.) Taylor lifted up to five days per week, never did “cardio”

2.) They changed rep schemes every three weeks

3.) They used advanced strength techniques to get massively stronger

He Was A Skinny Kid

If you don’t know the story – they were going to throw Taylor off of the second movie because he wasn’t big enough.

Instead, he worked his ass off and gained 30 pounds to play the role in the second movie.

He skipped cardio because he needed to pack on 30 pounds of muscle and could barely eat enough food.

The fact that he’s 17 helps a lot, he’s got enough natural testosterone that he can get away with lifting harder, longer, and more often than a dude who is getting in the gym at 30, 40, or 50.  But a lot of people have been using this as an excuse.

In fact, you can’t say that “It’s just because he’s 17” unless you were that jacked when you were that age.

You might not be able to lift 5 days per week if you’re an older dude, but you can apply all of the same principles that Taylor did and make the same gains, even if it takes a little longer.

Gotta Make A Change

They changed the sets and reps of the program every three weeks.  They switched between working on strength (more weight) and working on volume (more reps).

This should sound familiar – it’s the same thing we talked about with Hugh Jackman’s Wolverine Workout.

The body adapts, so you have to change it up.

At the same time you’ll notice that they didn’t change it up haphazardly, they had a plan.  This isn’t any B.S. about muscle confusion and just doing random things every time they worked out.

They would cause an adaptation, and then they would change.

You Have Got To Get Strong

They used some advanced strength techniques like lifting with bands and doing heavy negatives.

By “bands” we mean literally like giant rubber-bands.

You loop one end around the dumbbell or barbell you are lifting and connecting the other end to something that doesn’t move, and it changes the dynamic of the movement completely.  The exercise will get much harder at the farthest end range of motion (where the band is the most stretched).

By doing lifts with bands, you can lift faster, and you can create a building tension throughout the whole lift.  It’s ultra common in powerlifting, and much rarer to see in “normal gyms”.

They’d also do “negatives” with heavier weight than Taylor could lift.

It’s just loading up the bar with more weight than you can move, and only doing the “lowering” part of the movement.  Taylor’s trainer said it gives the body a “taste” of heavier weight.

It’s also really common in strength oriented programs, and not so common everywhere else.

To do negatives you’ll need a spotter you can trust, and it only works well for some exercises.

Pullups are great (jump up on top of the bar and lower yourself down)

Bench Presses work if you have a great spotter

Military Presses are one of my favorites to do negatives with, because you can push-press the weight, and then do a press negative.

Barbell Squats and Deadlifts don’t work for negatives.  Single leg squats do, as you can lower yourself on one leg and come up on two legs.

Two Big Lessons

1.) The sets and reps have to change. 

Both Taylor Lautner in his Wolf Pack workout, and Hugh Jackman in his Wolverine workout switched it up between strength and volume every three weeks.

If you don’t change it up, you’re going to plateau.

2.) You’ve got to get strong. 

Taylor Lautner was using advanced strength techniques like negatives and band exercises to lift heavier and get stronger.  Hugh Jackman lifted heavy and got savagely strong.  The actors in the movie 300 were much, much stronger by the end of their training.  Daniel Craig did big lifts for James Bond.

There’s no coincidence – all these dudes got much much stronger in big lifts like squats, deadlifts, and bench presses.  Then they tacked other bodybuilding movements on top of that.

By Josh Hillis

Josh is the head coach of Josh Hillis Platinum Coaching Club, the ultimate online fat loss workout program and coaching system.

Josh is a Level 2 RKC Kettlebell Instructor, NASM Certified Personal Trainer and Performance Enhancement Specialist

Josh has been featured in USA Today and The Denver Post