14 DAY TRIAL // The ladies love Channing Tatum, either because of his innocent, sweet face and heartbreaking smile, or for the chiseled abs he’s never ashamed to flaunt in front of the cameras. For the part in “Fighting,” though, Tatum had to do a bit more work to make the aforementioned abs better looking, his personal trainer tells How Celebrities Lose Weight.
As trainer William J. Harris reveals, the focus with Tatum for “Fighting” was to make him athletic looking without making him bulkier. The fact that, while still in an enviable shape, the actor also loves junk food and knocking back a few cold ones every now and then made it imperious for Harris to come up with a routine that would make Tatum lose some weight while also building muscle. After all, the aim was to make him look agile and, at the same time, incredibly strong: and the first step into that direction was to get him to drop 30 pounds in the 3 weeks before shooting started, Harris reveals.
“He needed to have strength, flexibility and endurance so I came up with a routine of rope turns and calisthenic bodyweight exercises, such as jumping jacks, burpees, press-ups, pull-ups and squats, to help him build that. I also threw in some classic compound moves using barbells and kettlebells.” Harris explains for HCLW. The focus in each session was on intensity, with Channing being told he was to perform as many (correct) exercises during a 20-minute interval as possible.
“Working out at a high intensity keeps the heart pumping and burns more calories. For the main barbell lifts, such as deadlifts, military presses, squats and clean and jerks, we found a weight Channing could lift quickly and comfortably ten times while maintaining perfect form.” the trainer adds. If someone wanted more muscle, for instance, says Harris, the solution was to shift the focus from intensity to weight.
However, as it’s already a known fact, the diet is also very important and, without it, not one significant change can be made to the body. So, even before starting with the workout, Harris made sure he operated a complete overhaul of Channing’s diet, pointing out to him that the most important aspect as regards food was quality. “Just as exercise is all about intensity, food is all about quality. So we swapped the unhealthy ingredients in the food Channing likes for healthy ones – we gave him lean turkey rather than beef, for example, and swapped takeaway pizzas for homemade wholewheat ones topped with organic veggies. Processed and frozen foods, salt, sugar and alcohol were all no-nos.” the trainer explains.
See here for more details on Channing Tatum’s workout, including a breakdown by days for working out and by meals for the diet.