The Wolverine Workout Plan

Wolverine is a certified ConFITdent badass. There’s no doubt about it.  He’s over 100 years old, fluent in more than 7 languages, and trained as a samurai in Japan. Not to mention that his claws and bones are made of Adamantium – an indestructible metal that can cut through any known substance.

>>> Insanity Workout Plan: What You Need to Know

>>> How To: Creating a Workout Plan

>>> Outdoor Workout: Basics to Build Muscle at the Playground

The only thing that could possibly be more badass than The Wolverine is Hugh Jackman.

This is how he looks at 44

I recently got the chance to sit down and have a quick Q+A session with David Kingsbury, the personal trainer that prepared him for his role in Wolverine. In the interview, we touched upon topics like the celebrity training business, the goals and approach taken to create the Wolverine physique, and most importantly: his diet, supplementation, and training plan.

Hi David. Thanks so much for taking the time for this interview. First off, tell our readers a bit about you, and how you got involved in the celebrity training business.

Originally my intention was to work with athletes. I trained Muay Thai in Thailand for a few years and had 7 pro fights. When I returned to the UK, my original goal was to open up an MMA facility near where I lived. One day I was talking to one of my clients about my options (he is a successful businessman) – he told me that he worked at Pinewood Film Studios. He put me in touch with the property team, and before I knew it I had a small Personal Training space in the film studio. After a few years, the business had grown to the point where I opened a full gym in the studio. At this point, I was working with many people in the film industry – from producers to office workers.  One of my clients (a producer) said he had a film for me to work on after experiencing great results himself. That was four years ago and I’ve been back to back on films ever since.

That’s an awesome and inspiring success story. It’s always interesting to hear about the unforeseen ways successful careers unfold. How did you get hooked up with Hugh Jackman?

I was just finishing up a film at Pinewood and got a call from the production coordinator from Les Miserables. She said there was an actor she wanted me to meet later that day, and that if he chose me, I would be working with him. At this point there was no mention about who it might be. About 20 minutes prior to the meeting, she called me and said “Hugh Jackman is on his way over”. I have always admired Hugh, and have a massive respect for the shape he gets into for roles, so I was pretty excited.

Hugh came in and we chatted about the goals of the Wolverine and what he was hoping to achieve. He then booked his first session for 8am the following morning. We did a quick assessment and got to work.

What kind of shape was he in when you guys first started working together?

He was in great shape coming straight from shooting for Les Miserables. He was very lean, but a bit smaller than usual, as he had just come off a Broadway show. The goals of Les Miserables were to have him as lean as humanly possible, but with the muscle mass and strength that the character needed.

What was the goal for the Wolverine?

To exceed any of his previous films, in terms of muscle mass and leanness. We had about 5 months to meet this goal, but were a bit limited on time due to him still filming for Les Miserables. It was really in the last 3-4 months that the major changes happened.

Badass. What was it like working with him? How was the relationship?

I have been working with Hugh for almost 2 years now, and we are currently on our fourth project: X-Men Days of Future Past. We’re both easy going and share similar interests. As a trainer –if you don’t get along with your clients, they generally wont want to train with you for 1-2 hours every day for six days a week for two years!

In terms of training with him, he’s very motivated and adherent, so he doesn’t require a drill sergeant or baby sitter. We train together, and I always push the intensity. The sessions are very focused and we use each other for motivation. We have similar strength and endurance levels, so we have a health rivalry – seeing who can push the limits further.

What was the biggest problem in preparing him for Wolverine?

Lack of rest. We generally trained very early in the morning, and worked long days. Some days we were limited to 5-6 hours of sleep per night. On those days, I encouraged naps during the day when possible.

What kind of training approach did you take with him?

Hugh hadn’t done that much direct strength work prior to training with me. He mostly worked in the 8-12 rep range. I don’t like to stick with these reps as you are missing out on half of the muscle gaining benefits.

I always encourage low rep (1-5) heavy work to stimulate myofibril hypertrophy, then after the heavy work is done we move onto the higher rep schemes to encourage sarcoplasmic hypertrophy. By increasing your strength with the low reps, you increase your capacity with the higher reps, so I always plan heavy sets of the compound movements.

I feel it is the combination of the two styles that brings the best gains.

How did he get so muscular whilst adding virtually no body fat?

He did put on some body fat. We broke the training into two phases: the bulk and the cut. I like to bulk as clean as possible, with a better end result in sight. I calculated his calories to achieve the leanest muscle gain possible, and adjusted them to his requirements every day.

We used a combination of low intensity training and intervals to keep bring the body fat levels down while bulking. The weight training remained more or less the same during the whole process, the only changes in his body fat levels came down to the volume of cardio he was prescribed, and the amount of calories consumed.

What were you feeding him?

The food varied through the different stages. However, we followed one nutrition principle throughout the entire training: carb cycling.

We had carbs on weight training days, and go low-carb on rest days. The most important part of dieting comes in calculating the amount of calories and macronutrients for the specific goal – he ate very clean throughout the entire film, but more importantly, he consumed the right amount of calories for his goal.

In terms of meals – nothing new or exciting. . Here’s an example for a training day:

The Wolverine Diet

• Meal 1: Eggs and Oatmeal
• Meal 2: Steak, Sweet Potato, and Broccoli
• Meal 3: Chicken, Brown Rice, and Spinach
• Meal 4: Fish, Avocado, and Broccoli.

Sounds delicious. What about supplements?

We used a pre-workout product called Animal Pump. I prefer this pre-workout because it has no sugar or sweetener, and also comes in tablet form so you can adjust the creatine content. While bulking, we used creatine in the product, and when cutting, we reduced, and then removed the creatine.

We also used about 5-10g of Animal Nitro BCAA’s pre and post workout. We trained fasted in the mornings, so the BCAA was important to preserve lean muscle mass.

While cutting, we used Universal L-Carnitine to help metabolize fatty acids.

The Wolverine Workout

The primary goals of this plan were to improve strength and size, whilst keeping body fat to a minimum. We used a program that included progressive overload to ensure continual strength gains. The system may look complicated at first, but once you get started and have your numbers recorded, it becomes a very easy system to follow.

The training program is designed on a 4-week schedule. During these 4 weeks the reps for the main lifts are changed each week.

• Week one – five reps are performed
• Week two – four reps are performed
• Week three – three reps are performed
• Week four – ten reps are performed

The Main Lifts:

• Barbell Bench
• Back Squat
• Pull ups
• Deadlifts

How To Select the Weight

For the first 3 weeks the weight should increase each week, then during the fourth week, the weight is reduced to be able to perform 10 reps.

We worked off a percentage system to figure out exactly what weights we should be lifting each week. For all of the weeks – the percentages are calculated from your working one rep max.

To figure out your working one rep max – take 95% of your one rep max.

Week 1

• Set 1: 5 reps | 60% of working one rep max
• Set 2: 5 reps | 65% of working one rep max
• Set 3: 5 reps | 75% of working one rep max
• Set 4: 5 reps | 75% of working one rep max

Week 2

• Set 1: 4 reps | 65% of working one rep max
• Set 2: 4 reps | 75% of working one rep max
• Set 3: 4 reps | 85% of working one rep max
• Set 4: 4 reps | 85% of working one rep max

Week 3

• Set 1: 3 reps | 70% of working one rep max
• Set 2: 3 reps | 80% of working one rep max
• Set 3: 3 reps | 90% of working one rep max
• Set 4: 3 reps | 90% of working one rep max

Week 4

• Set 1: 10 reps | 40% of working one rep max
• Set 2: 10 reps | 50% of working one rep max
• Set 3: 10 reps | 60% of working one rep max
• Set 4: 10 reps | 60% of working one rep max

Once the first block of four weeks is complete: add 5-10% to your working one rep max. 5% if progress is slow and 10% if you can reach your target reps comfortably. Use this rule to plan each new four-week block.

You can connect with David Kingsbury at his website, or on twitter.

The Wolverine Workout: Day 1

The Wolverine Workout: Day 2

The Wolverine Workout: Day 3

The Wolverine Workout: Day 4

The Wolverine Workout: Day 5