How Sylvester Stallone Has Adapted His Training Over The Years

Today, much like any other day, Sylvester Stallone hit the gym.

Actually, I’ll rephase that…

… he didn’t just “hit” the gym, he annihilated it!

And the difference with today is that it’s his 75th birthday – but don’t let that fool you into thinking that he’s slowing down. He’s bang in the middle of an action movie double header featuring Alarum and The Epiphany, and intends to leave no stone unturned in is quest to carve yet another on-screen physical masterpiece.

Stallone’s workouts have always fascinated me (in fact, he’s one of the reasons I embarked on a career as a personal trainer), so in this comprehensive article I’m going to give you a detailed breakdown of how he prepared for all of his most famous movie roles.

I’ll also lift the lid on his nutrition preferences, the steroids scandals, and the various adaptations he’s made to his training through the years to allow him to remain in such great shape when most of his contemporaries have swapped their machine guns for slippers.

I hope you enjoy the read!

Stallone’s Unparalleled Drive

As it turns out, those infamous Rocky training montages could’ve been based on Sly’s real life preparation for each movie role.

He would put his body through an insane amount of punishment to display the athletic, chiselled boy we saw in the final product, and this dedication wasn’t lost on his co-stars:

“I have never seen anybody work as hard as this guy to get in shape for a movie role.

When we arrived to work each morning he had already trained, and then we’d have a day of tough shoots – especially in the third Rambo movie because of the heat – but while the rest of us were catching a break he’d go running along the beach, and then return to the gym after dark.”

– Richard Crenna

Then again, should we really expect any less?

I mean, this is the same man who famously:

• Filmed the Rocky II final fight scene after accidentally dropping a 220lb (100kg) weight on himself in the gym.
• Damaged his heart while pulling a bag of rocks during the legendary Rocky IV training montage.
• Broke his neck at age 62 while shooting a battle scene in The Expendables.
• Punched the frozen meat in the first Rocky movie so frantically that he actually flattened his knuckles. Get him to make a fist today, and you can still see the damage!

His First Huge Transformation

Sly will always be remembered for the first Rocky movie from an academic standpoint, but that’s not what we want to talk about.

Converse with any gym rat and they’ll quickly draw your attention to the insane physical transformation he achieved during the less acclaimed sequels and the string of big budget action movies he starred in between 1982-1988.

These include three Rambo movies, two Rocky movies, the 80s-tastic cop thriller Cobra, and family orientated arm-wrestling epic Over The Top.

Let’s look at the first time we really saw him shapeshift; Rocky III.

Sly trained with bodybuilding legend Franco Columbo for 1979s Rocky II, and he enjoyed it so much that he decided to enlist Columbo again for the Rocky III prep. Bodybuilding was incredibly popular at the time, and Stallone was (and still is) a keen fan. Having gained a lot of physical strength for the second movie, he decided that he’d like to bring the character into the next decade by shredding body fat – a look which he would become synonymous for.

It’s hard to argue with the results!

“Man, back in those days I would do literally anything and everything to burn more fat!

I wanted to get as lean as I possibly could.

I’d go for long morning cardio which usually consisted of jogging or swimming, then I’d do about 18 rounds of sparring in the ring for Rocky, and then I’d hit the weights for about two hours… and all of this was while I was also writing, directing, and starring in a movie. I didn’t sleep too much!”

– Sylvester Stallone

Stallone was on a mission to carve the best physique ever captured on the movie screen, and he was spurred on by the emergence of the massive Arnold Schwarzenegger.

Ah-nuld had recently transitioned from the sport of bodybuilding to acting, and he wasted no time outlining his intentions to dominate the action movie genre with his impeccable body and larger-than-life persona.

So while the action movie stars of today can whip themselves into shape without the pressure of a muscle-off versus a 7-time Mr. Olympia winner, Stallone didn’t have such luxuries – he had serious competition, and he knew it!

Thankfully, it helped him elevate his game to new heights.

“I drew up a plan to help Sylvester strip away as much fat as possible, and he achieved some fantastic results from our short time together. You can see those results on display in the movie.

The one thing I can say about Sly is that he is an achiever. A champion. He never sits back and waits for things to happen, he’s the one out there making them happen.”

– Franco Columbo

Columbo had been Schwarzenegger’s best friend for many years, after the pair ruled the bodybuilding world together during the emergence of the sport in the 1970s.

Fully aware that his new protégé would never be able to out-size “The Austrian Oak”, he figured that with the right combination of training and nutrition then maybe, just maybe, he could out-lean him.

This is why many of Sly’s best-known characters ended up being based around athletic ability (boxers, soldiers, rock climbers, etc) and not sheer size.

It’s a decision which worked well for him, as his more grounded, blue collar worker archetype was infinitely more relatable than the roles which Arnold took, and that enabled him to compete.

Anyway, you can see his training split for Rocky III below:

Days	AM	PM
Monday	Chest & shoulders	Arms & abs
Tuesday	Back	Legs
Wednesday	Chest & shoulders	Abs
Thursday	Arms	Abs
Friday	Legs	Back
Saturday	Chest & shoulders	Abs
Sunday	Off	Off

* Also, bear in mind this split is on top of the mind-boggling amount of cardio work Stallone was doing in preparation for the movie (early morning fasted cardio, 18-rounds of sparring per day).

“It looks like a lot, but training was never a problem. Sly was very competitive so it was easy for me to motivate him to come to the gym every day and work hard.

I was still an active bodybuilder at the time, and I was much stronger than him on most of our lifts, which he hated! I knew that by constantly leading the way and tapping into his competitive nature, he would continue adding more reps and more weight. So if I tried to lift a heavy weight for ten reps, he’d come in and try to get at least seven or eight reps, and then I’d go for fifteen reps, and he’d find a way to force himself to get at least ten reps out… it was a lot of fun!

You should’ve seen how strong he got while we trained together. By the end of the preparation he was curling 70lb (30kg) dumbbells – and bear in mind he only weighed 166lbs (75kg) himself!”

– Franco Columbo

If you’re wondering why there are certain workouts on this training split which are dedicated entirely to abs, it’s because these were no ordinary abs workouts.

You see, Stallone and Columbo would regularly get caught up in insane 1000 rep abs circuits consisting of:

• Lying leg raises
• Abs crunches
• Side leg raises
• Dumbbell side bends

“Some of those workouts got crazy. I would sometimes joke around and say ‘Hey, let’s add more sets!’ just to make him think I was nuts, but Sly would just agree and do them!

Most of the time we would train instinctively, by removing exercises which we felt were no longer necessary (for body parts which we felt were already where we wanted them to be) and pushing harder on exercises where we felt the muscle needed more development. Sylvester got hooked on this process, because the more results he saw in the mirror, the more he wanted to train.

I am so pleased with the results we achieved.

By the time we finished he had gained about 10lbs overall, but his waistline was very, very small at just 29 inches. Also, when we started he had a chest of 44 inches and 16.5 inch arms, but at the end his chest had shot up to 50 inches, and his arms were 18 inches.”

– Franco Columbo

In fact, it was this competitive nature which actually led to Stallone having to change the storyline for Rocky II, after an impromptu bench press challenge with Columbo got out of hand.

“Yeah, it was too easy for him to get inside my head like that!

I’d be thinking I couldn’t lift a certain weight, but then watching Franco do it right in front of me would light a fire in my gut, and a battle would begin which wasn’t always the smartest move on my part because he’s a former professional strongman champion.

About three months after we started training together in 1979, Franco challenged me to a bench press competition and against my better judgement I accepted his invitation without really thinking about it. I tore my pec clean off the bone – an injury you can still see now when I take my shirt off! – and this was only six weeks before the production of Rocky II was due to start.

I went home that day thinking “My career might be over.”

I’m supposed to direct, and star, and fight in this movie but I can’t use this arm at all… so I decided to change the script so that Rocky fights as a right-handed fighter in Rocky II.

It was completely illogical, because I’m left-handed so I had six weeks to learn how to become a right-handed fighter (just like Rocky did in the movie), but I wasn’t going to miss out on that movie because of an injury.”

– Sylvester Stallone

During the time he spent with Columbo, Stallone was able to increase his muscle mass by about 12%, and radically reduce his body fat percentage.

In fact, Rocky III is still recognized in The Guinness Book Of World Records to this day for having the lowest body fat percentage ever achieved by an actor for a movie – an astonishing 2.8%!

Unfortunately for Stallone, such an insane training regimen and heavy workload can’t help but open up a can of worms, and that’s precisely what happened during the shooting of the movie…

“I would not advise anyone to do what I did in those days.

That was a dark period for me, and definitely not a lifestyle I could have sustained.

At my strictest point I was only eating very small portions of oatmeal cookies (made with brown rice), a couple of scoops of tuna fish, and drinking about 25 cups of black coffee per day – so I may have looked pretty on the outside, but on the inside I was a mess!

However, I wanted Rocky III to be about change, and how people either get squashed by new challenges or adapt and conquer them, so in a way, my physical transformation was part of this process.

Now, this movie had three fight scenes in total, and spending four months of rehearsals getting smashed in the face by the super-strong Mr. T tends to wear a person out (!), so when I wasn’t directing the scenes I would go to the corner of the ring and do a handstand to try to circulate some blood back into my head so that I could focus on the complex fight choreography. Like I said, it looked great on camera, but it definitely didn’t feel great.

It’s funny, I never knew this picture existed!”

– Sylvester Stallone

His Greatest Physique

By the midpoint of the 80s, Stallone had reached the apex of his career.

1985 brought a double-whammy of huge box office success, first with the summer release of Rambo: First Blood Part II, then with the Christmas release of Rocky IV.

Interestingly, the latter remained the highest grossing sports film ever made until 2010.

And the shape achieved by Stallone across these two particular movies is still widely considered to be the benchmark for the best physique ever displayed on screen.

“Such is the pressure with these iconic roles, I always worked even harder whenever I had a new Rocky or Rambo movie coming up.

I was stuck in a war with my own body, where I had to top what I did in the previous movie.

I remember I used to own a machine like an escalator (today this is known as a StepMill), and I would pile 50lbs (23kg) into a backpack and start each day by climbing those stairs forever.”

– Sylvester Stallone

Here’s the problem, though…

When you achieved a world record low 2.8% body fat for the previous movie, how the fuck do you top that?

That’s the challenge which Stallone faced as he geared up for fourth instalment in his beloved Rocky franchise, and he decided that the answer was to go in the opposite direction; instead of focusing on shredding fat, he wanted to carve a more well-built muscular physique.

Unfortunately, his diet was still just as crazy as ever.

“Oh, how I wish I knew then what I know now. I was so unhealthy, and I wouldn’t want anyone to copy what I did, but at the time all that mattered to me was the end result.
It might sound crazy, but there was even a phase where the only food I ate was burnt toast.

I mean, come on, burnt toast?!?!

I looked fantastic for a little while, and that was probably my best shape overall in Rocky IV, but what you can’t see in the movie is that I was quite literally running myself into the ground.

Nowadays, I’ve learned much more about how to look after my body and keep on top of my training and diet without needing all the extreme methods I used to try. That’s definitely the approach I’d advise you to take – above everything else, be healthy!”

– Sylvester Stallone

The preparation for Rocky IV saw Sly return to his old coach Franco Columbo.

This time he brought a friend; 6’5 Swedish martial arts expert Dolph Lundgren.

In a moment where art seemed to imitate life, Dolph would be making his acting debut portraying Arnold Schwarzenegger from The Terminator the over-sized, robotic, seemingly merciless rival whom Stallone Rocky had the daunting task of battling.

The pair spent the summer of 1985 training with Columbo at World Gym in Venice Beach, California (no, sadly the training didn’t take place in a Russian barn – nor was the movie itself shot in Russia, it was actually shot in Wyoming, Canada).

He had a very clear vision in mind for the body he wanted to achieve:

“In our first telephone conversation about preparing him for Rocky IV, when Sly told me he wanted to be in even better shape than the last movie I laughed at him!

I told him, “We got down to 2.8% body fat, where is there to go? My friend, you’d have to be a skeleton with muscles!”

I’m convinced that he had all the right ingredients to become a top bodybuilder if he had decided to do it when he was younger. There was something driving him from within, he was always pushing himself to the next level in the gym.”

– Franco Columbo

Just like last time, the production of Rocky IV had its own fair share of problems.

This time, however, it was less to do with Stallone’s crazy diet and more to do with the extremity of the training methods shown in the now legendary Rocky IV training montage.

“I just heard a snap. Boom. Done.”

– Sylvester Stallone

That “snap” was the moment Sly damaged his heart (!) while performing a set of overhead triceps extensions with a huge bag of heavy rocks that was winched across the ceiling of a barn (because why not?).

You can see the famous moment above.

Filming was subsequently halted for two months in order to prevent workaholic Stallone from doing further damage.

Upon his return, he decided to jump straight into shooting the movie’s climactic end scene with Dolph Lundgren. Wanting to make the big fight seem as realistic as possible to the audience, Stallone would occasionally instruct his gigantic co-star to land actual blows on him.

One of those (an uppercut to the ribcage) sent Sly straight back to hospital.

“We filmed the last fight quite early in the shooting, and the next day I received a phone call from the direction telling me I have two weeks off.

I thought I must be getting fired over something, but a few days into the break I found out that Mr. Stallone was in hospital.

Look, he was under a lot of stress, too, which probably contributed. I don’t know how he handled all of that. He was spending twelve hours per day fighting me, I’m a decade younger than he is and at the time I was the European Heavyweight Karate Champion, and he was also balancing this against his own training schedule, dieting down, writing the movie, producing the movie, making sure I knew what I’m doing because I’d never done anything like this before, and then he was directing it all too… that’s an insane amount of stress for any one man to be under.

So when he says that (coughs) somebody named Ivan Drago punched him in the ribs and bruised his heart muscles, yeah, maybe that’s right, but I think all that other stuff definitely played a part in him needing some help, too.”

– Dolph Lundgren

It was during the preparation for this movie (1985) when Sly began implementing a few new training methods into his regimen off his own back.

These included high intensity interval training (HIIT) and circuit training.

This extra work only added to the madness of Columbo’s already demanding regimen, but props must be given to Stallone for being on the cutting edge of the fitness world at the time, becoming the first Hollywood star to incorporate such methods years before any real science proved how effective they can be.

Stallone would group several exercises for the same body part together into a gruelling circuit and then move from one station to the next, with minimal rest, until the target muscle had nothing left in the tank.

It’s a training style which has since become known as HIRT (high intensity resistance training). These sessions were all-out wars not too dissimilar from the battles featured in the movie itself.

Check out this arm workout from his Rocky IV prep:

The double-header of Rambo II (below) and Rocky IV proved a huge financial success for Sly.

He decided to maintain this ultra-lean shape for Cobra (1986), and Over The Top (1987), and Rambo III (1988), which turned out to be the final time he would use this relentless workout program (more on why later).

By the start of 1988, Sly was locked in an engaging onscreen rivalry with bodybuilding legend Arnold Schwarzenegger.

Schwarzenegger regularly gained the upper hand over Stallone at the box office, because despite not having a franchise of his own (The Terminator was a single movie at this point), The Austrian Oak was astute at landing roles in ground-breaking action sci-fi projects (Conan, The Running Man, Predator) whereas Sly seemed struggled outside of the safety net of his Rocky and Rambo characters.

Stallone decided to go “all in” on this battle for 1988s Rambo III, where he fully embraced his love for bodybuilding and set about gaining more size than he’d had in any of his roles to date.

He used the good old StepMill (argh!) to shred fat and drop down to a miniscule 155lbs nine months before shooting began, and then bulked up to an impressively muscular 200lbs for the movie itself.

When compared to the 173lbs he weighed in Rambo II, or the even smaller 166lbs he weighed in Rocky III, it was a phenomenal achievement to retain his trademark leanness considering he’d gained 30-40lbs!

“Yeah, that’s a fair assessment of where I was at.

When I was being presented with potential ideas for Rambo III, I didn’t really like the way I looked anymore. I wanted to hit the rest button and go for more size.

So I cut right down, stripping away as much body fat as I possibly could, and then I bulked up to around 200lbs, which was pretty much all muscle! I think I was at 3.8% body fat for that movie.”

– Sylvester Stallone

Interestingly, it was this movie prep which led to Sly discovering his all-time favourite abs exercise:

“Oh, whenever I think of the third Rambo movie I think of broomstick twists! That’s the exercise, that simple move right there, which gave me those Rambo III abs. I would do them every day, and man do they burn!”

– Sylvester Stallone

The 90s Were All About Size

The third Rambo instalment marked the last time Stallone teamed up with Franco Columbo.

As he entered the 1990s, he arrived at a career crossroads.

He was able to command upwards of $20 million per role, which was a fuck-tonne of money at that time, and remains a lot even now (Kevin Hart was paid the same amount in 2022 for his role in mega-sequel Jumanji: The Next Level), but Stallone felt that his body could no longer handle the rigours of his traditional preparations as he entered his late forties.

In response, he decided to overhaul both his training and nutrition.

From this point forward he would handle all of his own programming and his diet, and he stopped training in public gyms like Gold’s Gym and World Gym, instead opting to workout in the exclusive “members only” facility owned by celebrity trainer Gunnar Peterson, where he has remained ever since.

“When I look back at the way I used to train in the 80s, I can’t believe it!

I started to feel the damage from it towards the end of the 80s, when I was shooting a prison movie called Lock Up. I like the movie, but my biggest memory from it is how ravaged my body felt from all the injuries I was carrying at the time.

During the filming I started to overhaul everything; first moving to Gunnar’s place so I could do my own program, and then getting really into the science of nutrition and supplementation. I found it fascinating.

Taking things down a notch helped me stay injury-free, but I was still training hard. I might have been in the gym less, but I believe I was far more efficient with the limited time I had. For example, the shape I had in movies like Cliffhanger and The Specialist was achieved while only lifting weights three days per week.”

– Sylvester Stallone

The benefits of these changes really started showing around 1993.

After appearing a little off colour (although still more than what most could call “good shape”) in Rocky V (1990) and the dreadful Stop! Or My Mom Will Shoot! (1992), Sly arrived on the set of Demolition Man looking like a man reborn.

He appeared to have a much more muscular frame than we’d seen in previous movies.

It’s a look which he maintained throughout a period of big budget action movies which were hits-and-misses including Demolition Man (hit), The Specialist (miss), Assassins (hit), and Judge Dredd (miss).

“I understand why people think Rocky IV or Rambo III was my best shape, but Cliffhanger tops them all for me. I’d never felt better!”

– Sylvester Stallone

Stallone’s new-found confidence in handling his own training and nutrition seemed to encourage him to take on more challenging roles as he neared the big 50.

We first saw this in the 1995 disaster epic Daylight (above), in which he appeared significantly trimmed down from the muscular build he had in the previous year’s projects.

This was followed-up two years later with a show-stealing performance alongside the great Robert De Niro in crime thriller CopLand (below). Sly piled on a whopping 50lbs for this role – something we would never have imagined just ten years beforehand!

“I totally get it, by the way (laughs)!

I went crazy for CopLand. If you can name it, I probably took a bite out of it! Every day was donuts, cakes, ice cream, pizzas… it was fun!

So I totally get why people eat junk food and such, but I don’t think I could ever live like that permanently. I love the feeling of being in shape more than I like the taste of junk food.”

– Sylvester Stallone

When CopLand wrapped, Sly spent almost a year shedding those unwanted pounds.

He re-emerged in early 2000 carrying a freakish amount of muscle mass for the re-make of Get Carter (below), where he would star alongside Mickey Rourke.

After becoming synonymous with one particular look for so long, the 1990s demonstrated just how adept Stallone had become at mastering the art of body transformations, with each role (particularly in the latter half of the decade) a polar opposite of the last!

Adapting To The 2000s

This 2000s were mostly a rebuilding phase for Sly.

He was approaching 60 years old and had faded from the Hollywood limelight (not just him, but action movies in general).#

The early part of the decade saw the release of a string of box office flops (Drive, Avenging Angelo, D-Tox), and it looked like being all she wrote.

He was also experiencing some problems in the gym, as four decades of lifting weights had begun taking a serious toll on his joints, and he was choosing to cover up his physique on the big screen for the first time in his career.

Thankfully, he didn’t quit!

Instead, just like he downsized his monstrous 80s program in the early 1990s, Sly was now downsizing again in order to get back to doing what he does best.

He moved to a full-body program, and also replaced a few exercises which he no longer felt he could perform effectively. One of these was traditional sit-ups, which he swapped out for crunches performed on a Swiss ball after experiencing recurring lower back pain in the late 90s, (that’s right, Rocky hasn’t done a sit-up since 1997!). Barbell squats were another, as Sly’s knees could no longer take the pounding.

The majority of production companies were reluctant to take a chance on Sly’s vision for a new Rocky movie after such a turbulent start to the 2000s, but he was finally able to persuade Sony to green light the project, and it turned out to be the shot in the arm he needed.

Rocky Balboa (2006) was a huge success, taking the franchise back to it’s best and landing Stallone a Golden Globe nomination in the process.

However, Sly describes the training program as the toughest he ever experienced:

“The training for this movie was so injury prone, even for me!

If we could add up all the injuries I had during the first five movies, I think the injuries I got making Rocky Balboa would still be a bigger number. I broke my foot, I had a bulging disc in my neck, I shredded my calf muscle, the list could go on for quite a while.

By this point in my life I guess my joints were really worn down, so I’d come home every night with inflammation around muscles I didn’t even know existed. Every day felt like an Advil day!”

– Sylvester Stallone

Continuing the trend of the Rocky movies mirroring Stallone’s real life, the sixth movie depicts an aging character struggling to find his place in the new world.

Clever references to his frustrations at getting older, and having his license withheld, and being dismissed by the media as a “Balboa-saurus” not only featured in the movie’s plot, but also told the story of Stallone’s experience in trying to get the movie made in the first place.

Physique-wise, Sly wanted to make Rocky Balboa as realistic as possible:

“Yeah, I wanted to Rocky to come across as a guy who still takes care of himself but obviously isn’t in his prime.

It would be silly to have him looking better than a much younger fighter, right?

This one wasn’t really about the opponent. Not really. The journey of Rocky Balboa was more about me trying to prove to myself that I can still do this at the level I want to do it. I carried so much anger inside of me, and so much frustration at being written off by everybody.

That’s my favourite Rocky movie, because you’re seeing 100% real emotion.”

– Sylvester Stallone

The renewed sense of self-confidence Sly drew from the success of Rocky Balboa pushed him to make another Rambo, too.

His transformation for this movie was truly monstrous.

“Two years after Rocky Balboa I decided to do another Rambo.

I got the chance to do something I’ve always wanted to do with this character by giving him this strong, lumberjack-like physique, you now? Not the bodybuilder shape of the 80s, but a big, broad and powerful-looking.

I believe that would represent the type of life he’d be living at that point in time.

This was one of my favourite body transformations because I had to be creative. I’m not very tall, so to achieve this powerful-looking frame I emphasized certain muscle groups in the gym in order to create the illusion of being much bigger. A tip for any guys reading this who, perhaps like me, don’t have the height advantage but want to do the same thing; you should be training your traps and your forearms super hard! That’s what I did for Rambo IV, and also for The Expendables.”

– Sylvester Stallone

Sly’s Second Coming

If few could have predicted the unexpected success of Rocky Balboa and Rambo, then nobody was expecting what came next.

In early 2010, Stallone announced that his next project would be an action movie ensemble featuring all of his old 1980s and 1990s contemporaries.

This kind of thing had never been done before on this scale, and the unique “freak show” appeal of seeing Sly on the same screen as Bruce Willis, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Jet Li (and so many more) made The Expendables a sure-fire box office smash.

It also created a very unique environment for the actors to train in.

“I remember walking into the gym on the first day of prep, and Sylvester was already there. It looked like he’d been there for a while, too, because sweat was pouring off him.

I shit myself, to be honest!

I’ve always taken my physical preparations for a movie project very seriously, but I was shocked at how much more ready Sly seemed to be versus where I was at. I remember thinking to myself, “I’d better get my fuckin’ act together!”

I guess I was guilty of misreading the situation, because we had a bunch of guys who all make similar movies so I thought we’d all just get along great, but it became incredibly competitive. There were lots of bruised egos in the gym, especially me in that exact moment!”

– Jason Statham

The leaner, more athletic shape Stallone displayed in The Expendables came as a result of knuckling down on the full-body program he first used for Rocky Balboa.

He also continued placing extra emphasis on muscle groups which he knew would be shown on screen (e.g. forearms), just like Rambo.

“Over the years, my biggest flaw was probably doing too much. In the gym six days per week, doing even more sit-ups at home each night.. my body was in a constant state of breakdown.

I guess some people would call it overtraining.

Now I focus on a whole variety of full-body exercises but I keep my gym time to 90 minutes per workout and I only train three times per week. I’ve been doing some form of this program since the early 90s.”

– Sylvester Stallone

This training style inevitably limited how much muscle he could build (especially versus his lengthy 80s workouts), but it allowed him to trim down impressively, steer clear of injuries (for the most part), and attain a level of conditioning which most guys half his age can’t match.

It worked so well that Sly maintained the look throughout the remainder of the 2010s; looking lean alongside old rival Arnold Schwarzenegger in Escape Plan (2013), bringing Rambo back one more time in Last Blood (2019), and even having the confidence to go shirtless (at the age of 65!) in Bullet To The Head (2013).

Stallone’s second coming seemed to have a positive effect on his action movie buddies, too.

Jason Statham was able to catapult himself into the top tier of action movie royalty, Dolph Lundgren experienced a career resurrection after his stellar role in the first Expendables movie led to a show-stealing performance as the villainous Ivan Drago in Creed II (2018), and after accepting a role in The Expendables 2, and the troubled Jean-Claude Van Damme packed on an impressive amount of muscle mass and got his career back on track.

As Rambo would say, “Mission accomplished!”

Stallone And Steroids

We can’t talk about Sylvester Stallone without mentioning steroids.

Rumours of steroid abuse have followed him throughout his whole career, and he has always remained very tight-lipped on the matter.

I’ve personally never understood why actors do this.

They are not competing in a sport, so it shouldn’t be a problem, and while the general reasoning for not admitting drug use is that it may encourage members of the public to do the same, I’d argue that flat out denying it when it’s clear and obvious actually does more harm than good, because it causes people to unnecessarily beat themselves up for not being able to achieve the same level of results when they follow the program and diet themselves.

And I say this without giving a single fuck if you’re Stallone getting shredded for Rambo, or The Rock getting huge for Central Intelligence, or Zac Efron bulking up for Baywatch; actors use steroids, deal with it!

In fact, what pisses me off more is the bullshit:

“When I started training for Rambo III back in 1987, I used to take this amino acid that’s supposedly nearly as strong as anabolic steroids. It’s about 15x more powerful than the usual amino acid supplements, but it gave none of the raw edge, the anger, and the side effects that would come from steroids.

All steroids really do is make you a big, cumbersome, ape-like goon.”

– Sylvester Stallone

I love Sly, but this is nonsense.

The negative stigma around steroids in the 1980s caused many actors (Sly included) to worry that it may hurt their career to discuss it, so you’d often hear illogical explanations like this when reporters would put them on the spot.

Of course, the fact that he was trained by Franco Columbo pretty much tells us all we need to know. Steroid abuse was rampant among the so-called “golden era” of bodybuilding (1970-1980), and Sly was amongst this group. Also, the advancements we have made in sports science and supplementation since then show that there’s no amino acid as powerful as the one he is describing.

Fast-forward to 2008, and Stallone was arrested by Australian authorities when they found him in possession of human growth hormone (HGH) during the media tour for Rambo IV.

HGH exploded onto the underground bodybuilding scene at the tail-end of the 80s, and many popular WWE wrestlers of the time (Ultimate Warrior, British Bulldog, Macho Man Randy Savage) were known users.

Perhaps this is what Sly was referring to as the “super powerful amino acid”?

When questioned on the matter, Sly defended his use of human growth hormone, and rejected claims that he couldn’t have achieved his Rambo physique without it.

I partially agree with him on this.

Sure, the HGH played a huge role in helping him pack on lean muscle mass at 60+ years old, but Stallone correctly pointed out that it takes years of hard work and discipline to be able to strip yourself of body fat in the manner he does for roles, and it’s not as simple as taking human growth hormone – otherwise everybody would do it!

“Human growth hormone is nothing, really. Anyone who calls it a steroid is grossly misinformed. I mainly use it to fight back against the wear and tear my joints have endured from years of heavy lifting, because it has some wonderful recuperative benefits. Testosterone is also very important for my sense of wellbeing as I get older.

Everybody over 40 would be wise to look into it, because mark my words, in ten years it’ll be over the counter.”

– Sylvester Stallone

He was spot on about this. Testosterone replacement therapy (TRT) no longer has the shady stigma around it, and more guys than ever before are looking into it as they get into their 40s and 50s.

Sly On Diet And Junk Food

The Sylvester Stallone of today is very different to the one who ruled the 1980s.

Back in those days, Sly used every trick in the book to shred as much fat as possible before a movie – and he didn’t care how bad it would make him feel, or the negative effects it may have on him in the weeks that followed the shoot.

Thankfully, he ditched the extreme diets as he got older.

“Nowadays, I think of my body as a sports car.

I’ll fill it up with ‘fuel’ for whatever job it needs to do. If it’s a day where I’ll be working out then I’ll prepare myself with the right nutrition to enhance my training, but if it’s a non-training day then I’ll usually cut my intended calories in half.

This simple approach means that I can stay in shape all year round without even having to think about it.”

– Sylvester Stallone

I think we can agree than this is nowhere near as crazy as the shit he used to do (caffeine, burnt toast, blood circulation handstands, etc).

And in a world where people often over-complicate the ins and outs of nutrition, and get caught up in cray fad diets like cabbage soup and juice shakes, isn’t it refreshing to learn that Sylvester Stallone himself takes a fairly straightforward approach?

I think so.

“Now that I’m older I just want to stay healthy.

I know for a fact that I would not have been able to carry on doing what I do at the level I do it had I stuck to my old methods.

A lot of my beliefs about food have changed over the years, for example nowadays I think it’s okay to eat anything in moderation.

But one rule I’ve always stood by – still to this day – is to make sure my diet contains lots of easily digestible sources of protein, like chicken and fish, and avoid foods which I know my stomach will struggle with, like red meat, which I haven’t really included in my diet for about 20 years.

That being said, I like to be prepared for every possible situation, so I visit McDonald’s once per month to eat a burger! While filming Cobra my diet was so strict I remember grabbing some hot dogs on set, and because I my body hadn’t digested that type of food in so long I got the worst stomach cramps I’ve ever had in my life. Ever since then I’ve eaten fast food now and then just so I don’t get those convulsions. So that’s my workaround for those situations, and it works just fine.”

– Sylvester Stallone

Everything in moderation, folks, and that’s from Rambo himself!

Which Supplements Does Stallone Use?

Stallone was an innovator in this field during the 2000s.

It’s one instance where he and Arnold took very different paths, because while Arnie just lent his image rights to established brand (Musclepharm) so they could release a whey protein with his face on it, Sly went as far as to create his own supplement company from the ground up!

It was called Instone, and it launched in 2004 to coincide with the release of Sly Magazine (a fitness/lifestyle mag aimed at guys over 40) and boxing show The Contender.

To be fair to Stallone, his supplement brand was light years ahead of its time.

They put out a range of products which were significantly stronger than their rivals; these included a delicious low carb protein pudding, an interesting creatine-infused post-workout recovery drink, and a BCAA supplement with doses that would still be competitive in today’s market.

Sadly, Instone turned out to be a short-lived affair as the brand ran into legal troubles when the firm they hired to create the aforementioned high protein pudding was sued for stealing the concept from a rival, and the headaches caused by “Pudding-gate” convinced Sly to move on.

Instone did leave us with one very cool innovation, though, in that they were first supplement company to develop a dedicated pre-workout and a post-workout combo. This is a trend which eventually caught on in the mid-2010s, and is now widely considered “the norm”.

Anyway, Stallone hasn’t been contractually involved with a supplement company since Instone, but he remains a big fan of the industry and stays up to date with the latest advancements by attending fitness expos. Stallone supports his training with the following supplements:

• Whey Protein
• Pre-Workout
• Creatine Monohydrate
• BCAAs
• Omega-3
• Multivitamin & Minerals

So there you have it!

I hope you’ve enjoyed reading my comprehensive round-up of the workouts and diets (some crazier than others) Sly has used throughout his career to get in shape for his biggest roles.

If you have a pal who loves all things Stallone be sure to share this post with them, it will make their day.

And the next time you have a day where you don’t feel like going to the gym, just remember, somewhere out there a 75 year old Stallone is pressing a dumbbell bigger than your face!

Further Reading:

If you enjoyed this blog, then you’ll probably also like reading these.

>> The Rules To Ripped
>> Stallone Was Right: Circuit Training Rocks!
>> How Jason Statham Trained For All His Biggest Roles