To quote the great John J. Rambo:
“In order to win a war, you gotta become war!”
Yes, this nasty 6-week program puts a fresh twist on Sylvester Stallone’s infamously over-the-top training routine, which he used during the preparations for Rambo: First Blood Part II (1985).
You won’t be spending 6 hours per day in the gym like Sly, of course, but you’ll apply many of the exact same techniques he used as you set about carving your own “action hero body”!
Program length: 6 weeks.
Frequency: 5-6 workouts per week.
Session breakdown: You’ll use a 3-day split (upper/lower/arms) consisting of various intensity-boosting techniques.
Rep ranges used: Moderate and high.
Muscle buster techniques: Supersets, tri-sets and dropsets.
Workout Calendar
This is a 6-week program and you’ll be hitting the gym 5-6x per week
- Monday: Upper
- Tuesday: Lower
- Wednesday: Arms
- Thursday: Upper
- Friday: Lower
- Saturday: Arms or recovery day
- Sunday: Recovery day
If you are quite new to training (less than 2 years of experience) then you’ll be absolutely fine using your Saturday as an additional recovery day, but for more experience lifters I recommend packing in some extra volume by way of a second arm workout.
Rambo Mode: ON!
Make no mistake, Sylvester Stallone is a fucking beast.
The transformation he achieved in for the 1985 double-header of Rocky IV and Rambo: First Blood Part II is the stuff of Hollywood legend, and to this day is still considered the best physique ever seen on the big screen.
However, his training routine was equally fucking insane.
“Oh man, back in those days I wanted to be as lean as humanly possible!
I’d do literally anything and everything to burn more fat.
I’d go for long morning cardio, which usually consisted of jogging or swimming for an hour or two, then I’d do 18 rounds of sparring for Rocky, then I’d hit the gym for about two hours… and this was every single day… and all while I was writing, directing, and starring in a movie!
Yeah, I didn’t sleep too much!”
– Sylvester Stallone
Learning how crazy his training program was caused frustration for many of Stallone’s fans, who wanted to train like Sly but didn’t realize the insane lengths he was going to.
Most people simply couldn’t do it; either due to to physical, financial, or time constraints.
Even now, his training program from the mid-80s remains one of the most searched celebrity workout programs online (and a popular topic whenever I ask a new client about the type of boy they’d like to own one day!), and people are inevitably disappointed when they discover how un-followable it is.
That’s why I sat down and created this program.
It took me fucking ages, so I hope you enjoy the shit out of it!
My objective was to design a workout program which applies all of the same training techniques which Sly favoured back in the day, but to do so in a manner which can easily fit into the busy life of a so-called “normal person”. I realize that you don’t have 6-hours per day to exercise (!), nor are you pumping your body full of “vitamin S” (!!), and I created this program to help you unlock a phenomenal action hero transformation regardless!!!
The 4 Key Components Of "Become War"
When you’ve studied Stallone’s training for as long as me, you’ll notice there’s four things which keep popping up.
These four things are the pillars of this program, so let’s take a look:
- Grouped exercises
At a time when the gym masses were trying to copy Ah-nuld’s bodybuilding-style workouts, Stallone veered off in the opposite direction.
He’d often group exercises together into banks of two, three, or four, creating brutal circuit-style weights sessions which incorporated elements of HIIT (long before the mainstream knew about it).
This made a lot of sense considering Stallone’s end goal was to carve a lean and athletic physique, because we now know that this is a fantastic way to shred fat in the gym (as evidenced by his results on the big screen!). (1, 2, 3, 4, 5)
With that in mind, you’re going to be training in a similar fashion by grouping your exercises into supersets (two exercises performed back-to-back), tri-sets (three exercises performed back-to-back), and dropsets (a heavy set immediately followed by a light set), because that’s exactly how Stallone liked to do it!
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