Man, if there is one topic that is HOT as hell right now it’s gotta be Twilight New Moon, and frankly the whole craze is getting a little annoying. Don’t get me wrong, I’m a HUGE vampire fan but the Twilight vampires are LAME. Sparkling in the sun? Dumb little love stories? No thanks… I prefer my vicious vampires that have an attitude and who burn to a nice crisp in the presence of UV rays. Underworld style. But… that’s not what I’m here to talk about.

I’m here to talk about the person who’s at the center of this crazy hot topic, Taylor Lautner… and how he managed to pack on 30lbs of solid mass in a particularly short amount of time. Being in the fitness industry, it was pretty much guaranteed that I’d get email or two (or 11) asking if I knew “how he did it?”

If I knew? OF COURSE I know how he fucking did it! I’d be a failure of a fitness trainer and writer if I didn’t. So instead of emailing everyone individually, I figured I write up the EXACT blue print of how Taylor did it, so you can learn from it. Read that again… “so you can learn from it”, not “so you can follow exactly what he did”.

Why do I say this? Because if you follow what Taylor did, you will most likely NOT see the dramatic results that he did. Taylor had a BUNCH of factors stacked in his favour which allowed him to get to his desired goal and unless you do too, there are certain things you’re going to have to do differently.

Understanding Taylor’s Workout Routine

First and foremost, Taylor used weights and resistance bands. There should be absolutely no doubts to this fact. And he didn’t just lift weights, he lifted HEAVY WEIGHTS… beyond the limits of what his old muscles of capable of, which stimulated growth. On top of that he did it continuously over a period of time.

It’s called progressive overload, and basically it means that once you recover from a workout, the next time you perform that workout, you lift a heavier load. If  you decide NOT to do this and lift the same shit over and over, then guess what? You ain’t gona grow son!

Then of course we have workout variation. Now for some people, just varying the amount of weight they lift is good enough, but not if you want to see the dramatic results Taylor did. I doubt he did the same workout for more than a few weeks… it would cause him to plateau and this would be catastrophic as far as growth is concerned. If you remember a while back I wrote an article about How Everything Works Once, and that concept certainly applies here.

While I was doing some research for this article, I remember watching an interview where Taylor said he worked out quite often. Everyday, in fact. At first I was like “Wha…?” and wasn’t sure if he said this to throw everyone off (since he doesn’t reveal much about his workouts anyways) or if he was telling the truth by being vague. I mean what does “everyday” consist of? Weight training one day and yoga the next? But then I realized that he most probably DID do a high volume workout (probably with bands and weights) since he had a few of those “factors” I was talking about that worked in his favour.

Jordan Yuam was Taylor’s trainer, and was responsible for helping him achieve this feat of gaining mass. After looking him up, I realized that Jordan seems to favour isolation workouts. At least from what I saw he does… and this was a little bit baffling. While I’m sure Jordan made Taylor do a bunch of full-body exercises, I have no doubts that a TONNE of isolation movements were involved such as curls, extensions etc. Again, you’ll see why this worked and why it might not for YOU specifically. Now let’s move on to what Taylor put in his mouth.

A Breakdown Of Taylor’s Nutrition

There is no secret here, Taylor was force fed every 2 hours… no matter what the situation was. Notice I said force fed and not “voluntarily ate”. If Taylor was doing an interview and it was time to eat, it was time to eat. If he was sleeping and it was time for his mid-night protein shake to keep his muscles fed, he got a call from his trainer. Now I’m not saying he was baby-sat 24/7… he brought a big bag of food along with him on set and I’m sure he did some of his own eating too, but the 2 hour frequency was a key aspect.

Another key aspect was the macronutrient ratio. I’m not sure exactly what his breakdown was but what I’d recommend to anyone with the same goal would be 50% protein, 25% fat and 25% carbs. And those fats would consist of ONLY heart healthy fats such as olive oil etc. not bull crap such as hydrogenated silliness. As far as carbs go… nothing high glycemic unless it’s immediately after post-workout for an insulin spike.

Then we have supplements… as far as I know, he used whey protein without a doubt and I’d be very surprised if creatine wasn’t thrown into his “diet”. I also suspect the basics such as fish oils and a complete multi-vitamin was mandatory… if they weren’t, it’s something you should definitely look into.

Factors Stacked In Taylor’s Favour

Here is where we get to the core and WHY Taylor’s actions produced results. There is no doubt that the plan set forth by his trainer was effective, (as a shit load of screaming female fans already know) but if it was used by someone who was say… 30 years old, it would not be as effective. Here’s why:

Testosterone: Taylor is 17 years old. SEVENTEEN! He’s a fucking kid… and a male who is in his teens has the highest amount of natural testosterone than he ever will in this entire life. The natural production of “T” peaks at around his age, and ask any pro bodybuilder… it’s a KEY ingredient when you want to plan for maximum muscle gains. If you aren’t 17, you need alternate ways to boost your testosterone levels.

Flexibility: Here’s something interesting, me and Taylor came from a VERY similar background. It’s called XMA (Xtreme Martial Arts). It’s also known as tricking and practitioners are called “tricksters”. The difference is how we stemmed off. Taylor took XMA all the way and competed in it and became world champion. I did XMA but I wasn’t serious about it so I went the trickster route and eventually ended up in competitive Power Tumbling and coaching Gymnastics. I liked flipping more than kicking… martial arts to me was a serious business, meant for real world defence. So how does this relate to his massive muscle gains? One word… FLEXIBILITY.

Being a martial artist, Taylor is flexible, and that means the fasica over his muscles allow his them to grow without restriction. If you aren’t stretching your muscles HARDCORE after weight training… good luck trying to get big fast. It’s just not going to happen (unless you inject yourself site-enhancing oils and stretch them out that way… definitely NOT recommended for 99.99% of the population)

Clearly Already In Shape

A Solid Foundation:

Another advantage of being a martial artist world champion was that he had good worth ethic and a solid foundation. He might not have been big but he was already in great shape… this is why those isolation workouts were effective. See, isolation movements should be done once you’re already in shape, they are to DETAIL what you have already built.

You wouldn’t furnish a house before it was BUILT would you? Then why would you do curls before you have powerful arms? It’s idiotic. You want biceps? Put down the dumbbells and go do some damn chin-ups. You want a spectacular back? Forget lawnmowers and start doing some pull-ups and barbell rows ya wimp!

High Metabolism:

This took everything to a whole new level for Lautner. Not only did he have an already insane metabolic rate to begin with, he also lifted some heavy shit resulting in a spike in natural HGH (human growth hormone) levels, leaving his metabolic rate spiked for hours afterwards. It’s like having an already well-going fire and then pouring gasoline over it… you know, just in case.

Motivation:

And finally… unlike you, Taylor was in a do-or-die situation. If he didn’t pack on some mass, he was going to be replaced by some other actor who had a more commanding presence. I’m not exactly sure how much they paid Taylor but let me tell you something, there is NO WAY he was going to let some chump just come in and take his fame and fortune because he had slightly bigger biceps. Failure was not an option… and to make sure it wasn’t, Taylor got a personal trainer.

Remember what I talked about in Nutrition? Yeah… Jordan Yuam fed the living SHIT out of him. He didn’t really care what Taylor was doing, if he had to eat, he had to eat. Good on him, that’s what I call a dedicated guy!

A Workout To Get You Results

So there you go, now you know how and why Taylor was able to get in shape for his role. Make no mistake about it though, the kid busted his ass to put on those 30lbs, it was no cake walk. I mean it’s easy to read what I wrote and go “oh yeah that’s why it worked for him… it was because of those factors and musta been so easy. I guess it’s nice being gifted like that”.

This “sour grapes” type thinking and will get you NO WHERE. If you want similar results no matter what your age, a good place to start would be the 3 week workout plan in my HeadStart fitness report… the nice thing about it is that it’s a fully body blast workout and can be adapted either for fat loss or to gain some serious mass.

Since you’re reading this, I’m assuming you want mass and so the formula is simple. Apply progressive overload to each exercise, change it up after 3 weeks and eat like a warpig that’s been deprived for food for the past year. You should do pretty well, there is no reason why you can’t gain 1lbs per week. And I’m talking about muscle here.

To grab the report, just enter your name & email in the box located at the top left of the site. I’ll even give you some bonus tips (Oh and you know FJ hates spam, so your shit’s safe with me… I punch spammers directly in the face)

Till next time, be reasonable – and do it my way

- FitJerk

Discuss – Have you watched New Moon yet? What did you think of Taylor’s transformation?