Has anyone asked Tom Cruise for his thoughts on Reacher? Someone really should (and then ask him to send me a Christmas cake). The actor played him in two movies, Jack Reacher and Jack Reacher: Never Go Back, and while they’re entertaining, the One True Reacher wasn’t found until Alan Ritchson was cast as the crowbar fighter in Amazon Prime Video’s Reacher.
If you’re interested in looking like Reacher, first off, good luck. You can add the muscles, but not the height (sorry, Tom). It’s also a lot of hard work: Ritchson told Men’s Journal that he was “grinding it out five days a week for the eight months that we had to prep.” But if you’re serious, F45 Mill Hill trainer and owner Reiss Mogilner gave some suggestions to GQ. There’s useful tips about sticking to a balanced, muscle-building diet (“Ensuring an ample supply of essential amino acids from protein sources is imperative for optimal muscle repair and growth”) and doing compound exercises, like squats and deadlift.
Mogilner (who hasn’t worked with Ritchson personally) also suggested a fitness routine. “Perform three to four sets of 8 to 12 reps of the exercises below twice a week, gradually increasing the weights to challenge the muscles over time,” he said. The exercises are deadlifts, bench press, overheard press, lateral pulldowns, and lateral raises. You can see the full conditioning here. Follow it, and before long, you’ll be fighting a guy named Sasquatch in a bar.
This video will help, too.
The latest episode of Reacher season two debuted on Amazon Prime Video on Friday, January 12th.
(Via GQ)