When it’s time for a new X-men or Wolverine movie, it’s time for Hugh Jackman to get jacked. And jacked he gets. Word on the street, is that Jackman uses 3 different phases of strength training to get ‘The Wolverine’ look. These phases are Mass Building, Strength Building, and an Athletic phase. It’s not your typical periodization program but it does work.
In order to make it work, each phase needs careful attention. There are valuable elements that make up each phase, but don’t worry I’ll go over that in the workout.
This is my Wolverine Mass building workout that is based on Hugh Jackman’s mass building workout, but done completely with bodyweight exercises.
Mass Building Phase
The focus of this phase is primarily build muscle mass. As you do each exercise, focus on flexing the muscles involved. It’s important to stimulate many muscle fibers for extra growth.
Mass Building Phase
The focus of this phase is primarily build muscle mass. As you do each exercise, focus on flexing the muscles involved. It’s important to stimulate many muscle fibers for extra growth.
Phase Length - 4 weeks
4 sets of 60% Max Reps
Tempo - 3/0/1/0
Warm-up
Circuit - 3 sets
Running in Place - 1 min.
High Knees - 30 sec.
Butt Kickers - 30 sec.
Day 1 - Monday - Chest/Back
Superset
Decline Right Angle Push-ups
Wide Pull-ups
Superset
Right Angle Push-ups
Chin-ups
Day 2 - Wednesday - Legs
Superset
One Leg Half Squats
One Leg Floor Bridge
Superset
Wide Iso. Squats - These are done by Isometrically pulling your legs together as you squat up and down.
Close Iso. Squats - These are done by Isometrically pushing your legs away from each other as you squat up and down.
Day 3 - Friday - Shoulders and Arms
Pike Push-ups
Superset
Close Push-ups
Close Chin-ups
The typical Hugh Jackman Wolverine Workout utilizes free weights and weight machines, but this one uses bodyweight exercises. The benefit of the former is that you can add weight in small increments. With bodyweight exercises, adding resistance can be more difficult. I address this with a few different things. First of all, the flexing of the working muscles will exhaust you faster causing you to perform fewer reps. The harder you flex, the more exhausted you will get. However, if you get up to 15 reps while flexing as hard as you can each rep, then I have some other suggestions for you. For all types of Push-ups you can simply raise one leg into the air. Other than that, be creative. It’s not too difficult to get an old backpack and fill it with books, or bricks, or even rocks. Careful not to fill it too much as it could break a strap. If you want, you could even get a weighted vest. You can find several different kinds for less than the price of two months gym membership.
The tempo is very important in this phase. The tempo reads 3/0/1/0. This means that you should lower the weight in 3 seconds, and then immediately push or pull it back up in 1 second then go back to lowering the weight. That means, no pause at the top or bottom for this workout. The way that I like to do this is to count down, one one thousand, two one thousand, three one thousand, and then slowly say the number of whatever rep I am on.
That is my Wolverine Workout - Mass Building phase. There is only one more thing you need to know before you begin. It’s not going to work without the proper nutrition. If you’re not eating enough, then yeah it will improve your strength and conditioning but you won’t gain any weight. You need to eat at least 300-500 extra calories a day to gain weight. Also include 15 minutes of light cardio on Tuesday and Thursday. Take your first week pretty easy to get used to the form and the flexing. Hit it hard the next 3 weeks and then jump into the Strength Building phase.
