(funky music)
- What's going on everyone?
I am Alexander Ludwig.
I play Bjorn Ironside on "Vikings".
And you can see me in
my upcoming movie, "Bad Boys for Life".
I play Dorn the caged animal tech nerd.
♪ Bad boys bad boys ♪
♪ What you gonna do ♪
- Hey, hey, hey.
Uh uh, no.
No, never.
- I wanna take you through a bit of my workout routine.
For "Bad Boys for Life" I had to
put on about 25 pounds in under two months.
So the goal of that in specific was purely aesthetic.
So I'm gonna teach you how to keep muscle
and shred fat as quickly as possible
with a little secret tip I learned from
one of our amazing trainers, Jorgen De Mey.
And then on Vikings we have some pretty intense
fight sequences, so I'm gonna take you through
a cardio workout that really keeps me in shape
so that I can actually sustain the sequences without
puking my guts out, which has happened a few times before.
And at the end of this video I am going to
share with you for the first time ever
my secret weapon for a very very good ab workout
that I've been doing it since I was in high school,
but it works.
All right, let's get going.
(upbeat music)
All right, so for the first workout
this is specific to "Bad Boys for Life".
My character was supposed to be this muscle bound tech nerd.
And the bigger he was the funnier
I thought the joke would be that he always
stays into the van, until maybe later
you find out he's got a little bit more to offer
than just his computer expertise.
So what was really important to me was that I could
build muscle and get as big as possible
without looking too thick.
The greatest tip I learned from my trainer for this
was incline on a treadmill.
So basically you go on a 15% incline,
or whatever you're comfortable with to start out.
Anywhere from 2.7 to 3.5 miles per hour.
So it's basically like a long hike.
You do that for 30 to 45 minutes,
listen to an audiobook or whatever music you like.
And what you're trying to do is
keep your heart rate between 120 and 140.
I found in my experience that if I go for long runs,
it's great in the moment,
but I can't sustain that day after day.
What I like about this is it's more of
a moderate way to achieve your goals.
So when I was shooting "Bad Boys for Life"
I was doing this particular exercise at least once a day.
Sometimes if I was feeling like a bit of a hero
I'd try to do it twice a day.
But honestly it was the most effective part of my workout
for sure and I totally recommend this exercise.
(rock music)
So this is a workout I kind of created myself actually
from watching different videos on YouTube
and trying to figure out something I could do
in a short period of time that would allow me to
sustain a level of cardio that I could apply to
the fight sequences that are pretty demanding on "Vikings".
So what you do is grab whatever weight suits you.
Right now I've got two 30 pound dumbbells.
You put them down to the ground like this, go out.
And you're basically doing a burpee.
That's one.
I try to make 15 reps and then I do four sets of that.
Go slow, that's kinda key.
And be careful of your hamstrings.
Sometimes I'll feel like it pulls a little bit.
But it's super effective.
And I'm already feeling it and I've just done two.
(upbeat music)
So to get that big look that I needed for Dorn,
shoulders were key.
So this is a shoulder exercise I like to do.
I'm using 25 pound dumbbells,
and I would just do 15 on each side.
But if I was training to get even bigger
I'd probably do eight to 12 reps.
Not being a hero and trying to do way too big weight.
It's more just getting to the gym everyday
and doing enough weight that you really feel like
you're having to push your body without injuring yourself.
(electronic music)
Last but not least, I have a 90s inspired workout
that I've been doing since I was in high school.
It's something that I tell everybody to do.
It's a beast of a workout, let me tell you.
(beeping) (peppy music)
Hey gang, welcome to your eight minute ab workout.
All these exercises are gonna be safe, effective, and fun.
We're gonna start with a basic crunch.
Now hand behind your head.
And just crunch up.
Just like that.
Then, I don't know what you call this one, go like that.
Then you switch to this one.
Tortoise shell.
Then we move into yoga crane.
Keep going gang, you got it.
Crouching baby pose.
Nice work gang.
And whenever you're feeling tired just remember
keep that big beautiful smile on your face.
'Cause this is fun, gang.
I see you.
This is called push the baby.
It's one of my favorite exercises.
This one makes you look the coolest.
Then alternating legs.
And then last one.
Cowabunga, we're almost there.
And it goes something like that,
and then you're done.
Come back tomorrow and we'll do it all again.
All right guys that was my
slightly embarrassing workout routine.
I hope you enjoyed it.
I took you through a few workouts
that I do on a regular basis.
One thing I've just found is that
moderation is actually key, and consistency.
So back in the day I used to just try to kill myself
in these workouts, now I'm just trying to
get to the gym every single day.
And maybe one or two days off on the weekends.
But I hope you enjoyed.
Much love and thanks for watching.
(electronic music)