- [John] It's a stack of donuts.
See, that's Tim's philosophy.
Calls the dumbbells biscuits.
When I get swollen in the chest, I call that scotch eggs.
So basically, just describe things in the gym
to suit things that you eat.
Like a stack of American hot pizzas.
(John laughs)
(hip hop beat)
What's going on, Men's Health.
I'm John Boyega.
We're at Physique Warehouse.
Today, you're gonna train like me.
Now let's go get it.
I think staying in shape is very, very important
because as an actor,
I've always supported to maintain your body.
We never know what job is next most of the time.
And so in preparation for these roles that come your way,
it's good to keep the body in shape.
I definitely have a specific aim
that I'm working on right now.
I've found that a lot of the roles that I'm being offered
or in consideration for do have an element of physicality.
I guess it's something about getting to the thirties, too.
I just turned 30.
So now you have to get a little bit more active.
So I'm right now looking to shred more fat,
get rid of lot more water and get more lean
and build more muscle.
I'm excited about this.
I can wear them tight V-necks now.
(John laughs)
This is my trainer, Tim Blakely.
We train six days a week.
This is the guy that gets me jacked.
- [Tim] I mean, there's no smoke and mirrors.
It's nuts and bolts, hard work, consistency.
Today, we're gonna take you on a typical chest work out.
- Come on.
(confident EDM music)
- [Tim] Okay. First exercise is flat barbell,
press, sorry, bench press.
We usually, we get good warmup
cause it's a first exercise in.
So we will warm up with a bar,
never go straight into weights.
So we do a couple of sets of 20 with a bar,
and then we'll just progressively build up
to three working sets.
John's very strong in upper chest,
and lower chest we need to work on.
So that's why I pick flat bench press.
- [John] And this is the point where
I do my little walk around.
Try and walk off the agony.
- [Tim] Form is the most important.
You want to use the muscle rather than just lift weight.
It's body position on the bench.
Tuck the shoulders back.
So the top shoulders.
Chest is there upper most lever,
and then we're pressing from the stern
and keeping the elbows in.
- Ah! (John breathes out)
- [Tim] Rep ranges will be anything from six to twelve reps.
Second exercise is a nautilus decline press,
emphasizing on the lower chest.
It's a great biomechanics. Good machine.
That rep range will be anything from six to twelve,
even six to fifteen.
- That was a warm-up.
- Yeah.
(John chuckles)
- [Tim] Next exercise will be cable crossovers.
So I dunno why they're called crossovers,
cause we don't cross.
(John laughs)
But we have the cable in the uppermost position
because we wanna work, again,
work the lower chest.
You keep the chest high,
and squeeze the hands in underneath the chest.
(intense EDM music)
- And it's a great moment to look at yourself in the mirror
and see where all the details are.
(John laughs)
- [Tim] Number four is a modified sort of
dumbbell fly press.
So it's neither a press nor a fly.
With John, he's biomechanical,
he's got very long arms.
So flies really, he's just gonna feel-
In a good way. - Yeah.
- [Tim] Flies you're really gonna feel in the outer chest.
I like to keep the arms bent,
so you're sort half pressing, half fly.
But again, it's all about
you know, you shut your eyes,
concentrate on stretching and squeezing the chest.
As soon as you feel that stretch,
you fire it and squeeze it and then repeat.
- I'm gonna stay here for a bit,
so you just get that.
Yeah, just get that focus right there.
(bassy EDM music)
I find myself activating everything just to stay on form
and still on the bench.
- [Tim] Okay. So the next exercise, pep fly.
Really good exercise, isolation exercise,
because you can really just concentrate
on squeezing the chest.
John, on this one, keeps nice light hands.
In fact, we keep light hands on most of our chest exercises.
The harder you grip the bar,
the more triceps and shoulders you're gonna use.
You can see, I use my fingers to push against his chest,
just to give him a sort of feedback sensation.
So he can squeeze against me pushing into his chest.
He's got a lot of these exercises, quite compound,
so it's easy for your shoulders and triceps to take over.
When we're training chest, we wanna work the chest.
We don't wanna just move weight.
So by doing that, you can try and isolate
and it just gives him a better sensation.
So you get that through reception.
- Dips. Wanna do dips.
- You got it in ya?
- [John] Yeah, yeah, yeah.
- [Tim] Okay. So the last exercise, good old dips.
- [John] Ooh, dips. Old school.
- [Tim] Yep. John really struggled with these to start with.
Obviously, as he's getting stronger
and his body fat comes down,
your dips get much better.
You can see that he leans forward slightly on the dips
because we're trying to concentrate more
on chest and triceps.
We use a wider grip in order to activate the chest.
- And it just looks good. Now be real.
- [Tim] But don't forget to squeeze hard at the top.
Squeeze your chest hard at the top.
- All right guys.
Thanks for joining me and training like me.
Remember motivation is key, and consistency is key.
Sometimes, I don't really want to go into the gym
and get this done, but the thought is always worse
than actually going in and doing it.
You figure out, you never know how strong you might be.
Take care training, guys.
(uplifting EDM beat)