I'm Jason Walsh I'm a trainer in Los
Angeles and I get actors ready for
movies most of the time it's gonna be
something where a studio comes to me and
asked me about prepping someone for a
role what we do is we literally have to
sit down and figure out what the
characteristics are of that role the
variables involved meaning like are they
going to be in the desert are they going
to be carrying heavy weight you know an
exoskeleton how physical is the role but
a lot of it has to do with you know the
background are they a novice if they
ever train like this before leave it or
not what we're doing is really helping
these guys with character building
I want to enforce that character I want
them to feel super free of any type of
psychological like hindrances I've take
a lot of pride in making these guys
super strong move well fit resilient
confident and do it safely these guys
get injured production shuts down
millions of dollars out the door
training for a military role Bradley
Cooper came to me through John Krasinski
and he got this big role for American
sniper and for Bradley it's all in he
wants to become that character Chris
Kyle 225 pounds military guy highly
respected and decorated Bradley Cooper
185 pounds wet novice never trained like
this before not like this not the kind
of weight training that we were gonna
have to do I'm gonna be honest with you
this was the one that I was most worried
about in my career because I didn't know
if we could achieve what he wanted to
achieve we had almost 12 weeks total I
think it was the first eight weeks that
we were doing two-a-days I mean we had a
lot I thought maybe 2025 pounds was
doable in that timeframe that we had 40
pounds heavier is a big deal we had to
get him moving we had to get the weights
going I decided that this was the move
the trap bar deadlift that we were going
to pretty much make the foundation of
everything there's two variables here
that I can play with and that is the
range of motion and the weight we
started safe and we started a high
position
we started light as I see him progress
and get better we can take those down so
we got Bradley really strong and as we
progressed he became more mobile he'd
actually
from the ground and the confidence in
everything that came with that I mean
literally it was amazing to watch the
transformation we actually ended up
towards the end of it lifting a little
over 425 pounds you cannot fake the way
400 pounds feels when he lifts it off
the ground so in the movie that's real
he ended up doing I think it was four
days of two days he would come in in the
morning 6:00 a.m. we would train for an
hour hour and a half he would go home
and recover he would come back we'd do a
lot of the volume training and the
afternoons and then he would do a
half-day on Wednesday and that was his
week he didn't need to get ripped he
needed to get big and that's a big
difference
I knew that there's no way in hell that
that guy was gonna eat as many calories
as he needed to put that kind of mass on
so we had to drink the calorie so I just
progressed it week by week to try to
increase a little bit at a time 500
calories or so I knew that we have been
doing a really good job once we hit the
200 mark from the 180 mark everything
started rolling his body just couldn't
get enough of it he was recovering he
was doing everything he needed to do and
it wasn't until the day before shooting
that we got him on the scale and it
literally read 225 and I couldn't even
believe it
when you think John Krasinski you think
the office and he came in with his big
smile on his face and was telling me
about the possibility of this movie 13
hours and he was going to play a Navy
SEAL way outside of his comedic roles
that he's been doing you wouldn't know
it if you just looked at him but he is
extremely strong the first four weeks we
did all strength training it was two a
days four days a week half day on
Wednesday let's do it let's get the
bench press going he's like no you're
gonna drag that sled from there to there
and I was like how hard is that I'm
having a heart attack we had the luxury
of working with John for quite a while
before we started shooting 13 hours so I
was very confident in John's ability to
move so all we had to do was turn the
dial up for him every day we would end
up doing some sort of squatting
variation we do front squat to press
great complex exercise and we would also
have him start doing just overhead press
still engaging the whole body while
doing the pressing so it's even more
taxing on the body love the dumbbell
bench press I just like the fact that
the each arm is working independently of
one another and John crushed it man he
was doing over 100 pound dumbbells not
to mention that we ended up doing a lot
of conditioning as well that was gonna
help with that the fat burning effect a
lot of high intensity training pushing
the sled back and forth picking weights
up slamming it down jumping running
pushing all of that with little to no
rest it definitely comes across
on-screen when they put this kind of
work in
so I was training Emily Blunt for a
while with John those two in the gym at
the same time is absolutely hilarious
they're the most comedic people I've
ever seen
nothing really gets done in the gym so
we had to separate them because we had a
lot of work to do
Emily came in she got her first action
role edge of tomorrow was fantastic she
had to wear an exoskeleton and this
thing weighed about 70 pounds and day in
day out shooting with 70 pounds on your
back that's a new one for me this was
what keeps my job pretty interesting too
because never even thought that someone
would be doing something like this we
ended up doing a lot of conditioning out
on a track and using weight vests to
kind of mimic that feeling of having
that exterior skeleton been teaching her
how to move with that weight on her back
we progressed just like anything else
you're not gonna go and get put 50
pounds of weight vest on someone so we
would start with a 10 pound weight vest
one week we'd end up doing a 20 pound a
30 pound a 40-pound eventually a 50
pound weight vest I just wanted her to
get an idea of what that was gonna feel
like and how hindering it is because a
70 pound exoskeleton with day after day
after day of moving could throw
something out of whack I don't know if
you remember in the film when an
incredible scene where she's doing like
the the full-on push up it was kind of
an epic scene and I've actually had a
lot of clients come to me saying I want
to look like Emily Blunt brie Larson for
Captain Marvel she came to me because of
Emily Blunt in the way that she looked
and performed in that film yes what do
you want training to become a superhero
brie Larson Captain Marvel she came in
she had the best mentality she was ready
to go anything we wanted to do she was
ready for it
we had the proper amount of 12 weeks
which I absolutely love
I knew we're gonna knock it out of the
park with her to keep things interesting
and fun you kind of want to set goals
you want to set milestones for these
guys and because we got a week after
week after week of training so what we
try to do is set these short-term
long-term goals they're realistic and
sometimes unrealistic but it's still
nice to have them so we would start with
pull-ups the unassisted pull-up is the
big goal for a lot of our women in these
action roles and
because it really just tells us where
she's at with her upper-body strength
you're told women aren't supposed to
have a lot of upper-body strength that's
they get really really really strong
pound for pound for BRE I think we ended
up doing 10 pull-ups straight eight
chain push-ups with 50 pounds of chains
on her back hip thrusting well over 300
semi pounds I mean this is stuff that
most women would think is absolute
insanity think about it if you're not
able to do a pull-up and then a few
weeks later I'm proving you and you're
doing pull-ups think about what that's
doing to you psychologically mentally I
mean it's just a reinforcement of who
you are and what you're able to do
people don't believe something and then
all of a sudden they're able to do these
things it just goes to show that that
kind of hard work and dedication is
really gonna pay off you get rid of
those variables that could be holding
you back and you're really able to focus
on your acting that's a yes or no
question yes
training for an athletic role Alison
Brie Wow
where to start with her she's one of the
absolute best humans I know it doesn't
matter if it's 6 a.m. she comes in the
highest energy of anybody I've ever met
in my life
and it's infectious and everybody in the
gym feeds off of it I was training
Alison for I don't know maybe even a
couple years when she came to me telling
me she's gonna be a wrestler here we go
again with a brand new variable never
training anybody like this before
because we had such a nice cushion of
time with her we didn't really have to
go into like a to day type setup we just
trained her five days a week
Alison Brie is one of the strongest
girls that I know pound for pound the
girl is able to crank out 14 pull-ups
she's dead lifting over 200 pounds
she's pushing sleds with 300 400 pounds
on it sled training is an absolute
staple and all the training that we do
especially for the females it's a single
leg exercise work strength conditioning
everything we can load it unload it pull
it push it there's so many variations to
it the core is firing from each step
right and it's this body coordination
and it's fantastic it was one of our
staples for her strength training one of
the biggest compliments I can get is
after the shoot the client comes back
and was injury free for me that's the
most important thing the aesthetic thing
is fantastic and I get
but we want to keep these guys healthy
if you pay attention to glow Allyson is
really doing all her stunts and knock on
wood two seasons in hasn't had any
injuries but this Cold War training for
a dance role Emma Stone la-la-land
Emma came in and she had some issues
with her neck and her back and shoulders
and things like that those things have
to be addressed
you don't work around them and hope that
they go away you really go in and try to
attack any and all issues that could be
holding her back and for her the
training was a little less dramatic or
invasive a lot of stuff we did was
really focusing in and around the hips
and the stability and the strength
around the hips because of the dancing
elements most the stuff she was doing
was on one leg
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we did a lot of strength training a lot
of mobility drills balance stuff a lot
of crawling for core and coordination
and things like that we didn't have as
much time we had about six weeks before
shooting it's a hard balance because you
don't want to Train her too much because
she's got all the dance training and
choreography and all that kind of stuff
that's going on on the outside so what I
did is I just actually ended up training
her less days giving her more recovery I
think we were doing about four to five
days for the first couple weeks and then
we just kind of tapered all the way
through through the through the end
until she started shooting
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we focused a lot on the posterior chain
a lot of pulling motions things to get
the muscles firing and protecting and
stabilizing the spine we were able to
clean up most of the issues with her
neck and back if you can eliminate pain
from someone that's been living with
pain and they believe that that pain is
just part of life I mean it's one of the
highlights of what I get to do is if I
can help eliminate those types of pains
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