Zac Efron's physical transformations for various movie roles have garnered significant attention, particularly his physique in "Neighbors" and "Baywatch." This article explores the diet and workout strategies that contribute to achieving a body like Zac Efron's, providing insights applicable to anyone seeking to improve their fitness.
Understanding Zac Efron's Physiques
Zac Efron has sported several distinct physiques throughout his career. These include a lean physique in his earlier days, a more athletic and chiseled physique for "Neighbors," and a bulked-up physique for "Baywatch." Each physique required a specific approach to diet and exercise.
The Lean Physique ("17 Again")
This is the easiest physique to create and all you need to do is be constantly be active. Hike, run and make moving consistently a part of your daily life. Zac used a 3-2-1 fitness regimen that focused on staying lean. For 5 days per week, alternate between slow controlled weight lifting and high intensity interval training. Do a set of controlled repetition pull-ups or bench press and then directly to a high intensity activity. Here you can work in jump rope and focus on hitting all major muscle groups. To get this physique you need to focus on nutrition operating on a calorie deficit. This means you should eat fewer calories than you are expending, which means you’re going to lose weight. Eat real, whole foods such as eggs, oats, fruits, and vegetables.
The Athletic Physique ("Neighbors")
Zac's physique during the filming of Neighbors is the closest thing to a Zen Dude Fitness physique. Zac was hard, lean, athletic, chiseled and had an overall functional body. The goal here is to gain strength by gaining lean muscle mass through slow strength training. To get this physique, you need to lift weight consistently. Zac used a workout regimen called a 3-day lifting split. Since you’re trying to build muscle mass, you need to eat a calorie surplus, which means consuming more calories than you are spending. Make sure to eat whole real foods such as lean meats and vegetables to hit your macros.
The Bulked-Up Physique ("Baywatch")
For his role in Baywatch, Zac gained about 10 pounds of muscle mass in one year. That’s about the most muscle mass you can get per year through consistent, dedicated workout. Zac worked in abdominal exercises every other day to get his abs looking rock hard and used the same 3-day lifting split for his Neighbors’ physique. You’ll need to stay fully committed for a full year. To get this shredded look, you need to spend 52 weeks at a calorie surplus and then focus the final 12 weeks on a calorie deficit to lose body fat. Because he had a movie role to prepare for, Zac also cut out carbs and sugars for the last two weeks.
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The Zac Efron Workout Routine
The Zac Efron workout routine is designed to build muscle on your entire physique on a weekly basis. The muscle group that will experience the most growth are the biceps. The biceps will be getting hit hard twice per week with one heavy exercise for a few sets and one light exercise for high reps and short rest periods. The shoulders are also getting hit heavy on Monday with shoulder presses and light on Wednesday with isolation movements. The chest and back are both getting hit heavy once per week. Finally, the legs are hit once per week on Wednesday. The legs typically don’t need much work. The key is just to do 2-3 lowerbody movements once per week with an emphasis on adding sleek proportion by building up the VMO and calves.
Key Principles
- Muscle Emphasis: The workout emphasizes bicep and shoulder development.
- Frequency: Chest and back are trained once a week to add muscle without overdoing it.
- Leg Training: Legs are trained once a week with a focus on proportion.
- Abs: Abs are worked hard a few days per week.
Workout Structure
Zac Efron's training often involved a three-day split: back and biceps, legs, and chest, shoulders, and arms.
Example Exercises:
- Back and Biceps: Straight Arm Pulldown, Ab Rollout, Seated Cable Row, Suspended Row.
- Legs: Leg Press, Suspension Squat Jump with Straps, Swiss Ball Hip Extension, Swiss Ball Leg Curl, Reverse Walking Lunge.
- Chest, Shoulders, and Arms: Front Raise Dumbbell Squat, Cross-Body Cable Raise, Dumbbell Floor Press, Push-Up.
Training Techniques
- Reverse Pyramid Training (RPT): Reduce each set by 10%.
- Standard Pyramid Training (SP): Pick a weight you can do for 12 reps. First set is 12 reps, followed by 10, 8, 6. Rest only 30-45 seconds between sets. Use the same weight for all sets.
- Rest Pause: Pick a weight you can do for 12-15 reps. First set is for 12-15 reps followed by 4 sets of 3-5 reps with the same weight. Only rest 15-20 seconds between sets.
Additional Training Elements
- Supersets: Performing two exercises back-to-back with no rest between them. This technique boosts efficiency, enhances calorie burn, and maximizes the pump, pushing nutrient-rich blood into muscles for better growth.
- Cardio: Incorporate light jogging or walking between workouts as a warm-up.
The Zac Efron Diet
To achieve his goals, Zac focused on consuming lean proteins such as chicken, fish, and eggs, which helped him build and maintain muscle mass. Complex carbohydrates like brown rice, quinoa, and sweet potatoes were staples in his diet, providing sustained energy without the crash associated with simple carbs.
Nutritional Guidelines
- Lean Proteins: Chicken, fish, eggs to build and maintain muscle mass.
- Complex Carbohydrates: Brown rice, quinoa, sweet potatoes for sustained energy.
- Healthy Fats: Avocado, nuts, olive oil for overall health and hormone production.
- Fiber-Rich Foods: Vegetables, fruits to aid digestion and promote fullness.
Sample Diet Adjustments
One individual, inspired by Zac Efron's transformation, made significant changes to their diet, cutting out nutritionally poor foods. Here was the list:1. Orange chicken 2. White rice 3. Airheads candy 4. A pulled-pork sandwich 5. Skittles 6. Chocolate-covered almonds 7. Chipotle burrito bowls 8. Chocolate chip cookies 9. Pita bread 10. Teriyaki sauce 11. A cheeseburger 12. A hot dog 13. Wine.
They replaced these with:
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- Berries or unsweetened, dried mangoes instead of candy.
- Green tea or KeVita Probiotic Tonics instead of sugary beverages.
Caloric Intake
In order to follow the Zac Efron diet and get the Zac Efron look, you’ll want to ensure you’re eating sufficient calories to gain about half a pound per week. This will allow you to gain almost entirely lean mass. If you’re not gaining weight, eat more. If you’re gaining too much weight, eat less! For a good starting point, aim for about 16 calories per pound of body weight for bulking up. If you’re gaining more than 0.5 lbs after the second week, drop the calories by 200. If you already know your maintenance calorie intake, I’d suggest going about 250-300 above that.
Importance of Consistency and Lifestyle
Consistency in training is crucial, but so is variety. Besides workouts, staying mindful of dietary habits is essential. Finally, having a support system, whether it's friends, family, or a fitness community, can provide motivation and accountability.
Additional Lifestyle Factors
- Meal Timing and Frequency: Zac took his whey protein immediately after workouts to provide his muscles with the necessary amino acids for repair and growth. Multivitamins and omega-3 supplements were typically taken with meals to enhance absorption and minimize any potential digestive discomfort.
- Quality Sleep: During sleep, the body repairs and rebuilds muscle tissue, which is essential for growth and recovery.
- Active Recovery: In addition to quality sleep, active recovery practices such as stretching, yoga, and foam rolling were part of his routine.
The Role of Supplements
There’s really no need to take any supplements for the Zac Efron Workout. If you have trouble eating enough protein then a whey protein supplement can be beneficial. For overall health, mood and cognition a good quality fish oil is recommended. A good quality creatine supplement is useful for packing on muscle mass, but is definitely not necessary. Finally, some caffeine as an appetite suppressant and pre-workout is highly useful.
Recommended Supplements
- Whey Protein: For those who struggle to meet protein needs through diet alone.
- Fish Oil: For overall health, mood, and cognitive function.
- Creatine: Useful for packing on muscle mass, but not essential.
- Caffeine: As an appetite suppressant and pre-workout aid.
Avoiding Common Pitfalls
Fitness, like all pursuits in life, is subject to the law of diminishing returns. Once you build up a solid level of muscle mass, you’re set! Similarly, it’s not about getting as lean and shredded as possible. So the reason chicks dig Zac’s physique is because it’s not overdone. He looks like a normal fun guy that happens to be in awesome shape.
Key Considerations
- Overtraining: After three intense lifting sessions per week, the law of diminishing returns kicks in. The increased training volume is off set by inhibited recovery and a drained central nervous system.
- Unrealistic Expectations: It’s important to have clarity and focus on the body you want and how you want to feel in that body. The more clarity and focus you have on where you’re going, the easier it will be to create that body and results.
- Sustainability: Extreme fitness demands extreme commitment. At the end of the day, though, staying ripped is neither fun nor particularly healthy. So after the shoot, Efron dialed back his training, ate some carbs, and enjoyed his life.
Trainer Insights: Patrick Murphy's Approach
Over 20 years in the business, L.A.-based trainer Patrick Murphy has pulled off just this feat with dozens of stars, including the once-skinny Tobey McGuire and the formerly-doughy Jason Segal. His most impressive accomplishment, though, was morphing Zac Efron into the guy who stood shirtless next to Dwayne-freakin’-Johnson in 2017’s Baywatch-and held his own. “All my clients follow the Murphy Rules,” he says.
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Murphy's Rules
- Dial in Your Alignment: “Don’t jut your head forward,” he says. “Keep your shoulder blades back and down. Contract your abs and glutes on every rep.” The rules, he says, keep your body in its strongest, safest position throughout your entire workout.
- Choose Your Moves Wisely: “The body adapts to everything you do in the gym,” he says. “Some exercises aren’t worth the trouble.” Murphy believes that if a move pulls you out of optimal alignment, you should skip it.
- Turn Up the Heat: One of Murphy’s favorite techniques when it comes time to crank up the intensity using compound sets or trisets-two or three exercises, performed back-to-back, with immaculate form, for the same muscle group.
- Keep Your Muscles in Your Mind: The stream of instructions made me realize how every muscle is involved in every move-and kept me honed in on what I was doing, enhancing what bodybuilders call the “mind-muscle” connection.
Sample Workout by Patrick Murphy
Warmup
- External Rotations: 15 reps each side
- Leg Swing: 15 reps each side
- TRX Y Raise: 15 reps
- TRX Hamstring Stretch: 15 reps each side
The Workout
These are all supersets. Perform all exercises back to back with no rest. You'll perform 3 rounds of each group.
- Set 1
- 1A. Lateral Raise: 15 to 20 reps
- 1B. Front Raise: 15 to 20 reps
- 1C. Inverted Row: 15 to 20 reps
- Set 2
- 2A. Kettle Squat: 15 to 20 reps
- 2B. Box Jump: 15 to 20 reps
- Set 3
- 3A. Banded Reverse Fly: 15 to 20 reps
- 3B. Explosive Bosu Pushup: 15 to 20 reps
- Set 4
- 4A. Reverse Lunge to Forward Step: 16 to 20 reps
- 4B. Alternating Step-Up Hop: 16 to 20 reps
- Set 5
- 5A. Floor Press: 15 to 20 reps
- 5B. Imaginary Chair High Row: 15 to 20 reps
- Set 6
- 6A. Bosu Opposites Meet: 15 to 20 reps per side
- 6B. Single-Leg hip Thrust: 15 to 20 reps per leg