‘New Moon’ Star Chaske Spencer Reveals Werewolf Workout
November 21st, 2009 7:00 pm / Author: Valerie Nome
Chaske Spencer packed on 20 lbs. of muscle to play werewolf Sam Uley in The Twilight Saga: New Moon, which is in theaters now.
The actor, 34, opens up about how he got ripped, what he learned about dieting and how men can get the buff bodies they desire. (Just say “no” to sugar and carbs.)
For Chaske (pronounced Chess-Kay), buffing up his bod involved doing muscle confusion and circuit training workouts for an hour-and-a-half per day six days a week for three weeks.
“Muscle confusion is when you work the same muscle with a different exercise,” he says. “It’s confusing the muscle to where it’s working it with a different exercise. You can do 100 pushups, but the next day maybe do 100 pullups. Well, you can’t do 100 pullups. You still use the muscle, but in a different form. It’s faster. We work out the circuit, which is where you go from chest to arms, shoulders, legs and stomach. You go from one set to the next set to the next set. We’d do that without break. We would only break when we’re done with the full set. You get a minute or two break, and do it five or six times. It helps burn fat, too, fast.”
Dietwise, Chaske feasted on protein including steak, chicken, fish and vegetables, during 4-6 meals a day. Also, he downed 3-4 protein shakes a day from GNC. His favorite? " I liked the chocolate.”
One lesson he took away from the experience is to nosh on chicken, fish and broccoli, and avoid sugar and carbs.
“Sugar will break down protein, and carbs just add fat,” he tells me. “When the sugar gets in your body, it breaks the protein down. I didn’t know that. When I was on set, I was like ‘maybe I will skip apple pie with ice cream’ because it does you no good. You can have all the protein shakes you want, but if you’re eating pie with ice cream, you might as well just be wasting money. It goes right to fat. It goes right to your belly.”
According to Chaske, when the New Moon cast dined frequently at Moxie in Vancouver, they stuck to the Land Sea Grill dish, which is steak, prawns and salmon. “We kept our workout diets going,” he says.
How can men get ripped?
"If you want to get fast results, work out six days a week for an hour-and-a-half at the gym working your whole body, plus eat right and drink protein shakes,” he says. “It’s a discipline. It’s hard work.”
He continues, “Everybody’s body’s different. For someone who is 17 or 18, I would advise them to eat everything because you’re metabolism is so fast it burns. But for someone like me, I’ve gotta watch what I eat and stick with high protein, vegetables, and try to avoid carbs.”
Source: OK! Magazine