You too can eat and exercise yourself to buffness the Jake Gyllenhaal way

Jake Gyllenhaal's personal Prince of Persia trainer has been talking about his job of transforming Jake into a medieval fighting machine. Ex-Royal Marine Simon Waterson tells us '“There's an increasing fusion between the worlds of fitness and film. Most actors are athletes nowadays. Their fitness is a big factor in whether they get cast or not... Jake has to look like a warrior capable of sword-fighting, not like he's been hitting the gym. He is working out twice, sometimes three times a day, six days a week, for three to four months on top of stunt rehearsals before filming begins.”'


And now, you too, can eat and excercise with Jake Gyllenhaal, because here is Jake's 'daily regimen' (you might want to sit down...).


'5.30am Pre-workout snack: half a banana, some nuts and an espresso.

6am An hour-and-a-half cardio outdoors workout while wearing a 20lb flak jacket to simulate the weight of armour. Interval training - 10min uphill sprint, followed by abs exercises, eg, sit-ups, at the top of the hill. Repeat sequence five times, then a 10min run, followed by stretching exercises.

7.30am An egg-white omelette, a small protein shake and an isotonic drink to replenish salts lost during training.


Lunch Baked potato with tuna and salad.

6-7pm An hour of resistance training using cables to simulate sword fights, pull-ups, press-ups, abs exercises using weights; finish with stretching.

7-8pm: An hour-long deep tissue massage

Dinner: Soup and a protein shake

Snacks/supplements Two litres of water, protein bars, dark chocolate, supplements rich in omega-3, 6 and 9. No foods containing refined sugar, occasional glass of wine allowed.'


There are a few elements of this I could cope with: dark chocolate, (occasional) glass of wine and a nightly massage - although I fear this is the type of massage that makes one squeal - but running up hills wearing flak jackets? Soup for dinner? I had no idea one was able to eat at 5.30am, or that bananas came in halves. It's no wonder we're not seeing much of Jake in the UK; on his day of rest he's probably lying in a darkened room with a damp cloth on his head and a full schedule of daytime TV in front of him and the remote control just in reach. After Prince of Persia finishes filming, Jake may be ready for Zodiac 2.


But before we mount a rescue, it's worth remembering Jake has done it before, although admittedly long enough ago that it might have become hazy. Back at the tailend of 2004 and the first months of 2005, Jake was in full action mode for his role as a modern warrior - in Jarhead. The subject of his training popped up with great frequency in the interviews publicising the film, not surprisingly. British journalist Lesley O'Toole asked Jake how he got so buff: 'I got bitten by a spider - just call me Spiderman. OK, I'd regularly run five miles, swim for 20 minutes, cucle for 35 miles, then take a break, eat and lift weights.'


Peter Sarsgaard reported in a magazine: '[Jake's] regimen was 500 pushups a day... Mine was more like five sets of 100 cigarettes a day'. And Peter elaborated in Entertainment Weekly: 'He went nuts... I know actors say, I got in shape for a role. But he was working out twice a day sometimes, with a trainer who was like a Nazi' (wonder if his name was Simon...).


Peter was hired only a week before rehearsals began and so didn't have a hope of getting into Jake's shape: 'I figured there was no way I was gonna look like Jake.. Then I started talking to one of our technical advisers. he was a sniper and he was a smoker. He saod, 'In the end the only thing that matters is this,' and he mimed pulling a trigger: Marines look all different ways. I just had to get myself in the headspace of it, of what it means to pull that trigger.'


Sam Mendes had been impressed with how buff Jake had looked on stage in London in This Is Our Youth (so, too, had a producer of The Day After Tomorrow). Sam told Empire: 'I was surprised when I saw him on stage in London. he was much bigger physically than I expected and had much more presence.'


Jake elaborated on his Jarhead training for Steppin' Out magazine: 'I worked out for months before. I had a trainer. I did this circuit where I would do a run and then I would have a bathing suit on and jump in the pool and do laps for like an hour. And then I would get out of the pool and have my biking shoes and get on a bike. And then we would lift.' There really is something to say for playing a political cartoonist...


And this new stunning trailer for the Prince of Persia game gives us just an inkling of what Jake has prepared himself for and what we may expect. I think it's gonna be worth it.



Includes pictures from IHJ.