Florian Munteanu's Workout to Get Massive for Borderlands | Train Like | Men's Health
Borderland's star Florian Munteanu takes us through the workout he used to prepare for his role as Krieg - inlcuding 20 different abs exercises, which he hits three times a day! He also spent a lot of time on HIIT workouts, but his main focus was developing massive arms and shoulders.
Transcript
00:00My philosophy is all-in or nothing and that's what I'm coming with always kill or be killed.
00:05My name is Florian Big Nasty Multiano and today I'm going to show you what my workout looks like.
00:22My workout journey, it started when I was a little kid. My father was a boxer. He basically
00:27introduced me to boxing and he started to train me at an early age five or six and my mom was
00:33major against that. Eventually he kind of sneaked me out of the house and that was basically my
00:37first memory. Touching the ropes, seeing those guys spar and yeah it was very intriguing.
00:44Every role so far was different. Creed obviously playing a boxer was the perfect fit for me and
00:50that was a very athletic workout routine, very boxing orientated. Then I went on to play
00:57Razor Fist in the Marvel Universe and you know superheroes or supervillains. They kind of have
01:02to look as big, as massive as possible and they're definitely this role for Borderlands with the role
01:09of Creed. I can honestly say that was probably the most challenging one. It's an unreal, a fictional
01:16character so I had to come up with an unreal shape. Very thin waist, small torso, big arms.
01:24So not only the workout was insane but I also had to maintain that during shooting. I always was in
01:30a deficit of calories. I didn't eat too much and was very one-dimensional. The most one-dimensional
01:36you can imagine. So I had to make sure I burned calories in the most efficient way. The role of
01:42Creed was probably my toughest so far. So the workout I'm showing you guys today is basically
01:48glimpses of how I prepared for Borderlands. How I got in shape to play Creed. A lot of HIIT workouts,
01:56a lot of abs and arms. Hope you are excited. I would always start on the mat, laying down,
02:04trying to stretch my legs first. I start downstairs, then go upstairs. First one basically
02:10pushing my leg and my knee towards my chest and then really trying to stretch my quads.
02:18Then turn it around, try to loosen up my lower back and once I did that, I'll probably go
02:25upwards. Try to stretch the shoulders as much as I can. Try to stay in each stretch for a minute
02:33then change the sides. So at least have like a 20-minute stretch if possible. So once I'm as
02:41loose as possible, I'm having my best results and I'm also having my best performance. But other
02:46than that, you just don't want to get injured. Injury usually sets you back for a month and
02:51that's something you cannot allow. So now we're getting into my HIIT workout. The one that I
02:57usually did for Borderlands and again I did it over and over and over again basically every day.
03:03So starting with the clapping push-ups. You do five clapping push-ups. Try to push yourself up
03:08as fast and as explosive as possible. Then going right into the high knees. 20 high knees. Really,
03:17really try to get your knees as high as possible. Always go for the best performance that you can
03:24deliver. Right after the high knees, 10 burpees. My philosophy behind this workout was definitely
03:34being efficient and getting the most out of it. Like you have to imagine it's one thing to prepare
03:41for a role before you start shooting and then it's a whole different thing to maintain that shape
03:47while you're shooting. Because once you start shooting, you have like 12 to 14 hours per day
03:52that you spent on set and that leaves you basically with almost no time anymore. And then
04:00going right into mountain climbers. Really try to touch your elbows with your knees. Benefit of this
04:05workout is basically high efficiency in the least amount of time. Like I said before, once you start
04:14shooting, you don't have a lot of time. You don't have hours and hours in the day to stay in shape.
04:21So you want to get the most out of your workout and that's the best way to do it.
04:26Coming now to my ab routine. That ab routine consisted usually of 20 different exercises.
04:32Right now I'm highlighting for you the top five of those 20 exercises and just have fun with it.
04:39Is it true that I worked out my abs four times a day? Four times a day? No, maybe three times a day.
04:46First exercise that I want to highlight are jackknives. You're basically trying to come up
04:52with your arms and your legs and try to meet in the middle. Then going down again and always hold
04:59arms and legs up in the air. Never go fully down and that's basically the first one. 45 seconds,
05:0715 seconds rest. So then after the 15 seconds rest time into your second ab exercise which are
05:14seated in and outs. Seated in and outs again 45 seconds of performing, 50 seconds of rest
05:21before you go into the third one. So the third exercise are Russian twists. So usually I'm
05:27trying to use a weight and shifting it around from left to right, back and forth. It's a perfect
05:33exercise to get thinner waist and a small torso. So after another 15 seconds break, you jump into
05:40your fourth exercise which will be jumping in and outs. There's not much to say about it. You
05:47jump in, you jump out and work as hard as possible till the 45 seconds are over. If you don't feel
05:53fatigued, you definitely haven't pushed yourself as much as possible. You should always try to
05:59leave it all out there and maybe you're not able to perform for 45 seconds which is okay but you
06:06rather have 30 seconds of fully letting everything out than performing 45 seconds and kind of
06:14kind of being sloppy with it. And lastly we have switching mountain climbers. Just make sure
06:21you really twist and try to touch your elbows with your knees and again leave it all out there.
06:28If you're exhausted, if you're breathing hard, if you're sweating, if you're dripping, then you're
06:34doing it right. As you know Krieg has insane arms. So that's what I was focusing on. My arm training
06:41consisted of two exercises and that was basically it. I just need an easy curl bar and usually I'm
06:51putting very light weight on it. Sometimes I'm not even using weight. So what I'm doing is a very slow
06:59controlled movement going for as many reps as possible. Most importantly, once I'm lifting it
07:06up, once I'm lifting the bar up, I'm holding that bar and really squeeze so I can feel my biceps
07:13popping out. You want to exhaust your biceps to the fullest. So on your last rep you basically
07:21should not be able to lift that bar anymore. You basically will not feel your arms anymore.
07:27Your biceps will burn for days. I'm not a friend of lifting heavy when it comes to my arms just
07:34because I have some problems with my joints for example that come from my boxing days. So lifting
07:40heavy didn't benefit me at all. I had to make sure that my joints and my wrists were okay
07:47because I was swinging in front of the camera with a very heavy axe. A very basic exercise but very
07:53effective are the cable triceps. So I'm just using the rope. You go down, you push down, squeeze to
08:02the outside and hold it for two seconds before you go up again. You stop when you're exhausted.
08:09You stop when you can't push it down anymore. So you know biceps, the biceps exercise is always
08:14pushing it up until you can't anymore. The counterpart with the triceps, you're pushing it
08:20down until you can't anymore. Really try to stay in that end position, squeeze and hold the weight
08:27for two or three seconds before you go up again. Slow and controlled movement for perfect results.
08:34So thanks for watching. I hope you enjoyed the video. I hope I could be motivational and
08:39inspirational to you. Always remember, staying in shape is a lifestyle. Keep working hard,
08:46be consistent about it and I see you in theaters for Borderlands when it's time
08:52to swing that meat bicycle again.