Zac Efron’s Workout Routine

According to Zak Efron’s personal trainer, Patrick Murphy, the actor’s routine is constantly cycling, but here are the basics that Murphy used with Efron to get him in shape for Baywatch.

Zak used a three-day split:

• Workout 1: back and biceps
• Workout 2: legs
• Workout 3: shoulders, chest, and triceps

Each workout was performed once per week, with a day off in between. So a Mon/Wed/Fri or a Tues/Thurs/Sat.

Murphy also had Zak doing a lot of super-sets. Super-setting is doing two exercises one right after the other with no break. This not only speeds up the workout, it also raises the heart rate more and keeps it higher for the duration of training.

For each exercise do 8 – 12 reps with no rest between the first exercise and the second exercise, and 60 seconds rest after the second exercise before you start your next set.

Workout 1

1. Straight-arm pull down / ab wheel rollout
2. Seated cable row / Suspended row
3. Neutral grip pullup / lat pulldown from knees
4. Chinup / dumbbell biceps curl.

Workout 2

1. Leg press /  suspension squat jump
2. Swiss ball hip extension / Swiss ball leg curl
3. Reverse walking lunge / mountain climbers
4. Dumbbell Romanian deadlift / kick butts
5. Unstable single-leg calf raise / suspension trainer single-leg squat hop

Workout 3:

1. Dumbbell front raise / cross body cable raise
2. Dumbbell floor press / push up
3. Incline dumbbell press / dumbbell overhead press
4. Cable chest press / bosu plyo push up
5. Single-arm push down / single-arm curl

You can see that this workout routine doesn’t have a lot of the traditional mass building exercises like squats, bead lifts, or bench press. It’s a high volume workout that focuses on targeting individual muscle groups. With a focus on moderate weight, moderate reps, and a quick pace, he rapidly moves through the workout to keep his muscles pumped with blood.

This workout also has a prominent cardiovascular component, with movements like squat jumps, ab rollers, kick butts and other calisthenic types movements that get the heart rate up and burn fat while at the same time working the muscles.

There’s more to Zak’s look than working out, however. he also follows a very strict diet. How strict? Take a look at this Tweet:

He generally eats a low-carb diet and avoids processed foods and claims to drink at least 100 ounces of water a day. Seems as though he eats a pretty big cheat meal every 9 – 10 days or so to refuel:

When you’re restricting carbs, you need a re-feed day every week or two to replenish your glycogen.

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