In This Series
- Introduction
- THE WORKOUT
The character: Barney 'The Schizo' Ross.
Background: The oldest member of the Expendables is the leader - but he also has the murkiest past.
Speciality: Motivational speaking - he's best when talking his team into things.
Weapon of choice: Anything with a trigger.
Weaknesses: The sort of dodgy tattoos you'd normally see in the cheap seats of a UFC event.
The actor: Sylvester Stallone.
Who doesn't know Stallone? From winning a Best Picture Oscar for Rocky in 1976 to making a pair of improbable comebacks in Rambo and Rocky Balboa, he's one of cinema's most enduring tough nuts. We will of course skip over his Stop! Or My Mom Will Shoot period.
The trainer: Gunnar Peterson.
Swedish-American training guru Peterson has worked with everyone from the NBA and NHL to NCAA college athletes, as well as a host of celebrities. He's sculpted Stallone into shape for half a dozen films and even made a cameo in Rocky Balboa.
TRAIN TO A SCHEDULE
'Sly's training is more comprehensive than most people give him credit for,' says Peterson. 'He's one of the few guys that gets that you have to book training. You treat it like an appointment, and then it gets done.'
DIFFERENT FILM, DIFFERENT LOOK
'If you look at Sly, he had different looks for Spy Kids and Rocky Balboa and Rambo. Right now he's lean, but for the Expendables he went for that shredded look with big forearms and traps and a goatee, because that's who he decided the character was. He's a writer and actor first, and he immerses himself in whoever he's playing.'
KEEP IT FRESH
'Sly does everything in the gym from traditional power stuff to bodybuilding supersets and drop sets, to kettlebells and single-leg work. We don't do a "typical" workout - I write a different workout for him every day he trains.'
BELOW THE BELT
'We do a lot of lower-body work - from a mass-maintaining standpoint, you have to. Sly is not one of those top-heavy bodies. He knows you have to work the glutes, hamstrings, quads, beat up the calves. He'll do deadlifts and then shrug the same weight, so he hits his legs and traps, and because he's holding the weight it'll pump up his forearms.'
PROTECT AGAINST INJURY
'We work on things that challenge the balance, or include rotations with bands, so that he's just as strong as he looks. We don't want him wrenching his back during a stunt. He gets some ridiculous injuries. In the movie, he wears a leather sling around his thumb, but that's a real injury - he had to write it into the script to cover it.'
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