To follow in the sandal-clad footsteps of Russell Crowe’s Oscar-winning performance of Maximus in Gladiator is not for the faint of heart. Nor the weedy of limb.
Which is why Paul Mescal knew going from his brooding and bookish portrayal as Connell Waldron in the television adaptation of Sally Rooney’s Normal People to fearless, formidable and rabble-rousing warrior in Gladiator II would need more than just a change of character. It would require the complete transformation of his physique.
Out with turtle-neck tops. In with leather tunics creaking to contain his thick, taut and tanned muscles.
The Iris actor reportedly gained a jaw-dropping 18lb (8.1kg) of lean muscle mass to star in the leading role, working with a personal trainer six times per week for up to 90 minutes a time, then devouring bowls of ground beef backstage in the West End production of A Street Car Named Desire. (The 28-year-old began his Olivier award-winning turn as Stanley Kowalski in the play a month after being confirmed for Gladiator.)
Mescal proved that to add serious muscle size there are no shortcuts. “Both men and women can gain similar amounts of muscle from a percentage perspective, but it requires two very important commitments,” says Matt Roberts, a personal trainer and Telegraph columnist.
“First you need to train very hard by lifting heavy weights, and second you need to eat a phenomenal amount of food. It sounds great, thinking you can eat what you like, but the reality is you’ll need a lot of protein.”
Swords, sandals and six-packs
The irony is that our modern image of Roman gladiators as lean and muscular fighting machines bears little resemblance to the historical reality: these slave fighters were vegetarians who coveted pot bellies over rock-hard six-packs.
The Roman physician Galen, writing in the second century AD, called gladiators hordearii, meaning “barley-eaters”. The reason was not only that meat was a dietary luxury lowly slaves didn’t deserve, but because a high-carb diet of grains provided the energy to meet the demands of training while also laying down a thick layer of subcutaneous fat for extra protection against cuts and other combat injuries.
So if your body shape is an historically accurate representation of these ancient Roman warriors but you would prefer to emulate Mescal’s modern interpretation, here’s what you need to do, and the five exercises to incorporate into your routine.
Get serious about strength
To build big muscles you must first get strong. “If a client wanted to add the maximum amount of muscle I’d first get them as strong as possible,” says Roberts. “That means doing heavy multi-joint moves such as squats, deadlifts, bench presses and rows (see box, below) three to four times per week alongside a diet of up to 1,500 extra calories above their baseline needs with carbs to provide energy for training and protein for muscle recovery and growth.”
Even if you don’t want to gain serious muscle, lifting weights should feature in your weekly workout routine because after the age of 30 we typically lose 3-5 per cent of our lean muscle mass per decade, unless we work to maintain it. And more muscle means living longer: just 30 to 60 minutes of strength training a week can reduce your risk of all-cause mortality by 20 per cent, according to a meta-analysis published in the British Journal of Sports Medicine.
Add size with supersets
Once you’ve built a solid strong base you need to switch focus to fatiguing your major muscles with sets of 10 to 20 reps to force them to grow back bigger. Supersets, two moves done in quick succession that target different muscles, allow you to train your chest and back, or upper body and lower body, in the same workout for greater training efficiency and reduced training time, according to research published in the European Journal of Applied Physiology.
“Even if you’re training your chest or arms it’s worth adding a few sets of heavy leg work or some plyometric moves like box jumps to the end of the session,” says Roberts. “Research shows training legs releases more growth hormone post-workout, so you’ll build muscle faster.”
Be clever with cardio
To maximise muscle mass you need to do the right type of cardio. And that means slowing things down. “Too much high-intensity cardio can be detrimental because you want to conserve your energy for weight training and your nutrition for muscle building, not for fueling cardio,” says Roberts. “Zone 2 cardio [exercising at between 60-70 per cent of your maximum heart rate, which you calculate by subtracting your age from 220] is perfect because it’s relatively easy but conditions your heart and lungs, and makes your whole body more efficient at burning fat by instructing your cells’ mitochondria to prioritise using fatty acids for fuel.”
Zone 2 training not only improves your athletic performance, it can also transform your physique: subjects who did moderate-intensity zone 2 training saw a significant reduction in abdominal fat, according to research published in the European Journal of Preventive Cardiology. The result? A smaller waist that makes your shoulders appear wider to sculpt an admirable and athletic V-shaped torso.
Minimise your mistakes
Adding muscle is hard, so don’t make it impossible with these common errors. “Most men don’t balance their weight workouts and only ever train their upper body, but leg training is how you get the hormone response that builds the bigger muscles you want,” says Roberts.
“And while women are much better than men at training their lower body, their big mistake is not eating enough food. To get stronger you have to fuel the fire and that means eating more high-quality food.” Adequate protein intake is important for all women, but especially so if you lift weights or are in perimenopause to help preserve muscle mass. Consuming up to 1.5g of protein per kilogram of bodyweight per day – which is almost twice the recommended daily intake of 0.8g per kilogram – can support muscle maintenance, prevent weight gain, and improve overall health, according to research from the University of Sydney.
Breakfast like a king
What you do in the gym is only half the story. It’s what happens in the kitchen that counts. And the old adage to eat breakfast like a king, lunch like a prince, and dinner like a pauper, still rings true. “Most people benefit from eating most of their daily carbs first thing, so breakfast should be porridge, eggs, salmon and avocado on toast, yogurt and berries,” says Roberts.
“Lunch should be another good mixture of fats, protein and carbs, so chicken salad with new potatoes or quinoa. And then dinner should be a good load of protein with a lot of vegetables, and try to eat before 7pm to allow for digestion before bed.” Basing each main meal around protein will fuel your muscle-building mission and if your goal is to lose fat then simply reduce your portion sizes, adds Roberts.
Don’t panic buy protein bars
Protein bars, shakes and snacks are all the rage but are they worth the money? “It’s always best to consume whole, natural, high-quality food rather than processed protein products,” says Roberts. “If you’re struggling to eat enough protein then shakes can help increase your intake, but I’d have them with my food and not as a snack. It’s better to leave a decent amount of time between meals to give your digestive system a break.”
To maximise muscle growth you should aim to eat between 1.6g to 2.2g of protein per kilogram (or 0.75g to 1g per pound) of bodyweight per day, according to research in the Journal of the International Society of Sports Nutrition.
For a woman weighing 11st 11lb (75kg), that’s up to 165g of protein per day, the equivalent to about 28 large eggs. For a man weighing 14st 13lb (95kg), that’s up to 209g per day, or five chicken breasts.
Be smart with supplements
While protein shakes aren’t needed to maximise muscle size, some other supplements are. “Many of us don’t get enough natural sunlight so taking vitamin D3 with K2 is very important for lots of reasons, including the production of muscle-building testosterone,” says Roberts.
“Creatine works phenomenally well to improve physical performance and make muscles bigger and is utterly safe. A dose of 5g per day is enough.” To improve sleep Roberts suggests taking 5-HTP, ideally in gummy form. “This aids the production of the neurotransmitter serotonin, which is converted to melatonin to induce sleep,” he says. During sleep hormones are released that rebuild damaged muscles bigger and stronger, and insufficient sleep can impact this process, leading to weaker and smaller muscles, according to research.
Turn your back on beer
If you want to swap your beer belly for a taut and tight tummy then booze has to go. “There are zero physical benefits to alcohol: it makes it very hard to build muscle or burn fat, and it’s the worst thing you can do for your sleep,” says Roberts. “The data shows the day after drinking your resting heart rate is up to 15 per cent higher, your respiratory rate can be up 10 per cent, and your heart-rate variability [a key indicator of how your body deals with stress] can be down up to 20 per cent. These are significant changes and the same scores you’d get if you had a virus so the negative impact is huge.”
Add these big-impact exercises from personal trainer Matt Roberts into your gym workouts to build bigger and stronger muscles.