Jake Gyllenhaal Did 6 Hours Of Workouts and 2,000 Situps A Day To Put On 45 Pounds For His New Movie

Kmarko4/22/2015 5:00 PM

Yahoo Movies - Jake Gyllenhaal made a startling physical metamorphosis for the upcoming boxing drama Southpaw, about a widowed prizefighter looking for another shot in the ring. But the 34-year-old actor, seen in this exclusive poster above as fighter Billy Hope, didn’t just get righteously ripped: He also had to learn the technique of a pro brawler. Gyllenhaal’s trainer, former professional boxer Terry Claybon, insists that the actor wasn’t just fake fighting for the camera. “I wanted Jake to learn how to box so he wouldn’t be out there on the set trying to act like a boxer,” the 52-year-old trainer tells Yahoo Movies. “I pushed Jake to the limit.”

Gyllenhaal trained for six months before filming even began last June in Pittsburgh, PA. As Claybon recalls, Gyllenhaal was nowhere near fighting shape when he started training. First off, he was still fairly thin following his well-documented 30-pound weight loss for last year’s crime drama Nightcrawler. For Southpaw, Claybon confirms that Gyllenhaal returned to his normal weight and then gained 15 pounds of pure muscle.

Gyllenhaal was burning so many calories through rigorous workouts that his diet didn’t need to be terribly strict. He did stick to carbs in the morning and protein in the evening. Claybon started him off with three hours of workouts a day: An hour-and-a-half in the morning and an hour-and-a-half in the evening. After two months, the workouts got pushed to six hours a day: Three hours of boxing in the morning and three hours of strengthening, conditioning, and cardio at night. Among the physical feats, the actor would do 1,000 sit-ups in the morning and 1,000 at night. “Gradually we built up, day-by-day, to 2,000. It takes time to do that,” says Claybon.

…

Man what a life it is to be an actor. The riches, the fame, the women. The fact you get paid millions of dollars to get jacked out of your brain. Like that’s Jake’s profession. He was paid to get shredded. While you try to figure out a way to work in a 45 minute gym session in between your shitty job that doesn’t pay you well enough and your 3rd Tinder date of the week, Jake Gyllenhaal wakes up, has gourmet meals prepared by his chefs and nutritionists, pops some of the world’s best supplements and spends his day pumping weights and boxing.

One downside?

He has recently been taking roles where he radially changes his physique. But it seems like Jake Gyllenhaal’s dedication to his craft may have cost him a relationship. The 33-year-old star reportedly spent so much time at the gym to prepare for his role as a buff boxer in Southpaw, his relationship with Alyssa Miller could have been a casualty.

The film’s director, Antoine Fuqua, revealed in an interview with Deadline, that the actor may have split with the 25-year-old model due to his constant training as he was dating her around the time of filming the movie.

Antoine told the online publication: ‘Literally. I think he broke up with his girlfriend because he was just in the gym every day. ‘He was training like a fighter. I had him sparring, really getting hit. I put him in situations where I wanted to see what he was made of. No one but fighters understand the sacrifice it takes to be a fighter.’ [Daily Mail]