It’s virtually 10 years since Claudio Castagnoli (then recognized in WWE as Cesaro) started sharing his health ideas with readers of Muscle & Health. Since then, we’ve all seen him develop from a sizzling prospect to a WrestleMania main-eventer and little question, one in all professional wrestling’s strongest and most fun athletes. Now signed with AEW, Castagnoli continues to be proving to be lower above the remainder as a passionate athlete that’s all enterprise between the ropes. In an effort to study extra about how the “Swiss Superman” is coaching in direction of 2024, I acquired within the health club with the person himself, and got here away with a ton of respect for his work ethic and ingenuity; each within the ring and within the weight room.
“I don’t practice for only one second,” explains Castagnoli. Certainly, as a professional wrestler, he doesn’t have an low season, and is positioned in entrance of tv digital camera’s all yr spherical. His continuously ripped physique takes critical dedication, however the elite famous person feels that his dedication would possibly encourage others too. “If somebody see’s me on tv and I’m out of form, they usually say ‘take a look at Claudio, he has let himself go,’ then which may allow them to down, they usually would possibly lose their motivation too,” he explains. “Lots of athletes don’t need the duty of getting followers that look as much as them, however I take it significantly.”
One of many ways in which Claudio Castagnoli takes his craft significantly is thru his health club routines. Having travelled to London, England, to advertise AEW’s “All In” 2024, at Wembley Stadium, the “King of Swing” headed straight into an extended day of media duties, telling reporters of his pleasure to return to Wember after “All In” 2023 had damaged information and bought upwards of 80,000 tickets. Then, as an alternative of calling it a day and unwinding in his lodge, Castagnoli jumped on the likelihood to get within the health club and get his sweat on with M&F. It’s par for the course if you find yourself a travelling athlete. You get your exercises in wherever you possibly can.
Claudio Castagnoli shares that he will get his exercise routines from Deadboys Health, a purposeful health program created by Colby “Seth Rollins” Lopez and Josh Gallegos. When he’s on the street, Castagnoli can fire-up his app and get going with the exercise of the day. Regardless of how loopy his schedule is, Castagnoli trains round 4 days every week. “It’s decrease physique, decrease physique, higher physique, higher physique,” says the grappler whereas lacing up his Reebok Nano X2’s, explaining that he prefers to do his 4 days of understanding all-together, adopted by three days for restoration the place attainable. This session occurred to be decrease physique, so right here is the exercise, adopted by a breakdown of this epic routine.
Caludio Castagnoli Retains Issues Shifting within the Fitness center
One other method to the health club that retains his periods environment friendly is Castagnoli’s willingness to swap and alter his workout routines if a machine or rack is unavailable. “Simply hold it transferring,” says the grasp of the Skyward-Uppercut. “Don’t waste time ready for a machine when you would be doing one thing else.” As an ideal instance, we discovered that the squat racks have been too busy on this event, so the previous two-time Ring of Honor world champion discovered Bulgarian lifting bag as an alternative, and we swapped squats for Bulgarian bag weighed ‘good mornings’. By way of making swaps, Castagnoli believes that that is the important thing to stepping into higher form with diet too. “Even if you happen to simply swap sugar for a sugar substitute, these small modifications add up,” he says.
Concluding our decrease physique exercise with the step machine, I really feel impressed and energized to comply with the teachings of my much-valued mentor for the day. And it’s not simply me that appreciates the abilities of Caludio Castagnoli. Throughout this session, followers would cease by to speak to their hero and he would make the time to point out his gratitude. Castagnoli tells me that he has lots of time for his followers, and so long as he’s between units he enjoys conversing with them. However be warned, if you happen to ever attempt to interrupt the primary man whereas he’s cranking out a rep, it’s possible you’ll end up on the incorrect finish of Caludio’s Gian Swing! AEW have already bought greater than 30,000 tickets for AEW “All In” 2024 at Wembley Stadium.
Claudio Castagnoli ‘s Exercise Breakdown
Claudio Castagnoli is significantly robust and a fan of lifting heavy. In WWE, he labored out with the likes of John Cena and held his personal when he was seen to deadlift 500 kilos (227 kilograms) and squat 495 kilos (224.5 kilograms). Now hanging with the gifted athletes of All Elite Wrestling, Castagnoli is making new followers on reveals like AEW Dynamite (Stay on Wednesday’s), Rampage (Fridays) and Collision (Saturdays) and whereas he nonetheless loves lifting heavy, he’s additionally taking care to keep up his longevity via sacrificing weight for quantity the place obligatory, with the intention to be match and purposeful. In the course of the exercise, we did barbell squats with no added weight. Whereas executing the reps, Castagnoli had us placing in a bit of bunny hop with each ft as soon as we acquired to the underside of every squat. This takes a standard compound energy train and provides a plyometric component to extend our explosive energy output.
As we undertook the elevated single leg dumbbell squats, Castagnoli opted for us to put our entrance foot on a mat slightly than a weight plate. The transferring texture of the mat made it more difficult than the relative steadiness of a plate, activating the ankle and stabilizing muscle tissues even additional. In the course of the leg press, Castagnoli lived up his “Cyborg” nickname when he maxed-out the weights and accomplished reps of 385 kilos (174.6 kilograms). As I swapped locations with the long-lasting professional wrestler, I couldn’t shift the press an inch at that weight. Nonetheless, Castagnoli proved that he’s not only a nice wrestler, however an superior exercise companion besides. “We’re all completely different,” he says. “You would possibly do one thing I can’t do, and I’d do one thing that you could’t do, so there’s no level evaluating your self to anybody else,” he continues correctly. “That’s why, when folks ask me about what numbers I carry, it doesn’t actually curiosity me, we’re not competing with one another,” he says. For me, it’s lucky that I’m not competing with this super-strong 6’ 5” Swiss man. I’m simply completely happy and impressed to be in his orbit!
Claudio Castagnoli’s Elite Decrease Physique Exercise
| Warmup | Units/Reps |
|---|---|
| Rowing Machine | 4 Minutes at a Average Tempo |
| Barbell Squats with Bunny Hops | 8 X (no added weight) |
| Exercise | Units/Reps |
|---|---|
| Elevated Single Leg Dumbbell Squats: | 4 Units x 8 Reps |
| Leg Press: | 4 Units x 5, 5, 3, 3 Reps |
| Energy Seated Leg Curl: | 3 Units x 8 Reps |
| Good Mornings (with Bulgarian Lifting Bag) | 3 Units x 12 Reps |
| Drugs Ball V-Twist’s: | 3 Units x 10 Reps both sides |
| Finisher | Units/Reps |
|---|---|
| Step Machine: | 10 Minutes |
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