It’s nearly 10 years since Claudio Castagnoli (then recognized in WWE as Cesaro) started sharing his health ideas with readers of Muscle & Fitness. Since then, we’ve all seen him develop from a scorching prospect to a WrestleMania main-eventer and little doubt, one among professional wrestling’s strongest and most enjoyable athletes. Now signed with AEW, Castagnoli continues to be proving to be lower above the remaining as a passionate athlete that’s all enterprise between the ropes. In order to be taught extra about how the “Swiss Superman” is coaching in the direction of 2024, I bought within the fitness center 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 train for just one moment,” explains Castagnoli. Indeed, as a professional wrestler, he doesn’t have an low season, and is positioned in entrance of tv digicam’s all yr spherical. His always ripped physique takes critical dedication, however the elite celebrity feels that his dedication would possibly encourage others too. “If someone see’s me on television and I’m out of shape, and they say ‘look at Claudio, he has let himself go,’ then that might let them down, and they might lose their motivation too,” he explains. “A lot of athletes don’t want the responsibility of having fans that look up to them, but I take it seriously.”
One of the ways in which Claudio Castagnoli takes his craft severely is thru his fitness center routines. Having travelled to London, England, to advertise AEW’s “All In” 2024, at Wembley Stadium, the “King of Swing” headed straight into a protracted 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 fitness center and get his sweat on with M&F. It’s par for the course when 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 Fitness, 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. No matter how loopy his schedule is, Castagnoli trains round 4 days every week. “It’s lower body, lower body, upper body, upper body,” 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 potential. This session occurred to be decrease physique, so right here is the exercise, adopted by a breakdown of this epic routine.
Caludio Castagnoli Keeps Things Moving within the Gym
Another method to the fitness center that retains his periods environment friendly is Castagnoli’s willingness to swap and alter his workout routines if a machine or rack is unavailable. “Just keep it moving,” says the grasp of the Skyward-Uppercut. “Don’t waste time waiting for a machine when you could be doing something else.” As an ideal instance, we discovered that the squat racks had 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’. In phrases of creating swaps, Castagnoli believes that that is the important thing to stepping into higher form with diet too. “Even if you just swap sugar for a sugar substitute, those small changes add up,” he says.
Concluding our decrease physique exercise with the step machine, I really feel impressed and energized to observe the teachings of my much-valued mentor for the day. And it’s not simply me that appreciates the talents of Caludio Castagnoli. During 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 loads of time for his followers, and so long as he’s between units he enjoys conversing with them. But be warned, should you ever attempt to interrupt the principle man whereas he’s cranking out a rep, chances are 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 Workout Breakdown
Claudio Castagnoli is severely 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 (Live on Wednesday’s), Rampage (Fridays) and Collision (Saturdays) and whereas he nonetheless loves lifting heavy, he’s additionally taking care to take care of his longevity by means of sacrificing weight for quantity the place obligatory, as a way to be match and purposeful. During the exercise, we did barbell squats with no added weight. While executing the reps, Castagnoli had us placing in slightly bunny hop with each toes as soon as we bought to the underside of every squat. This takes a standard compound power train and provides a plyometric factor 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 relatively 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. During 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. Still, Castagnoli proved that he’s not only a nice wrestler, however an superior exercise associate besides. “We are all different,” he says. “You might do something I can’t do, and I might do something that you can’t do, so there’s no point comparing yourself to anyone else,” he continues correctly. “That’s why, when people ask me about what numbers I lift, it doesn’t really interest me, we are not competing with each other,” he says. For me, it’s lucky that I’m not competing with this super-strong 6’ 5” Swiss man. I’m simply joyful and impressed to be in his orbit!
Claudio Castagnoli’s Elite Lower Body Workout
| Warmup | Sets/Reps |
|---|---|
| Rowing Machine | 4 Minutes at a Moderate Pace |
| Barbell Squats with Bunny Hops | 8 X (no added weight) |
| Workout | Sets/Reps |
|---|---|
| Elevated Single Leg Dumbbell Squats: | 4 Sets x 8 Reps |
| Leg Press: | 4 Sets x 5, 5, 3, 3 Reps |
| Power Seated Leg Curl: | 3 Sets x 8 Reps |
| Good Mornings (with Bulgarian Lifting Bag) | 3 Sets x 12 Reps |
| Medicine Ball V-Twist’s: | 3 Sets x 10 Reps all sides |
| Finisher | Sets/Reps |
|---|---|
| Step Machine: | 10 Minutes |
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