A very slow training session with Zac Efron.
In a Nutshell
Zac Efron trained with Ben Greenfield in Austin, focusing on back and biceps while balancing bodybuilding with functional fitness. His Baywatch prep required 6,000 calories daily, intense cardio, and diuretics, pushing him to 175 lbs at very low body fat, while Iron Claw demanded similar muscle mass but without the extreme dehydration tactics. Recovery tools like hyperbaric oxygen, blood-flow restriction bands, and active recovery days proved more effective than rest alone, and he now values evidence-based training from coaches like Mike Israetel alongside TRT for sustained performance.
These notes were generated by AI and may contain inaccuracies.
Zac Efron describes the training session as a competition between himself and trainer Ben, who focuses on making them fitter. Efron states he has been keeping up with Ben for a week and cannot believe he is still alive. He mentions suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder from previous movie preparation work. Efron wanted to work on his back and biceps while doing weightlifting exercises correctly.
Efron describes feeling severe pain and becoming extremely exhausted during the session. The trainer tests his abilities and notes that he seems strong lately. Efron mentions feeling pressure and being told to stop trying to outdo each other. When asked about lifting heavy weights, the answer is no. The trainer warns against doing knee-ups over toes.
The session takes place in Austin, Texas with Zac Efron. They discuss training duration and decide to maintain intensity at a comfortable pace. Efron notes the high intensity level and they proceed with bodybuilding exercises.
Ben created the Baywatch program entirely and sent it via text message. Efron changed it to two days because it was too much. The program included metabolic exercises with consecutive sets and functional exercises. The structure involved two-minute maximum effort exercises, then deadlifts, arm curls on balance balls, two minutes of intense cardio, pull-ups or pull-ups with chest press, then back to cardio.
During the first four months, Efron consumed about 6,000 calories daily and ate large amounts of food. His waist size dropped from 29 to 34 inches in four months. After reducing calorie intake, he lost weight quickly. They also started wrestling training simultaneously. His basal metabolic rate was around 3600.
Efron describes living the lifestyle of a bodybuilder as extremely difficult because you are very limited in what you can do. He calls it extremely boring. You eat too much food and either work so hard that you are exhausted, in pain, or sleepy, or struggle to move around the house to accomplish simple things. His heaviest weight reached approximately 205 pounds, and he is now about 175 pounds.
They plan to do bench press exercises, bicep curls, overhead presses with narrow-grip high push-ups. This combines bodybuilding exercises with functional exercises.
Efron ate lots of chicken, rice, sweet potatoes, and salmon to reach 6,000 calories daily. He warns against eating as much salmon as he consumed due to mercury poisoning. He recommends eating protein sources like chicken, fish, turkey, and beef.
They discuss playing a game where the next person chooses the training group. Efron mentions following Ben for a week and feeling this is much harder than preparation for "Iron Claw." He feels extremely tired and questions if he has experienced post-traumatic stress disorder from previous movie preparation.
Baywatch preparation was mainly based on intense cardio exercises. Efron built muscles before filming began over about 3 months, then increased cardio and intensive training. He took many diuretics for that role and describes it as very bad. His body was able to recover, and he was urinating what looked like Coca-Cola.
The trainer for Baywatch never knew Efron had to be shirtless every day. Efron always exercised at maximum speed and was always on high alert due to stress. He would wake up feeling extremely tired, looking like he had not lifted any weight, but then started eating some sugar. He did hundreds of push-ups, used resistance bands, and did pull-ups daily.
The Iron Claw role was difficult because Kevin Von Erich was huge. Efron mentions his heaviest weight during Baywatch filming was about 175 pounds, his current weight, but with slightly different body composition. He notes the difference between 15% and 11% body fat percentages and how milk thistle extract accentuates muscles.
Both Baywatch and Iron Claw preparations resulted in low body fat, but one involved diarrhea while the other was within the low normal range. Efron describes it as being just skin over muscles and calls it brutal.
A Ninja Warrior route was included in a scene where the director warned Efron not to try to finish the track because he was made of "wicker and bamboo" and would break in half. Efron succeeded on the first try despite the warning. The crew put mats only for the first part of the route because they were confident he would only make it halfway.
On the second attempt, Efron fell on the very last part of the ladder, falling about 15 feet. He considers high rock climbing, Spartan racing, or obstacle courses exciting but notes he did it during the CrossFit era between 2016 and 2020.
Efron considers the clean lifting movement the most valuable CrossFit exercise. He warns that repeated movements like snatches are extremely dangerous, but mastering them provides satisfaction. The problem with CrossFit is metabolic conditioning under heavy load with complex exercises.
Efron learned that active recovery speeds up the elimination of delayed onset muscle soreness. He would come on his day off and sit on the exercise bike, feeling tired but noticing all pain had disappeared. The key change was saying "I feel pain, I need to move" instead of "I feel pain, I need to rest." Cardio, stretching, or light exercise after intense workouts reduces delayed onset muscle soreness.
They attempt pull-up exercises with compound exercises and diving drills. Efron describes the session as a war between himself wanting to get bigger and Ben wanting to make them fitter. Chris wants intense cardio at age sixty.
Efron sustained many injuries from CrossFit like anyone else. He mentions two bulging discs and a knot causing swelling in the vertebrae. He describes the injury as disgusting and questions why he did this to himself when trying to take care of himself.
The back injury occurred during weightlifting exercises at Chris Hemsworth's house. Efron has been offered superhero roles but never wanted to do them. He likes some superhero movies depending on the type, ranging from "Suicide Squad" to "The Avengers."
Efron notes superhero movies are trendy and lose their appeal over time. He would not consider a $20 million commercial role suitable for Wolverine. He wants independent films to flourish, noting their decline after 2007-2008 when films like "There Will Be Blood" and "No Country for Old Men" were made.
Efron believes true heroism is making a great movie, not about a superhero. Physical strength enables playing superhero roles regardless of character. He has gained coaching knowledge from different coaches and finds it easy to gain muscular physique but wants to portray real characters rather than muscular ones.
Efron enjoys doing different things because it keeps him in a constant learning process and experiencing new kinds of acting. He has never had an acting experience that was not enjoyable. Comedy acting is full of challenges but remains the same - acting is just listening, and applying it to different genres keeps it fun and interesting.
The worst part of acting is aspects of fame that pose real challenges. Efron loves humans and being around other people but finds it difficult to be part of groups of people. Fame is confusing and creates a distortion of reality where people cannot act normally.
Efron compares fame to being so beautiful that people cannot act normally, thinking "Oh my God, you're so gorgeous." The same applies to men of very high standing like Trump or JD Vance. People cannot act naturally around famous individuals, making it difficult to trust the world as everyone seems to have ulterior motives.
Efron loves interacting with fans and making people happy, especially when films affect them positively. However, having the same conversation 50 times in an hour and a half becomes exhausting, and his tank becomes empty.
The hardest part of filming is the 10- to 12-hour workday limit that is always exceeded. Efron is usually the first to arrive and last to leave as the lead. Work starts at 4:00 a.m. on Monday with shooting beginning by 6:00 a.m., finishing at 6:00 p.m., but return times do not fit nighttime hours.
By Wednesday, start times shift from 4:00 a.m. to noon, then from noon to midnight. The 10-hour return time means returning at 4:00 a.m. on Thursday, then 8:00 a.m. on Friday. After Friday, work goes 16 to 17 hours with no time limit due to a day off. Sleep totals about four hours per night with varying bedtimes.
Filming involves shift work for months, making it very difficult. The rest of the work is enjoyable but tiring, leaving one completely drained. Efron wishes he could do films with small roles for days off but that rarely happens.
The film industry consists of people very good in their fields - hair and makeup, special effects, sound, cinematography - everyone is elite. When passionate people deliver something special together, it is very enjoyable as a team effort with everyone at a high level.
Efron usually trains solo and has been training for a long time, which made him good at it. Training creates positive change and accountability to someone.
Efron finds testosterone replacement therapy great, especially for recovery. You can put in more effort daily and feel good. It affects recovery from musculoskeletal strain rather than neuromuscular strain. Benefits include maintaining mental balance through daily training, extra recovery, slight libido effect, good brain effect, and good motivation effect.
During exercises, maintaining a perfectly straight back is emphasized. They switch hands and imagine holding something firmly. The fascia requires slow movement like balancing from one foot to the other, feeling the back stretching.
Efron uses hyperbaric oxygen therapy, red light, and sauna. The hyperbaric chamber protocol with Gary Brecka involved 18 consecutive days of two-hour sessions at 20 and 5 depths. He completed Elden Ring while in the chamber and found sustained energy afterward.
The hyperbaric chamber is not widely available and requires driving to locations. Most people do not have one at home. Sessions take two hours plus 90 minutes of depth time and are expensive.
Efron travels with Rogue resistance bands, the light ones, for workouts almost anywhere. He does occlusion training with Katsu bands for blood flow restriction training, which he calls a game-changer.
Blood flow restriction training tricks the body into thinking it is under higher stress than actual. The old-school protocol is 30, 20, 10 reps - 30 reps, rest, then 20, then 10. Efron does 30 squats, 30 pull-ups with TRX, 30 lunges, 30 push-ups, then 20.
Concerns about blood vessel blockage and potential stroke exist if pressure is too high. The secret is checking if blood flow returns to fingernail or toenail within 3 seconds. Japanese cuffs come with electronic controllers for pressure adjustment in milligrams.
Efron learned the most from Mike Israetel regarding evidence-based training. He appeared on podcasts with Ben Greenfield on episodes 75, 18, 180, and 600.
Coffee enemas are mentioned as a guess for removing microplastic particles. Efron recalls his first time with Ben Greenfield involving ozone and coffee enemas within the first hour. A practitioner named Neil could open nasal cavities widely during treatment.
Embryonic development dictates that the digestive system, from mouth to anus, develops in close succession with the fascia. For biohackers, this means manipulation through the mouth or nostril can affect fascia in the legs, neck, or back. This is why practitioners go in through the mouth to clear mucus and loosen tension in the iliotibial band.
Training maintains heart rate below 100. Gains are above 100. A heart check was requested. Finger placement up the nose was used to assess difference, with the subject noting changes since breaking their jaw.
Zac Efron had a bad accident when he was about 22 years old. He fell on a piece of granite fountain while running and slipped. The jaw became hard to work on, and tension release causes pain. It hurts when cold and feels uneven, making chewing difficult. The fall happened in the kitchen while wearing Mickey Mouse slippers, described as like a Tom and Jerry cartoon.
An advertisement was sent but the recipient was advised not to buy it because the sender wanted it themselves. The product looked cool but was too expensive for the recipient's bank account. The recipient suggested sharing with their brother.
Podcasting is one of the few truly effective businesses that improves the more authentic you are. People engage more when you're open, genuine, honest, and serious. The question must be kept in mind: to what extent must I compromise on what I want to do to ensure the business continues? The podcast offers room to maneuver as long as products aren't inferior.
Eight Sleep is sold because it's an amazing, game-changing product. There's no brand loyalty except that the product is used and they pay for promotion. The product is particularly useful for detoxification pathways. When these pathways are disrupted, sleeping at night becomes impossible because the body fluctuates between heat and cold.
Lymphatic aesthetics is the field to bet on. An entire industry exists on Instagram where cosmetic procedures are performed through lymphatic drainage. The idea is that too much fluid accumulates in the face causing under-eye puffiness. Instead of fixing with injections or makeup, lymph can be drained to make the face look better. This would allow people to sleep 5 hours a night and still look beautiful.
Poor lymphatic drainage causes waking with puffy eyes after a bad night's sleep. The cleaning process that takes place during sleep is disrupted. Just as NAD or creatine is taken to combat sleep deprivation effects, lymphatic drainage does what the body should have done during good sleep.
Various tools are used including brushes. There may be room to sell them for personal use, or they could be offered as a service like going to a masseuse. The practitioner does it herself but it can also be sold as a non-surgical facial intervention.
A major problem is disruption in detoxification pathways, namely insomnia. Sleep is extremely difficult with restlessness and difficulty staying asleep. 20-minute naps are taken several times a night. This is common among artists due to movie shooting schedules.
Sessions are held almost every day at home but almost never when traveling. Severe attention deficit disorder has been turned into super productivity and the best lifestyle, operating at full capacity all the time.
Nick Norritt is one of the best researchers in health and science, rising in ranks. He holds a medical degree and doctorate, and decided to turn to content creation instead of clinical research and medicine. Thomas Dow is considered somewhat underrated.
The movie Back Rooms is one of the favorite movies of the year. It's a psychological film rather than horror. The Ring ruined life for almost six years. Favorite movies include The Matrix, all Russell Crowe movies, and anything with Daniel Day-Lewis.
Russell Crowe contacted personally. They filmed a movie called The Greatest Beer Trip Ever. Russell Crowe has a bad reputation in the industry but is actually the nicest person. The sample size of people who have interacted with any star is only five reactions, and you only need two or three interactions to form an opinion.
During filming, Russell Crowe stood his ground about camera positioning. The photographer was told multiple times to move to the other side. Russell said he wouldn't start filming until the photographer moved. The photographer was proven wrong and had to change positions. Russell sacrificed popularity with the crew to salvage the production.
The line between rude and being mean is questioned. Russell wasn't rude - he was passionate and didn't want to waste anyone's time. He told the guy where he needed to be several times. The strange thing is that Russell had to pay the price by sacrificing crew popularity to benefit the production.
Keegan was on set for six hours preparing for a difficult emotional scene. Someone was distracting from behind while trying to concentrate. Christian Bale lashed out at the cameraman. The question is whether at some point you have to shut up and say the production isn't making the job easier.
The line between your true self and the character you're developing into is very thin. Professionals maintain composure in amazing ways. When working with actors who embody the character, it's a completely different matter.
The first time working with Nicole Kidman, she was fully immersed in character for the movie Newspaperboy with Matthew Macon. She wasn't stepping out of character. The accent was Southern because she wouldn't have stepped out of the role. Characters were in love, so off-camera flirting would have been disgusting.
The session ends with excitement about the training. Ben Greenfield was convinced to switch from cardio to bodybuilding. The session concludes with plans to eat tacos.
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