Ok, I know i’m kind of late to join the party, the latest Baywatch movie has been out for a while now, but it wasn’t until the other day that I actually watched it for the first time… 

Like most guys (and women!) I was totally blown away at Zac Efron’s buff, athletic beach body in the new Baywatch movie!

It’s the kind of physique that most guys can only dream of achieving! Unlike the Rock, who’s an absolute mountain of a man and looks more like a bodybuilder – Zac’s physique is probably the more desirable of the two, with most men preferring the leaner and more athletic look over the bulky meat head image!

In this post I thought it would be cool to share some tips to help those of you out there looking to obtain a sculpted beach body.

How To Get A Body Like Zac Efron In Baywatch…

Is Zac Efron on Steroids?

There’s been lots of controversy regarding whether or not Zac Efron took steroids to achieve the super sculpted beach body he shows off in Baywatch. If you look at his muscles they are incredibly, lean and vascular, and his body fat is probably around 7-8% which is extremely hard to obtain – as the body doesn’t like carrying such little body fat (it’s not healthy!). 

There’s a certain type of appearance that steroid users have, which is this very dry look, with super tight skin, and overly impressive muscularity – Zac certainly looks this way in the film… hence the steroid accusations… 

Lots of critics have also mentioned other noticeable changes that are associated with steroid abuse, such as Zac’s deeper voice in the movie, and also an extra defined jaw line. Some people have even commented on his receding hairline.

To be honest though, the voice – is this just not because he’s playing an alpha male role? The jaw line… well he’s always had a very strong jawline! and finally the hair… it doesn’t look very receded to me – and anyway isn’t it normal for most guys hairlines to change as they age? Zac is 31 now (he’s no longer a baby faced actor, he’s a grown man!).

In my opinion it’s very hard to tell whether he took steroids or not. I wouldn’t be surprised if he did, but then again I wouldn’t be surprised if he didn’t! Only Zac knows!

Moving away from the steroid debate, it’s very possible to achieve a very lean and sculpted beach body look without taking performance enhancing drugs, and that’s what i’m now going to focus on… 

Correct Starting Point…

I’ve been a personal trainer for the last 8 years, and i’ve completed over 10,000 x 1-1 personal training sessions – I know what it takes to achieve this type of body – it’s frickin hard work! 

One thing I don’t want to do in this post… is talk BS… and pretend that anybody can get a body like Zac Efron in Baywatch – because they can’t!

It takes serious commitment, and there are also genetic factors. Zac has fantastic muscle structure, and naturally has a very aesthetically pleasing physique. There’s not much you can do about genetics, however hard work can be applied by anybody, and if you want it badly enough then you can achieve an amazing transformation. 

The outcome of results will differ from person to person, because we are all genetically different. For example let’s take a persons face, we all have different shaped/coloured eyes, nose, mouth, ears, hair, etc – it’s what makes us unique. The same can be said of our physiques, some people have a barrel chest, others have a flatter chest, some people have 8 abs, others 4, etc, etc. There are genetic limitations, but like I said…don’t worry you can still achieve awesome results – so stay positive and work with what you have! 

Also, if you are new to working out, or don’t have lots of muscle to begin with, it’s going to take you a lot longer. There’s no point in getting lean if you don’t have muscle to show off. Firstly you need to spend 1-2 years building muscle. If you’re very skinny then ideally you want to aim to add 14-28lbs of added muscle. Then when it comes to leaning down you will look phenomenal. But you need muscle first! 

I’m sure as soon as I said it could take you 1-2 years to build muscle… I bet I just lost half of the readers of this post! lol! It’s not what most people want to hear – they want to look like Zac Efron in 3 months! not 2 years! lol. BUT I told you… I would be honest, i’m not here to tell you what you want to hear… I’m just being truthful. 

So like I said if you don’t have much muscle to begin with then spend lots of time bulking up, hire a personal trainer, increase your calories, track your weight and make-sure it’s going up (if not eat more), get stronger in the gym, and eat shed loads of protein (at least 1.2g of protein per pound of bodyweight). 

If however you already have a good amount of muscle mass, then you are ready to achieve the Zac Efron Baywatch look, and here’s what i’d recommend… 

Achieving the Zac Efron Baywatch look… 

Image taken from Mens Health

Nutrition 

Nutrition is going to be crucial and you wont lean down unless you successfully create a calorie deficit. You need to slowly lower your calories over time, the aim is to drop 0.5-1lb of weight per week. I’d recommend giving yourself 16 weeks to diet down (unless you take performance enhancing drugs in which case it may only take 8-12 weeks). 

You’ll start with a good amount of calories per day, but then make a gradual calorie drop each week. For example…

• Week 1: 3,400 cals per day
• Week 2: 3,300 cals per day
• Week 3: 3,200 cals per day
• Week 4: 3,100 
• Week 5: 3,000
• Week 6: 2,900
• Week 7: 2,800 
• Week 8: 2,700
• Week 9: 2,600
• Week 10: 2,500
• Week 11: 2,400
• Week 12: 2,300
• Week 13, 2,200
• Week 14, 2,100
• Week 15: 2,000
• Week 16: 1,900

The gradual calorie drop each week wont shock the system (we want to avoid crash dieting to preserve muscle mass!) and to prevent you falling off plan, which is what happens when you go to extremes – you can’t sustain it!

Instead slowly lowering your calories each week will allow you to steadily drop fat and be a much more sustainable and healthy way of losing fat mass. 

Make-Sure that you are consuming at least 1.2g of protein per pound of bodyweight throughout the 16 weeks. So if you weigh 200lbs that means you’ll need 240g of protein per day. Consume plenty of foods high in protein such as meat, fish, eggs, whey protein, protein bars, nuts, etc. 

I would also recommend higher carbs on training days, and lower carbs on rest days. For example your macro split could look like this…

• Training Days: 35% protein, 45% carbs, 20% fat 
• Non Training Days: 40% protein, 10% carbs, 50% fat 

If you really want to strip fat, then the last 4 weeks of the 16 week program you could try my 28 Day Keto Challenge – a rapid way to strip body fat over a short period of time. 

Zac Efron Weight Training Program…

The other big part of the puzzle is the training! It’s important to preserve as much muscle as possible whilst cutting body fat, you can do this by 1) consuming enough protein (1.2g of protein per pound of bodyweight) and 2) by lifting heavy weights and keeping the highest amount of strength possible. 

For the next 16 weeks try the following training split, training 6x per week…

• Monday – push training (1)
• Tuesday – pull training (1)
• Wednesday – legs (1) 
• Thursday – push training (2) 
• Friday – pull training (2)
• Saturday – legs (2)
• Sunday – REST

The Workouts…

Push training 1

• Flat bench press 3 sets x 6-10 reps
• Incline DB press 3 sets x 6-10 reps
• DB side raises 3 sets x 8-12 reps 
• DB rear raises 3 sets x 8-12 reps
• DB overhead tricep extensions 3 sets x 8-12 reps 
• Rope pushdown 3 sets x 8-12 reps 

*rest 60s between each set

Pull training 1

• Wide grip pull up 3 sets x 6-10 reps
• Bent over BB row 3 sets x 8-12 reps 
• DB pull over 3 sets x 8-12 reps
• BB curl 3 sets x 6-10 
• DB hammer curl 3 sets x 8-12 reps 
• Rope crunch 3 sets x 15-20 reps  

*rest 60s between each set

Leg training 1

• Back squats 3 sets x 6-10 reps
• Leg press 3 sets x 8-12 reps
• Seated hamstring curl 3 sets x 8-12 reps
• DB Romanian deadlift 3 sets x 8-12 reps
• Leg press calf raises 3 sets x 20-25 reps 

*rest 60s between each set

Push training 2

• Dips 3 sets x 6-10 reps 
• Incline BB press 3 sets x 6-10 reps 
• DB upright row 3 sets x 8-12 reps
• DB shrugs 3 sets x 10-15 reps 
• DB skull crushers 3 sets x 8-12 reps
• DB tricep kick backs 3 sets x 10-15 reps

*rest 60s between each set

Pull training 2

• Deadlift 3 sets x 6-10 reps
• One arm DB row 3 sets x 8-12 reps (each arm) 
• Close grip pull down 3 sets x 8-12 reps 
• Cable bicep curl 3 sets x 8-12 reps
• One arm DB preacher curl 3 sets x 6-10 reps (each arm)
• Dead bugs 3 sets x 15-20 reps 

*rest 60s between each set

Leg training 2

• Lying hamstring curl x 3 sets 8-12 reps 
• Front squat 3 sets x 6-10 reps
• Hip thrusters 3 sets x 8-12 reps
• Leg extensions 3 sets x 15-20 reps
• Smith calf raises 3 sets x 15-20 reps 

*rest 60s between each set

Cardio 

Cardio is also key as it will help you burn body fat alongside the weekly calorie drop. Over the 16 week program you will slowly increase your volume of cardio to help you shed more and more body fat. 

The aim of the cardio is to work at 50% of your maximum heart rate (not very intense). The best way to figure out your maximum heart rate is 220 – your age. For example say you are aged 30…

220 – 30 = 190 

Then you would do 190 / 2 (50%) so you would aim to stay at 95bpm when doing cardio. You can use any type of cardio equipment, a bike, treadmill, cross trainer, ski machine, just make-sure you can monitor your heart rate. 

16 week cardio plan…

• Week 1: 2 mins at the end of your leg workouts 
• Week 2: 4 mins at the end of your leg workouts
• Week 3: 6 mins at the end of your leg workouts
• Week 4: 8 mins at the end of your leg workouts
• Week 5: 10 mins at the end of your leg workouts
• Week 6: 12 mins at the end of your leg workouts
• Week 7: 10 mins at the end of your leg workouts and push workouts 
• Week 8: 10 mins at the end of your leg workouts and push workouts
• Week 9: 10 mins at the end of your leg workouts and push workouts
• Week 10: 10 mins at the end of your leg workouts and push workouts
• Week 11: 10 mins at the end of your leg workouts and push workouts
• Week 12: 10 mins at the end of your leg workouts and push workouts
• Week 13, 10 mins at the end of every workout 
• Week 14, 12 mins at the end of every workout
• Week 15: 14 mins at the end of every workout
• Week 16: 16 mins at the end of every workout

Supplements 

Supplements are only a small part of the puzzle (maybe 5-10%) but are still worth considering if you want to optimise performance and get better results. The 3 supps I’d recommend are:

Whey protein – an easy whey (i mean way! lol!) to increase your protein. Most Whey proteins are 80% protein, so per 50g of powder you get 40g of protein. If you have a couple of these a day it can be an easy way to help you meet your protein targets. I’d recommend Optimum Nutrition Gold Standard Whey protein – it tastes delicious. 

Creatine – a great way to increase your natural strength. I’d recommend taking between 5-10g of creatine each day for the first 8-12 weeks. After that take a rest until the end of your 16 week program.

Protein Bars – again a good way to boost your protein intake. I recommend Grenade Carb Killa bars – they taste awesome and are a good way of fitting in a treat which tastes like a chocolate bar, but also contains lots of protein to help you build muscle.  

Alongside the above 3 supplements, if you wanted you could also take a multivitamin, vitamin D, and turmeric – all these will help support and promote good health and recovery. You might also want to get a tan. If you do get a tan, you will need some after tanning lotion.

Good Luck!

Thanks for reading, if you’ve benefited from this post then please comment below! You could also message me at nick@lepfitness.co.uk – or via the contact form on my personal training website. 

Nick 🙂