- Ryan Reynolds is preparing to return for the lead role in "Deadpool 3."
- The actor's long-time personal trainer Don Saladino told Insider how he trains and eats.
Ryan Reynolds is gearing up to play "Deadpool" for the third time by eating a nourishing diet — including plenty of carbs — and working out regularly, his long-time personal trainer told Insider.
Don Saladino has trained Reynolds for 14 years, and they were actually introduced by the actor's "Deadpool 3" co-star and joke frenemy, Hugh Jackman — who has been posting about his training ahead of playing Wolverine in the 2024 movie.
Despite the acting duo's online banter, Reynolds is more motivated by competing with himself than Jackman, Saladino said. He's pretty strict with his diet — but doesn't restrict food groups or calories — and is easy to train because he works hard, Saladino said.
"He's not starving himself," Saladino said. "Ryan is eating, he's fueling his body."
The aim is to get Reynolds feeling and looking his best when shooting "Deadpool 3." Body recomposition (muscle gain and fat loss) should happen if a person eats well and trains hard, but Saladino stressed the importance of factors including genetics, experience, and nutrition in how a person looks.
Reynolds maintains a fit physique year-round and has years of training behind him, so they aren't starting from scratch, Saladino said.
Instead of judging progress by weight, Saladino encourages Reynolds to look at non-scale victories by asking him whether he's getting good quality sleep and eating a nutritious diet.
Reynolds eats a 'boring' diet but doesn't over-restrict
Reynolds' diet is, according to Saladino, "a bit boring" and "incredibly clean." He eats simple foods and repeats many of the same meals, but is willingly strict and doesn't really do "cheat meals."
Reynolds eats every three to four hours, mostly consuming foods like oatmeal, protein powder, salmon, vegetables, sweet potato, and chicken, Saladino said.
"He's putting good lean proteins in his body," Saladino said. "He has vegetables going into his body because those are fibrous and have micronutrients, and he has slow-burning carbohydrates like oatmeal and sweet potato, which are fibrous too."
What Reynolds absolutely does not do is drop his calories too low or cut out food groups, Saladino said.
"He can't go no-carb and expect to be a dad and work on his businesses and then shoot for 14 hours a day," Saladino said. "It doesn't happen. He's one of the busiest human beings I've ever met."
By not dropping Reynolds' food intake too low, he keeps his metabolism high, Saladino said.
Reynolds lifts weights, walks, and foam rolls
Resistance training is also key to keeping Reynold's metabolism high, according to Saladino, who is an ambassador for metabolism tracker Lumen.
Every training session starts with foam rolling to reduce tenderness in certain body-parts, massage the muscle tissue, and increase circulation.
Then it's on to what Saladino calls "practice" which is a dynamic warm-up to raise the heart-rate and practice movements that need improving.
"We might work on thoracic extension, thoracic rotation, shoulder mobility, hips," Saladino said. "There are things that I like to warm up to make sure that the body's moving efficiently."
Then it's into the strength work. Saladino varies the training splits in phases — sometimes he and Reynolds focus on a different body-part in each session, other times they break workouts into pushing and pulling movements, and sometimes they do full body work in each session.
A few times a week they do conditioning in short intervals of three to five minutes, and Reynolds keeps his steps up simply by walking in his daily life, Saladino said.
Most importantly Reynolds trains with varying intensity, meaning he doesn't work to failure in every workout — he usually puts a weight down when he still had a few reps in the tank, Saladino said. This prevents injury and is also important not to add more stress to the body if someone is already stressed from a busy lifestyle.