How long was the training process?
For like two years I had to maintain a shirtless physique. We had to come up with a plan that would be attainable for two years. I did a lot of high-rep weight lifting, high-intensity interval training along with some boxing workouts and incline walks. It was cool because Avatar and Josh made me my own traveling gym trailer so that it was accessible throughout filming. When we rented a house in Wellington in New Zealand—where we filmed—we changed the garage into a gym and my trainer lived in the attached apartment so we could just bro out whenever.
What did your day-to-day eating routine look like during those days of training and filming?
It was just like protein, protein, protein. One gram of protein per pound of body weight, which is what I still do to this day. Instead of focusing on meals that tasted good or were easy to consume, I would just focus my entire day around foods that are high in protein and count my macros.
In the very beginning I only had salmon, until I got sick of it. During the live action filming I was eating a lot of Beyond Meat, salads, a lot of fruit, and tofu.
Do you take any supplemental protein?
Yeah, to this day I still do. My favorite protein shakes are these premade Premier Protein shakes, which are just 30g of protein. Pretty low in fat, just really good for you.
How many calories did you eat on a daily basis to reach your goal and maintain your weight?
It kept changing because I was growing up and going through puberty, but it was always around 2,200 calories.
The cast also did underwater physical training and trained with breath-holding specialists to film extended takes underwater. Was that difficult to achieve?
I did freediving training and scuba training for four years. They designed a real full face mask—because on Pandora the humans have to have a face mask to breathe in their oxygen from outside—that also worked as a scuba mask for us to be underwater for hours. I held my breath for up to five minutes and 33 seconds at one point.
It’s all about being zen and just being really relaxed so you don’t use up too much oxygen. Sometimes when I was in the scuba mask I’d be 30 feet down underwater basically for hours at a time. We did breath ups to get rid of a lot of the carbon dioxide in our bloodstream, that could take up to five minutes, and then you have to do a really deep inhalation to get a higher oxygen percentage.
Did any of the cast members inspire your fitness journey in any way?
Stephen Lang [who plays the villainous Colonel Quaritch] was a beast in the gym. He was there as many times as I was, sometimes even earlier in the morning. Always just being a complete beast.
Out of all the different training you did to prepare for the role, which did you enjoy the most?
Christian Rosa
Source link
