Earlier this week a photo of JK Simmons lifting weights in a gym went viral, with people being all “Wait…where the fuck did this come from?” You expect Chris Hemsworth to be ripped for Thor and you expect Arnold Schwarzenegger to get swole for Terminator, but JK Simmons? Dude’s 61 years old – how ripped can he actually get?
Super fucking ripped, apparently, as the above image managed to spread itself like wildfire in only a few short hours. And while it’s clear that Simmons put in a lot of time and effort into getting that big, he didn’t do it alone – Aaron Williamson, a 6’3” 235-pound former Marine and competitive bodybuilder, worked with Simmons (and continues to do so) to get him in this shape. Speaking to NY Daily News, Williamson divulged exactly what it took to get Simmons from “Grandpa” to “Sylvester Stallone.” Not only do they train together “two or three” times a week, but Simmons is on a specific diet as well:
I give him suggestions here and there, but he’s been experimenting over the past couple of years with different foods. A lot of low-carb stuff, lean proteins, a lot of vegetables. Every day might be a little different for him. He eats every three hours. What he calls his “secret weapon” is a little piece of dark chocolate. He eats one square every day.(via)
As for what sort of exercises they do in the gym, Williamson says that he and Simmons “typically are doing a lot of unilateral movements with dumbbells, because JK has aches and pains and stuff, so we try to keep things mobile and loose”:
We use dumbbells that feel a bit better on your joints rather than being stuck under a bar. His goal was to have “sick arms.” When we did Terminator, I was training a guy named Jai Courtney. He kept mentioning, “I want to have arms bigger than Jai’s.” We would joke about it, but then we actually started training and he made improvements on his arms until what we’re doing right now.(via)
Clearly whatever they’re doing works – and good on JK for getting into fitness even at a later stage in life. It’s never too late to get swole.
[H/T NY Daily News]