The 18 Fittest Stars in WWE
Thirty years ago, WWE was the land of giants – massively muscular stars capable of impressive feats of strength, even if they couldn’t wrestle their way out of a wet paper bag.
In the decades that followed, however, Vince McMahon’s penchant for physical specimens waned slightly, as it became apparent that actual wrestling ability was important, too. In fact, today’s WWE bears little resemblance to its jacked-up “Rock ‘n’ Wrestling” era, and its stars have followed the trajectory of Hollywood action heroes, slimming down and balancing intense workouts with intelligent diets.
That’s not to say WWE Superstars aren’t still big, but on the whole they sport leaner muscle, are more agile than just about any athlete their size and have longer careers. Their secret? Smarter eating habits, CrossFit-style functional fitness and the WWE Performance Center, the new training facility that treats them less like entertainers and more like Olympic athletes. In light of this shift, Men’s Journal turned their attention to the fitness habits of the top Superstars to see what they could learn. With the help of a few nutritionists and trainers, they shed light on the habits of the WWE stars – and then ranked them according to their fitness prowess.
18. Neville
Height: 5-foot-8, Weight: 194 pounds
Neville takes on the usual body building, powerlifting and conditioning work that goes into making a Superstar, but his claim to fitness fame is cross conditioning. You can find him doing soccer, roller hockey, basketball and even tennis – anything that he feels will help him be an all-around stronger and fitter person. To keep building muscle (he’s one of the smaller guys out there), he eats a lot of protein and also a good amount of fruits and vegetables.
Room for Improvement: “Neville’s workout is potentially sound in theory – aesthetic work, conventional strength work and conditioning are all important to an athlete at his level,” Jeff Butterworth, owner of Rx Strength Training in Somerville, Massachusetts, says. “He should be beginning his routine with breathing and mobility exercise and should definitely work in more movements similar to what he will do in the ring. Staying active by playing other sports is a great idea, though. It keeps him agile and conditioned as well as mentally refreshed.”
17. Rusev
Height: 6
feet, Weight: 304 pounds
Rusev was born in Bulgaria and has had training in sumo and muay thai, a background that helps explain why he looks like a tank, yet moves with the quickness of a jet (a really big jet, but still…) He trains with moves that mimic just what he needs to do in the ring – like grabbing a super-heavy sandbag off the ground, lifting it high and throwing it back down to the ground.
Room for Improvement: “I like that his workout is sport specific – he’s doing the same movement with a heavy sandbag he would do with a person,” Butterworth says. “But he should take it to the next level. Scoop the sandbag up to one shoulder, move it to the other, run 50 feet, then throw it down. Maybe even do barrel rolls with the sandbag on the ground. This will help him adjust to anything that happens in the ring when that sandbag is replaced with a huge guy.”
16. Dean Ambrose
Height: 6-foot-4,
Weight: 225 pounds
While many Superstars work to be the biggest, strongest guy out there, Ambrose aims to win by outlasting the heavier guys. So he trains with long runs and even longer bike rides, focusing on stamina. “I’m not going to throw 27 people over the rope at one time,” he said. “But I am prepared to be pounded on for 60 minutes or so.”
Room for Improvement: “If he were a triathlete, where he would need to do a single controlled movement for a long time, this would be perfect,” Butterworth says. “But that’s not what wrestling is. He would do a better job of building his VO2 max and stamina with intense bursts of activity, say sprinting for 30 seconds, resting for 30 seconds and repeating.”
15. Ryback
Height: 6-foot-3, Weight: 291 pounds
Ryback’s Instagram feed is a good window into the fitness habits of “The Big Guy.” One shot has him doing ring dips (to increase core strength and flexibility; he can crank out 20 reps easily) while the next is of him finishing 100 burpees (for conditioning) and another of him deadlifting 500 pounds 10 times. With workouts like those, it’s probably no surprise the Intercontinental Champ’s catchphrase is “Feed me more.” But this is where the good habits end. It’s not rare for him to eat a full pound of meat (either steak or ground turkey) mixed with whole wheat protein pasta and a little bit of pasta sauce – for breakfast. He eats every two or three hours for the rest of the day and it’s usually steak, chicken, tuna fish, eggs, brown rice or sweet potatoes. It seems he doesn’t go for a lot of variety, eating the same dish over and over again, at home and at restaurants…though he’ll dominate a wing-eating contest when he gets the chance.
Room for Improvement: “Ryback is eating a ton of protein, possibly more than 500 grams a day,” Susan Kleiner, PhD and author of Power Eating, says. “He really only needs one gram for every pound he weighs, so 290 grams of protein is sufficient. And that kind of volume of meat also delivers a hefty dose of saturated fats, which are associated with an increased risk for cardiovascular disease. The other thing I’d say is that he shouldn’t be so afraid of variety. If he swapped some of those meat servings out for plant-based fats like olives, avocados, nuts and seeds, he’d be hugely improving his diet.”
The 18 Fittest Stars in WWE, Page 1 of 2