SEAL Team star David Boreanaz shows us the workout he has used to play a Navy SEAL team leader for the past seven seasons. His workout includes many different training disciplines - weights, swimming, and boxing to name a few. Boreanaz also explains the inspiration he draws from his upbringing in Philadelphia.
Category
🥇
SportsTranscript
00:00Hey, what's up, Men's Health, it's David Borealis, going to take you on a little bit
00:15of a routine that I usually do with my trainer, Roy Parish, so check it out, let's do this.
00:22This is Roy.
00:23Say hi, Roy.
00:24Hey, how you guys doing?
00:26and how fast I can recover back into whether I'm working or whether I'm getting into another
00:31workout.
00:33When you operate and play a Navy SEAL, you're going to be physically challenged when you're
00:39out doing those specific scenes and those missions and jumping out of helicopters and
00:44doing low crawls and stuff like that.
00:46So the shoulders were always an issue for me.
00:49Essentially, he's torn three out of the four muscles in that shoulder that allow him to
00:53rotate his shoulder or lift up, which if you would have had the surgery or any type
00:57of other invasive procedure, he would be out four to six months.
01:00Yeah, we don't want that, can't have that.
01:02So we have to work the areas in the shoulders and the knees and the hips so we can get through
01:07the day.
01:09We start on the table, get a little bit of the flush going, stretching, some upper arm
01:15stuff, some lower body movements just to get the blood flow going, and then we go into
01:19our workouts.
01:20We've got our banded field goal, external rotations here, going back.
01:27This band work will help my shoulders.
01:35And then we do step backs, backhand, just one, two.
01:40What we do and how we portray these types of military characters is really the amount
01:47of work that you put into it, your dedication and your consistency.
01:51So you do it in honor of their sacrifice and what they do to protect our country.
01:56Glutes, core, lateral quad, right?
02:00This is for that knee.
02:01So I was working on the table over there.
02:03Glutes and core right now.
02:05I'm not doing it per se a military workout.
02:07I'm just doing something that works for me, which is actually really good for playing
02:14in ABCL because you're always in this position when you're approaching.
02:20We got 10 and we switch sides.
02:22The swing and the consistency of it, but as you can see, my posture and how my knees are
02:27kind of drawn down, again, works for that whole, like, attack, slow and low kind of
02:37moves.
02:38Okay, so we're just doing rotation swings, just good for lower body, upper body or core,
02:45you know, and just spin that for spin out.
02:49Got 10, two sets of 10.
02:50Two sets of 10.
02:52Flip it.
02:53Flip.
02:54Do both sides.
02:55You get a good shot on my backside.
02:59So I do three times a week.
03:01If I can't get that in, I'll do two and then I'll definitely swim in between the days just
03:06to kind of get my body kind of healed up into recovery.
03:13Training goals for me really are the benchmark for like where I am energy wise.
03:19Life hits you hard every day and you have to adjust to those, those hits and that energy.
03:24So I look at a workout as how am I feeling at that day, work in the now and always raise
03:31the bar higher.
03:32So there will be days where I don't really feel like I want to get into the gym, but
03:34I know I have to get to the gym.
03:36That's showing up every day.
03:37So those are the little goals to get to the bigger ones.
03:4010.
03:4110.
03:42Yep.
03:43What are these good for?
03:46It's just bringing that guard back and also that shoulder.
03:48So it's a lot of shoulder work, getting a lot of shoulder integrity because when you
03:52swing you're not really thinking about how to protect your shoulder.
03:54So this helps us protect that shoulder and bulletproof it.
03:59Okay.
04:03These are the types of exercises we would do throughout the season just to maintain
04:07the strength in the upper body and lower body.
04:18We throw in boxing sessions probably twice a week, maybe once a week, depending upon
04:22how I'm feeling.
04:23We usually do five.
04:24We're close to five.
04:25Well, not when we mix up anything like this, but yeah, we'll do a six box and then we're
04:27doing eight.
04:28Then we're doing eight.
04:29See how aggressive he gets.
04:31All right.
04:33So boxing usually like a minute, minute and a half in between, you know, boxing sessions,
04:38which can range from one minute, two minutes to three minutes.
04:41We could do four rounds.
04:42We could do five rounds.
04:43If we're doing strictly just boxing and go eight rounds, keep the heart rate going again.
04:48For me, it's really achieving low impact stuff.
04:51I don't want to bulk.
04:52I don't want to get huge.
04:54I want to maintain a lean body type for myself.
04:57That's where I work the best.
04:58The most optimum is efficiency and speed for me, especially in a world like this.
05:02You have to be fast when you have to be fast.
05:05Playing an operator, that means you got to be slow.
05:06When you're slow, it means you're using more smaller muscles, core muscles, joints.
05:13So all that has to be kind of dialed in and fired while we're doing this more power.
05:19How do I motivate myself to work out?
05:20That's just, that's just like an inner thing.
05:22Like I've always been a hardworking individual.
05:26My mother installed that early on in my life.
05:28You know, when I was 10, 11 years old, you got to get a job, get out of the house on
05:31the weekend and work.
05:32And also I'm from Philly.
05:33So like we have this eternal kind of Philly strength, blue collar love for, you know,
05:39diving in deep.
05:41Our fans can be very boisterous and they can be loud, they can be obnoxious, but we don't
05:45care.
05:46That's a lot of inner inspiration for me.
05:49In the landmine, what this allows me to do is it gives them a different range where it
05:52buys control to where it's one of straight flat bench, it might be something that impinges
05:56on that shoulder.
05:57So this gives them an immediate feedback.
05:59Yeah.
06:00Quarter squat press, big powder here, 10.
06:09Now we'll get into a rowing, 10, which again is good for our back muscles, backs, shoulders,
06:14primary muscles.
06:23All right, so seated pec flies, maintain focus into the chest muscle.
06:29Shoulder blade, shoulder blade, shoulder blade, more shoulder blade.
06:51Go with that staggered stance, slam.
06:52Slam.
06:53So it's power, but it's also that eccentric range of the quad, work that knee.
07:00Slam.
07:01Slam.
07:02Slam.
07:03Slam.
07:04Slam.
07:05Slam.
07:06Slam.
07:07Slam.
07:08You can feel my heart rate really going.
07:10So the focus is just to kind of focus on your breathing and get that situated.
07:15Hydrate a little bit, get ready for the next section, which is all aesthetics.
07:20A lot of core work.
07:21Okay, so this last section isn't really all about core, but also some strength.
07:26We got pushups.
07:27Pushups are always difficult to do hard on my shoulders.
07:31I like to do them off a bench.
07:35People that are asking, why don't you just do regular pushups on the floor?
07:39I could do that.
07:40Why do I do them a little bit of incline?
07:42It's because I want to.
07:43Plus, you can actually get more focus on your chest muscles if you're inclined, correct?
07:48Yes.
07:50Next exercise.
07:51Good?
07:52Yep.
07:53Here we go.
07:54Okay.
07:55Here we go.
07:56Here we go.
08:07Okay.
08:10Now what?
08:1121.
08:12All these suck.
08:137 bottom, 7 top, 7 full.
08:167 bottom, 7 top, 7 full.
08:18You'll see.
08:19Here we go.
08:21Top.
08:26Your world, full range.
08:33One more, one more, got you.
08:41Hanging knee raises, 20.
08:42Hanging knee raises.
08:43Okay, good times.
08:44No swing.
08:45Core, pull, and then the ending core.
09:01So it all has a cycle to it.
09:02Roy has a really good plan as far as how to attack each muscle group, and push you just
09:07a little bit harder.
09:09Three.
09:10Okay, rest.
09:12Three rounds.
09:14Three rounds. Thank you. I appreciate you. Thank you for coming along. Heart rate is
09:21up. Cardio is working. Blood flow is going. It's a good workout. If I was calm, we'd
09:28have to start all over again. So thank you. Thank God. Be still. Be calm. And trust
09:34yourselves. All right? Stay in your three-foot world and don't bother nobody.
09:39Keep to yourself. That's your business. Much love.