A Bodybuilder Tried Soccer Star Cristiano Ronaldo's Intense Workout
Bodybuilder and fitness YouTuber Aseel Soueid regularly experiments with the diet plan and physically gruelling fitness regimes of some of the world's fittest athletes, including NBA legend LeBron James and soccer player Lionel Messi. In his most recent video, Soueid tries out the "workaholic" training schedule that Portuguese footballer Cristiano Ronaldo uses to maintain the famously shredded physique that he loves to show off so much.
The workout combines strength training (consisting of 5 supersets and a total of 10 different exercises) with a cardio-heavy HIIT session.
The first superset is bench press (3 sets of 12) and squats (3 sets of 12). "I don't usually do that, 2 different kinds of compound lifts supersetted into one," says Soueid, "but this is Cristiano Ronaldo."
The second superset, which Soueid describes as "an absolute pain in the butt," is incline bench press (3 sets of 12) and barbell walking lunges (3 sets of 12), followed by dumbbell chest flys (3 sets of 12) and cable pushdowns (3 sets of 12) for the third.
The fourth superset comprises leg extensions (3 sets of 12) and hamstring curls (3 sets of 12). "Heavier leg extensions in the 10 or 12 rep range, supersetted with hamstring curls, is actually killer," he says. "Cristiano Ronaldo obviously does a ton of weight training to build his legs... It's not all just because of running."
The fifth and final superset targets those famous abs: roped cable crunches (3 sets of 12) and knee raises (3 sets of 15). "That is a killer superset," says Soueid. "In all seriousness, those cable crunches, from personal experience, that is literally what has built my abs. A lot of people think you just need to diet down and lose body fat; look, make sure you actually build your abs with heavy ab training."
The supersets are followed by a HIIT workout, which involves 20 minutes of sprinting and walking in 1-minute intervals. "That was intense," he says. "[Ronaldo] takes things to the next level with everything he touches."
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