Zac Efron Workout: How to Build a Baywatch Physique

When I was growing up, there were two reasons to flip the channel to BAYWATCH: (1) Yasmine Bleeth and (2) Pamela Anderson.

Perhaps I’m not giving the show the credit it deserves, but the fact remains: when someone mentions “Baywatch” we don’t remember (insert a storyline or scene from any Baywatch season here). We remember a young Pam Anderson running down the beach in slow motion, wearing her tight, red swimsuit.

Decades later and the recipe hasn’t changed a bit—getting good looking stars with hot bodies to run around half-naked seems to be a winning formula. This time, however, it seems like they’ve put the hot girls in the background (literally, just look at the movie poster) and focused our attention on the jacked and tan physiques of Dwayne Johnson and Zac Efron.

Today when you hear “Baywatch”, what pops into your head?

Don’t be ashamed… I, too, automatically think of Zac Efron’s physique transformation.

Which brings me to the point of this article…

Zac Efron Baywatch Workout

There’s no doubt that Zach Efron has made some huge gains in a very short amount of time. But here’s the interesting part. He actually didn’t build as much muscle as one would think. He did, however, build the right muscles.

Zac Efron’s physique in the movie Neighbors was one that most guys would be glad to sport. But it pales in comparison to the Greek God-like body he brought to the set of the BAYWATCH movie.

Now look a little closer. If you’ve got a keen eye for bodybuilding, what you’ll notice is quite shocking. In actuality, he’s not much bigger… but he looks like he ran a few steroid cycles. Why is that? Simple. Although he’s clearly put on some muscle mass, the greatest gains were made in the muscle-groups that add the illusion of size.

Although Zac looks like he may have added an additional 15 pounds of muscle mass, the truth is he probably only added about 5-10 pounds using the Zac Efron Baywatch Workout… in the right places.

I know most people will accuse him of steroid use—and I can’t say with certainty that he hasn’t used them—but I do believe that his results are achievable without drugs.

Want to pack 5 pounds of muscle onto your upper-body and look 15 pounds heavier?

It’s simple…

Build The Big 3

Shoulders.

The delts are, hands down, the most important muscle-group to creating an aesthetic physique.

I’d even go as far as to say that the shoulders can make or break a physique completely. I don’t care how big your arms and chest are, or how thick your back is, if you’ve got narrow shoulders, you don’t look impressive.

In fact, you could have minimal muscle mass on your arms and chest, but if your shoulders are round and full, you’re physique seems more aesthetic.

Take Zac Efron for example: the biggest difference in his physique from Neighbors and the BAYWATCH movie are his shoulders. His arms could have stayed the exact same size (and if we consider he had a pump in the “after” picture they may very well have been) and he still would have looked significantly bigger.

Building Boulder Shoulders:

The fact of the matter is this. If you want big, round shoulders, you have to bring up the mid delts. While the front delts are being hammered with every push and press you perform and the rear delts are involved anytime you pull, the mid delts are often ignored or under-stimulated thus underdeveloped.

Traps.

Most guys would tell you that having big traps is not aesthetic—I disagree. Having mountainous traps that pop through your shirt isn’t just badass, but it makes you look 10x more jacked (Zac Efron Baywatch Workout) than the shredded pencil-neck guy flexing his abs (Zac Efron Neighbors Workout).

On top of that, it adds to the illusion of having a bigger and more muscular upper-body, which contributes to a seemingly slimmer waistline.

Building Mountainous Traps:

It’s no secret that the deadlift, despite being an extremely powerful lower-body movement, is one of the most effective exercises for building a wider, thicker back, and mountainous traps.

You see, when you deadlift your back acts as a crane. And your upper-back and traps stabilize the upper portion of that crane. So when you’re pulling 400+ pounds, the isometric contraction necessary to keep your back rigid—you know, so your shoulders aren’t pulled out of the socket—is bound to strengthen your back much more effectively than a 50 pound dumbbell row.

Because the traps are semi-responsible for supporting the arms (i.e. help keep them attached to your body), the heavy stretch at the top of the deadlift is placing a ton of stress on that function.

And before you say that the stretch, alone, isn’t enough to build the traps, I have two words for you: farmer walks.

Want to build bigger traps? Deadlift heavy and finish your workouts off with a few rounds of farmer walks!

Lats

Another muscle-group responsible for making you appear much bigger are the lats. From the front or the back, the bigger the lats are, the smaller the waist seems. A smaller waist (even just through the illusion created by bigger lats) will then, in turn, give the illusion of a wider upper-body.

Building Bat Wing Lats:

So how does one build wings (lats)? For starters, since you’re already deadlifting heavy (because you want to build bigger traps) you’ll already be doing a lot of the work necessary to build wider lats. In my opinion, though, you’ll need some more direct work if you want to maximize their growth.

This is why most programs prescribe lat-pulldowns or pull-ups (which will do the trick). But for those of you who find it hard to “feel” the lats when performing these traditional lat-focused exercises,  I recommend straight-arm lat pulls.

Properly executed straight-arm lat pulldowns, that is!

Get Big, Look Massive

Bodybuilding is all about illusion. Depending on many variables (genetics, training, etc.), it’s possible for big guys to look “small” and small guys to look big (like with the Zac Efron Baywatch Workout). At the end of the day, it’s not about how much you weigh, it’s about how aesthetic or jacked you look.

For most guys, they’ll be able to build a solid, aesthetic physique by focusing on simply building more muscle. But if your shoulders, lats, and traps aren’t growing as fast as everything else, then perhaps making those 3 muscle-groups the focal point of your training wouldn’t be a bad idea. And if you’re just impatient and want to look bigger, faster, then maybe doing the same won’t hurt.

Here’s How You Can Get Jacked Like a Hollywood Star

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