New Moon's Jacob Black : Taylor Lautner's Workout Routine

This is a brief bio of Taylor Lautner, before we move on to discussing his workout regimen.

Lautner was born in 1992, on February 12th. When New Moon, the newest movie in the Twilight series, was filmed, he was only 17 years old. He studied martial arts from the age of 6 to the age of 13. When he was 12, he had a black belt and was declared the winner of the Junior World Championships. In 2001, Lautner started acting. In 2008, he was in Twilight as Jacob Black, a Native American.

The Director Considered Casting Someone Else to Play Jacob Black in New Moon

Director Catherine Hardwicke even thought about finding someone else to fill in for Lautner's role. She thought that Jacob Black should be played by someone that had more muscle and was a little more believable. Because the character of Jacob Black transforms into a wolf, the director was looking for an actor who had more of an imposing appearance than Lautner.

If he didn't bulk up quickly, Lautner was going to be re-cast out of New Moon.

But since Taylor has a background in martial arts, it was easier for him to put on the muscle. If Lautner was a kid without a history in athletics, it's unlikely that he'd have been capable of developing the muscle that he did in such a brief span of time...

Lautner trained for nine months before New Moon began to film, though his abs can be credited to much more than just this exercise. Because of his years of training in martial arts, his muscles were more dense and mature than most would have at his age. A tight core is where many martial artists derive their power from. This tightening over time builds hard and defined muscles in the abs. Most people would have to lower their body fat to a low percentage by dieting, but Taylor got his because of his background and experience with the martial arts.

Adding on all that muscle was easy for Taylor.

Taylor quickly put on 20 pounds of mass due to his age. The thing that fitness magazines never tell you is that you are easily able to gain mass when you first workout. Lautner was easily able to gain the muscle mass that his body was ready to accommodate. He's not a very large person at all, and this is positive. Like just about any young guy I've worked with, Taylor was able to quickly fill in and get close to his genetic potential quickly. Because his life consists of little more than acting, he could dedicate every moment of nine months towards this. Usually, this process will take a year or two.

What he says in his interviews about how he put on the muscle for New Moon.

If you see any of Taylor Lautner's interviews, you will notice he is pretty vague about his workouts. Instead, he says "I exercised a bunch and ate a bunch". Honestly, this is all it takes for a young guy in his late teens to early 20's to gain those 15-25 pounds. The hard part is getting them ripped. Luckily for Taylor Lautner he still has the high metabolism of a young person on his side. As he grows a bit older he will have to change his strategy.