I know I’m a little late, but I just saw Ninja Assassin on Netflix this past weekend, and 2 things came to my mind:
1) Damn, that’s A LOT of blood
2) Damn, Rain is ridiculously ripped
As you can tell, Rain isn’t super muscular, but he is REALLY REALLY ripped. Almost “Bruce Lee” ripped, and last time I checked, a lot of people love Bruce Lee. I would say Rain’s body fat was hovering around 5-6% for his role in Ninja Assassin.
Rain Workout
The Rain workout incorporated a huge variety of exercises. It incorporated kettlebell exercises, bodyweight exercises, and some traditional weight lifting exercises as well.
One of the best workouts to help you build a body like Rain is from Craig Ballantyne of Turbulence Training. He has a free workout in the video below showcasing a super intense bodyweight circuit. I recommend doing this workout 3x per week on alternating days.
But what about weights? I know my decision to not include any weight lifting is a little bit controversial, but I believe that if your bodyweight circuit is intense enough, then you don’t even need to do any sort of weight lifting.
It can definitely help, but it’s not 100% necessary to build a lean and ripped physique. In fact, Rain’s workout routine was built on a lot of bodyweight movements such as burpees and jumping squats.
How He Ate
To get this type of body, Rain also watched his diet like a crazy hawk. His diet was abnormally strict, designed to shed the maximum amount of fat and keep his metabolism revving at full speed.
He stated in an interview that he would eat nothing but brown rice, boiled chicken breast, and salmon for weeks at a time. This is an extreme form of dieting that definitely works but it is a but too restrictive in my opinion.
Also, please realize that in order to get a ripped six pack like Rain, you have to eat a lot less food. A good weight loss rate is about 1 pound/per week. To lose weight at this rate you would have to eat at a 500 calorie deficit. A simple way to calculate this is to multiply your bodyweight in pounds times 10-12. This will give you a good starting point for your daily calorie intake, and you can make adjustments from that point on.