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TODAY’S TRAINING INSPIRATION:
JOHN TRAVOLTA c.1983

Today’s Colin Timberlake Training Inspiration is a man who has established himself as one of the great actors of his generation, a talented dancer, and in 1983: one of the most physically trained and conditioned actors the big screen had seen.

John Travolta has gotten in and out of shape over the years, and I am most certainly not going to suggest you emulate his Royale-with-Cheese training program for Pulp Fiction. But what Travolta went through, and physically achieved, for his role in 1983’s Staying Alive has become the stuff of Hollywood legend.

When Travolta first created the character Tony Manero in the 1977 film Saturday Night Fever, he earned an Oscar nomination as Best Actor. The character was a slim and cocky 20ish Brooklyn hoodrat who, six years later, would cross paths with Sylvester Stallone and revamp his image, his aspirations and his physique.

Stallone, the creator of Rocky, took it upon himself to not only write, produce and direct Staying Alive, but he took Travolta and put him on his own grueling bodybuilding regimen for months. Diet, weights, everything. Travolta endured the process and both he and the Manero character were transformed.

In fact, when his training was complete, so strong was the resemblance in face and physique that a longstanding Hollywood rumor developed that Travolta was indeed Sylvester Stallone’s son. Given that there was only an 8-year age difference, Stallone’s nephew would have been a little more believable for the critical thinkers in the crowd. This was also fueled by the fact that Travolta’s character, Tony Manero, had a Rocky poster on his wall in Saturday Night Fever.

The 1983 version of Travolta still stands as one of the most highly conditioned film specimens of the era, not to mention the work he had to put into his dancing. And it made sense, because if you are going to make a movie about Broadway dancing, you’d better look like you can beat the living hell out of all the people who are going to make fun of you for making a movie about Broadway dancing.

Yeah I do ballet, bitch. You got something to say?

TODAY: CHEST (3-3-3 Tempo, 90 Second Rests)

BENCH PRESS (6 sets)
- Fast Tempo, 90 Second Rests
135 x 12
205 x 9
205 x 5
205 x 3
205 x 3
135 x 15

FLAT DUMBBELL FLYES (5 sets)
- Fast Tempo, 90 Second Rests
40 x 10
70 x 2
70 x 2
70 x 2
55 x 7

FLAT DUMBBELL PRESS (3 sets)
30 x 7
40 x 5
50 x 4

INCLINE DUMBBELL PRESS (3 sets)
30 x 5
40 x 4
50 x 3

DECLINE DUMBBELL PRESS (1 set)
30 x 7

TRAINING NOTES

Total Sets (Chest): 18

BACK TO Index of Inspirational Role Models for Training

It took the combined efforts of two Stallones and John Travolta to make broadway dancing seem remotely masculine, but in the end the three were able to drum out something akin to the Rocky of dancing.

In the sequel to Saturday Night Fever, Sylvester Stallone stepped to the helm and wrote, directed and produced the next chapter in the life of aspiring dancer Tony Manero.

A key part of the soundtrack (and the cast) was Frank Stallone, Sly’s younger brother who appeared in many of his films. Frank received a Golden Globe nomination for Far From Over, the theme song for the film and the backbone of this training montage. The soundtrack also naturally included several contributions from the Bee Gees, among them the film’s title track.

The film also featured Steve Inwood, Cynthia Rhodes (Flashdance), soap opera queen Finola Hughes (Aspen Extreme) and Kurtwood Smith (Robocop).