Edward Norton Workout Routine for American History X

Actor, screenwriter and film producer, Edward Harrison Norton was born on August 18, 1969 in Columbia, Maryland. The talented actor gained celebrity status by playing roles in such films as Primal Fear, Fight Club, Kingdom of Heaven, The Illusionist, The Painted Veil, Incredible Hulk and Rounders. Norton made his directorial debut in the movie Keeping The Faith. The Maryland native stunned audiences everywhere with his chiseled physique in the drama movie, American History X where Norton plays a reformed skinhead leader. Norton is also an environmentalist and social activist off screen.

Norton’s 1998 role in American History X sent him to stardom when he played Derek Vinyard, a young man that lost his firefighter father to a murder by a black man. After the tragedy, his character grew some radical views of the world, becoming a skinhead racist. The drama blockbuster made over 23 million in the international box offices, ranking the movie as the 37th most popular movie. For the role of the buff skinhead, Norton turned to famous celebrity personal trainer Anthony Cortes, who also trained Linda Hamilton for the role in Terminator 2. Through intense heavy weight, low repetition weight training, the actor gained an astounding 35 pounds of lean muscle. The results were pretty shocking for a naturally small-framed guy. After Cortes did his magic creating the Edward Norton workout, the actor really took the part on as the fierce racist character in the film.

Personal trainer, Anthony Cortes led Edward through a heavy weight, low repetition training program which allowed Norton to pack on

lots of lean muscle mass. The actor performed heavy compound exercises that recruited multiple muscle groups for increased size. His exercises included bench presses, squats, shoulder presses, deadlifts and lat pulls. To prevent the possibility of training plateaus, Cortes threw in other exercises like pull-ups and back extensions to keep the actor’s body guessing. Because Norton was a smaller guy by nature, his trainer focused on really developing his chest and shoulders to create an image of increased size. Once Norton packed on some muscular size, his trainer shifted the program to focus on isolation movements like bicep curls and lateral raises to bring out certain muscles independently.

To pack on the amazing 35 pounds of lean muscle, Norton was put on a high protein, heavy calorie diet. Edward grazed on lean protein sources like chicken, turkey or fish all day long to assist in the muscle building process. The added protein also helped the actor to increase his metabolism for maximal fat burning. His eating schedule consisted of six or seven frequent meals throughout the actor’s day to sustain energy and provide a steady supply of nutrients. It’s no doubt that the diet helped the actor to play the lead role in American History X.

Norton proved that smaller guys can get big with a strict diet and weight training program. There is always the myth that if a guy is small, he is doomed to never grow large. Many small males make the common mistake of avoiding heavy weights and turn to low weight, high repetition workouts. Edward pushed hard with lots of weight and perhaps made the biggest lean muscle weight gain of all the celebrities that have prepared for a movie.

As previously mentioned, Edward and his trainer focused on working his shoulders and chest to make him appear to be larger. These larger muscles always provide a bigger and stronger appearance. Despite the tattoos on the actor’s body in the movie, men everywhere wanted to look just like Norton after they viewed the drama film. With hard work, heavy weights and loads of protein, small guys everywhere can reach their size goals just like the Edward Norton workout program did for the movie.