Sylvester Stallone is certainly no stranger to having to keep himself in peak physical condition for a role. Stallone spent the '80s and '90s playing badass action heroes like Rocky and Rambo and so it wasn’t just enough to be in good shape, he had to be in the shape of a professional boxer or soldier. However, Sly is maybe now actually regretting going through all that, as he now says getting in great shape will kill you.
Stallone shared an image to Instagram which showed him in his Rocky days pulling off a move that we also saw Bruce Lee do in his prime. Stallone jokes, or maybe he’s not joking, that doing stuff like that back then is the reason that his back is currently hurting him.
These days we see even more of what actors go through to get themselves into physical shape for a role. Anybody who’s been in a superhero movie has had to try to look like an actual superhero. We've seen Brie Larson push jeeps to become Captain Marvel and Dwayne Johnson pushed himself even harder than usual to become Black Adam. In most cases, the exercise is combined with a padded suit, but when you have to play a boxer, you don’t have that luxury.
But it sounds like all that hard work is catching up to Stallone. He went hard working out for Rambo: Last Blood and Stallone has said that doing so caused "damage." In the attached post the actor talks about the dangers that come with pushing yourself too hard when doing these sorts of workouts, which is the sort of thing that almost certainly comes from experience. Stallone says…
FLASHBACK. no wonder my back hurts.! When you WORKOUT remember EVERY exercise has long range consequences. Knees, elbows, shoulders, ankles, wrists, neck if you push too hard, these strenuous movements will come back to haunt you. That’s why I’ve always said getting in really great shape Will kill you! Lol.
It certainly sounds like Sylvester Stallone is arguing that people should maybe not work out, as you’ll pay for it later. Of course, sometimes it wasn’t the workout that hurt Stallone. The actor has talked about the time that while filming Rocky IV he was put in the hospital after filming a fight scene with Dolph Lundgren. Imagine what might have happened if he hadn’t been in such good shape.
The science of exercise and nutrition has certainly progressed in the decades since Sylvester Stallone was getting in Rocky Balboa shape, so one certainly hopes that other actors have learned not to push themselves too hard to get results. Otherwise, in a few decades, we could end up with an entire cinematic universe worth of older actors whose joints hurt. That would certainly be unfortunate.
