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Robert Downey, Jr. looks darn buff in ‘Iron Man 2,’ but I wouldn’t have thought he gained 20 lbs. of muscle for the role. Then again, he’s not a big guy to begin with, so I guess it’s feasible. 

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His trainer Brad Bose told Us Magazine, “When we did ‘Iron Man 1,’ we had five months before the shoot to get ready, so we used more traditional, heavy-weight training.” Since Downey, Jr. had just wrapped ‘Sherlock Holmes,’ he was down to 151 pounds when shooting on ‘Iron Man 2’ began.

"After [the first routine], Robert felt kind of bored with it and wanted to do something a little more exciting, so we decided to do what I call a ‘Rocky IV’ meets high-tech training," says Bose, who bulked the 45-year-old actor up to 175 pounds over the first three to four weeks of filming.

More after the jump…

A few examples:

  • Downey Jr. pushed "a custom-built wheelbarrow that we modified with 600 to 700 lb. weight stacks" around an obstacle course.
  • "We went out and bought truck tires, and we used sledgehammers — anywhere from two 4-lb. sledgehammers in each hand all the way up to a 20-lb. sledgehammer — and we were just beating tires with it.
  • “We used fire hoses that we filled with sand and water… and we’d drag and whip them to build the shoulder muscles and pecs back up."
  • They also juggled "weighted Indian clubs," hulled around kettle bells and even used a war machine, which Boyes explains is "like a rope with handles on it with a pulley — you suspend yourself from it," says Bose.

The two would meet around 9:30 a.m. and work out for an hour-and-a-half at least three days a week. Downey Jr. also trained in Kung Fu two to three days a week with Eric Oram. Who says being an actor is easy?!

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Images: Paramount Pictures

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