The "Rocky" body VS "Rambo" body

[porchdoor]

Hey guys, I'm a new user and am very enthusiastic about weight-training. I would consider myself an intermediate.

So I recently watched both First Blood and Rocky. Stallone had a very good body in both movies, but they were different in each film. As John Rambo, he was very fit and cut with a thin waistline. As Rocky Balboa, he was bulky and had a thick trunk. Personally, I would prefer the Rocky body. If you were to see both just wearing a regular tee, the Rocky body would look more impressive through the shirt.

What's the difference in developing these two bodies? Or rather, how would you go about gearing yourself towards the Rocky body? The Rambo body obviously has very low body fat. This leads me to believe that to achieve the Rocky body, I would still need to pack on a good amount of fat to fill out my body? Or is it that the Rocky body actually packs on bigger and more developed muscles?

[porchdoor]

After doing a little more research, I think it's established that Stallone kept a very low body fat as both Rocky and Rambo.

With the logic that I have, does this mean that Rocky is just more massive than Rambo? Does Rocky simply have larger muscles than Rambo to fill out his body better. Also with this logic, does this mean that if one were to continually train for years and years, would he first have a body like Rambo and then the body of Rocky?

[Alyion]

Rambo had around at a guesstimate 7-8% bodyfat, whereas I would say rocky was around 13/14% - (still low compared to the average of around 17/18). It probably has more to do with the respective roles more than anything. Rocky was seen as an everyman character - more like an average fit guy as opposed to some wirey badass like rambo

Personally I prefer rocky as well, rambo looked too skinny imo and I dunno if it helps but I think rocky was around 5'11 190.

(Sorry for the stallone love here, but i'm a fan of these movies )

Honestly though both bodies don't require any special workout, get strong and build some muscle - if you are a beginner stick to the basic compounds like Squats, deadlifts and presses (I'm biased and recommend starting strength to everyone) and if you wanna be very lean then diet down accordingly after building up a solid base, but this is everything to do with diet - not workouts

[gomez26]

he was bloated in rocky 1 coz he was on heavy doses of cortisone. they filmed all the fight scenes first & he tore a shoulder muscle on a cold morning throwing a punch. the rest of the film he was doped up on cortisone & bloated bad. u could even see it in his face.

rocky 2 build was similar to rambo 1.
for rambo 2 he did have more muscle but was wayy more ripped similar to rocky 4 which makes sense since they were close together.

^ LOL at stallone being 5'11. he wasnt a hair over 5'6 but for some reason the young guys of today dont know this. ive heard this a few times recently.

[goldenglovez]

Rambo FTW -

[Alyion]

^ LOL at stallone being 5'11. he wasnt a hair over 5'6 but for some reason the young guys of today dont know this. ive heard this a few times recently.

Oh yea stallone is a midget . But the character of rocky is stated as 5'11

[bigtallox]

^ LOL at stallone being 5'11. he wasnt a hair over 5'6 but for some reason the young guys of today dont know this. ive heard this a few times recently.

LOL, that's WAY too funny, 5'6" Hahahahaha. I've seen pictures of him wearing really tall looking shoes, now I understand why. Why don't they just get big people to play big people in movies?

[gomez26]

LOL, that's WAY too funny, 5'6" Hahahahaha. I've seen pictures of him wearing really tall looking shoes, now I understand why. Why don't they just get big people to play big people in movies?

He wrote the Rocky story & insisted to play it. He was dead broke at the time he wrote the first one almost homeless (he was homeless on a couple of occasions b4 that). Producers tried to buy the script from him for good money & cast who they want but it was his creation & he wanted to play it no matter what. Just as well, he was perfect for it & dude became a legend from it, but he did consider selling out coz he was desperate but hung on & played the gamble. The height doesnt really matter, they can shoot the movie without making it obvious, but the story is about a heayweight obviously so it so they had to make some adjustments.

[mrbaker3]

He wrote the Rocky story & insisted to play it. He was dead broke at the time he wrote the first one almost homeless (he was homeless on a couple of occasions b4 that). Producers tried to buy the script from him for good money & cast who they want but it was his creation & he wanted to play it no matter what. Just as well, he was perfect for it & dude became a legend from it, but he did consider selling out coz he was desperate but hung on & played the gamble. The height doesnt really matter, they can shoot the movie without making it obvious, but the story is about a heayweight obviously so it so they had to make some adjustments.

Agreed. And they did a great job masking his height. I guarantee the casual fan wouldn't know that he's shorter than 5'8

To the OP though, if you're looking at the body types of First Blood vs. Rocky 1, I'd go First Blood. Like others were saying, in Rocky 1 he was noticeably more bloated.

Personally I'd go with either First Blood or Rocky 2 physiques as goals.

The later movies are going to be unattainable for 97% of people unless they're on something. Still awesome to watch though.

[Hut*Hut]

Stallone isn't 5'6, he's about 5'9, 5'10. The same height as De Niro. People just seem to like to fantasize that movie stars are really short. Tom Cruise is another one - he's about 5'8, 5'9 or so yet people wanna convince themselves he's only 5'4 and all his movies are shot with him on a special platform. It's fairly bizarre.

But OP - it's purely down to bodyfat. He has very low bodyfat in Rambo and moderate bodyfat in Rocky I. I always just thought it was a realism thing since you don't see heavyweight boxers under 10% it offers them no advantage. The sequels became more about his image than the character

[mrbaker3]

Stallone isn't 5'6, he's about 5'9, 5'10. The same height as De Niro. People just seem to like to fantasize that movie stars are really short. Tom Cruise is another one - he's about 5'8, 5'9 or so yet people wanna convince themselves he's only 5'4 and all his movies are shot with him on a special platform. It's fairly bizarre.

But OP - it's purely down to bodyfat. He has very low bodyfat in Rambo and moderate bodyfat in Rocky I. I always just thought it was a realism thing since you don't see heavyweight boxers under 10% it offers them no advantage. The sequels became more about his image than the character

Eh, my bad. Just checked IMDB and he's listed as 5'9 1/2".

[chazzy1864]

Stallone is 5'9 1/2"
Cruise is 5'7"
Michael J. Fox is 5'4 1/2"

[Drekkor]

What about the body of Ray Tango? I mean, he takes criminal masterminds off the street, you've gotta be in good shape to storm fortified compounds like he does. Bet he does compound lifts, probably 5 x 5. Did you see him stop that ventilation fan? Takes a ton of functional strength.

[Hut*Hut]

Eh, my bad. Just checked IMDB and he's listed as 5'9 1/2".

Yeah, seems about right. He did Cop Land with De Niro and he was about the same height or very slightly shorter. 5'9 Id say. It's just because he was known in the 80s as a larger than life action star that people made a joke about it I think.

Arnie got the same ****....people always claiming he was only 5'9 and stuff. It's just a weird phenomenon.

[chazzy1864]

What about the body of Ray Tango? I mean, he takes criminal masterminds off the street, you've gotta be in good shape to storm fortified compounds like he does. Bet he does compound lifts, probably 5 x 5. Did you see him stop that ventilation fan? Takes a ton of functional strength.

Gabriel Cash had functional strength as well. Probably did CrossFit.

Yeah, seems about right. He did Cop Land with De Niro and he was about the same height or very slightly shorter. 5'9 Id say.

Official bio says 5'9.5"

[Pensfan1570]

hes much bigger in the rockies, def the look i would rather go for

[JasonDB]

I pulled up some pictures of the various movies on google. He has more fat and holding more water in the Rocky movies than the Rambo movies. Same body... different amounts of fat. Then again it makes sense for a boxer to want a little more body fat as they get hit a lot. Being 6% body fat does not give one's organs as much cushioning for repeated punches and other abuse.

[bloodmuscle]

hes much bigger in the rockies, def the look i would rather go for

Stallone looks so skinny in Rocky III.

[pezking7p]

What about the body of Ray Tango? I mean, he takes criminal masterminds off the street, you've gotta be in good shape to storm fortified compounds like he does. Bet he does compound lifts, probably 5 x 5. Did you see him stop that ventilation fan? Takes a ton of functional strength.

Repped for cracking me up...again.

[Drekkor]

FYI, check store for price/details:

[sabonis224]

this is the secret lol






just kidding obviously, but i believe the difference in physiques to be all about BF percentages, rambo you could tell he did a ton of cutting and cardio to get that thin muscular look, while for rocky he was more bulky, probably about 12-13% instead of like 7-8%.