It’s a common trope in the professional wrestling world for David to slay Goliath, but there are only a few times when the act was pulled off as impressively as it was at WrestleMania XXX. On that night in 2014, the show’s 31-man battle royal was won in remarkable fashion when a 230-pound, skinny-legged wrestler hoisted a 7’0” giant weighing more than 400 pounds into the air.
Then, to deafening applause, he carefully stepped forward and tossed that giant over the top rope and onto the arena floor.
[Related: These Are 10 of the Strongest Wrestlers of All Time]
Such sights are the norm when you’re watching wrestling champion Claudio Castagnoli, who is capable of bursts of power and strength that often seem cartoonish in scale. What is the wrestler’s secret? BarBend sat down with Castagnoli to learn how the “Swiss Superman” trains, eats, and recovers. If you want to work out like the best, look no further — we’ve got you covered.
Who Is Claudio Castagnoli?
Claudio Castagnoli is widely regarded as one of the best wrestlers of his generation. After years of wrestling in independent promotions starting in the year 2000, the native of Switzerland finally broke into the mainstream and became a fixture in World Wrestling Entertainment under the name Cesaro. He entertained WWE fans from 2011 to 2022 before landing in All Elite Wrestling (AEW) and its sister promotion Ring of Honor (ROH).
Castagnoli initially drew attention in the mainstream based on his fluency in five languages, but the phenom quickly proved he could transition between wrestling styles with the same skill. Much of this was attributable to Castagnoli’s unique combination of height, athleticism, and crispness of execution. Then again, the fact that he could toss around 400-pound opponents like beach balls also attracted a few eyeballs.
Career Highlights
Castagnoli has captured major championship gold in every wrestling promotion where he has spent a significant period. After several years of being primarily relegated to tag team competition in WWE, Castagnoli reemerged in Ring of Honor following its purchase by AEW. It was in the ROH ring that Castagnoli finally captured the world singles championship of a major wrestling brand. Here’s a look at some of his career highlights:
- ROH World Champion
- ROH World Tag Team Champion
- WXW World Heavyweight Champion
- WXW World Tag Team Champion
- PWG World Champion
- WWE United States Champion
- WWE RAW Tag Team Champion
- WWE Smackdown Tag Team Champion
- CZW World Tag Team Champion
- Chikara Campeonatos De Parejas
[Read More: Former Pro-Wrestler Gabbi Tuft Shares How She Shed 100 Pounds of Muscle Since Transitioning]
Castagnoli’s Approach to Building Eye-Popping Strength
As much as Castagnoli enjoys his nicknames, he resents the idea that his strength was often presented as a genetic accident. As a way of permanently putting the myth of “The Swiss Superman” to rest, Castagnoli actually went so far as to have his genetics tested.
“They’re completely 100 percent normal,” Castagnoli laughs. “It showed I actually had a slight inclination towards endurance, which is the training that I hate the most. To me, that makes it more impressive because it just proves that I had to earn everything the hard way.”
I know I’m destroying the myth of the Swiss Superman, but it’s just consistency and putting in the hours and the work.
“When people ask me how they can get in shape or how they can get in better shape, consistency is the key. You need to find something that you’re willing to do every day, even when you don’t feel like working out,” Castagnoli says.
One training element that Castagloni has been quite enthusiastic about is functional, Olympic-style lifts, which he blends with CrossFit-style conditioning routines. Castagnoli believes it is this combination of power-building lifts and practical movement that has transformed him into a must-see wrestler with a unique style.
“I always train for functionality just to be able to do my moves to everybody,” Castagnoli says. “I think it’s the combination between athleticism and strength.”
That combination allows Castagnoli to stand out in the professional wrestling world, where over-the-top strength is simply a part of the job.
[Related: Pro Wrestler Matt Cardona Talks Gym Bag Essentials, Chest Workouts, and Staying in Shape on the Road]
“There are plenty of people in WWE and AEW that are arguably stronger than me, especially when it comes to bench press, deadlift, and Olympic lifts,” Castagnoli says. “But when it comes to being in the ring and picking people up, that requires a different kind of strength.
“You need to be athletic, agile, and strong. For me, that was always the most important part, because you don’t see other people doing what I do, the way I do it. That’s when I realized I must be doing something right.”
[Read More: What You Need to Know About How to Build Muscle]
Castagnoli’s Shifting Approach to Nutrition
Even though he spent endless weeks and months on the road during the most demanding phases of his career, Castagnoli stuck to a disciplined diet. How did he do it? At first, it was a simple matter of eating Chipotle up to three times a day.
“My Chipotle order is just rice, beans, and chicken!” Castagnoli laughs. “That was it. And then I also had a protein shake and my protein cereal. Those were my meals when I was wrestling in 300 matches a year.”
As the years wore on, though, Castagnoli realized he needed to rethink his diet plan to maintain his trademark form.
“I didn’t really need a diet because I burned so many calories when I was young,” Castagnoli says. “When I got older, my friend Sheamus introduced me to the guy who did his macros, and told him how much protein, fat, and carbs to eat. I thought that was great, so I did that, and I still do that.”
[Related: How Strong Is Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson?]
Castagnoli credits his macro-focused approach with taking all of the guesswork out of his nutrition plan. Even though he prefers to eat clean foods, Castagnoli enjoys the permissiveness of his new approach. In the long run, it frees him up to consume more varieties of food that he wouldn’t have eaten otherwise and also eliminates a source of unnecessary stress from his life.
“Right now, I eat six meals a day, and I’ve been doing that for the last 15 years,” Castagnoli says. “When I’m counting macros, I can see that I have 14 grams of fats left and 56 grams of carbs left, so I can have Sun Chips because it fits in my diet. If I want to have pizza today, I’ll have pizza and then I adjust the rest of my day around it. So, it made a whole big difference in my life.”
[Read More: Best Macros Calculator for Tracking Muscle Gain and Fat Loss]
Castagnoli’s Daily Nutrition Plan and Supplements
Castagnoli’s macro-focused approach allows him to occasionally indulge in foods that wouldn’t ordinarily have made the cut because of their health benefits. Still, the heart of Castagnoli’s nutrition plan consists of six core meals composed of the same basic items and ingredients.
“I’m a creature of habit who can literally eat the same thing every day for months and still love it,” Castagnoli says. “The invention of apps like MyFitnessPal has made it way easier for me. It became like playing Tetris with the numbers of calories and macro grams. I don’t mind it at all because I’m a nerd, and I feel like it’s part of my job to look good and to eat right.”
Castagnoli was reluctant to adopt supplements for long stretches of his career because it was hard to find many that fit comfortably into his daily routine. He has only recently found some that appeal to him, fully align with his goals, and that he will also bother to remember taking in the first place.
“For the majority of my career, I just took pre-workout and protein because those are the things that seemed like they worked,” Castagnoli says. “I actually just started taking creatine as a post-workout supplement, and it’s the first time I’ve been able to take creatine over an extended period. When I tried taking creatine before, I just forgot it, but now I’ve been taking it for a couple of months, and I feel like I look a little bit bigger.”
In addition to the protein powder and creatine, Castagnoli says he takes magnesium pills for his joints, pre-workout, and GABA, which he says helps him get better sleep.
Here’s what the wrestling legend eats in a day:
- Two Eggs w/ Feta Cheese; Four Pancakes
- Protein Cereal
- Beef, Egg, Potato and Onion
- Protein Shake
- Ground Turkey, Bacon, Eggs, and Pasta
- Ground Turkey, Bacon, Spinach, Peppers, Ramen Noodles
- Pre-Workout
- Creatine
- Magnesium
- GABA Sleep Aid
[Read More: The Gymgoer’s Guide to Whey Protein]
Castagnoli’s Recovery Regimen
Castagnoli relies on a reasonably strict recovery routine to preserve his body’s functionality in the face of the pounding it endures week after week. As the thunderous impacts his body makes against the wrestling ring’s plywood surface accumulate, Castagnoli has added recovery tools to his routine.
“I have a Normatec, which is a compression device that squeezes my legs and helps me with my blood flow, which is good for my recovery,” Castagnoli says. “I also got a therapeutic knee brace that can be either hot or cold, and I’m icing my knees after my workouts.”
Castagnoli admits that he doesn’t particularly enjoy putting a ton of thought or effort into his post-workout recovery protocol. Instead, he finds the recovery interventions that fit neatly into his schedule and don’t disrupt the flow of his day.
“When I started stretching on a regular basis, like every morning, that made a huge difference,” he says. “There’s people that stretch for an hour or more every day. That’s just too much time for me to dedicate to it. But I know that if I set aside 10 minutes every day, I’ll be able to do it every day and stick with it. Then it becomes a habit, and once it’s a habit, it’s just a part of my day.”
Here’s Castagnoli’s recovery routine:
- Daily Morning Stretching
- Normatec Compression Device
- Post-Workout Icing for Knees
[Read More: Omega 3 Benefits — More Muscle, Better Recovery, and Enhanced Endurance]
Castagnoli’s Intense Training Schedule
Castagnoli’s four brutal weekly training sessions are split into upper- and lower-body regimens. However, it’s Castagnoli’s warm-up and cooldown routines that truly underscore how demanding his workouts are. To keep himself ring-ready, Castagnoli completes a full CrossFit-inspired workout of the day (WOD) both before and after each punishing weight-training session.
“People always say that you cannot possibly mimic ring cardio, but I feel like CrossFit workouts mimic what we do in the ring the closest,” Castagnoli says. “It’s just all over the place, and then you still need to lift heavy at the end. So that helped me a lot with being in ring shape.”
As far as the core of his resistance training is concerned, it should come as no surprise that Castagnoli draws primarily from the wellspring of classic weightlifting. It’s from this form of training that Castagnoli says he developed the power to hoist heavy opponents up into the air and clearly control their live weight before carefully slamming them down to the mat.
“What I do in the ring is as much a result of what I do in the gym as it is from my in-ring training,” Castagnoli explains. “Olympic lifts just helped me so much more. You always want to find something that improves you and makes you better. I don’t want to have beach muscles. I know there are plenty of guys that have bigger biceps, bigger chests, better abs, and better legs. As long as I can perform all my moves really well — even 20 to 30 minutes into a match — that’s what matters to me.”
Castagnoli’s Warm-Up
- A Full CrossFit-Inspired WOD
Castagnoli’s Lower-Body Workout
- Clean & Jerk: 3 x 5
- Clean Pulls Above the Knee: 2 x 3, then 3 x 2
- Back Squat + Depth Jump: 6 x 3
- Dumbbell Romanian Deadlift: 3 x 10
Castagnoli’s Upper-Body Workout
- Bench Press: 4 x 5
- Paused Incline Bench Press: 3 x 5
- Single-Arm Landmine Meadows Row: 3 x 8
- Standing Dumbbell Curl: 3 x 8
- Push-Up + Prone Incline Dumbbell Shrug: 3 x 10
Castagnoli’s Cool Down
- A Full CrossFit-Inspired WOD
[Read More: The Big Guide to Muscle Hypertrophy]
Consistency Is Key
If there’s one thing that Castagnoli’s training and nutrition protocols confirm, it’s that a proper plan can help you develop some phenomenal power. It also shows that a winning wellness strategy includes rest, recovery, and a nutrition plan that prioritizes muscle growth and repair — even if that’s not the most exciting part of the game.
In the end, Castagnoli wants to show that you don’t need superhuman genetics to be like the Swiss Superman. You simply need extraordinary discipline.
Featured Image Courtesy of AEW
