When FOX canceled the TV show “Lucifer” after the third season, fans were devastated. Fortunately, Netflix picked up the show and released the fourth season in May 2019.
To celebrate the revival of the show, Tom Ellis got his body in amazing shape for the fourth season. Working with his trainer, Paolo Mascitti, Ellis gained over 10 pounds of muscle during his three-month training program.
If you haven’t watched the show, “Lucifer” is a detective show spiced up with a supernatural plot. Lucifer Morningstar (a.k.a. the Devil) gets bored in his life in hell; so, he descends to Earth to enjoy a lavish lifestyle in Los Angeles. One night, he gets personally involved with a murder investigation and ends up becoming a civilian consultant for the LAPD homicide division.
For the first three seasons, Tom Ellis’ devilish charm and charisma grasp the audience’s attention. However, in the fourth season, Ellis shocked the fans with his jacked body. The British actor’s transformation is impressive, and you can find out the secrets of achieving a body like Ellis in this article.
Progressive Overload to Build Muscle
The fundamental principle of evolution is adaptation. For thousands of years, our bodies adapted to the environment in order to survive and procreate. This is the same principle that makes our muscles grow.
Whether it is following a well-designed weightlifting program in a well-equipped gym in the 21st century or hunting and carrying wild animals in prehistoric times, muscles get stronger and grow bigger to handle the demands placed upon them. Once the body adapts to the workload, the growth phase turns into the maintenance phase. That’s when you up the ante again, giving your body a heavier workload.
If your goal is to get bigger and stronger, you have to keep pushing your muscles out of their comfort zone to avoid full adaptation. You have to be gentle, though. Push the envelope too much, too often, and you’re risking injury, which can set you back for weeks. The goal is to consistently overload your muscles ever so gently, so they keep growing and getting stronger.
This principle is called progressive overload and it is the #1 key to building muscle.
Getting a program with exercise selections, sets and reps is a great place to start. However, without the smart implementation of progressive overload, that program won’t give you results in the long term. That’s why the Kinobody Greek God 2.0 Program introduced the revolutionary Double Progression Model.
(Make sure to grab the Greek God 2.0 Program to apply the Double Progression Model in your workouts. With this, you can break any plateaus and get your lifts up to godlike status.)
How Big Is Tom Ellis?
Tom Ellis is 6 feet and 3 inches tall and weighs around 190 pounds. Ellis got down to single-digit body fat percentage for “Lucifer,” while gaining over 10 pounds of lean muscle.
The 40-year-old actor has been in shape since the first season of “Lucifer.” He was around 10-12 percent body fat, weighing 180 pounds. At the end of the third season, his trainer Mascitti challenged Ellis to a three-month workout program, just in case the show was renewed for a fourth season.
Even though Ellis was upset about the cancellation of the show, he was relieved to get out of the workout program. Then Netflix picked up the show for the fourth season and the challenge was back on. His diet was dialed in and his workouts were short and intense with compound lifts. At the end of three months, the Devil was jacked.
Key Characteristics of Tom Ellis’ Physique
Standing 6 feet and 3 inches, Tom Ellis is a tall guy. His height is above average and he has a lean body. Ellis has an ideal shoulder-to-waist ratio, strong pecs and solid six-pack abs.
This is the quintessential look of the Kinobody Greek God Program alumni. The secret behind achieving this physique with dense looking muscles and low body fat percentage is increasing the strength-to-weight ratio. Anyone can build muscle with a run-of-the-mill workout program and a high-calorie diet. The goal here is to build strength while lowering the body fat percentage at the same time.
This Tom Ellis-inspired “Lucifer” workout program will teach you the principles to build a solid foundation for the next eight weeks.
The Tom Ellis “Lucifer” Workout Routine
Tom Ellis focused mainly on compound lifts such as bench presses, overhead presses and squats to put on serious muscle mass. He also added quite a bit of isolation work to get chiseled shoulders and defined arms.
While focusing on heavy weightlifting to build muscle, Ellis also added high-intensity interval cardio to his routine to burn more fat. You can check out Kinobody’s Cardio Abs Mobility Program to supplement your workout with some cardio and core training.
Even though Tom Ellis lifted weights four days a week, we like to give Kino Warriors an extra day off and get the same (or even better) results by lifting only three days a week. The extra day off is not out of kindness, but due to years of trial and error. Recovery is more important than the workout itself, and the proof has manifested into thousands of Kino Warrior physique transformations.
Want to see the proof? Check out our Featured Greek God Transformations!
The “Lucifer” routine consists of two workouts, rotated on three non-consecutive days (such as Monday, Wednesday, Friday). Workout A is a push routine, focusing on the shoulders, chest and triceps; Workout B consists of pulling movements that train your back and biceps, as well as some lower body work.
This eight-week routine focuses primarily on shoulder development. After completing this workout, be sure to get the Greek God 2.0 Program to follow the specialization routines for each muscle group; that way, you can focus on developing your lagging body parts as you see fit.
Training Schedule
Week 1:
- Monday: Workout A
- Wednesday: Workout B
- Friday or Saturday: Workout A
Week 2:
- Monday: Workout B
- Wednesday: Workout A
- Friday or Saturday: Workout B
Workout A: Chest, Shoulders, Triceps and Abs
- Incline Bench Press: 3 sets x 4-6, 6-8, 8-10 reps (reverse pyramid training)
- Overhead Dumbbell Press: 3 sets x 4-6, 6-8, 8-10 reps (reverse pyramid training)
- Triceps Rope Pushdowns: 3 sets x 6-8, 8-10, 10-12 reps (reverse pyramid training)
- Lateral Raises: 1 set x 12-15 reps + 3 mini-sets x 4-6 reps (rest-pause training)
- Hanging Knee Raises: 3 sets x 8-12 reps (straight sets)
Workout B: Back, Biceps and Legs
- Weighted Chinups: 3 sets x 4, 6, 8 reps (reverse pyramid training)
- Incline Dumbbell Hammer Curls: 3 sets x 6-8, 6-8, 8-10 reps (reverse pyramid training)
- Bulgarian Split Squats: 4 sets x 6-8 reps (Kino rep training)
- Dumbbell Romanian Deadlifts: 4 sets x 10-12 reps (Kino rep training)
- Face Pulls: 4 sets x 12-15 reps (Kino rep training)
“Lucifer” Workout Notes
Reverse Pyramid Training
Training with heavy loads is crucial to building strength. Even though hypertrophy — a.k.a. muscle growth — can happen at different rep ranges, strength gain is best achieved by training in the low rep ranges, such as 4-6 reps. However, training with such heavy loads all the time is very taxing on the muscles, joints and tendons. It not only negatively affects long term performance, but it also increases the risk of injury.
This is why Kinobody programs use reverse pyramid training to get strong in the most efficient way.
With reverse pyramid training — after a few warmup sets — you’ll jump straight into the heaviest set, where you trigger maximum strength gains. In the subsequent sets, you will lower the weight by 10 percent and increase the rep range. This way, you’ll be able to perform your best in each set and get the most benefit out of your workout.
Kino Rep Training
Kino rep training is a high-volume, high-rep training style that aims to make your muscles look bigger by stimulating sarcoplasmic hypertrophy.
With Kino rep training, pick a comfortable weight to pre-fatigue the muscles in your first set. In each subsequent set, increase the weight but stay in the same rep range. Keep upping the weight until you can’t complete the rep range. (For example, if the rep range is 10-12 and in the last set you got eight reps; at this point, you’ve effectively fatigued your muscles.)
Rest-Pause Training
Rest-pause training is a practical strategy to maximize muscle growth using very light weights. Don’t be fooled by this, though — it’s still tough as hell.
When using lighter weights, the muscles are challenged only on the last few reps. What if we could take out the earlier reps and work out with only the last few reps?
With rest-pause training, pick a lighter weight and perform 12-15 reps. After that, do three additional sets of 4-6 reps, resting only 15-20 seconds in between.
Best Supplements for “Lucifer” Workout
The secret to Tom Ellis’ success wasn’t the supplements he used. He followed a solid workout plan, just like this one. Furthermore, he followed a smart nutrition plan, like the one you can find in the Greek God Program.
That being said, if you follow the workout and nutrition plan and you’re still looking for an edge, some supplements can help.
If you want smooth, long-lasting energy in the gym, pick up a bottle of Kino Octane to upgrade your workout experience. Unlike cheap pre-workouts, Kino Octane is packed with scientifically proven ingredients at clinically effective doses. Also, it’s 100-percent organic.
