Alan Ritchson had completely transformed himself and became even more ripped for the new season of fan favorite Reacher. People have been either swooning over him or breaking down the tips and tricks to craft a body like the actor. This chiseled body cannot be achieved without extremely hard work of course. Bodybuilding legends would attest to it. 

The Hollywood star recently appeared on the podcast, Inside Of You Clips, where he talks about his toxic relationship with fitness.

Alan Ritchson liked punishing himself

Ritchson, of course, has been a hit TV star for a couple of decades now, starring in shows like Smallville, Titans, Blue State Mountain, and in movies like Fast X. Naturally, with that comes the burden of ambition and contracts, rigorous schedules and workout routines that aren’t always the best options for one’s mental health.

In the YouTube video, he had an open and honest conversation about his mental health. While talking about his show and his stardom he started speaking about the importance of focusing on the present and showing compassion to yourself.

Ritchson’s Smallville co-star, Michael Rosenbaum was speaking about not pushing the boundaries when it comes to self-improvement. This is when the actor said, “You know for the longest time I will punish myself with the kind of abuse like even in the gym where I go like ‘If I die on this treadmill I’ve won.’”

So he knew that he was having a toxic mentality and actively changed it to a positive mentality where he took more care of himself and his physique.

He said, “Shouting from rooftops that we should focus on the now. Well what is, for now, it’s meeting ourselves where we are at that moment and there we have to bring some compassion for ourselves. There’s a lot of love in being willing to meet ourselves where we are.”

He had spoken about his transformation into Jack Reacher which was done in just 8 months. He had built a gym in his house to put in 30 pounds which was the requirement set by the studio.

The actor would toil extremely hard every day with complete dedication to his work. He was already 205 lbs during the first season of Reacher, so adding 35 lbs on top of that couldn’t have been easy, especially since he was pushing 41 at the time.

Alan Ritchson said, “You cannot believe how hard I worked every day. Like my life depended on it. And I did it, without any help. No steroids, no testosterone, nothing. Just hard work.” However, this extreme hard work made him feel uneasy and he went to the doctor and discovered that he had drained out most of the testosterone from his body.

He is of course, healthy now and aims to continue on the path he is on and we wish him all the best.