How Don Saladino helped Blake Lively lose 61 lbs
Don Saladino owns a gym with his brother Joseph called Drive495 in SoHo, New York, which opened in 2006. While his college days were spent as team captain of the baseball team, his passion for fitness burned stronger. So instead of becoming a pro athlete, he became a certified personal trainer 18 years ago.
He trained his first celebrity client in 2008 and that’s no less than the most popular mutant in the world, Hugh Jackman. Don landed on the March cover of Muscle & Fitness magazine where he shared how he became the PT of A-list Hollywood stars.
“Hugh had just done the play The Boy From Oz and was really thin, maybe 175 pounds,” Don recalled. Hugh needed to get beefed up for two films: Australia and X-Men Origins: Wolverine. Another trainer was working with Hugh in Drive495 but family issues took him away from the gym. “Hugh approached me and said he wanted me to train him,” Don told M&F.
“Hugh sent me people like Scarlett Johansson, Ryan Reynolds, Ryan Gosling, Blake Lively — it just snowballed. Not once did I have to do any outreach,” he explained. He keeps his coaching to only 20 sessions per week. More than just celebrities, he accepts people who are really committed to a goal. “I lean more toward working with people who have a goal in mind. Spending three to five months helping someone achieve that goal is fun for me,” Don added.
More than 50 high-profile celebrities have been trained by Don. Aside from the ones already mentioned above, the exclusive list includes Liev Schreiber, Sebastian Stan, David Harbour, Drew Powell, among many others. When M&F asked him to give the readers advice on how to become a celebrity trainer, he quipped: “I don’t know how to answer that. Be a great trainer? Be a good guy?”
Recently, Don helped Blake Lively lose 61 pounds in 14 months after giving birth to her second baby. She took to Instagram to celebrate the journey. “Turns out you can’t lose the 61 pounds you gained during pregnancy by just scrolling through Instagram and wondering why you don’t look like all the bikini models. Thanks @donsaladino for kickin’ my A double S into shape. Ten months to gain, 14 months to lose. Feeling very proud,” Blake wrote beside a photo of her in workout gear beside Don.
Don believes that Blake’s weight loss caught a lot of attention because there was no gimmickry; it was as real as it could get. “I think it was very refreshing for people to see that it took her 14 months. We weren’t doing any gimmickry three- to six-week plan. It does take a mom extra time. This is what she struggled with. It was very genuine,” he said.
“Some women don’t train hard for fear that they’ll get too big. Blake isn’t one of those women. She trains hard and has incredible discipline. She also prioritizes diet and recovery, which is how she bounced back so well after delivering two babies. With her diet, she’s realistic and believes in moderation and likes to enjoy some tasty treats occasionally,” Don shared.
On Ryan Reynolds, this was what Don had to say: “When it’s time to turn it on and get ready, Ryan is able to do it very quickly because he’s built such a good foundation. Coaching him is so minimal. If anything, I help him work on his mobility because he does a lot of his own stunts. He is very disciplined, resilient and tough, and he’s also one of my favorite guys.”
Avenger hero Scarlett Johansson’s acting and mom duties do not grant her a lot of spare time for the gym. Don gives Scarlett a 20-minute total body workout which still improves her strength, tones her body as well as burns calories.
Don said you could run three to five rounds of these six exercises without rest in between. First exercise is a split squat with or without medium to heavy dumbbells. That is 10 reps per leg. The second exercise is 10 reps of push-ups, followed by standing alternating dumbbell rows, 10 reps each arm. Fourth exercise is a supported side plank — hold 30 to 60 seconds per side. The fifth exercise is a Romanian deadlift using a 20- to 45-pound barbell, 10 reps. The last exercise is reverse crunches, 10 reps.
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Post me a note at mylene@goldsgym.com.ph or mylenedayrit@gmail.com.
