Luckily, with a deep desire to sweat it out, Diemer decided to make three moves to join the Disney+ franchise.
Born in the small Canadian town of Brentwood Bay, British Columbia, Diemer now divides his time between Vancouver, where he… Percy Jackson and the Olympians actually gets shot, and LA, wherever he calls home. But although the actor grew up in a sporty family – his father was a tennis coach – a physical disability would thwart his dreams of becoming a professional footballer. “I kept it very general in most of the interviews online,” says Diemer, bravely opening up M&F on the personal data. “My right leg is a full inch shorter than my left leg, and I had no idea until I was probably 24 or 25.”
Daniel Diemer shares his experience with leg length differences
Officially known as LLD (Leg Length Discrepancy), this condition can cause significant back pain and muscle problems. While 90% of the population has some form of varianceit is rare to suffer the kind of height difference that Diemer has learned to deal with. Growing up, the young man found that he could no longer play sports without intense pain running down his spine and legs. Worse still, Diemer was not diagnosed with LLD for years because doctors often check the bones and ligaments to pinpoint the causes of pain, but they don’t always measure the limbs. Now that a football career is no longer in question, Diemer chose to get serious about his training in the gym: “I just tried to support the back problems and build some muscles,” he explains.
When he fully transitioned to the gym, Diemer, who stands at a towering 6-foot-4, learned to enjoy the process of finding his pump. Cable work such as biceps crunches are a key component, as are unilateral movements for improved symmetry and balance. “It’s something I’ve tried to stay consistent with,” the star says, using the gym floor to shape his physique into whatever a role requires. “If you don’t mind me being a little nerdy, it’s like I love doing body modifications for projects and for characters,” he says M&F cheerful.
In the Netflix movie half of it, Diemer had gained up to 235 pounds to play a professional football player, but for Tyson, the actor explains that he was faced with more stunt work, so he had to be leaner and more mobile. “I tried to keep myself at about 14 to 15 percent (body fat),” he explains. But despite cutting his weight, the actor also realized he had to stay strong for those stunts. “So I tried to go to the gym as much as possible, just to bring out the whole athletic nature of him,” Diemer says. “I was able to stay consistent and not get injured, and that’s the big difference!”
3 movements that built Daniel Diemer’s ‘Tyson’ physique
Weighted pull-ups:
“Strangely enough, probably my best exercise,” says Diemer about a movement that is especially demanding for tall people. “I started in the gym in high school without really having any idea what I was doing, and when I moved to Vancouver at 18, I was completely broke. I couldn’t even afford the $15 gym fee at the time,” he says. “The only thing I could put together was rent and food. My roommate had a pull-up bar, so every day I would do 100 pullups, 100 pushups, 100 squats, and then I would try to get some cardio in. It was great because I could figure out the different types of pullups and how to work different back muscles.”
Diemer shares that weighted pullups remain a constant part of his gym crush sessions. “I can really create the mind-muscle connection with that kind of training,” he explains, revealing that during the height of his training for “The Half of It,” the skilled actor was able to complete pullups with 100 pounds of extra weight on his belt. “That was really fun.”
Box jumps:
Diemer says M&F that he wanted to portray Tyson as a baby-like character who could be clumsy yet spring into action with sudden explosive force. “I started incorporating some box jumps,” he explains. “I had been more focused on weightlifting and body sculpting for years, so I went back to my athletic background a bit. Lots of boxing jumps for that explosiveness for the legs.”
On set, this plyometric training style really benefited him Percy Jackson and the Olympians Season 2. “Really useful, especially all the quick sprints or quick jumps,” he explains about mastering his scenes. “I was able to connect the hips and the legs, and then the core, all together, which got the chain moving seamlessly. That was really important to me.”
Farm wagons
To further develop his speed and strength, Diemer also incorporated jack carries into his routines. “Just the fact that we were able to keep everything tight was really helpful on the mobility side,” says the actor.
Despite the drawbacks of LLD, Diemer has not let the condition define him, but has learned to love what he can do with his body in the gym, and how it shapes his body for different roles.
Of Percy Jackson and the Olympians Season 2 will stream on Disney+ starting December 10, and Diemer is excited for fans to see what’s to come. “I have never been on such big sets!” he beams. “The world we photograph is truly incredible!”
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