Sheamus was recently a guest on E&C’s Pod of Awesomeness. During the interview, he discussed his workout, his leaner body and what that means for his in-ring style. Here are the highlights:

On The Origins Of The Celtic Warrior Workouts:

I wasn’t really happy with my training and I wasn’t happy with what I was doing. It felt like I was just going through the motions in the gym and you guys know, when you’re on the road all the time it’s airports, land, car rental, gym, arena, hotel. Just that cycle for four days and just got into a rut and I wasn’t really enjoying myself out and felt myself losing motivation and I started training with a fella down in Tampa, Chris Cavellini, and he started doing some really cool outdoor work, you know like crossfit type stuff or just kind of like functional training and I just worked it from there and I was just posting videos on Instagram and they were getting a great response. People were like, ‘Oh, I’m trying this or trying that.’ People were just like, they were liking what I was doing.

I just came up with the idea like, ‘Man, this would be great if we create this YouTube channel and we start like, exploring other peoples journeys. Like how they got to where they are, how they started working out, what they did, what they overcame, what they looked like before because on Instagram and everything, all you see is like this finished article. Like, basically these guys chiseled abs, jacked and ‘look at me, how great I am,’ but normal people can’t relate to that because there’s no, they didn’t even know the story, they didn’t even know how they got to that point. That’s what the episodes were, were just me going in, doing other people’s workouts and talking about their journey…’

On What Vince McMahon Said About His Physique That Motivated Him To Improve His Body:

I was working out twice a day and it actually also came back to the fact that I came back from the holidays in Ireland and me and Cesaro were walking by Vince and Vince goes, ‘Hey, Sheamus,’ I said, ‘Yeah?’ He goes, ‘Enjoy the holidays, huh?’ And he was looking at me, at my gut. I was like, ‘Okay, that’s it. That’s it. I need to do something about that.’ That was the change in gear.

Very accountable for my food, cardio in the morning and then I just kind of kept a log of it and just ate strict with it and I dropped about forty pounds in about six or seven months.

I feel so much better. There’s this thing, this whole myth, the way you think ‘bigger is better,’ but it’s not. Especially when you’re in the ring, the leaner you are, the bigger you look and the better you look and that’s definitely been evidence in the last couple of months before Mania, before I was last in the ring.

It was a bit of a culture shock for me too, because it was like ‘Jay-sus, I’m really skinny now?’ Cause when you go from this whole mentality of ‘bigger is better’ it generally isn’t. You just think you are cause you fill out a t-shirt, you feel like you look bigger, but at the end of the day, when you’re in shape, when you drop all those extra pounds, I’m telling you you’re right, your back, your neck, hips, everything just feels so much better.

On How His New Physique Has Impacted His In-Ring Style:

If they ever let me back in there, I think it’s definitely gonna help. The funny thing is, is when I was with Cesaro, which was one of the funnest times of my career, tagging with Cesaro with The Bar, like it’s funny, tag team wrestling, you get in there and you go 100 miles an hour, ‘Alright, Tony! You get in there! I need to get a breath.’ Tony will tag himself in, and of course Tony would never run out of breath, just be me so I’d have to tag myself back in, but yeah, it’ll be interesting to see. I would love to find out how much better my wind is ring-wise.

As opposed to where I’m at now, I don’t really know what the crack is. I’m still waiting. Again, I’m just enjoying my time. Very hard for me to sit around at home all the time, but that’s where the channel has been the saving grace for me as well. It’s kind of my passion away from the ring, and I’ve really enjoyed doing all these workouts and again, everybody being so generous. A lot of WWE Superstars, men and women, are all being so generous with their time and getting on the channel, but I don’t really know what the story is as of right now. I’m still kind of in the dark about it, but I’m just training away, you know, like I’m trying to stay in the best shape I possibly can (A), because the channel is there and I’m working out a plan but also I just always feel it’s very important to always be ready no matter what happens…

You can listen to the podcast below:

Credit: E&C’s Pod of Awesomeness. H/T Wrestlezone.