Finn Balor Says He Won’t Change His Training Based on His Opponents, Has Confidence in His Skills and Training

– GQ.com recently interviewed WWE Superstar Finn Balor, who discussed his diet and fitness routine. Below are some highlights.

Finn Balor on going to the gym: “If I go into a regular gym, I will sit on the bike for six minutes simply to transition my brain from being in civilization to the gym. Not for any sort of calorie burn or warmup or anything like that. Don’t ask me why it’s six minutes, that’s just a weird OCD thing that I have. And I won’t train for more than an hour. There will be a long period beforehand with some active stretching, and then I’ll do a little bit of accessory work first. I won’t do anything that’s going to jeopardize what I do in the ring, so I’m not going to do any heavy squats, any heavy deadlifts. I’m more worried about the accessory work and making sure all the joints are in place with rotation, especially with my shoulder injuries in the past. I want to do all that accessory work first when I’m fresh, I’m concentrating, I’m focused, and then I’ll hit a little bit hypertrophy bodybuilding towards the end, but we’re talking maybe three drop sets of rows, or something like that.”

Balor on not changing his training or diet to prepare for a specific opponent: “No, I’m a creature of habit. I find that I’ve gotten to where I am based on my skill and my ability. I won’t change my style or my training or my diet if I’m fighting Bray Wyatt or Brock Lesnar or Seth Rollins or Braun Strowman. It doesn’t really affect me. I’m comfortable in my body, I’m comfortable with my training, and I have confidence in myself as a performer in the moment, so I shouldn’t have to adapt my training to help counter other people’s strengths and weaknesses. I should rely on my strengths.”

Finn Balor on making his bad shoulder that’s given him a lot of trouble his whole career his stronger one: “A little known fact: I’ve been dogged by a left rotator cuff injury since I was 19. I’ve been coping with that my whole career. And then, of course, I completely destroyed the right shoulder. So pretty ironic that the shoulder that’s been bugging me my whole career has now become the stronger shoulder. But I got to do my rehab with Kevin Wilk in Birmingham, Alabama, and he taught me a lot about stabilization and different methods of fatiguing the joint without having to lift overhead. So I won’t ever do any overhead presses anymore. Everything will be nice and narrow. Really, it taught me how to train a lot smarter. I think, honestly, it’s improved my physique in the last three years as a result of the accessory work and paying more attention to the details, as opposed to just going to that one-rep max bench press or big overhead press. Sometimes bringing it back to basics and working on the baby stuff is what’s important.”