Yukio Mishima was a Japanese author, poet, playwright, actor, model, Shintoist, nationalist, and widely considered one of the most important Japanese authors of the 20th century to the point that he almost won the Noble Prize in Literature. Some of his well-known novels include Confessions of a Mask, The Temple of the Golden Pavilion, and Sun and Steel. Besides being one of the most important Japanese figures of the 20th century, Mishima was also known for one other thing, and that’s his impressive physique. With that being said, what was Yukio Mishima’s workout routine? And what was his diet plan?
Yukio Mishima’s workout routine consisted of martial arts (Karate, boxing, Kendo) as a form of cardio and included decline dumbbell presses, all variations of bicep curls, an exercise similar to a dragon flag for his abs, and a bunch of bodyweight and isometric exercises while staying consistent and doing 3 workouts per week.
In this article, we’ll talk about Yukio Mishima’s impressive physique, and the workout routine as well as the diet plan that allowed him to achieve it.
Yukio Mishima’s Stats
Before going more in-depth about his workout, let’s first establish some of his basic stats:
- Age: 45
- Height: 5’5”
- Weight: About 145 lbs (not accurate)
- BMI: 24.1
- Bodyweight percentage: 8 to 12%
As you can tell from the stats, Yukio Mishima was pretty short, this allowed him to appear big in size even if he only weighed about 145 lbs. In addition to that, he had an extremely low body fat percentage which made his muscles pop out more and his veins more visible.
Yukio Mishima’s Diet Plan
Although Yukio Mishima has never shared his diet plan or what he would normally eat on a daily basis, we can deduce some of his dietary habits based on his appearance.
As I mentioned earlier, Mishima wasn’t tall, which means that even the slightest body weight gain will affect his physique greatly.
However, even during his late years, Mishima wasn’t fat at all so that could only mean that he avoided bulking and ate with balance.
So in order to imitate his diet plan, you would need to avoid junk food and eat meals that are high in terms of protein and carbs and low in terms of calories.
Yukio Mishima’s Workout Routine
Cardio
Let’s first start with cardio. Based on his autobiography, Mishima loved doing karate which is one of the best martial arts that burn fat and promote weight loss.
In addition to that, he also used to practice boxing which essentially does the same thing as Karate except that it requires a lot more strength and power since it involves a lot of punching.
Mishima also loved Kendo which is a modern Japanese martial art that uses bamboo swords as well as protective armor and has a lot of benefits that include improved strength, endurance, and overall fitness.
Gym Routine
In terms of his gym routine, we can also extract some useful information based on his autobiography.
First of all, Mishima was extremely consistent in his workouts and he would do 3 per week (without ever missing one). This allowed him to maximize his muscle hypertrophy since he gave himself a lot of time for recovery, plus, training 3 times per week is largely sufficient.
Additionally, for his chest, Yukio Mishima hated doing the regular bench press and preferred the decline one for the majority of the time using dumbbells (instead of a barbell). If you look at his physique, you can instantly tell that his lower pecs were extremely developed which gave him that iconic model look. This was because of the decline presses that he loved.
For his arms, Mishima focused on curls and all of their variations, he would do dumbbell curls, barbell curls, preacher curls, and so on in order to target all the angles in his biceps. As a result, he managed to sculpt one of the most impressive biceps that I’ve ever seen.
When it comes to his legs, Mishima didn’t give them all that much attention hence why they were the least developed muscle group of his physique. If you take a look at his modeling pictures, you’ll realize that most of them don’t show his lower body since he used to tell photographers to cut his legs from the final edit. Nonetheless, he still did squats.
For his abs, Mishima only did one exercise that he liked to call “the leaning tower of Pisa”. Essentially, he would lie on a bench, hold on to it with his two hands, then raise his legs with his entire torso. He would repeat this exercise for sets of 10 repetitions.
Mishima also enjoyed doing bodyweight exercises such as push-ups and pull-ups, as well as some isometric ones.
Conclusion
If you look up to Yukio Mishima or want to achieve his impressive physique, it’s gonna require a lot of hard work, here’s what you need to do:
- Stay consistent with your workouts and do them 3 times per week.
- Practice some form of martial arts for cardio like Karate, boxing, or Kendo.
- Include decline dumbbell presses in your workout plan to get those defined lower pecs.
- Do all variations of bicep curls.
- Include the “leaning tower of Pisa” exercise in your workout routine.
- Implement some sorts of bodyweight and isometric exercises.