MAX THIERIOT HAS a very specific memory of what inspired him to commit to fitness—and in a small way, we can take credit for it. Over a decade ago, the young actor spotted an issue of Men’s Health with Ryan Philippe on the cover, posing shirtless. “I can look like that,” Thieriot recalls thinking as a 21-year old.

Inspiration might have spurred Thieriot to hit the gym, but matching how another actor looked on a magazine cover isn’t what kept him committed. Once Thieriot began making progress, he was sold. He got stronger, and leveled up the weight he was able to lift. “I started to notice my body was changing,” he said when he visited the MH Fitness Hub. That’s what really sort of hooked me, was getting to actually see a difference and see that this time that you put in, you can make a change. It just takes consistency.”

Now 36, Thieriot has become a muscular presence on physically demanding TV shows like SEAL Team and Fire Country. He’s shared this story before, around the time he made an impressive body transformation. But now, he’s showing off a closer look at the type of workouts he uses to stay consistent and committed to training for roles like Bode Donovan on Fire Country. His goal was to pack on muscle in his traps and shoulders to look wider on camera, so he’d look “weird and scary,” as the former con-turned-firefighter.

Thieriot says he prefers incline benching to flat bench, he loves the lat pulldown machine (you’ll see how he uses it in multiple ways), and he always ends his workout with arms.