Alan Ritchson is in between Reacher premieres right now, but we know Season 5 is already in the works. The very much renewed Amazon Prime series is expected to film into December of this year, and its star is trying to stay fit for the long haul. Yet, he says he’s trying to do this without major “strain,” a practice he learned after a harrowing injury during his first season starring in the popular action series.
In fact, it sounds as if the actor still vividly remembers the day he broke his shoulder while filming, and the ramifications it had for him for the rest of Season 1. He was under contract, they had a show to make, and unfortunately, there was no time to get surgery in the middle of filming a slew of complex fight scenes that — you guessed it – often required him to use his shoulder.
I look good, and I don’t have the kind of strain that I had when I was like really targeting areas for long periods of time. You know I broke a shoulder Season 1 of Reacher and I had to fight through that season with a broken shoulder until I could get surgery.
If you’re a Ritchson fan, the injury itself may be common knowledge for you. He’s mentioned in passing he had surgery after Season 1 of Reacher before, but I guess I just didn’t realize the timeline of when that injury happened or what it actually meant for him and his workouts when it came to prepping for and filming the show. I know he's a tough cookie. He's mentioned getting bruised and battered on set before, but filming through a broken shoulder is something else entirely.
In a long-ranging interview with TDL podcast, he explained what was going with his shoulder during actual filming in a way that makes me want to go back and rewatch to see if I can spot it.
Man, it was so hard doing fight scenes with a broken shoulder. Like I couldn’t [move right]. It was hard. And I don’t want to repeat that. And that was due to strain from working out and stuff that was going on on set. Fight work and that kind of thing. There was a lot of strain happening. I have to avoid that.
Ritchson has run fans through his workouts before. He does a lot of recovery work that helps him remain jacked without tearing his body up. He's smart about his fitness choices. Sometimes he’s doing up to a 100 reps of certain exercises but at a lower weight in order to get his pump in, a fact I as an 8-10 rep gym girlie, find fascinating.
The actor has said he thinks Reacher is just getting started, and it could go on for a long time. But the caveat to that is his body must hold up. It sounds like he’s doing the things to make sure an experience like he had in Season 1 isn’t repeated.
Now excuse me while I go back and rewatch Season 1 of Reacher with my Amazon Prime subscription and see if I can spot him fighting through that injury.
