The following is an interview I did with Hollywood martial artist and actor Dan Cade. 

Can you give us a brief background on who you are?

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I’m an actor from London that works on a lot of American television and movies. I’m also a martial artist and gymnast and have worked on action movies as well.

Which shows/movies have you starred in?

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Shows such as Legends with Sean Bean, AD: Kingdom And Empire, Borgia and the upcoming Emerald City with Vincent D’Onfrio and a few others.

In movies I’ve worked with Robert De Niro and Luc Besson on The Family and Antonio Banderas in Automata and many others.

What type of martial arts do you practice?

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I started off in Goju Ryu Karate and then quickly got to black belt before moving into other martial arts such as Wushu and Taekwondo, before moving into gymnastics where I now practice acrobatic martial arts.

What does your workout routine look like these days?

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I’m in the gym around 5 days per week where I do mainly the compound exercises like squats, deadlifts, chest press, and shoulder press.

My workouts also consist of sprinting, stretching, jumping and martial arts kicks and spins and gymnastics.

I also like to mix things up and shock the body so may try different exercise for each muscle group. I would do mainly 3 sets of 8 – 10 reps on a heavy weight.

Some weeks I would concentrate on doing low weight with very high reps to increase endurance.

For example of a Monday I would do biceps and triceps consisting of three exercises each of 8 – 10 reps and then Wednesday and Friday do the compound exercises all in one workout – legs, shoulders, back and chest, so I would be doing these groups twice per week.

Tuesday and Thursday I would concentrate on cardio, sprinting, martial arts, and stretching.

What does your diet look like?

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I try to keep the fat and carbs low and eat a lot of protein.

I have carbs for energy and stick to a lot of  vegetables, eggs and fish.

Do you take any supplements? If yes, what kind?

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I take multivitamins and used to take protein drinks, but now I do everything natural, so I get my nutrients from my food.

I may take an energy booster and if I need to bulk for a movie I would use creatine to speed up the process.

A lot of people lift weights but fear it impacts their ability to perform in martial arts? What are your thoughts on that?

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It depends on your training.

It is possible, the more bulky you get, you can become slightly slower.

But if you keep training your stretching and explosive techniques, sprints and jumps, you can maintain the speed and explosiveness.

What’s something about action movies that most people don’t know about?

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Most people don’t realize that you have to do various takes to get the action from different angles.

You could do one fight scene multiple times, and each time you have to keep the same energy, rhythm and focus, so it’s very hard work.

What projects do you have coming up?

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I have a project coming up called Emerald City that will be on NBC and is a modern day version of the Wizard of Oz and also a military Canadian drama called X Company.