Canadian actor Daniel Diemer will enter Season 2 of Percy Jackson and the Olympians, as Tyson, Percy’s younger Cyclops half-brother, a role that required the sporty star to think carefully about his physique before heading to the set. But while Diemer loves to test himself physically, the actor shares that a serious impediment he’s had to come to terms with has shaped his entire approach to training.
Fortunately, with a deep desire to get his sweat on, Diemer leaned into three moves in order to join the Disney+ franchise.
Born in the small Canadian town of Brentwood Bay, British Columbia, Diemer now splits his time between Vancouver, where Percy Jackson and the Olympians is actually shot, and LA, where he also calls home. But while the actor grew up in a sporty family—his father was a tennis coach—a physical limitation would thwart his dreams of becoming a professional soccer player. “I’ve kept it very generic online with most of the interviews,” says Diemer, bravely opening up to M&F on the personal details. “My right leg is an entire inch shorter than my left leg, and I had no idea until I was probably 24 or 25.”
Daniel Diemer Shares his Experience with Leg Length Discrepancy
Officially known as LLD (Leg Length Discrepancy), this condition can cause significant back pain and muscular issues. While 90% of the population have some type of variance, it is rare to suffer with the kind of length difference that Diemer has learned to deal with. As he grew, the young man found himself unable to play sports without intense shooting pains running down his spine and legs. Even worse, the diagnosis of LLD didn’t come to Diemer for years, because physicians often check the bones and ligaments to locate causes of pain, but they don’t always measure limbs. With a soccer career now out of the question, Diemer opted to get serious with his gym workouts instead, “Just trying to support the back issues, and get some muscle on,” he explains.
Transitioning to the gym fully, Diemer, who stands at a towering 6’5’’, learned to love the process of finding his pump. Cable work such as bicep crunches are a staple, as are unilateral moves for improved symmetry and balance. “It’s something that I’ve tried to stay consistent with,” shares the star, utilizing the gym floor to sculpt his physique into whatever a role should require. “If you don’t mind me nerding out a little bit, it’s like I love body changes for projects and for characters,” he tells M&F gleefully.
In the Netflix movie, The Half of It, Diemer had bulked up to 235 pounds in order to play a professional football player, but for Tyson, the actor explains that he had to contend with more stunt work, so he needed to be leaner and more mobile. “I tried to keep myself at around 14 to 15 percent (bodyfat),” he explains. But despite cutting his weight down, the actor also appreciated that he’d need to stay strong for those stunts. “So, I was trying to get into the gym as much as I possibly could, just to make the whole athletic nature of him,” shares Diemer. “I was able to stay consistent and not get injured, which is the big one as well!”
3 Moves That Built Daniel Diemer’s ‘Tyson’ Physique
Weighted pullups:
“Weirdly enough, probably my best exercise,” says Diemer of a move that is particularly demanding for tall people. “I started off in the gym at my high school, not really having any idea what I was doing, and then when I moved out to Vancouver at 18, I was completely broke. I couldn’t even afford the $15 rec center gym fee at the time,” he shares. “All I could put together was rent and food. My roommate had a pullup bar and so I’d do 100 pullups, 100 pushups, 100 squats each day, and then I’d try to get some cardio in. It was great because I was able to figure out the different pullup types and how you target different back muscles.”
Diemer shares that weighted pullups remain a constant part of crushing his gym sessions. “I can really get the mind-to-muscle connection going with that type of workout,” he explains, revealing that during the peak of his training for “The Half of It,” the able actor could complete pullups with 100 pounds of additional weight on his belt. “That was really fun.”
Box Jumps:
Diemer tells M&F that he wanted to portray Tyson as a babyish character who could be clumsy, and yet spring into action with sudden explosive power. “I started incorporating a bunch of box jumps,” he explains. “I’d been focused more on the weightlifting and body sculpting for years, so I kind of went back into my athletic background. A lot of box jumps for that explosiveness for the legs.”
While on set, this plyometric style of training really benefitted him on the set of Percy Jackson and the Olympians Season 2. “Really useful, especially any quick little sprints or any quick little jumps,” he explains of mastering his scenes. “I have been able to get the hips and the legs, and then the core, all kind of engaging together, getting that chain moving seamlessly. That was really important to me.”
Farmer’s Carries
To build further on his speed and power, Diemer also incorporated farmer’s carries into his routines. “Just to be able to kind of keep everything tight was really useful on the mobility side of things,” shares the actor.
Despite the drawbacks of LLD, Diemer hasn’t let the condition define him, instead learning to love what he can do with his body in the gym, and how it shapes his physique for different roles.
With Percy Jackson and the Olympians Season 2 streaming on Disney+ from Dec. 10, Diemer is excited for fans to see what’s to come. “I’ve never been on sets this big!” he beams. “The world that we shoot, it’s genuinely incredible!”
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