Finn Balor, a WWE professional wrestler, shares insights into his diet and training regimen. Initially, he focused on gaining weight through high-carbohydrate foods like pasta, rice, and bread, aiming to meet the typical weight expectations for wrestlers.
As his career progressed, Balor's focus shifted from simply gaining weight to improving his physique. He began experimenting with his diet in his mid-20s, incorporating healthy fats from avocados, walnuts, almonds, and nut butter, and recently added açaí bowls for added fiber and nutrients.
Balor emphasizes consistency in his training and diet. He doesn't alter his routine based on opponents, relying on his established fitness level and skill.
Which is funny, because most people would look at your physique and perhaps think you’re limiting fats more than anything else. What are your go-to fats? I'll have a little bit of red meat, but most of my fats come from avocados, walnuts, and almonds. Nut butter has been my best friend on the road, especially for snacking on. I'll keep a tub of almond butter in my bag at all times.
What is the one part of your diet that people may be surprised to hear? I recently introduced açaí bowls into the regiment, and those would be pretty high in carbohydrates for me. But they’re something that has a lot of fiber—a lot of vitamins and nutrients in there that I wouldn't normally get from meat.
I know that you began training to become a professional wrestler at a very young age, but when did you first start to take nutrition and fitness seriously? I was 16 and looking, obviously, at WWE and guys who were in shape, and was like, "Okay, I need to start working out." But the mentality then was to get as big as possible. Even in my early 20s, I wasn't very aware of what a diet was. I just thought that I needed to eat more to put on more weight. I was eating a lot of pasta, a lot of spaghetti, a lot of rice, a lot of bread. This was when I was in Ireland, so bread and potatoes are sort of the staples of our diet out there. But that was really just to get physically bigger, because that was the expectation for a wrestler coming up. You’re supposed to be, you know, 215-220 pounds. I was 180 pounds in high school and was told, “You need to get bigger.” That mentality of not so much diet, but eating lots of food to put on that mass was the way I approached my early training.
When did that begin to change for you? I think it was more when I was starting to get to where I wanted to be with my career. The wheels were moving and I wasn't so heavily reliant on the fact that I needed to be big. I was actually good at my job and I was able to perform in the ring. I started to think, Well, I would like to look aesthetically different, as opposed to just being this 210-pound, 5'11" wrestler in Japan. That's when I realized, maybe if I drop a little weight, cut up a little more, I'll look a little more aesthetically pleasing. So it wasn't until around my mid-20s that I started to tinker with my diet and change things there.
This Sunday at SummerSlam, you’re squaring off against Bray Wyatt. With a guy like Bray, who is so strong and fast and freakishly athletic for his size, is there anything you do in the weeks leading up from a training or diet perspective to better prepare yourself physically? No, I'm a creature of habit. I find that I've gotten to where I am based on my skill and my ability. I won't change my style or my training or my diet if I'm fighting Bray Wyatt or Brock Lesnar or Seth Rollins or Braun Strowman. It doesn't really affect me. I'm comfortable in my body, I'm comfortable with my training, and I have confidence in myself as a performer in the moment, so I shouldn't have to adapt my training to help counter other people's strengths and weaknesses. I should rely on my strengths.
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