How Jason Dohring Got Those Abs In ‘Veronica Mars’ Season 4
Veronica Mars fans waited five years to see Veronica and her friends again. Catching up with friends always offers some surprises. When Logan (Jason Dohring) returns to Neptune to see Veronica (Kristen Bell), one thing about him is especially striking. He’s got abs, on display coming out of the ocean.
If you were to tell me Dohring spent the five years since the Veronica Mars movie doing nothing but crunches, I would believe you. But I got to ask Dohring myself at Hulu’s lunch for the Television Critics Association. He shared his fitness tips with me. All four seasons of Veronica Mars are now streaming on Hulu.
Jason Dohring has a trainer
There’s no shortcut. Dohring works out with trainer Eric Fleishman and has for 10 years.
“I took an interest in exercise,” Dohring said. “I actually hated it, to be dead honest with you, until about 10 years ago. I just like to go because my trainer was a cool guy so I just liked hanging out with him.”
Fleishman’s brand of fitness made it more accessible to Dohring.
“He was very interested in the art aspect of fitness,” Dohring said. “I took to that more than just, say, jumping up and down on a table 1000 times and you’re sore the next day. To what end? What are you trying to make yourself look like?”
As an actor, image is one of Dohring’s tools. He could relate to Fleishman creating an image for himself.
“He was 98 pounds in high school and he would just read comic books all day,” Dohring said. “He was from Maine. He just saw in comic books the perfect sort of physique and trying to mimic that in his own life and by extension some of the people he was working with. I sort of found interest in going beyond fitness and maybe getting into more of the aesthetic nature of lifting.”
Jason Dohring focuses on the muscles that matter to him
One thing Dohring is learning from Flieshman is that all exercises are not created equal.
“I think people associate a couple things with health or being in good shape,” Dohring said. “I think maybe a smaller waist contrasted with the points of the shoulders and that differential, so when they see that it’s kind of overwhelming. They don’t quite know what’s going on. It looks out of the ordinary or comic book like.”
That body doesn’t only exist on the pages of comic books. Jason Dohring is living proof.
“What’s cool is there are particular exercises that you can do to deliver that result,” Dohring said. “To be able to work out with a goal in mind and then to achieve that goal over a period of years is pretty cool and just an interesting hobby.”
How to get a Jason Dohring V back
Jason Dohring’s abs are such a marvel, they may be distracting from the big picture. Follow the V up his back and you’ll also see the base at his shoulders.
“It gets a little bit technical but if you’re thinking about, say, back muscles, they’re coming all the way down the back,” Dohring said. “If you’re trying to get a small waist and it goes up the torso and out of nowhere comes your back and these shoulders on a wide back and tiny waist, you’d be looking for exercises that mainly target that part of the back instead of the whole back. Otherwise, you’d look like a square.”
Dohring was mum on specific exercises. Fleishman shows him what to do for each muscle.
“He demonstrates whatever that accentuate those particular groups that give that image of that comic book-esque physique,” Dohring said.
Jason Dohring still eats
It was refreshing to see Jason Dohring eat a healthy plate at the Hulu lunch. He had a barbecued chicken breast and salad. If you can eat hearty meals and still look like Jason Dohring, that’s reassuring.
“I think that people think that diet means less food,” Dohring said. “The definition is just a particular kind of food. Food delivers a certain result to the body and if you know what kind of foods do what, you can be sort of in charge of how you look.”
