RED HOOD AND THE OUTLAWS #20 — Today we're going to be talking about Red Hood, Jason Todd, and the way he would train in the real world. Oh, you don’t care about any of that? You just want a solid weighted calisthenics routine? Well here you go!

Jason Todd was created by Gerry Conway and Don Newton as the second Robin to train under Batman.
Jason ran into Batman when he attempted to steal the wheels off the Batmobile, which simultaneously earned Batman's respect and put him on Batman's radar as someone who needed help. What Jason is maybe, sadly most known for is being the Robin who died.

However, because Comics are weird, Jason came back to life. With his second chance, he began to approach crime fighting from a more violent, and final stand point, being willing to use lethal force against the criminal element. Weighing in at 200lbs, and 6ft tall, Jason operates at peak human levels of fitness. He is fast, strong and durable.

Combat Training

Jason's combat training at times may be portrayed as subpar. Some would argue that Jason's reliance on guns is can be seen as a way to make up for a lack in skill. But I would propose that this is actually an example of Jason being pragmatic; he does not engage in the limitations that Bruce places on himself.

Red Hood, Jason Todd, firing at Black Mask

That said, Jason's combat and hand training is very comprehensive.

He incorporates aspects from Judo, and his kicking looks a lot like Taekwondo. I’d give him a striking foundation of karate, but it’s likely that he’s adept in boxing or kickboxing as well.

I’d also give Jason some wrestling, because there are times where he just… flings dudes around. It’s awesome, and really highlights his brute strength.

I’d also give him Arnis/ Kali/ Escrima. However, unlike the stick fighting style that Nightwing commonly uses, it seems like Jason uses the knife fighting form. I believe this is best shown in the animated, Under The Red Hood movie, during his fight with Bruce.

Cardio:

Cardio, as usual, is one of the biggest gaps. We don’t get specifics, but we can extrapolate enough information, based on Jason’s performance. We see that he’s fast, able to cover enough distance between rounds shot off by Black mask. To gain a respectable level of speed over short distances, we can expect that Jason does some sprint training.

We also see Red Hood cover a decent amount of distance when chased by Batman in the Under the Red Hood movie. I believe that training for performance on medium to short distances, like 5k - 100 meters would allow for this level of speed and endurance.

As most peak humans do, Jason is capable of fighting for a very long time. In real life, most people gas out after about 60 seconds of fighting.

Trained fighters obviously get through much longer rounds, but even then, they have breaks between fights. We could imagine that Jason, or any fictional fighter is doing full fighting rounds, and then sprinting in between during the break.

To get close to this level of endurance, you’ll want to spar along with a solid running schedule.

Diet:

Jason's diet isn’t the best. One might think that Bruce has instilled a very healthy, almost nutritionally perfect diet into his routine and likely passed that on to the Robins as well. If you actually look at what these guys eat, just like Nightwing, Jason eats a lot of hamburgers.

Jason Todd, Red hood eating a burger — He's not shown eating salmon and chicken breast and broccoli, at least in the scenes that we see him in. We could theorize that perhaps he’s following the diet popularized Anthony Collova. If It Fits Your Macros(IIFYM) I am the founder of IIFYM.com and the creator of the macro calculator you used yesterday. With the fictional setting of comics they can get away with things that humans cannot do.

To engage in anything near the level of activity that Jason engages in. One would have to eat a very healthy diet if they want to maintain their body. That's not to say you can't have a hamburger here or there, but you need the correct amount of protein and the right nutrition to fuel your body and allow it to repair itself after fighting crime all night.

For Jason’s given height, weight, and activity level I believe he’d need a bare minimum 160 g of protein a day. On the higher end, he would need to be eating 1g of protein per lb of bodyweight. He’d want to eat 2,500 - 3,500 calories a day, depending on whether he’s doing a lot of crime fighting, or just a lot of research/investigating.

Physique:

Red Hood, Massive Quads — Jason consistently seems to have a very strong lower body foundation. His quads are very strong and very well developed. He also seems to have very strong, very well developed forearms.

Besides those highlights, Jason just has a solid build all around. It all lines up pretty well with the activity that Jason engages in, and the type of training that he’d engage in.

Jason ends up looking like a relatively lean bodybuilder with Great levels of muscle mass.

Realistically, Jason might actually have a slightly higher body fat than what is drawn and then what we might expect from a person who engages in a lot of acrobatics like Nightwing. So Jason's physique is somewhat realistic and it can be made more realistic by just having a little less muscle mass and a little more body fat. This picture is the most realistic Jason physique I could find.

Psychology & Intellect:

Jason's psychology is often in a very negative place, and really all over the place if we go with every portrayal of him. So we’re not going to do that. We’re going to try and trace a throughline.

We’ll just say that Jason woke up from death in a bad mood and he more or less got over it. That way we don't have to deal with the villain era.

Jason Todd Batsuit — What we consistently see is that Jason has a lot of insecurities. He seems to compare himself very often to Nightwing, and even to Bruce.

This seems to be Jason's largest area of insecurity. Feeling that he's a failure and he is not as perfect as the “Golden Child”. This is something a lot of people, maybe more often middle children, seem to deal with.

Sometimes when people believe they are expected to fail, they subconsciously lean into that. This, coupled with Jason’s upbringing and experiences as Robin, can explain his behavior.

Jason seems to only really target violent crimes, in the way that Bruce does. He’s not going to beat someone up for a speeding ticket, or J-walking. And it seems like crimes that specifically target kids, and at times women, are the main crimes he’s willing to kill over. But in general, Jason does seem to believe that people can be redeemed, he just has a line that Bruce ironically does not have. A lot of this likely comes from his experiences as a kid with criminals. Jason is starkly aware that some people are forced to commit crimes just to stay alive, due to the harsh and unforgiving capitalistic system that we live under. Jason isn’t quick to hurt people for just staying alive. And we can even see that Jason isn’t willing to use lethal force against soldiers who are just doing their job. He’d rather direct that animosity towards their corrupt leaders.

If we look at that entirety of Jason's life of living with parents who neglected him, having to commit crimes to stay alive on the streets, and ultimately being murdered by an insane clown, Jason is actually doing really well.

As for his intelligence, Jason “mastered” computer science in 6 months. It’s noted later, during one of the lost days comics, that Jason learns at an incredible rate. Along with that, Jason was able to learn a decent amount of Russian and he’s capable of lip reading. In German. Lip reading is a rough skill to learn, but to learn it in a second language implies a level of mastery over that language, and the lip reading skill.

Realism:

Red Hood is completely unrealistic. You might be able to get a physique close to his, and you might be able to learn a variety of his skills like parkour, firearm training, martial arts and such that Jason has. But there's just so much that you will never be able to achieve. Comics are almost always some type of power fantasy. They give us a goal to aim for. Even though we’ll never hit that goal, we will be better for having tried.

Routine:

So let’s try. How can we be a little more like Red Hood?

You’re going to want to look into building speed over a range of short to medium distances. You’ll want to run a few times a week, and for certain periods, you’d focus on improving your sprint times, over distances all the way up to 400 meters, and during other periods, you’ll want to work on increasing your 5k speed.

You’ll, as always, want to find a martial art that interests you, and use some of that sparring as cardio training as well. Solid options to look at would be Judo, Karate, Taekwondo, or things like kickboxing and MMA.

This will cover your cardio, and your fighting skills.

Next, you’ll want a solid strength training routine, so you can also manhandle other adults.

This would end up looking like a mix of Abby’s workout routine, and Nightwing’s workout routine, as it will be an Upper/Lower Routine, with a heavier focus on weighted calisthenics. The idea behind this, is that Jason doesn’t have free access to the weights that Batman would have.

He would pull from the gymnastic training he went through as Robin, and use disadvantaged leverages, and heavy items to make his calisthenic exercises more effective. With an intelligent workout plan, and a solid diet, you can absolutely build a bulky, muscular physique with calisthenics.

Weighted dips are an excellent way to grow the pecs, anterior deltoids, and triceps. You’ll build brute strength and end up with a solid physique. Of course weighted pull ups will leave you with a marbled back, as they’ll grow your lats. Of course your biceps will also benefit.

Now for the hardest part. Depending on where you live, this may not be an option, but if you’re American, you may want to get comfortable with weapons. Look into Kali - Gn_funker has some solid videos and programs for knife training.

Consider looking into firearm training. If you purchase a firearm, make sure you know how to use it. Make sure you know the rules on how to stay safe with it. And, if you’re going to buy a gun, make sure you’re actually good at shooting. Hit the range often, and practice but round down range.

Along with this, think about how fights, or attacks normally go down. While the form used at a gun range may ensure top level accuracy, is that really how most people are attacked? With the assailant standing perfectly still directly in front of you?

Consider finding a shoot house that creates a more realistic environment for training. They can create situations where you’re forced to fire one handed, or forced to move through a home. Or, are forced to decide whether drawing your weapon is the legally correct–and maybe even morally correct thing to do, or if you should attempt to verbally deescalate the situation.

A+R tactics has many excellent examples of how some situations require shooting, one handed, from a less than optimal position, or how you may have to fight, draw, and shoot from a really bad spot.

And finally, consider learning a second language. Figure out the other languages spoken in your area, and look into learning them. Not only will that benefit your brain, by helping with neuroplasticity, but it will also allow you to connect with other people around you. Try to expand your skill set with computers. You probably don’t need to, and shouldn’t learn to hack, but maybe you could learn to program.

The training schedule deals with 3 main things. Strength training - Combat training - Cardio. Pick 2 to focus on, and one to set to maintenance level, and you’ll be good to go. Combat training can also be moved to 2x a week when it’s on maintenance.

For example, if Combat training is my priority, then I’ll make sure that the effort given during my other activities is moderate to low. Basically the effort I put into the gym and running would be on the lower end.

Overall the routine would look something like:

For the full routine, which uses weighted dips, and weighted pull ups, check out this link.

And over time, the running days would switch away from majority speed work over short distances, to longer runs over that 5k distance, then back. Consider cycling between sprint training and endurance training every three months.

Some Sources and Recommended Reading

Red Hood and the Outlaws (Rebirth)

Red Hood: Lost Days

Red Hood: The Lost Days

Batman: Battle for the Cowl

Train Like an Outlaw: Red Hood