Mulan Inspired Workout and Diet: Train like The Chinese Legend

Last updated on March 14th, 2021 at 09:09 am

We started with a villain (Gaston) and now it’s time to see a real hero.

Mulan is one of my all time favorites.

Although that’s not saying much because I probably say that about all the Disney movies…

Well, anyways, I’m really excited for this one regardless.

For the start of these articles I would like to say this: I linked to the guidelines above, but in no way is this workout and diet plan that of Mulan’s. This is simply a plan inspired by his character and I will be citing all the information I can in order to show where the inspiration is coming from.

So, for anyone who isn’t familiar with Mulan’s character, I’ll be talking about all the things you need to know as to why I’m building the routine the way I am.

Mulan Possible Stats:

**We’ll be using height ranges that Disney looks for when getting actors for these roles.**

Height Range: 5’2-5’6

Movie: Mulan

Alignment: Hero/Princess

Powers: No

Being that Mulan is the first female, we don’t have enough Disney Inspired characters to compare her to, so I’ll be naming other women we’ve seen below.

For Gaston I named characters, but I think for this one I want to show you where she falls in a range among women celebs we’ve seen.

Her voice actor Ming-Na Wen is 5’4.

Normally the average height we see for women is around 5’4-5’6 with ladies such as Jennifer Aniston, Margot Robbie, Olivia Munn, Alicia Vikander, Sophia Bush, Tatiana Maslany, Evangeline Lilly, and a ton of others.

But then there is also that taller range, and among the tallest (even taller than the 5’7-5’8), are ladies like Gwendoline Christie, Gal Gadot, and a few others – with Phoebe Tonkin, Gabrielle Union, Brie Larson, Nina Dobrev, Daisy Ridley, and so many more coming in around that 5’7-5’8 range.

And, let’s not forget the shorter ladies of SHJ like Ariana Grande, Scarlett Johansson, Mila Kunis, Emilia Clarke, Lucy Hale, Julianne Hough and a good handful of others.

But, either way, don’t worry.

I write these routines for anyone and everyone.

Mulan Inspired Diet and Nutrition

**Keep in mind: this section will be nearly identical for each character, but I will add in something special for the Disney Inspired Characters if possible**

Every hero (or villain) needs to still have a good diet.

Unfortunately we can train like them, but I don’t think any of us are suddenly getting their powers, or the ability to magically stop caring about nutrition.

You can’t out train your diet, so I want to still give some pillars for nutrition.

You can start by checking out The Nutrition Pillars on the site, but I’ll break down some more information for you guys as well.

Guys like Dwayne Johnson and Kevin Hart incorporate 80/20 dieting with big weekly cheat meals, Hugh Jackman, Tom Hopper, Benedict Cumberbatch and Terry Crews utilize intermittent fasting (something I use daily as well), Ariana Grande, Mustafa Shakir and Madelaine Petsch are vegans, Brandon Routh and Frank Grillo opt for paleo, and tons of others utilize their own variations as well.

It’s all about sustainability.

AND, there are a thousand different ways to reach your goals, so finding the most sustainable way is what’s important.

Which is why our Academy utilizes multiple different Nutrition Classes (Greek Gods, Vikings, Spartans, Hunter Gatherers, Monks, Samurais, Minimalists, SuperHumans) to allow people to choose what is right for YOU!

THE MULAN SECTION:

In the movie we see Mulan stuffing her face (or rather Mushu stuffing her face) with some rice porridge.

There’s even a nice happy face made up of the two eggs and a strip of bacon.

So for this one you’re going to be utilizing not only the rice porridge (consisting of sushi rice, 2 eggs, and 1 strip of bacon), but also some other Chinese tradition food/drink as well:

• Noodles
• Tofu
• Tea
• Meat (Pork, Beef, Chicken)

And, obviously you can switch it up, but remember Mulan is being drawn from Hau Mulan who is a legendary Chinese warrior from the Northern and Southern dynasties period (420–589) of Chinese history, originally described in the Ballad of Mulan.

Mulan Inspired Workout Routine Research

While we’re talking about Hau Mulan I’ll say one more thing about it, pulling it from the Wikipedia page:

In the ballad, Hua Mulan, disguised as a man, takes her aged father’s place in the army. Mulan fought for twelve years and gained high merit, but she refused any reward and retired to her hometown.

For those of us who know the story of Mulan in Disney format, it sounds a lot like our story.  Here’s a description of Mulan from her Wiki Fandom page:

She is the strong-willed and tenacious daughter of Fa Zhou, a war veteran. When her father is called back into battle, Mulan opts to protect him by taking his place under the guise of a male soldier named Ping.

Mulan is inspired by the legendary Hua Mulan from the Chinese poem The Ballad of Hua Mulan. She is the eighth official Disney Princess and one of the few who is not actually royalty through either birth or marriage.

I added in some extra information because if you’re here for Mulan, you’ll probably enjoy whatever I add about her…right?

Mulan may not be a superhero, but she sure as heck has some incredible abilities.

Here’s what the Wiki has to tell us about them:

Although Mulan possesses no magical or superhuman powers, she has military training courtesy of Shang.

• Martial Arts: As part of her training, Mulan learned kung fu, eventually becoming proficient in hand-to-hand fighting.
• Swordsmanship: Mulan honed her skill with her father’s sword and became an expert swordswoman, easily holding her own against even the battle-hardened Shan Yu.
• Marksmanship: Under Shang’s tutelage, Mulan developed skill with ranged weaponry, from the bow and arrow to gunpowder cannons.
• Horseback riding: Even before her time in the army, Mulan is an excellent equestrian, further enhanced by her bond with loyal steed Khan.
• Strategist: Mulan is also intelligent, cunning, and resourceful, as shown on several occasions, such as when she was first to climb the pole and retrieve an arrow embedded in the top successfully during training. Knowing her unit was vastly outnumbered, she was able to quickly think of using the last cannon to cause an avalanche on the entire Hun army, quite literally stopping them cold, and later lure Shan Yu into Mushu’s firing range. When she pulled out her fan, she acted as though she was in shock from having nothing left to fight with, when all along she planned to disarm him with it.

I’d like to see her and Merida have a fun archery contest…maybe even on horseback!

If you go back and watch the Mulan training scene you’ll see she starts out by getting her butt kicked, but in the end triumphs and leads the pack not only in mixed martial arts but also in weighted bag carries (running ahead of the men), and climbing the pole to grab the arrow!

While I will be giving you some programs made for us by Coach Derek that will help with martial arts, these will not be specifically kung-fu, and will not contain training that will help you with your sword fighting.  For the sake of training purposes, the mixed martial arts programs will help you defend yourself and also burn calories while doing it – but if you want specifics that Mulan knows, you will likely have to search up some local classes!

I’ll be programming you everything we see from Mulan, and also including a calisthenics/training day that draws inspiration from her training scene.

Let’s get down to business.

The Mulan Inspired Workout Routine

Training Volume:

On an average day Mulan was a farmer.  During her training Mulan woke up daily and began prepping for war as Ping.  For that reason we’re going to find a happy middle and train 3-5 days per week.

Explanation:

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I will be programming you a full body workout routine that can be used 2-3 days per week, and the rest of your training will come from mixed martial arts programming, horse back riding, sword fighting, and archery.  I will list it all below.

Mulan Inspired Workout Full Body Workout

Warm Up:

Stretch

Jog 1-3 miles (work your way up to 3)

Workout:

Barbell Weighted Lunges

**Instead of running with weight on back like Mulan**

3×12

Rope Climbs (Sub Towel Pull Ups)

4×12 Towel Pull Ups or 4 Climbs

Farmer Carry

4×50 yds

Bodyweight Training:

Push Ups

5×20

Air Squats

5×15

Dips

5×10

Pull Ups

5×10

Mulan Inspired Workout Mixed Martial Arts Training

As I mentioned, we don’t have Kung-Fu training or Sword Fighting Training Programs, which Mulan would utilize, but we do have mixed martial arts programming from our amazing Coach Derek inside The Academy.  Utilize these programs OR hit a local gym.

Choose a mixed martial arts program below:

Check out MMA programs on the site from Coach Derek here: Moon Knight, Deathstroke, Daredevil.

For some Thai Boxing fun check out Anna Diop’s routine.

Mulan Inspired Workout Activity

Mulan also trains in horseback riding, archery, and as I mentioned sword fighting.  She’s training for war as Ping.

For this reason, you will be required to also add in other forms of activity.  These can obviously (if you’re trying to REALLY become Mulan), be all of the above mentioned, or they can be broken into other formats of activity such as sports, hiking, yoga, pilates, etc.

Have fun with it.

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