'Eclipse' Star Peter Facinelli Spills Vampire Training Secrets

Jamie McCarthy, Getty Images for Dockers

"Eclipse" hits movie theaters nationwide tomorrow, June 30, and thanks to the physical demands of playing a vampire, Peter Facinelli is in the shape of his life.

For the third installment of the hugely successful "Twilight" saga, Facinelli's character Carlisle Cullen spends much of the movie fighting other vampires and werewolves. He's trying to save both his own bloodsucking clan, and human Bella Swan, played by Kristen Stewart.

"Eclipse" is an action-heavy chapter of the series, with near-constant fighting. There are torrential emotional moments as well, with some major revelations about the feelings Bella has for Edward Cullen and Jacob Black, played by the dreamy Robert Pattinson and Taylor Lautner, respectively.

For six weeks, the cast of the movie participated in "fight training," a combination of workouts and fighting choreography, in order to build enough strength to endure shooting the action-packed movie. That's Fit caught up with Facinelli in New York City at a fundraiser for Habitat for Humanity organized by Dockers and Esquire. Facinelli shared what it was like to put so many hours into training.

"That's all we had to do for six weeks," Facinelli said. "We did fight choreography mixed in with working with a personal trainer so that we'd have the stamina to be able to pull off the fight sequences."

No run-of-the-mill gym could satisfy the workout needs of the "Eclipse" crew. "They created these giant treadmills called 'Death Sleds.' And we would just run on them for hours at a time, at 10-minute intervals," he said. "But we did a lot of running."

To complement training by Death Sled, Facinelli kept his diet regimen strict and healthy. "I'm either really healthy or I'm really not. I'm either chowing down the burgers, fries and pizza, or I'm totally on salads and working out."

In addition to his on-screen vampire duties, Facinelli is husband to actress Jennie Garth and the father of three little girls, so it's not surprising that he rarely has time to relax. He has found that post-vampire-fight-training yoga really helped him find a little peace and quiet. "There were times we would do fight choreography, meet with our personal trainer, and then do yoga at the end of the night," he said. "You know how at the end you get that five minutes of laying there, and you've really earned it? I only do yoga for those five minutes when I can lay there," he joked.

And what is Carlisle Cullen's favorite yoga move? "Savasana." Otherwise known as ... the corpse pose, naturally.

Read how to get Taylor Lautner's "Twilight" abs.