Reality star Dylan Efron does his best to stay in good shape so that when nature calls — literally — he’s ready to go.
“I love playing sports,” Efron says. muscle and health especially. “There’s a tennis court outside my hotel right now, and I go out there and try to hit balls. I play beach volleyball and soccer, and I try to play as many sports as I can so I can stay relaxed and then work out as much as possible. I just want to be ready for those opportunities when those opportunities come because like that rock climbing adventure, it’s so hard that if I wasn’t in shape, I wouldn’t do it. Could.”
After winning her first climb in Utah between 2017 and 2018, the outdoor enthusiast was already a big hiker which inspired her to take things to the next level. And in May 2026, he set a goal to climb the red rocks in Moab, UT, and thanks to his six-day-a-week diet and protein-heavy diet, he was able to jump right in.
“My friends (said), ‘Hey, we’re going to do this,'” Efron explains. “I’m in good shape. I think the goal is to stay as healthy as possible, to be ready for anything.”
Growing up with their famous travel partner, Zac Efron, the brothers learned at an early age how much of the world there is worth seeing. The 34-year-old just had to set his mind to conquering the nearly 90-degree Moab climb.
“I’ve been going to national parks since I was a kid and seeing people there and saying, ‘Oh, I want to do that someday,’ and then I realize, ‘Oh, I could do that today if I wanted to.’ East dancing with the stars Finalists say. “I just had to learn. And then that led to highlining, doing the same thing. I was rock climbing and I saw someone highlining and I said, ‘Okay, I want to pursue that.’ I think it’s just knowing that we have the ability and taking the first step to wanting to learn more.”
How Dylan Efron rose to the top
After being told by a climbing guide that he was “not good enough” to tackle Moab, Efron started working to get better.
“I think it’s just practice,” says Efron, who recently partnered garden of life To launch its Clear Whey Protein. “Nothing happens overnight. The more you do it, the easier it gets. It’s like if I don’t climb for a while, my fingers start working first.”
But the more you do it, the more calluses you will get, so the stronger your fingers will be. For me, I have never been a crazy learner. This is uniformity. But dancing with the stars, I wasn’t one of the best natural dancers, but I firmly believe that I practiced more than anyone there.
Efron admits that for this particular climb, he did not change his normal routine and only climbed the indoor climbing wall once to prepare. However, one thing he did was to make sure he was targeting the right muscles for the trek which involved an hour of walking, three hours of ascent and an hour of return.
“It’s trying to get balanced again,” Efron says. “So I probably do legs twice a week and then upper body, I definitely do more back exercises than chest and arms. I’m trying to focus on larger muscle groups and cardio because even in the surge, my heart was probably at 160 beats per second. That was a challenging thing. And then just strength and flexibility, those are most important to me.”
Efron admits there are some fears and anxieties that come up when you’re holding on to nothing but a rope, and he was able to talk his way off the ledge himself.
“Highline, I was so scared,” says Efron. “Climbing the rock, the first pitch was harder than I thought, so I got a little nervous because I was starting to cramp up and needed some electrolytes.
But after that I started climbing more intelligently.”
Nutrition is a big part of the overall puzzle in Efron’s successful climb, which is why becoming a “Gartender” and helping Garden of Life release its new smoothie kits felt like a perfect fit.
“For me, whey protein is the best because I need a lot of protein. I make sure my body is nourished after every workout. I think I used to workout without protein when I was younger and when I was doing triathlons I did some blood testing and realized I needed more protein, especially whey protein, and realized the power of nutrition in general. It happened.