Building a Body Fit for a Superhero

Superhero movies have been in-vogue for some time now…a trend which is no danger of slowing down, it seems; Following the recent box office success of ‘The Avengers’ (UK title ‘Marvel Avengers Assemble’ – it would appear that a trail has been blazed which will shortly be followed by the likes of: ‘The Dark Knight Rises’, ‘Dredd’, ‘Man of Steel’ and a whole catalogue of sequels, prequels, reboots and new adaptations, ready to jump out of the halftone printed pages and into the celluloid in coming months;

This is great news if you are an avid comic-book fan, but perhaps not so good when your significant other starts comparing your (not too shabby) abs to the wall of muscle under Batman’s armour, or spies you breaking a sweat when doing some DIY around the home…you might have been swinging a hammer, but you were not exactly conjuring up images of ‘The Mighty Thor’;

Yes, you will soon be surrounded by movie posters, assaulted by trailers and could even end up eating the themed breakfast cereal – all of these things serving as reminders to the fact that whilst some guys have been putting in some serious hours towards sculpting their bodies to toned perfection (it is part of their job, granted), your dumbbells are starting to resemble a dusty long-forgotten artifact from one of Indiana Jones’ quests…

The (sometimes) depressing fact is: CGI is not entirely responsible for all of the amazingly ripped bodies sported by the actors portraying these larger-than-life comic-book characters (nor are gamma rays, super-serum or anything more glamorous than a professionally designed strength training programme) – in this article, we are going to take a look at some examples of how actors have prepared for their magic moments under the spotlight (or even ‘bat-signal’);

Heroes – chiselled chins and polished pectorals

The most recent version of the hulk is a CGI masterpiece, but not too long ago, a certain Lou Ferrigno helped to bring the big green rage machine to life on the small screen…a former ‘Mr. America’ and two-times consecutive ‘Mr.Universe’ title holder, it goes without saying that this guy pretty much just had to slap on the green paint and he WAS the ‘hulk’…his impressive biceps were just shy of 23” in his prime and for a whole generation, this was the closest that anyone would could ever come to matching a Jack Kirby sketch…surely?;

Enter Mr. Christian Bale – a diverse actor known for his intensity and commanding screen presence – when he was cast as ‘Bruce Wayne’/’Batman’ in 2005’s ‘Batman Begins’, rabid fans wondered how this recently skeletal figure was ever going to fill the ‘bat-suit’;

Bale had just filmed ‘The Machinist’, a role which required losing 28kg, resulting in a body mass of just 54kg – this was a four month process, which we can speculate most likely involved strong willpower and the worlds’ quickest weight-loss diet (we are still waiting for the secrets to come out on ‘Oprah’!) ;

Becoming ‘Batman’ was no small feat…but one which Bale achieved through a healthy diet and comprehensive Power Training plan; the end result was a muscle-bound man-mountain tipping the scales at 109kg…the training in the bat-cave must have paid off – or at least it is equipped with a better set of weights than they had back in Adam West’s day!

Actors portraying superheroes: with the exception of good old ‘Spidey’, it looks like they have all been hard at work, getting their strength training in check along with remembering their lines and doing the whole ‘acting’ thing – some truly impressive work!

Chris Hemsworth proved that he had arms fit for raising the mighty hammer: ‘Mjolnir’ in anger, by refining his body down to 100kg of pure muscle for ‘Thor’– not bad for an actor with a background in boxing and Australian-rules football, but whose fitness routine didn’t make a focus of weight training.

Chris Evans of ‘Captain America’ fame worked on muscle mass gain and on lowering his body fat, resulting in a seriously ripped 82kg body, capable of becoming a real super-soldier (and making us puny mortals wish we could look like that!);

The list goes on, but we can’t just give these guys the limelight…

Villains – behind every great superhero is…you guessed it!

Villains from the comic books are just as varied as the superheroes – often, these villains use armies of underlings to do their bidding, cast evil curses or design high-tech doomsday devices in order to pursue their twisted desires; as such, they usually do not require the physical prowess of the wholesome heroes, since they don’t often fight fair (if they fight at all…they can often be seen shaking their fist at the heroes, withdrawing from the prospect of battle with cries of: ‘I’ll get you next time!’);

There are, however, a few exceptions to the rule…most notably, one super-genius comic-book villain who would require serious brawn to match his devious brain: ‘Bane’, the character who shall soon face-off against ‘Batman’ in this summers’ upcoming blockbuster: ‘The Dark Knight Rises’;

Tom Hardy is no stranger to bulking up for roles: he previously did this in preparation for ‘Bronson’ and the MMA movie ‘Warrior’ – but the character of ‘Bane’ could be an even bigger challenge for the 33-year-old (will he be the one to ‘break the bat’ on-screen?);

Promotional shots of Hardy show that he has seriously beefed up in preparation for his anticipated duel with the dark knight, (’Bruce Wayne’ had better make sure that his utility belt will get him out of this one!) with what has been reported to be a 13kg weight gain (on top of an already muscle-bound body) – all the more impressive is the fact that this has been reported to have been completed in around three months, taking him to a fighting-fit 93kg – how do these guys do it?!

If Hardy is anything to go by, this won’t be the last time an actor will have to pump iron or go through some rigorous physical training in order to create a real sense of peril when watching our favourite super-heroes go into battle.

The power is yours!

So, if this set of examples is anything to go by, it is actually possible to attain a superhero-level physique with enough focus and drive, proper nutrition and a well-thought-out Strength Training plan: go on, be inspired next time you hit the cinema and you could soon hear the compliment: ‘not bad…for a human!’.