Before we get into Henry Cavill’s workout routine for Superman: Man of Steel, I want to briefly talk about some background information. He went from being soft and skinny to becoming ripped for the Immortals. Then he put on even more muscle for his role as Superman: Man of Steel.
Henry Cavill In The Beginning
The picture below is Henry Cavill before his transformation.
As you can see, he looked soft and weak. He had to go through an initial physical transformation for the movie, Immortals. This is what he looked liked after the transformation.
After a few months of training, Henry Cavill transformed his body for the role “Theseus”. During an interview, he talked about how he got ripped.
He reveals that in the beginning, they had full days to train. They worked on resistance training and sword choreography. But later on, he only had half an hour to workout (at 2:12 in the clip). This proves that you don’t need to spend all day at the gym to get a great physique.
Later, Mickey Rourke (who plays King Hyperion) said that Henry did 2000 pushups before shooting a scene (2:55). Check out the interview below:
Why Would You Do 2000 Push-Ups?
Doing a high number of repetitions will get your blood pumping to the muscles. This makes the muscle bigger and fuller temporarily, which is perfect for shooting short scenes. This is also known as ‘the pump’ in bodybuilding.
However, this is not a strategy that you should use when you are training for bigger muscles. It is much more efficient to increase the weight instead of doing 2000 push-ups every training session.
6 Months To Get Ripped
In this next interview, he talked about training for 6 months before the Immortals. Training during this period was a lot more time extensive. It included cardio, bodyweight exercises and also free weights (barbell/dumbbell training).
The Bulk Up For Superman: Man of Steel
As you see in the picture below, Henry Cavill bulked up for his role of Superman. He definitely gained a lot of muscle mass, but he also gained fat in the process. You can see that he lost a bit of definition in his abs and his face became fuller. This was still in the preparation phase.
Once it was time to shoot for the movie, Henry Cavill cut down and got even more ripped:
The Henry Cavill Workout Routine for Superman: Man of Steel
There are many fake Henry Cavill workout routines floating around on the internet. I’m not going to waste your time with those. Actors are not allowed to reveal their specific routines, this is a signed agreement with their trainers. They are only allowed to talk about general training methods, like the ones we covered so far.
However, we can ‘reverse engineer‘ the Hollywood Physique and create it for ourselves. So what is the Hollywood Physique?
It’s the physique that comes up over and over again in the Hollywood Movies…
The Hollywood Physique
From left to right: Henry Cavill in Immortals, Ryan Reynolds in Blade Trinity, Rain in Ninja Assassins, Brad Pitt in Fight Club
If you draw an outline around that physique, you can create a template and it would look like this:
The Secret to Building This Physique
The secret to the Hollywood physique is that 20% of your muscles makes up 80% of all perceived muscle size.
Only 20% of your muscles create a visual impact. These muscles are: Abs, Shoulders, Arms, Chest, Quads…that’s it. This small subset of muscles are what makes you look ripped when they are developed properly.
The secret to Hollywood transformations is training to develop these muscles to the right specifications. The specifications are as follows:
- 1.62 shoulder to waist ratio
- Training for chest ‘width‘; intergration with shoulders for the chest plate look.
- Biceps/triceps are the same width as shoulders
- Six pack abs with a tapering wast
- Calves equal in width to neck
How To Design Your Workout
Most guys work aimlessly trying to get the Hollywood Physique and never get anywhere. This is because they don’t have the specifics. Now you have the exact outcome/ratios to aim for, one that is tangible and measurable.
The next step is to follow a training method that will get you the specific results that we just talked about.
A 3×5 routine is for ‘Strength Training’, the focus is on building more strength. Most of the fast mass building programs out there will make you gain a lot of fat. We just want more lean and visible muscle.
The key making your muscles grow bigger is ‘cumulative fatigue’. You get this by lifting lower weights at higher repetitions.
When you are working a muscle group, you should be able to feel that muscle working. The muscle should feel like it’s been ‘pumped’ after the workout, it should feel like your skin is tight around your muscles. You should feel ‘the burn’ on the last couple of repetitions. There needs to be that intensity during workouts. All of this needs to be done while keeping great form.
Designing Your Workout
Workout too frequently and your body won’t have a chance to recover. Your muscles grow bigger when they recover from being worked out. Workout too infrequently and you won’t grow. I think that working out 4-6 times a week is perfect.
When you’re designing a workout, it’s important that you include all of your visible muscles. During each workout, you should target different muscle groups to ensure that you have enough frequency and rest for each muscle.
The best workout program that covers everything we’ve talked about is The Hollywood Physique. It is a blueprint to getting the hollywood physique in just 3-6 months and the workouts are designed exceptionally well.
Click Here To Learn More About The Hollywood Physique
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