Henry Cavill will be starring as Superman in the next film, Superman: Man of Steel. It is following the trend of Batman and Spiderman as yet another prequel movie telling the story of the early years, much in the way of Smallville.
He actually spent 5 months training intensively with cardiovascular workouts, bodyweight training and a lot of mixed martial arts training (MMA) which really amounts to a low of old school fitness training and boxing workouts. For a while he was working out 7 hours a day with this type of exercise. This really set him up well for the Superman training workouts which followed.
The weight training for this role sees him lifting weights for 2-3 hours a day. His workouts involve cycling through various different weight training exercises throughout that week to encourage all of his muscles to grow. Henry actually was already bulking up during the preparation for Immortalswhich was also produced by the 300 team.
Mark Twight’s Weight Training Workouts
Henry is being trained by Mark Twight who is the personal trainer who trained the actors in the film 300. His early training saw him getting a foundation in core workouts, bodyweight training and fight training to start preparing his body for the gruelling weight training to follow. His weight lofting workouts see him performing mostly powerlifting exercises which really help to stimulate muscle growth throughout the body. They also burn a lot of energy at the same time.
So exercises such as cleans, squats, deadlifts, presses, bench press. Also bodyweight training continues with pulls and push ups to help build endurance as well as mass. It is likely that he workout is very much like the 300 workout but with some additional mass building weight training thrown in as well. A full body weight training workout split over 3 sessions provides a great foundation for building some solid muscle mass quickly. This method sees you training 3 body parts per workout with 8 exercises, training several sets per exercise for 8-12 reps.
To increase mass these exercises are increased progressively over a period of many months so that you lift more weight for more reps while taking in more and more food to aid muscle growth. Eventually he may have moved more towards an “Arnold” style of workout with 6 sets of 6-10 reps per exercise.
5,000 Calorie a Day Diet
Henry Cavill is having to eat a lot of food to ensure that the hardcore weight training will bulk up his muscles enough to allow him to play the role of the most famous superhero in the world.
His diet regime sees him consuming 5,000 Calories a day to provide his body with the huge amounts of energy and protein required to allow him to do intensive weight training workouts for hours every day and to allow his muscles to grow.
This diet sees him eating a massive amount of protein from eggs, chicken, meat and pulses as well as healthy carbohydrates such as low GI fruits and vegetables. No doubt he is also taking some protein supplements to boost his protein in take.
One thing is for sure – to beef up like Superman you need to work incredibly hard. Many hours of training everyday and a diet designed to maximise gains all the way.
Photo by David Shankbone