Written By: Seebz
Many of my friends know me to be a big workout fanatic. What my friends don’t know, is where I draw my inspiration and drive to push through my routines from. That comes from some of my favorite Marvel and DC characters or more specifically, the actors portraying them.
I mean who doesn’t want to have the giant biceps of Thor or the ridiculously toned shaped chest of Batman. That’s why, in film, the actors portraying them have to go through rigorous body transformation workouts to make their character believable to the fans. That kind of dedication requires some serious mental and physical toughness. I commend the actors for their willingness to put themselves through it for the fans and that willingness always drives me in my own personal workouts to look like a superhero (it’s also a bonus if a girl takes notice but it hasn’t happened yet 😉 )
One of the most impressive, yet totally 
unhealthy, transformations has to be Christian Bale. Bale, who recently wrapped up his portrayal of Batman in Christopher Nolan’s Dark Knight Trilogy, put his body through hell in 2004 to successfully show off a fit and agile looking Bruce Wayne. What makes this different from other actors is that Bale lost 60 pounds for a previous role, The Machinist, and weighed 120 pounds and had to bulk up in 6 months for Batman Begins. Not an easy task to accomplish. But, with the help of a well-planned 6,000 calorie daily diet and 6 hours a day of workouts with a combination of strength training, intensive interval training, and plyometric workouts, he was able to gain 60 pounds of muscle in 5 months. Not to mention, losing all the weight he put on for The Dark Knight to play crack-addicted brother to Mark Wahlberg in The Fighter, and putting all back on for The Dark Knight Rises.
Now I do not recommend what Bale did to anyone because that drastic fluctuation in weight in such a short time will fuck you up. A safer way to do it would have to be Hugh Jackman’s approach.
Judging from the picture of Jackman compared from the original X-Men movie to his standalone movie, The Wolverine, I think we can all agree that Hugh really packed on the mass and began to embody the appearance of what Wolverine is supposed to loo
k like. His workout regime was a little less tense on the body then Bale’s was. More or less his weight fluctuation was about 40 pounds that he had several months to accumulate. His discipline had to be without fault as he did a 5,000 calorie daily diet with the kind of food that wasn’t very enjoyable to most. That mixed in with fast pace interval training and cardio produced the Weapon X that is truly what we as fans have come to expect to see.
To close, I wanted to circle back to the point of my article and that is that I draw my inspiration and motivation in my own personal life to work out from these characters and use the actors drive and routines as diagrams for my goals.
#seyboldselfie
We all struggle with motivation, especially when it comes to being fit, which movie (or Comic Book) character has inspired you to be more active?
The Dork of All Trades 