How The Fittest Hollywood Actors Get Fit

Hugh Jackman

Building a Wolverine physique is no joke.

Celebrity trainer David Kingsbury, who has been working with Hugh Jackman since the first Wolverine movie, is the man responsible for the actor's impressive gains. Kinsgbury told Bodybuilding.com that he helped the 47-year-old movie star increase his muscle mass by having him lift heavy weights in a low rep range (1-5 reps). Following the heavy work with lighter rep schemes allowed for maximal results. 

To lose body fat while maintaining muscle mass, Jackman went through a bulking and a cutting phase. He followed a very clean diet and used carb-cycling to his advantage. He also stuck to a combination of low-intensity training and HIIT to get lean while bulking. 

Chris Pratt

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Before taming raptors in Jurassic World, Chris Pratt had to tame his own physique for his role in Guardians of the Galaxy. 

To get ready for the action-packed Marvel movie, the 36-year-old actor lost 60 pounds in six months — and showed off his feat on Instagram. He told Men's Fitness that he exercised for three to four hours a day — doing workouts such as P90X , running, swimming, boxing, and kickboxing — to get ripped. He ate a 4000-calorie diet and drank an ounce of water per pound of body weight. 

He now spends one hour a day, four days a week in the gym to maintain his physique. 

Idris Elba

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The 43-year-old British actor has been doing kickboxing for over a decade. He graced the cover of Men's Health in December 2015 and shared his fitness philosophy with the magazine. Elba doesn't believe in being fit just for the sake of looking good. He loves kickboxing because it allows him to be fight-ready and have the ability to defend himself. 

That being said, sweating it out in the ring will get you ripped in no time. Elba recommends shadowboxing for an efficient, equipment-free workout. 

Joe Manganiello

Magic Mike director Steven Soderbergh referred to Joe Manganiello as "walking CGI". The chiseled actor is also the author of the Evolution fitness guide. 

"I've spent the past 25 years — two third of my life — searching out the best trainers on the planet, the best methods of the planet. I did this completely naturally — no steroids, no human growth hormones. I was not born genetically to put on muscle; I was cursed with long limbs," said Manganiello in a Simon & Schuster video. 

His workout philosophy is inspired by none other than Arnold Schwarzenegger — his childhood idol. So if you want a body like Manganiello, you will need to pump lots of iron and stay consistent. 

Channing Tatum

Magic Mike XXL star Channing Tatum worked with trainer Arin Babaian to get in stripper shape. According to this Daily Mail article, the trainer told Alpha Male magazine that Tatum took to the outdoors to get fit — going on early-morning bike rides and climbing hills. 

The actor would then head to the pool to swim laps or do a pool workout — alternating laps with strength-training exercises. Babaian and him even nicknamed a move the "pool burpee". 

In the afternoon, he hit the weight room to focus on sculpting a single body part, finishing his workout with a full-body conditioning circuit. 

Jason Momoa

From starring in Baywatch to portraying Conan the Barbarian and from appearing in Games of Thrones to playing superhero Aquaman, Jason Momoa has been showing off his killer physique for years. 

The 36-year-old actor is a fan of AR7- Accelerated Results, a training program developed by Hollywood trainer Eric Laciste. The high-performance workout concept consists of performing a series of exercises in three phases : Seven sets of seven reps, six sets of six reps, and five sets of five reps — for a total of 54 sets and 330 reps of exercise in 30 minutes. 

Ryan Reynolds

Ryan Reynolds worked with trainer Don Saladino to prepare for Deadpool. 

Reynolds used the foam roller and performed muscle activation exercises such as overhead shovel throws and Turkish get-ups before his workout.  "Ryan loves deadlifts, and he loves squats because he knows that's how he's going to make real gains," said Saladino in this Men's Journal article. 

This strategy helped the actor build the functional strength needed to get through all his action scenes. 

Theo James

The ripped Divergent star told BeFIT : 

"I wanted to put on some weight, some fat. I wanted to put on some muscle so that [my character] would be as dangerous as possible. I didn't want him to be a steroid head or anything, but I wanted him to look like someone you wouldn't want to  have an altercation with." 

To achieve this, he trained six to seven days a week and focused on eating a lot. He spent hours learning Muay Thai-inspired fight choreographies and sparred with an MMA fighter twice a week. 

Chris Evans

Chris Evans added serious size to his physique to play Captain America. 

The actor put on 30 pounds by eating a high-protein diet and lifting heavy. "We would take two muscle groups, whether it was chest and back or biceps and triceps and we would just destroy those muscles, literally, destroy them for just over two hours. Then we'd cool down with core and abs," he told Bodybuilding.com. 

He also worked with different angles and grips to ensure he was hitting different muscle groups with maximum efficiency. 

Tom Hardy

With movies like Warrior and The Dark Knight Rises under his belt, Tom Hardy is no stranger to getting jacked for roles. 

According to Coach magazine, the actor prepared for Mad Max: Fury Road  by adding muscle confusion techniques to his workouts. He kept his body guessing through variations of classic exercises. For example, he did diamond push-ups instead of classic ones. 

He is also a fan of "sending signals" to his muscles as often as possible, working a muscle group by doing several sets throughout the day. 

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