Man Of Steel: How Henry Cavill Built Abs, Arms and Legs of Steel for Superman Role

“Faster than a speeding bullet! More powerful than a locomotive! Able to leap tall buildings in a single bound! Look! Up in the sky! It’s a bird! It’s a plane! It’s Superman!”….. A bird? A plane? Please, how could they not notice those biceps from that angle.

Henry Cavill attacks the role as Superman/Clark Kent in the highly anticipated film, Man of Steel, a new take on Superman’s origin story. Becoming Superman requires a super body – that’s for sure. The stud dove into his workouts immediately and on day one signed with Mark Twight, owner of Gym Jones in Salt Lake City, and trainer who transformed the cast of 300. Cavill had his work cut out for him, for 2012’s The Cold Light of Day, he became super SOFT as he was directed to eat pizza to appear like a regular guy”.

Hint to all men: PUT DOWN THE PIZZA! I’m sure a few ladies wouldn’t mind seeing some Clark Kent’s running around!

“Physical training for the role has been extraordinarily intense … Mark has been putting me through the ringer big time” Cavill tells Movies.com.

The 30-year-old British actor explains to Access Hollywood how in order to prepare his body for the role he went through “sort of like a foundation phase, or a conditioning phase, and then technique work, then mass building and then leaning for the suit”.

Take a look at these transformation phases which detail exactly how Henry Cavill became the man of steel….

Phase 1: Faster than a Speeding Bullet

Great speed calls for an efficient diet. According to Movies.com, Cavill says his dietary plan consisted of:

• A mix of calories depending on what sort of work he did
• 3,000 calories a day plus shake (about 3,500 in total)
• 2 hours of work and then he moved up to 4,000 and then up to 5,000 calories

“Now we’ve dropped down to about 3,500 while we’re doing an hour’s training every morning, because if I keep that high-calorie intake I’m going to start putting on fat weight. But if I drop too low, I’m going to start losing all the new muscle I’ve gained.”

In USA Today, Cavill explains his all natural transformation, shunning any performance-enhancing and computer-graphic tricks to make his body look bigger on-screen. “I wanted it to be me,” “It helped me get into character. And also because it’s my name. I wanted to provide that image of Superman and make it reality.”

Phase 2: More Powerful than a Locomotive

Power calls for a punishing training routine.

According to Men’s Health, Twight used a  routine called the “tailpipe”, which is a 100-rep workout said to “smoke calories, torch fat, and leave you exhausted”. The tailpipe consists of an exercise and recovery. Twight’s tailpipe recovery method begins the second you finish an exercise. You calmly take eight controlled breathes in and out of your nose and right before you start again, you “fight the urge to gasp, throw yourself around, or change songs on your iPod.” says Dan John, Twight’s colleague and fellow strength coach.

Phase 3: Able to Leap Tall Buildings in a Single Bound

Time to jump? Better crush those legs.

“A couple of weeks ago it was 100 front squats in body weight. We’ve been quite fond of doing the 100 repetition stuff recently and heavy as well. Generally, the guys work out with me now. And so, we all have a bit of fun doing it as well. For example, we’ll just do 10 reps of a weight and then someone drops out, they do 10, someone drops out, they do 10. By the time the third person’s finished their set, you come in and do your 10, up to 100. Otherwise, training stuff, I mean, it’s huge amounts of kettle-bell workouts.”