Blog | Coaching | Featured | Programming Superman Jacked: Henry Cavill’s Superman Workout
Author / John
As the credits of Batman vs. Superman started rolling, I immediately took to the Google (once I picked my jaw up off the ground, that is). Despite the peanut gallery, the film was fucking legit. I’m not a comic book fanatic so I can’t attest to the “authenticity”, but I’m a huge fan of Batman films. The Christopher Nolan series was amazing, but I’m still most fond of the original Batman starring Michael Keaton and Jack Nicholson. With that said, I found the flick entertaining and am pretty excited to see how it evolves.
But I digress.
So anyway, what did I Google? “Batman Workout” and “Superman Workout.” I wanted to see how Ben Affleck and Henry Cavill prepped for this movie. One thing @John preaches at Power Athlete is regardless of the content there’s always an opportunity to learn from something or someone. It is the foundation that Power Athlete sprouted off of in @John’s quest to achieve pinnacle performance over his 10 year NFL career. He worked with dozens of world class coaches to prepare for each season, and in doing so developed the system we have in place today.
This system is what we use when we work with elite level and amateur athletes as well as the Armed Forces, Firefighters, Law Enforcement, basically all of our real life heroes. Since they are out there putting their lives on the line for us, we are always trying to perfect our craft in Empowering their Performance.
My search lead me to the conclusion I was expecting. There was no “magic” program or workout. The method that Cavill used is available to any average Joe. So as we look further into the Superman Workout, what you need to know is that even YOU can get Superman JACKED!
More specifically, I came across this article: Henry Cavill’s “Superman Workout and Diet.” To run faster than a locomotive and leap tall buildings in a single bound (or at least look like he can), Cavill hit up Mark Twight of Gym Jones. Twight is the guy who seeded CrossFit into the mainstream by stacking slabs of shredded muscle on the man-Gods of the movie 300.
The Superman Workout
Details are sparse. Cavill’s people basically say Twight is keeping the program (it’s movements, sets, reps, etc.) top secret because, well, it’s his fucking program and that’s what he wants to do. What we do know is that Mark doesn’t use some Ab Attack or Gunz N Bunz program for the Superman Workout. According to Twight, the method behind the Superman workout actually has a “strong connection” to how he would prepare a soldier for their job.
These super heroes display superhuman feats of strength in their movies, so they better look the part. If you have some dad bod chump tossing around boulders, it just doesn’t have the same effect. So what’s the best way to get this “look?”
Prepare them, through their training, to perform superhuman feats of strength!
This is the essence of Power Athlete. Train for the ability to achieve Pinnacle Performance, no matter the arena of competition. If it’s the field, pitch, rink or board room, your training should prepare you to crush the opposition. Aesthetics are simply an added bonus.
With that said, I was not surprised by what the article suggested as an “option” to “approximate” Superman’s workout:
Power Athlete’s CrossFit Football program. From the article on Cavill’s site:
“CrossFit Football is a modified CrossFit program geared to great strength and mass. It combines high intensity movements with a comprehensive strength and speed program.”
No shit. Twight is no nincompoop. What he and his crew have at Gym Jones is world class. Gym Jones’ Rob MacDonald a.k.a. Bobby Maximus was on our podcast back in May 2015. Our amazing conversation showed us Gym Jones’ system of values overlaps significantly with Power Athlete’s.
What most resonated with us from this article is something we’ve been saying for YEARS:
Form Follows Function
It doesn’t matter who you are; a 10 year NFL vet like @John, a soldier, athlete, movie star, or desk jockey. If you train with purpose to achieve a very real performance based goal, everything else falls into place. The flashy “fitness experts” will romanticize magical exercises, sets, reps, percentages, even equipment. I cringe when people buy into this superficial bullshit. The sets, reps and percentages don’t matter in the grand scheme of things.
One of the most important concepts of a training program is intelligently scheduled volumes, intensities, and movement patterns. It must build upon this fact: the demands in life and/or sport exist in ALL THREE PLANES OF MOTION and rely solely on the 7 Primal Movement patterns! After that, we simply need to stress to progress! But what matters most is the mindset: commitment to be consistent and to attack the training. For that to happen, the training must be intelligently designed! Full circle – it’s a synergistic relationship.
That’s why we aren’t shocked when a well-informed, world class coach chooses CrossFit Football as an alternative to the original Superman workout. But what if Cavill came to us?
Power Athlete’s Superman Workout
Assuming we had to bulk up our fledgling world-saver and prepare them for some killer stunts through space, the perfect protocol would be putting Cavill on our flagship training program, Field Strong. Training is only one half of the equation. We’d have to put together a diet to support Cavill’s bulk. Without a doubt, we would start with our highly successful Bulking Protocol. As our hero gains size, or if he already had some decent size, we’d pair the training with our Performance Protocol.
Field Strong is a program intended to prepare an individual for the high demands of field sports. Per our Form Follows Function philosophy, even if your goal is purely aesthetic, training with purpose towards a performance based goal is STILL the best way to get jacked. The program has requires 60 – 90 minutes of your time, 4 – 6 days each week.
If life is too busy and you can’t make time for the training, then a better place to start is our Grindstone program. The program allows you to be a little more flexible with your training days, but still attacks very real performance based goals.
So if you’re looking for the secret behind the Superman Workout, look no further. Jump into a performance based training program, commit, stay consistent, and most importantly, start today.
Tagged: Bulking Protocol / CrossFit Football / Field Strong / Henry Cavill / Performance Protocol / Superman / Superman Workout
AUTHOR
John
John Welbourn is CEO of Power Athlete and host of Power Athlete Radio. He is a 9 year starter and veteran of the NFL. John was drafted with the 97th pick in 1999 NFL Draft and went on to be a starter for the Philadelphia Eagles from 1999-2003, appearing in 3 NFC Championship games, and for starter for the Kansas City Chiefs from 2004-2007. In 2008, he played with the New England Patriots until an injury ended his season early with him retiring in 2009. Over the course of his career, John has started over 100 games and has 10 play-off appearances. He was a four year lettermen while playing football at the University of California at Berkeley. He graduated with a bachelor's degree in Rhetoric in 1998. John has worked with the MLB, NFL, NHL, Olympic athletes and Military. He travels the world lecturing on performance and nutrition and records his podcast, Power Athlete Radio, every week with over 800 episodes spanning 13 years. You can catch up with John as his personal blog, Talk To Me Johnnie, on social media @johnwelbourn or at Power Athlete Radio.
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