Omg sleep is so great for increasing muscle mass! Don’t even try to arm wrestle a narcoleptic… unless they conveniently happen to be asleep at the time.
Sleep IS really important for building muscle though, so are the other things mentioned. If you want to look like the picture above, that is. Not the shredded roided out freaks that are superheroes today.
Is still important for the juice monsters, I knew a guy who said at his peak he basically just trained, ate and slept… and took copious amounts of gear
I used to work at a gym and the amount of dudes who look like they have never touched a weight who take a shit ton of roids and lift with bad form, eat too little and like shit when they do eat, don’t stop drinking alcohol everyday and are confused that there are no results other than itchy nipples is a lot higher than you would think.
But did you remember the key component to ultimate gains? I of course refer to the Chef Boyardee endorsed Hulk Hogan's Pastamania? Without that you're only benching 200, 240 max
https://giphy.com/gifs/14exzIhIHYtcbK
Mac gave the most honest testimony of how it’s done:
"I’m gonna break it down for you, because it’s actually quite simple, and anybody can do this. Anybody on the planet can do this. First thing’s first: if you have job—like a 9-5 job—quit that. Do you like food? Forget about that. Because you’re never going to enjoy anything you eat. Alcohol? Sorry. That’s out. So what you need to do—you have a chef, right? like a personal chef?—make sure the chef makes you a lot of chicken breast. And make sure you keep your caloric intake at a certain level. And as you go to your physician 2-3 times a week—just to monitor all your testosterone levels—because testosterone is important to building muscle. You’re good friends with the trainer from Magic Mike? Arin Babaian. So you want to give Arin a call. And you want to make sure he’s at your house and takes you to the gym at least twice a day, because you’re gonna want to do your muscle-building in the morning and then your cardio in the afternoon. Now, do you have a family? Like a significant other or kids? Yeah, forget about them. You’re not going to have time to deal with them.”
I was working out at the same gym Hugh Jackman went to when he was training for Wolverine circa 2012 (Gotham Gym in NYC, before Dogpound split off) and his training really was extraordinary. I usually took a 6am boxing class, and as we were coming in, he'd be leaving absolutely drenched having already finished his first workout of the day. His trainer was basically like "yeah, he comes in around 3:30, lifts, goes home to eat and sleeps for a while, then comes back for a midday workout, then goes home to sleep and eat, then he comes in at night after the post-work classes are over and closes the place down when he's done." That was right before shooting when it was the most intense, but he still did two a days between films. If you ever went in there during normal work hours it was basically just a boxing ring full of Victoria's Secret models and Hugh beating the shit out of himself in the corner. Not saying there was no chemical enhancement, but he put in WORK.
He definitely worked hard. The steroids are needed for working this hard though. You build muscle during the recovery after training, which is the limiting factor. Steroids greatly reduce the time needed for recovery.
That training schedule only makes sense if you're roiding, without roids it would be counter productive. A natural person working out like that would not get the recovery time needed to actually build muscle.
It's not a crime when someone goes to an endocrinologist and gets the drugs prescribed. That's why he said he was constantly going to a doctor that was monitoring his testosterone levels.
And as you go to your physician 2-3 times a week—just to monitor all your testosterone levels—because testosterone is important to building muscle.
He's talking slightly in code for people in the know, but even that will go over heads of a lot of people. Even though his TV show is not at all for kids the network might still be unhappy if he clearly and directly said "I took steroids."
People who get the steroids illegally still go to a doctor for tests regularly if they're being responsible. When people talk about testing this is most often what they're alluding to. If someone is being prescribed TRT they can just say that if they want to.
Its just so obvious, especially in actors who were already in peak shape. Chris evans, chris hemsworth, henry cavil were all in great shape before the super hero machine made them juice up so the difference is really apparent. The lying is the worst part because kids who dont know any better will believe that broccoli chicken rice workout 6 days a week nonsense and then become jaded and disappointed when it doesnt make them look like a super hero in one year
Hemsworth legit looked like a monster in promo shots for Love and Thunder. Even compared to his Thor 1 physique where he looked like he might be cruising on some T.
Hemsworth was absolutely juiced for the first Thor. Look at the before and after, he was a twink and then all of a sudden his muscles are Stay Puft style and has routinely had an unachievable body style.
Chris Evans and Henry Cavill have physiques that at least look borderline achievable but let's face it they are almost all on something and they have teams that train them, cook for them, and monitor them. Even if they did it naturally it's still kind of unnatural in its own way.
People also don't realize, that they're wearing muscle suits most of the time and when they do muscle shots, it's after some intense fucking working out to make them really pop. They stay that way for a few hours at best.
He was also quoted as saying he would never train like that again. Specifically banding his muscles like a tourniquet for short periods of time to maximize pump.
Hemsworth in his last roles as Thor looked like hes a month away from stepping on a bodybuilding stage. Wouldn't be surprised if he was taking more s*it than prime Arnold. https://hips.hearstapps.com/hmg-prod/images/thor-1622630935.png this was the image where he legit looked like Mr. Hyde from Van Helsing.
I know this is a shitpost sub, but you actually learn to lie about it because people get bizarrely angry if you're honest about it. Admitting you take gear tends to receive the same response as saying you kick puppies for fun. People get irrationally angry about it.
So everybody starts with "I'll be honest about it". But everybody quickly learns not to because of the bizarrely angry response that honesty seems to receive.
It's not just that, studios won't let them admit to it. Disney can't say that their superhero movies marketed to children are full of juiced up celebrities.
So instead they lie to kids and tell them that these are natural builds, which I think is way worse. It's like the male equivalent of the Barbie complex.
You see this with women who’ve had cosmetic surgery too. I think it was Jane Fonda who said something like “I’ve admitted I’ve had work done. Stop asking about it.”
Alan Richardson bulked up naturally for Reacher season 1 and said it was basically a full time job and hard and was super honest about taking gear for Season 2+ and I appreciate that.
That show annoyed me because he's sleeping in cheap motels, eating at diners, never shown lifting weights. I know that jacked MF is constantly lifting & stuffing his face with protein. I know he's got a personal trainer and nutritionist on set. I'm not mad at him, it's just goofy knowing how much effort that physique requires and never seeing the work put in. He doesn't order 4 steamed chicken breasts and a side of broccoli from the diner, he gets pancakes.
IIRC the show is a bit tongue-in-cheek about it, a character sees him eating greasy food and goes "how can you eat like this and still look like that?"
because kids who dont know any better will believe that broccoli chicken rice workout 6 days a week nonsense and then become jaded and disappointed when it doesnt make them look like a super hero in one year
That's intended. That's how you get adults willing to spend mad cash with fitness as they fruitlessly try to reach a body that's literally impossible to for 98% of the population.
If the whole fitness industry promoted the kinds of bodies the average person can reasonably achieve after years, it would crash because huge swaths of people wouldn't bother working out as hard as needed to get a body that nowadays is called "mid".
"I’m gonna break it down for you, because it’s actually quite simple, and anybody can do this. Anybody on the planet can do this. First thing’s first: if you have job—like a 9-5 job—quit that. Do you like food? Forget about that. Because you’re never going to enjoy anything you eat. Alcohol? Sorry. That’s out. So what you need to do—you have a chef, right? like a personal chef?—make sure the chef makes you a lot of chicken breast. And make sure you keep your caloric intake at a certain level. And as you go to your physician 2-3 times a week—just to monitor all your testosterone levels—because testosterone is important to building muscle. You’re good friends with the trainer from Magic Mike? Arin Babaian. So you want to give Arin a call. And you want to make sure he’s at your house and takes you to the gym at least twice a day, because you’re gonna want to do your muscle-building in the morning and then your cardio in the afternoon. Now, do you have a family? Like a significant other or kids? Yeah, forget about them. You’re not going to have time to deal with them.
"So that’s really all you have to do. And make sure you have a studio pay for the entire thing, because it could become exceptionally expensive. So, I think if you just do all those things, then you too can have an absolutely unrealistic body type, such as me."
Celebrity trainers are mostly quacks. I saw one video of Chris Hemsworth's trainer putting on a tourniquet while working out because it increases red blood cells production when you starve the muscle of oxygen or something.
Just say it's secret Disney Marvel juice. That's less crazy.
I'm into fitness/nutrition, so a lot of my out of shape friends ask me for advice. I've seen so many people fall off the diet/routine in under a week that I have started to default to this.
"Do what MCU actors do and eat chicken/brown rice/broccoli"
It saves me a lot of time and effort if they fall off, but in the rare instance that they stick to it, it is actually good advice to achieve general fitness.
I recommend anyone who reads this to do the same. Another one I've used is "ever see one punch man? Do that"
The instance I remember was for Les Mis, a role where he was fully clothed 🙄. He dehydrated to get a good look in his face then had to sing and it made him dizzy.
He dehydrated to get a good look in his face then had to sing
o_0
Goddamn... Even mild dehydration is gonna be goddamn hell on your vocal chords and it can even make you sound like trash, depending on your singing style. It's like trying to do a workout routine while dehydrated; it doesn't just feel uncomfortable, it's actively impacting your ability to physically perform the act you're trying to do. Water is a key component of the processes involved.
Vocal chords work by vibrating and being flexible. You also need to be able to move your soft palete, control your sinuses and tongue. Guess what's harder to do when the tissues they're made out of don't have enough moisture in them? You're actually risking injury...
Oh my God Phillip Quast. The entire Original London Cast. I never understood why they had to get Hollywood celebrities instead of actual Broadway titans for that movie.
Tom Hooper insisting on live singing while starving and dehydrating his cast is still one of the most baffling directorial choices in modern cinema history.
A Youtube channel called Sideways made a video about it a few years ago, and yeah. Jackman dehydrated himself and Hathaway was actually crying while singing, and neither of them sang in time with the orchestra which meant the orchestra had to painstakingly copy the modulations in time to match up.
Which kinda gives away the whole game.
It was more important for the movie that mr. Jackedman looked emanciated rather than him having the prerequisites to deliver his best vocal performance. Style over Substance.
No serious singer would dare mistreating your vocal chords that way.
I mean, my facial structure is so much sharper when I’m dehydrated. I’m more than certain he was heavily encouraged or basically required to have a more ‘gaunt’ appearance.
When I get a driver’s license photo or something like that, I’ll watch my carb, sodium, and water intake while trying to sweat more so I can be foxy for it.
I know Henry Cavil did. I think it was the hot tub scene in season 1 of The Witcher. The hot water combined with being super dehydrated to have that ripped look on camera made his nearly pass out. He said if you get dehydrated enough you can smell water.
I'm assuming he meant you can SMELL smell it. Intensly, like it gets a different, stronger kind of smell than it usually has because your body craves it so much.
Lol he literally paved the way for that in his next appearance as wolverine. He's pretty dehydrated in some of the promo material for this movie too just not quite roided out yet.
He looked good in the movie. But even he said he was self conscious about being too small since the comic character is so thick. Apparently he didn’t have enough time to prep so for the next movie he had full time and got really big. Nowadays everyone does it for any superhero even when the character doesn’t even call for it.
Of course Star Lord needs to be ripped considering he’s just a normal dude in either normal gravity or no gravity and does all his fighting with a gun.
1500 upvotes for one of the dumbest comments of all time? Lol. Not only were male action stars juiced to the gills; women were literally being forced to throw up to stay stick then.
The average person really struggles with the idea of satire that isn't straight up juvenile parody.
Like Neon Genesis Evangelion is a satire of mecha anime, but it's super depressing and people completely miss the overarching message of "you don't want to be a teenage mech pilot or to have an anime waifu devoid of any personality or agency; it would be a miserable experience" because "cool robots and cute anime waifus." I've seen people trying to vehemently argue that the series isn't satire because it isn't funny.
Same with Watchmen. It's not meant to be ingested as a straight forward superhero story, but as a satire and deconstruction of the superhero genre. Partially to try showing that the medium can be more than goofy, inconsequential action written for 12 year olds, but also to try shaking some people of their obsession with the black & white morality of superheros. Again, people didn't get it and will argue until they're blue in the face that it's not satire because it's not funny.
The average person seems to think "satire = parody" and since "parody = trying to be funny," then "satire = trying to be funny" and if it's not trying to be funny, then it's not satire.
He’s not an hypocrite because he’s nothing, Durden is Jack’ss alterego. He doesn’t really look like that, he’s a projection of Jack’s desires and contradictions, so he being a contradictory figure highlight Jacks struggle: too aware of the system’s inner workings, too integrated into the system to not being influenced by advertising and models of masculinity.
Durden is the ideal man in Jack’s head because he can be grandiose, rebellious, honest, and, at the same time, he doesn’t have to quit society’s commodities, the nice clothes or the ripped body, the projection actually bypasses hypocrisy, there was no actual consumption involved.
Don't forget the bitchin sports car! He's supposed to be, in jacks mind, some Nietzschean ubermensch while actually just being some edgy rule breaker who literally wants to watch the world burn
Sprinters, running backs and recievers, competitive surf rescue, gymnasts, smaller wrestlers, rugby backs and wingers, basketball players, even the bigger and more physical soccer players.
Anyone who plays a sport where they primarily have to move fast but also push and shove a bit.
I used to box a little competitively (golden gloves). When I started really paying attention to professional boxing, it surprised me that those guys just kind of looked like my dad. They had muscle, sure, but they weren't very aesthetic. They tended to be bulkier up top and then a lot of corded lean muscle in their legs, and most carried a little fat. Turns out that performance and aesthetics dont always line up.
Hockey players also have typically very good conditioning, unless they're Alex Ovechkin, I guess. To be fair to him, he probably has great conditioning under a layer of insulation.
There's a photo that went around recently of Roger Fedderer without a shirt at the height of his career. LITERALLY an elite athlete. One of the greatest tennis players to ever live. He looked like this without a shirt.
Id say it is but unless you have great genetics(great fat distribution) then it is going to be a lot of hardwork in the dieting department. A lot people have big bellies before big arms without working out due to fat distribution. Im not a nutritionist or exercise scientiist so anyone please feel free to politely correct me.
I don't necessarily think so. You can easily find older films with bigger men. Just look at any Arnold movie from the 80s what kind of other men aside from Arnold were casted. This isn't big and I dont think hes meant to be "ripped" here just well built.
He wasn't considered ripped, he just thought working out for a few weeks before shooting the movie would be enough and he realized his mistake when it was basically too late
No it wasn't. He famously didn't have enough prep time for the first movie. Something he changed for the sequels, because he was cast very late.
''Back in the day'' ripped was literally Arnold Schwarzenegger. Mr. damn Olympia set the tone and standard for ripped physiques in Hollywood.
Sylvester Stallone was ripped. Jean Claude Van Damme was ripped. Carl Weathers was ripped. Dolph Lundgren was ripped. Michael Jai White was ripped.
They literally got bodybuilder Lou Ferrigno to play the damn Hulk and all they did was just paint him green. Reddit posts like these are always hilarious, creating a whole new alternate reality of history.
This is ripped. The ‘ripped’ people of today are often roided up, dehydrated, and generally unhealthy. It sucks that we’ve glorified harming ourselves in order to look good. Extremely debatably good, honestly. Personally I find a lot of extra muscular physiques creepy.
I wouldn't say it was considered "ripped" back then.
It's just that we didn't expect every male action movie start to achieve Arnold or Stallone levels of "ripped". They were the *exception* back in their day.
Apparently both Jackman and the director were actually unimpressed with his physique in this film. Jackman had never had to get in shape for a role and thought 4 weeks would be enough. They put off filming this scene in order to give him more time.
I also don’t recall anyone really talking about his physique at the time. It wasn’t until X-Men 2 that I remember people really started talking about it.
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u/Jet-Black-Meditation 11h ago
My favorite part of Hollywood transformations is the lies they tell afterwords.
Yeah buddy sure it was just chicken and broccoli