I saw Black Panther two weeks after it debuted. It was a weeknight at 6 p.m., and the only available seat was in the front row. I looked around like, I knew this film was hot, but…seriously? Black Panther is already one of Marvel’s highest-grossing films ever. It’s received praise from pop culture icons including LeBron James, The Rock, and Will Smith, and has garnered critical acclaim.
Amid the movie’s rousing success, one minor detail keeps popping up in headlines: Michael B. Jordan and Chadwick Boseman, viewers have noticed, were jacked. We recycle this story almost every year, ogling at Hollywood’s paragons of physical perfection. In 2018, it’s Black Panther. Last year, it was Baywatch. In 2015: Creed. 2013: Pain & Gain. Articles invariably flood the internet about the grueling process the film’s stars underwent to transform into twisted steel and sex appeal.
Jordan and Boseman, the latest to inspire the trend, play estranged cousins turned nemeses in Black Panther. While battling for the throne of Wakanda, they box, run, flip, jump, and wrestle—and in the process, shirtless scenes abound.
So, could you someday look like these paragons? And if so, how?
“The key is not just putting on pounds of muscle, it’s creating the illusion of pounds of muscle,” Hollywood’s go-to movie-star transformation specialist, Harley Pasternak, told Complex.
Pasternak has worked with some of the biggest names in show business: Kanye, Kim, Lady Gaga, and more. He played himself as Megan Fox’s trainer in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2014). He helped get Halle Berry in shape for Catwoman (2004), Tobey Maguire for Spider-Man (2002), and Seth Rogen for The Green Hornet (2011).
If you want to emulate the superhero look, Pasternak’s advice is to focus on the posterior chain and movements that emphasize the rhomboids, glutes, hamstrings, and triceps.
Lisa DeFazio, a dietitian and celebrity nutritionist, says people need to bear in mind that movie stars have unique advantages over the average person.
“Sometimes in our daily lives we’re not motivated or we’re struggling to gain or lose weight, but these celebrities are paid millions of dollars to look this way,” DeFazio told Complex. “If we knew we were going to shoot a movie and be paid tons of money, that would motivate anyone. Anyone could look like a celebrity if they really wanted to, especially if you have the money behind you. They’re just everyday people. A lot of them were waiting tables five years ago.”
Hollywood may set an impossible standard, but there are lessons we could all learn from Jordan and Boseman’s exhaustive preparation.
MBJ Beefs Up
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Jordan said his goal was to be “beefy,” and he transformed his physique into 100 percent USDA choice. After gaining 24 pounds for Creed, Jordan packed on another 10 to 15 for Black Panther. He bulked up to 194 pounds, then shed some fat and cut back to 184.
“Ryan Coogler wanted him to be muscular and massive, so I treated it like I was training a bodybuilding Marine,” Jordan’s trainer, Corey Calliet, told Men’s Journal. Jordan, 5-foot-11 and 31 years old, followed a typical bodybuilder diet—lots of chicken, brown rice and broccoli, with avocados and spinach mixed in. High protein, moderate carbs, moderate fat. He eliminated sugar, bread, and dairy and ate six meals a day.
You want Jordan’s body? You’ll have to live like a hermit to get it. “It’s hard to go out to a club or a party when you’re like, ‘Oh wait, meal prep—gotta go pop this thing in the microwave,’” Jordan recently said on Ellen. “It’s tough to socialize when you gotta get in shape like that.”
His training was intense—two to three times a day, six days a week, for 18 months. Pasternak’s advice for the everyday person? Implement resistance training four to five times a week, and hit multiple muscle groups in each session.
Jordan, who also drank 1.5 gallons of water a day, lifted heavy weights and focused on compound movements—bench presses and deadlifts, for example.
“Nothing fancy,” Calliet said. Just old-school exercises, lots of weight, and lots of volume—anaerobic strength training with long rest periods between sets. Jordan added mixed-martial arts and weapons training, and he was already well-versed in boxing from Creed.
Boseman Becomes a Martial Arts Maestro
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Boseman took a different route. He trained so he could move like a cat and nail T’Challa’s fluid fighting style.
“Part of it with Panther is there’s an unpredictability,” Boseman said.
So he dove deep into martial arts: he practiced jiu-jitsu, capoeira, karate, and kung-fu.
Boseman throws himself into his characters. For his role as Jackie Robinson in 42, he did baseball training twice a day. To portray James Brown in Get on Up, he danced for as many as eight hours a day.
“The physical part is what makes it fun for me and helps me get inside the characters,” he said.
Boseman, like Jordan, went into the film with a strong base from years of lifting, and in Black Panther he sported a lean, athletic look like that of an NFL wide receiver. At 6 feet tall and 190 pounds, Boseman was roughly the same size as Odell Beckham Jr.. Pasternak adds that the Black Panther suit, like the vintage Batman suit that Val Kilmer and George Clooney donned, is “a way to give them a little extra.”
The 40-year-old Boseman had a laxer approach to nutrition than the younger Jordan. He did not significantly alter his diet.
DeFazio, the nutritionist, has one practical piece of advice for those who want to look like Boseman: cut out drinking.
“The beer or the booze, all that really bloats you, so you’ve got to have the discipline,” DeFazio says.
At this point, I offer a word of caution: There is a difference between working out because you love your body and working out because you hate your body. Though learning from the stars and aiming for health is great, obsessing over your appearance can lead to body dysmorphia. Even Hollywood’s paragons are not immune to its self-critical pull.
“I think there is a slight body dysmorphia that you get after training so hard,” Jordan said while promoting Creed. “You’ll never be perfect. I think you’ll never be perfect and satisfied in your own mind because you’re always going to point out something you want to fix or improve.”
A desire for perfection and rapid results drives some movie stars to take steroids. Though one insider estimates 20 percent of actors use the juice to get in peak movie shape, Pasternak says hormone supplementation is unnecessary. Taking a strategic approach to training will make a bigger difference, he says.
“I can only speak for my clients, and my clients do not take steroids,” Pasternak says. “The truth is, a bigger person onscreen does not necessarily look more muscular. You think of Jean-Claude Van Damme, Bruce Lee, Sylvester Stallone—these guys were not big. These were the action heroes of the ’80s, and they weighed 150, 160 pounds. They were small guys, but because they were muscular and lean and had great proportions, they appeared big onscreen.”
To naturally simulate the effects of steroids, Pasternak recommends focusing on getting more sleep, which prompts the body to increase its production of testosterone and growth hormone.
With Jordan and Boseman at the peak of their acting careers, their training continues. Jordan is preparing for Creed 2, which will begin filming in Philadelphia in April. Boseman, meanwhile, will focus on Avengers 4 (2019).
Getting into movie-star shape may seem impossible. That may not even be your goal.
“Getting jacked is a young man’s game,” says Pasternak, the Hollywood transformation specialist. “I think getting up the stairs without wheezing and seeing their waist is the goal for 85 percent of Americans.”
Yes, it’s clichéd that we recycle this same story every year, but movie-star transformations can serve as motivation for viewers to get healthy. With the U.S. facing an obesity epidemic, that’s something we can all get behind.
