How A-List Celebrities Get In Shape For Major Roles And Why It Isn’t A Great Long-Term Strategy

The internet is covered with before and after pictures of A-list celebrities showing how they got in shape quickly for a movie role. Pictures of Jason Momoa’s body transformation for Zack Snyder’s Justice League come to mind. But how do they achieve this in such a short time when many consistent gym-going folks struggle to get the same results?

Most celebrities hire a fitness expert to design a training and diet plan to get them in the best possible shape as fast as possible. Some also incorporate unconventional training methods to facilitate their transformation and push beyond workout plateaus—Momoa incorporated rock climbing two days a week into his training for the D.C. movie.

Coach Brian Nunez – a former football player and Nike trainer for pro athletes, celebrities, and business leaders – calls this the “alternating subscription” technique. Often, newcomers to fitness think that getting the perfect body is not a lot of work, especially if they start feeling different and their clothes start fitting better in a month or two. They think they’ve got the secret to body transformation until they hit their first plateau and come crashing back down to reality.

Going too hard can harm you

The internet is littered with crazy stories of how celebrities seek unconventional ways to optimize their workouts and then go at it 1000 miles an hour.

Besides Aquaman’s rock climbing tactic, actors go much further to preserve their “fighting weight” before and during the shoot. To play the role of Peter Quill in Guardians of the Galaxy, Chris Pratt dropped 60lbs in six months. To do this, he completely ditched beer and pushed his body into overdrive. His workouts included boxing, kickboxing, running, swimming, and a triathlon, six days a week and 4 to 8 hours daily, all while consuming 4000 calories daily.

During the shoot of 300, Gerard Butler and about 50 other actors did a ton of push-ups, sit-ups, and rubber band pulls for every take of every scene to pump blood to their muscles and keep them looking swole throughout the shoot.

From intense training regimens to systematic dehydration and manipulating their sodium levels, Nunez understands how many A-listers get such fast results but advises their fans against trying to replicate those results.

He believes the greatest danger to towing the same path to fitness as these famous names is that these methods are almost exclusively short-term approaches for specific shoots and projects. Doing these long-term will cause severe issues for your heart and body. “When it comes to a long-term strategy, simple things like just taking walks consistently are probably the most underrated workouts of all time,” Nunez says.

The body feeds the mind if the mind feeds the body

G.I. Jane is perhaps one of the most iconic movies of the last two decades; when the movie premiered in 1997, fans were stunned to see the otherwise slim and beautiful Demi Moore appear so bulked up and with a shaved head. Demi Moore later shared a little about the strenuous process of getting in shape for the movie.

According to Demi Moore, she had utilized two different trainers, one for the physical fitness elements and another specifically for teaching her the Navy SEAL mindset. The Navy SEAL mindset was relevant to her role as G.I. Jane. Still, she later admitted that it was probably also equally effective in enabling her to complete the body transformation as well.

“These intense 90-day or 45-day fitness plans are perfect for the movie and all but are terrible for a long-term strategy. Getting fit is one thing, but the mind plays perhaps the biggest role in remaining fit,” Nunez explains, “Three pillars that aid long-term fitness and health are; mindset, meals, and movement; I emphasize a lot on mindset both in my business coaching and fitness coaching, because a healthy attitude is behind every success. Chasing the perfect body is a marathon, not a sprint. There are healthy ways to go about dieting and exercise, so your body fills out steadily and at a pace that’s good for your heart.” Nunez concludes.

Why we should steer clear of radical body transformations

Nunez is also not a promoter of crazy diet changes; he advocates counting quality and not calories and believes in focusing on food as fuel. His philosophy is that to get fit and keep fit; we must build a strong foundation of nutrition and lifestyle habits. Keeping to these conditions gives much better long-term results than dabbling in what he dubs “fitness dark arts”.

“We make macro changes by a culmination of micro-moments. Training the body has been proven to have clear mental benefits, but for your body to feed your mind, your mind first has to feed your body,” opines Nunez. “The body cannot train beyond what the mind allows, so paying attention to mindfulness is the first step to getting past doubts and plateaus in your fitness journey. Beyond exercising, the gift of mindfulness is awesome for moving past plateaus and difficulties in business and all aspects of life. Attention is our greatest asset.”

Perhaps the only fitness inspiration we should take from the insanely ripped and fit actors on our screen should be the moments when they are not preparing for movie shoots or meeting project deadlines. Most actors can’t wait for a project to be over so they can return to a simple healthy lifestyle without the need for radical dieting and workout routines.

It’s also crucial to understand the pivotal role the mind plays in building your dream body with consistency and determination, even when plateaus happen. Your mind is your most important asset. Prioritize it and success will follow.