Chris Pratt wasn't always the ripped action star he is today.
Every year, it gets harder and harder to remember that his big break was playing chubby but
lovable Andy Dwyer on NBC's Parks and Recreation.
"Andy is our official water fountain tester"
"Alright, let's give this sucker a test drive."
How did he slim down and muscle up to become Star-Lord?
Here's a look behind the scenes of Chris Pratt's insane workouts.
Workout rollercoaster
As impressive as the transformation was, playing Star-Lord wasn't the first time Pratt modified
his body for a role.
His bulbous weight as Andy was a deliberate choice, and he lost a lot of it to develop
a believable baseball player's physique for Moneyball.
Then he bulked up even more to play a tier-one operator for Zero Dark Thirty, and immediately
after that, he gained 60 pounds of pure gut to play opposite Vince Vaughn in 2013's Delivery
Man.
"This is you as the SEAL, and then this is you very shortly afterwards."
Chris Pratt told Vulture in 2012:
"I just like to gain weight and lose weight.
It's a rollercoaster.
I just want to do this.
I want to touch God."
After that he started cutting down again for Marvel, and now that he's in Star-Lord shape,
it looks like he intends to stay there.
Cold turkey
Anyone who drinks knows that one of the lousiest side effects of alcohol is the hit to your
waistline from all the empty calories.
Plus, hangovers.
"Oh my God I'm so hungover.
I've never been this hungover.
Are we dead?"
Unsurprisingly, part of Pratt's weight-loss routine involved cutting alcohol out of his
diet, which he did until the first Guardians of the Galaxy was complete.
He told Jay Leno, "I didn't drink for seven or eight months, which was really not that
difficult for me.
I'm not like a huge alcoholic or anything, but I always prided myself on being in a pretty
good mood.
And then I stopped drinking alcohol for eight months, and I realize from time to time I
got grumpy."
Considering where it got him, it was probably worth the sacrifice.
Good eats
He may make it look effortless, but Pratt's body transformations haven't always been smooth
sailing.
While preparing for his role as a Seal Team 6 member in Zero Dark Thirty, Pratt tried
to brute-force his way to a ripped physique while starving himself.
While it worked in the short term, it definitely wasn't good for him.
He told People in 2014:
"I was doing 500 pushups a day, working out at the gym, running five miles a day, but
with no food, and I tore my body apart.
I felt terrible afterwards, had to get shoulder surgery, and I wore myself down doing that
because I didn't have the proper coaching."
Worse, after all that effort, the weight just came right back.
It wasn't until he started eating properly and following a plan he could sustain that
he found a sweet spot.
No more yo-yo dieting for this guy.
"All I've had is fruits and vegetables for weeks now.
Mmm.
Oh, my God!"
Insane workouts
Dropping 60 pounds in six months — and keeping it off — is no walk in the park.
It takes everyday focus and determination, or as Pratt put it, "Three or four hours a
day of just consistent, ass-kicking hard work."
But he wasn't on his own.
Marvel producers hand-picked a personal trainer for Pratt: Duffy Gaver, a former Navy SEAL
who's made a specialty out of getting actors into shape.
As Gaver describes his training philosophy, "It's less about the workout and more about
what you bring to the workout — your will, your desire, your discipline.
If it was easy, everyone would be in shape."
So what kinds of workouts was he doing?
Well…all of them.
Heavy lifts, swimming, mountain biking, cardio, rowing, calisthenics — four to six workouts
a week.
On top of that, Pratt worked in some P90X and Crossfit, because why not?
It's enough to make your body hurt just thinking about it.
From Star-Lord to Ironman
Speaking of "because why not?," in 2015, Pratt competed in his first Ironman 70.3, a grueling
70.3 mile triathlon that saw Pratt swim 1.2 miles, bike 56 miles, and run 13.1 miles,
for a total of just over seven hours of pain.
Though fine-tuning his physique was surely a part of the reason he took the challenge,
his main motivation was to support fellow participant Mike Day, a retired Navy SEAL
who was once severely wounded in combat.
After the race, Pratt told Ironman, "Mike Day's story is just so incredible.
I figured if a guy who's been shot 27 times can tough this race out I had no excuse."
Eyes on the prize
Anybody who's ever tried to diet or stick to a workout plan knows it's an easy train
to fall from.
A couple of skipped days, a cheat meal or two, and before you know it you're right back
to riding scooters to the bathroom.
But Pratt had a pretty powerful incentive to show up for his workouts.
"... book a Marvel movie and have a deadline, and then it's like if you don't, if you get
fat, you might get fired.
And then it's easy, heh heh."
Of course, that doesn't come close to conveying how seriously Pratt took the exercise.
According to his trainer, Duffy Gaver, "Chris' athleticism is amazing," "He is incredibly
disciplined and his work ethic is phenomenal.
[...] He isn't the client you have to push; he's the type of client you have to pull down."
Intense and focused, Pratt came into his training knowing exactly what he wanted: to entertain
filmgoers as the best Star-Lord he could possibly be.
"Oh, I'm sorry.
I didn't know how this machine worked."
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