You might know Michael B. Jordan from any number of scene-stealing roles, like Steve
Montgomery in Chronicle…
"RRgh!
Steve Montgomery for President!"
...but chances are you've never seen him as fit as he is in his most recent movies.
The actor put on some serious muscle to convincingly play the son of a legendary boxer in Creed
and a villainous revolutionary in Black Panther.
So how did he get so swole?
Here's a look at how Michael B. Jordan got ripped for Hollywood.
Creed
While he's always been fit, Jordan had to get seriously buff when he took the title
role of Adonis Creed in the 2015 boxing flick Creed.
Playing the son of legendary boxer Apollo Creed from the Rocky films required Jordan
to take things to the next level, which he did with the help of professional trainer
Corey Calliet.
In order to properly portray a boxer, Jordan had to train like a boxer.
That meant 45-60 minutes daily of cardio along with tons of ab workouts, like crunches, mountain
climbers, leg raises, reverse crunches, and traditional sit-ups to build up his core and
burn fat.
As for building muscle, Calliet had Jordan focus on supersets — exercises where lifting
or curling dumbbells are interspersed with push-ups or another workout.
And after that?
Three full hours of boxing training.
"This ain't your normal workout.
This is a Rocky style workout."
All told, Jordan packed on 24 pounds of pure muscle over a year of training.
According to Caillet, it was hard-going at first:
"When we first started, he could barely bench 20 pounds, his legs were flailing everywhere
… he had nothing.
He used to hate all this."
Jordan agreed, saying,
"I felt muscles I didn't even know I had."
It worked, though, so Jordan brought Caillet along with him to help add another 20 pounds
of muscle in order to play the supervillain Erik Killmonger in Black Panther.
But that's not all Jordan did in order to get ready for his big Marvel moment.
Nutrition, nutrition, nutrition
As any fitness buff worth his salt will tell you, exercise is only half the battle when
it comes to getting your body into peak shape.
For Jordan to get into literal fighting condition, he had to cut his food intake almost entirely
to lean proteins, carbs, green veggies, and protein shakes.
According to Jordan:
"I stripped down my diet completely."
"I worked out two to three times a day, six days a week.
And if you do that consistently for about 10 months, your body will change."
Don't worry, though, because on the seventh day, Jordan rested, as Caillet allowed him
to cheat on his diet once a week with
"French toast in the morning, Philly cheesesteaks in the afternoon, [and] pizza."
Yum!
Self-motivation is key
Jordan told Vice Sports he credits growing up in Newark with a supportive family as the
inspiration for his work ethic and aspirations.
"my dad used to tell me all the time, 'you gotta be serious about something.'"
That motivation has been absolutely key to Jordan's physical transformation, pushing
him to heavier weights and longer runs.
No matter how painful the workout, Jordan can persevere thanks to that motivation.
"I told myself at a young age that I was gonna sacrifice, I used to run myself into the ground
to like pure exhaustion because then I'd feel like I oh I deserve it."
Also providing motivation?
The results.
Jordan told Men's Fitness,
"You know, at first [...], you're hurting."
"When you start bench-pressing 225 pounds 10 times and it ain't nothing, and then you
start giving hugs to girls and they're, like, feeling you up a little…"
"So I learned to love it when I started seeing results."
Method Training
Being in fighting shape from Creed definitely helped Jordan transition to the training for
Black Panther, where he used a new technique called "Method Training."
The technique adapts Jordan's workouts to match what his character would do to stay
in shape, helped alleviate the dreaded workout boredom.
Those workouts included a comprehensive weapons training program in addition to learning various
forms of martial arts.
For Jordan, it was a real departure from the boxing-focused training of Creed.
Jordan told Collider,
"This one is more martial arts, using a lot of your legs, so I'm picking up different
fighting styles.
Also a lot of guns too, the weapons training is a totally different muscle."
No rest for the wickedly fit
While any normal person might want to take a break from nonstop workout routines and
just eat some pizza and drink some beer, Jordan is jumping right back into training for Creed
2.
The story will follow Adonis Creed fighting the son of Ivan Drago, the man who killed
Apollo Creed in the ring in Rocky IV.
Professional boxer Florian Munteanu will be playing the son of Ivan Drago, and at 6 foot
4 and 245 pounds, Jordan has his work cut out for him.
But if there's one thing his training has proven so far, it's that Jordan isn't afraid
of a little hard work.
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