Superman Workout: Henry Cavill Fat-Burning Routine

During the cutting phase of his routine, the Superman workout lasts for 1 hour, 6 days a week. Henry Cavill did this workout for six weeks, leading up to the shirtless scenes in Man of Steel. The Superman workout was created by the trainer famous for many superhero workouts, Mark Twight.

Superman Fat-Burning Workout Routine

The Superman fat-burning workout routine helped Henry Cavill get ripped for Man of Steel. The Superman workout consisted of the:

• Part 1 – Prep Phase
• Part 2 – Mass Building Phase
• Part 3 – Cutting (Fat-Burning) Phase

Here’s Week 1 of the routine Henry Cavill used to get in shape for the (Part 3 – Cutting Phase) of his superhero workout.

Monday Workout

The Monday Superman workout is a strength workout. The core exercises (Back Squat, DB Press, Deadlift) in today’s workout push you to do as many reps as you can in 60 seconds. After that, rest for 90 seconds. Then, repeat the set 2 more times.

Tuesday Workout

The Tuesday Superman workout is a recovery/endurance workout. Henry Cavill used these workouts to promote a fat burning metabolism. He used a low-carb diet to intensify his weight loss.

For Tuesday, do a 60 minute, easy pace (low-intensity) cardio workout. Choose from one of your favorite aerobic activities, including:

• Jogging
• Rowing
• Swimming
• Bike Riding
• Elliptical/Treadmill

Henry Cavill used a restricted calorie diet to get his body ready to be Superman. With a low amount of glycogen in his system, he lost weight because his body had to convert fat into energy during these long bouts of exercise.

Wednesday Workout

For Wednesday, Henry Cavil uses an endurance training workout. It involves lifting, aerobic and bodyweight exercises.

When you’re done with 4 sets of the rowing sprints, rest for 2-3 minutes. Then, finish with 4 more 20 secs on/ 10 secs off sprints. Finish Wednesday’s workout by holding yourself in pushup position, arms extended, for as long as you can.

Thursday Workout

The Thursday workout is a power/endurance workout using a “Big” and “Little” routine. The 5 “55” workout is where you do 55 reps of 5 different exercises in a circuit format (meaning you do one set of each exercise in that circuit, then move right onto the next one). You end up doing 10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1 reps of each exercise total.

Do 10, then 9, then 8, then 7, etc. 6-5-4-3-2-1 reps of each, immediately moving onto the next exercise in the circuit. (Never do more than 1 set of an exercise, move onto the next one in the circuit). After the circuit is complete, rest one minute.

Then, do the circuit again (if you did 10 reps, the next round you do 9) until you’ve gone down to just one rep of each. Finally, move onto Circuit 2 and perform the same routine.

Friday Workout

The Friday Superman Workout, like Tuesday’s workout routine, is another cardio/endurance workout. Henry Cavill chiseled his way into playing Superman by using these long cardio workouts to burn fat.  Do a low-intensity 60 min (easy pace) cardio workout, choosing from:

• Jogging
• Rowing
• Swimming
• Bike Riding
• Elliptical/Treadmill

Saturday Workout

The Saturday workout involves strength and endurance (HIIT) cardio. Start with the typical warm up of cardio/leg exercises, then work your way toward doing heavy deadlifts. Finish with a rowing challenge, where you do 6 intervals of 30 secs rowing/resting.

Rowing is a great exercise because it is one of the safest things you can do in a gym. Actors can’t afford to get hurt when there is a film to shoot. So, their trainers like them to use the rowing machine as the best way to burn fat. In your gym, you can use an alternate piece of equipment, as long as the intensity/intervals are the same.

See The Superman Workout Week 2: Cutting Phase.

Henry Cavill Weight Gain for Superman

Henry Cavill started at 160 lbs., and gained 10 pounds during the prep phase (then weighed 170 lbs.). Cavill then gained another 10 pounds during the Mass Gain phase (got up to 180 lbs.) The goal of the cutting phase of the Superman workout was now fat-burning, while maintaining the 20 pounds of muscle he had gained.

After 6 months of mass-gaining, and eating a higher amount of calories, the cutting phase is the opposite. You reduce calories and need to channel your inner-superhero, as Mark Twight says:

Attention and discipline now will produce the desired outcome in six weeks.

It’s important to notice how you’re feeling, and implement your training based on that. This is especially true of workouts where you’re on low calories. You want to eat most of your calories before and after the workout. This will help to drive you through the exercise, and recover afterwards.

Superman Workout Schedule

According to trainer Mark Twight of Gym Jones, the Superman workout schedule for each week of Henry Cavill’s cutting/leaning phase includes:

• 2 Heavy Lifting Days (For Muscle Growth)
• 2 Endurance Days (For Fat Burning)
• 2 Low-Intensity Recovery Days (For Fat Burning)

On the heavy lifting days, Mark Twight says

Heavy lifting should favor intensity over volume, so the sets will be in the range of 6×2 @90%, 5×3 @80-85%, etc.

The endurance days still use weight training, but with fat burning in mind. Endurance days involve higher reps, along with HIIT cardio challenges. Henry Cavill transformed into Superman with these hybrid workouts, taking lifting and endurance in mind.

The low-intensity recovery days are when you do 60 minutes of cardio. Low-intensity cardio day drives signals in your body to increase the need to burn more fat for energy. Effectively, this increases your metabolism.

For more, read about the Superman diet, and see Week 2 of the Superman workout routine, during his cutting phase.

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