‘Man Of Steel’ Trainer Mark Twight Talks About Training Henry Cavill

Mark Twight is becoming a household name in Hollywood training the likes of Henry Cavill, Russell Crowe and the cast of another Zack Snyder film, 300.

After retiring from mountain climbing in 2000, Twight and his wife opened a training center called Gym Jones. He started training military units and later he began working with professional athletes, football players, and actors.

He is the man behind Henry Cavill’s transformation to play Superman. After the release of Man of Steel, he was interviewed by Bodybuilding.com and discussed in detail the challenges of working with actors in this setting.

He says that part of the job in training Henry for the role was to put “more” there. He had to keep his conditioning for six months from the start of shooting until the last day, about 122 days in all. He had to look the same, and that wasn’t easy to achieve.

Mark Twight explains that during a movie project they are in control of the diet, because otherwise the training doesn’t matter. In terms of supplements, Henry took multivitamins, essential fatty acids, probiotics for digestion, and magnesium to help him sleep.

The trainer says the caloric intake was excessive. That meant “we used protein powder in his post-workout shake, but the main caloric intake came from coconut milk, heavy cream, yogurt, fruit, and stuff like that.”

Twight says of Henry Cavill, “Some of the numbers he put up, especially for a guy whose full-time job is being in front of the camera, were shocking. But because he physically overcame these incredible challenges, and he changed his body composition of his own will, it changed Henry’s attitude and his bearing.”

After being done with Man of Steel , Twight went straight to train the cast members of 300: Rise of an Empire for six months.

What do you think of the process Mark Twight used to train Henry Cavill for Man of Steel?