After his wife, Emily V. Gordon, shared her husband’s new physique, the internet went crazy. The picture showed Nanjiani relaxing at home playing video games with their cat sleeping on his lap. Nanjiani later shared another shirtless image on his account and by then, fans couldn’t stop talking about it. However, the real story lay with Nanjiani’s admission that it wouldn’t have been possible for him to attain a superhero’s body without lots of money and professional help.

“I would not have been able to do this if I didn’t have a full year with the best trainers and nutritionists paid for by the biggest studio in the world,” he wrote on Instagram. “I’m glad I look like this, but I also understand why I never did before. It would have been impossible without these resources and time.”

Kumail exercised with five personal trainers, and ate healthy meals prepared by a dedicated catering company for nine months.

Henry Cavill 

He was the Duke of Suffolk in The Tudors, played Superman in several movies and is currently starring in The Witcher.

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British hunk Henry Cavill reportedly bulked up so much for his Netflix series The Witcher that his herculean muscles wore down his leather costumes. “It’s not the weight that matters, it’s the workout”, the 36-year-old actor posted on Instagram.

During an appearance on The Graham Norton Show to promote his latest series, Henry confessed that he dehydrated himself for three days to appear even more muscular for his shirtless scene.

Chris Hemsworth 

For his role as Thor, the god of thunder, Australian heartthrob, Chris Hemsworth, had to gain 10kg of muscle with the help of heavyweight training, bodybuilding and lots of protein. His impressive physical transformation has been Google’s most-searched, as Chris does resemble the Norse idol.

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Hemsworth trained six times a week and to help him achieve this physique, he had to eat six times a day and consume vast quantities of eggs, steak, fish, vegetables, avocado and brown rice, as he told the fitness publication Train Magazine.

Chris Pratt

Our favourite funny guy, Chris Pratt, made history in 2013 after he revealed his ripped body on Instagram for Marvel’s galactic film, Guardians of the Galaxy.

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For the role, Chris had to lose 31kg over six months while training hard with personal trainer, Duffy Gaver and nutritionist Phil Goglia who gave him a diet that included lean meat, fruit, vegetables and nuts. Alcohol was banned. Pratt’s gym routine comprised bodybuilding exercises, cardio circuits, swimming, mountain biking and tons of weightlifting.

Ben Affleck

While actor Ben Affleck is not someone you would describe as being in bad shape, the Gone Girl star amped it up when he played Batman in 2016.

Training with Walter Norton Jnr, Ben Affleck reportedly focused on two sets of routines: muscle-building workouts and fat-burning that showed off his big muscles and his lean body as the Caped Crusader.

Chris Evans

Chris Evans had to undergo intense workout session to get superhero-fit. He had to gain 15kg of pure muscle, which he achieved by doing weightlifting exercises and circuit training and avoiding cardio. Evans told Body Building.com that he trained hard in the gym for three months, doing heavy weights, squats, shoulder-presses and chin-ups.

Evans needed to bulk up to play Captain America, while also ensuring he was agile. For this, Evans added gymnastics to a gruelling workout that included acrobatics, spinning and jumping where he trained for hours, six days a week. For nutrition, Evans consumed a high-protein diet of meat and vegetables.

Christian Bale

British actor Christian Bale decided to bulk up when he was signed to play Bruce Wayne in The Dark Knight trilogy, making him the first actor to undergo such an intense fitness regimen for the role (followed by Ben Affleck). Bale had to lost 30kg before this role for his skin-and-bones character in The Machinist, only to have to then pack on the muscle for Batman – not an easy feat.

For his role as Batman, the Academy Award winner embraced a high-protein diet along with myriad exercises, including hard-core exercises, plyometrics and running – a lot of running, he told Train Mag.

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