Quick Superhero Workout Results?
Superheroes are all the craze these days. From the Fantastic Four to the Avengers to countless other badass movies, the spotlight is on these beastly kickass characters. So naturally, we want to look like them. Who wouldn’t want tree-trunk arms like Thor? Or be cut as Hell like Wolverine? Well, can we get that in no time flat like the actors via a superhero workout?
Getting results from the superhero workout…
If you want to have your favorite superhero’s physique then naturally you gravitate to the workouts they do. Most of the time these are shown in our favorite magazines and depict how they went into full beast mode in only 4 weeks. But can we as the Average Joes & Janes get the same results from the same program at the same time?
We talked to a physician (who wished to remain anonymous) who has been in the thick of the celebs to get the lowdown on the superhero workout!
Results in 3 or 4 weeks – that true? Hit us with the truth!
It’s very difficult to make really significant changes in 3 to 4 weeks – period!
A lot of the movie stars get to be movie stars because they worked their asses off a million times harder than anybody ever would expect them to and they can achieve levels of intensity in both nutrition and exercise that an average person can’t.
This is their job, so when they’re training for 4 weeks that’s all they are doing. So, they’re sleeping, probably having all their meals cooked for them, they’re working out with trainers.
Plus, you can do a lot of things on the screen that can’t be done in real life like making your abs pop up a little bit more. Yeah and then there are the drugs.
So how do supplements come into play?
Well, there are supplements like protein, amino acids…etc. they’re helpful but then there are drugs the average person won’t have access to in order to make that sort of transformation.
When you look at the [superhero] workout, they would lead to horrible over-training and injury for a person who’s not being helped [by supplements/drugs].
Like testosterone – it’s generally thought of as something that makes you bigger and stronger but it’s got a really big recovery property. Whenever it would take somebody who is not on a Testosterone Replacement Therapy regimen maybe a week to recover or more, with it you take 2 days [to recover].
What could be achieved in maybe 4 or 5 months from an average person’s standpoint is compressed down into 4 weeks by using hormones for recovery?
When you’re following these programs you don’t really know what they are doing because what they are actually doing compared to what they tell the magazines is totally different.
You can restrict calories to a point where it causes major weight loss. If you weren’t supplementing with testosterone there would be a significant muscle loss but when using hormones you are able to maintain or build muscle in a setting with really reduced calories.
Now the average person is not going to be able to eat a thousand calories per day while they working out 3 hours a day.
Then you add things like appetite suppressants. Appetite suppressants don’t increase metabolism which is one of the misconceptions out there. And then there’s one more drug: thyroid hormone.
It’s appropriately used for some as an antidepressant medication which is very common and there is a reasonable medical rationale for giving somebody T3 or active Thyroid Hormone as a booster for the antidepressant.
But a side effect, in this case, would be an increase in metabolism and improved weight loss, so you add an appetite suppressant to some hormone replacement therapy with some Thyroid Hormone and sometimes Clenbuterol [asthma drug used to promote muscle growth] to all of this and you can get some pretty ridiculous effect over a 4 week period.
What is the most harmful thing for the average Joe?
For one, they’re not going to get results [in that time]. What’s worse is you’re going to end up injured and frustrated. Injury is the thing that I am most concerned about.
If you want to get cut in 4 weeks the first thing you need to do is accept that you can’t get cut in 4 weeks unless you’re already cut.
You probably will lose muscle mass by doing all of that cardio-based stuff. Then with the really drastic calorie reduction, you’re going to get some degree of a rebound effect which is more behavioral than metabolic. So somebody restricts [food] for 4 weeks, the first thing they’re going to do when they finish their 4-week programs is eat everything in sight.
That’s going to set up that cycle where they end up heavier than when they started without addressing any of the underlying issues in the first place.
Anything else you want to add?
It’s a protein powder, branching-chain amino acids, and Creatine that we get from the magazines.
What we don’t get in the magazine is the hormone replacement therapy, Clenbuterol, thyroid hormone and appetite suppressants.
You got like this Hollywood trainer or whoever, giving the guy thyroid hormone when it’s not medically supervised or appropriate.
I wouldn’t do that but I get people who ask for growth hormone. [They say] “I’m still tired, my skins looser now!” and they want growth hormone when there’s no rational medical reason to give somebody growth hormone in that setting.
That it?
Many common people who try to follow the routines of actors [like a superhero workout] will end up burned out, over-trained, possibly injured, and certainly disappointed.
The rules are different in Hollywood and if you try to play by the Hollywood rules you’re going to end up fu*ked!
Sounds like a good place to end our chat! Thank goodness I already have tree-trunk arms like Thor… yeah… 🙂
Wrap-Up
That’s what I’m talking about – the other side of the issue you don’t normally see. See, it’s not that we can’t perform these superhero workouts and that they might not work, it’s that many of us expect great results too quickly.
That’s not even mentioning the commitment issues that many of us have (how are your New Year’s resolutions going?).
A superhero workout may be a fun change of pace but you need to have realistic expectations.
Just keep moving forward and with time you’ll sculpt your own superhero body!
More on the physician: He’s Board Certified by the American Board of Obesity Medicine, Board Certified by the American Board of Internal Medicine, Certified as a Clinical Exercise Physiologist by the American College of Sports Medicine and Yahoo Health Advisory Board’s Expert in Weight Loss/Obesity
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