Here's How Mike Colter Got Jacked To Play Luke Cage
On Luke Cage, Mike Colter brought one of Marvel's most legendary heroes to life. Among other abilities, Cage has superhuman strength, so any live-action representation of the character would require the actor playing him to look the part. Like Chris Evans and Chris Hemsworth, who respectively play Marvel icons Captain America and Thor, Coulter had to bulk up and change his body in order to look like a superhero. Throughout the show, which was canceled before its time, Colter's physique is apparent in every episode because he usually wears tight shirts that highlight his muscular chest.
Many fans often wonder how these actors transform their bodies for these roles. Through intense workout regimens, plenty of actors, from Hugh Jackman to Henry Cavill, have drastically altered their appearance so that they look like superheroes in the real world. A recent article by Laura Williams Bustos of Health Digest explores the stars' various fitness programs. As it turns out, Colter's methods significantly differed from some of his peers.
Mike Colter made the most of the workouts he could get
Williams Bustos's article highlights Colter's interview with Vinnie Mancuso of Men's Health, in which the Luke Cage star revealed that he couldn't train as much as he wanted to. "I'm basically training when I can," he said via Mancuso. "Ideally, I like to train hard. But that's not my life." Instead, as Colter described, he maximized the workout time that he had. In a high-intensity workout routine that targeted most of the body, Colter said he did a rotation of lunges, shoulders, leg press, bench press, and squats. He emphasized the importance of building a strong core because, on the show, Cage had to literally throw his adversaries around like they were sacks of potatoes (Hopefully, fans will get to see Cage do that again some day).
He also emphasized the importance of other elements of his routine that didn't take place in the gym. He pointed to stretching, dieting and sleeping as three crucial factors of his ability to successfully train. Each one of them allowed him to properly fuel his body and rest his muscles, two processes that are often overlooked in popular workout regimens.
Unlike other actors who play superheroes, Colter didn't devote practically his entire life to bulking up. Instead, he worked out as much as he could and prioritized a healthy balance of fitness and nutrition while he still had to follow the hectic schedule of a TV star.