If Tom Hardy took prohormones or other bulking supplements during his training days for bulked-up movie roles, he would explode.
Most known in the bodybuilding community for his ability to gain incredible size and muscle with simple food and traditional exercises, Tom Hardy continues to wow us with how easy he makes the bodybuilding process seem. While his most prominent role that required him to gain muscle and weight is Bane in The Dark Knight Rises (2012), Hardy also had to tear up his muscles and put on the pounds for Warrior (2011) and Bronson (2008), a less popular movie by the director who made Drive (2011).
Here, we’re going to take a look at Hardy’s impressive ability to put on weight and muscle as he chooses like a smart and calculated professional bodybuilder. We’ll break down his diet for each movie role mentioned as well as his exercise routine.
Bronson: Gaining Muscle with “Jail Cell Exercises” While Gaining Weight with Pizza, Ice Cream and Coca-Cola
Hardy’s role as Charles Bronson isn’t the only role he prepared for by doing traditional exercises and eating simple bodybuilding food. However, to date, it’s the only role that required him to eat things like pizza and ice cream. The role didn’t require an early version of Schwarzenegger. Instead, it required a guy who looked like a badass and cared just enough about his body and being the biggest guy on the cell block.
To complement his massive intake of chicken, rice, broccoli and junk food, Hardy did “jail cell exercises” – press-ups, pull-ups, sit-ups, etc. This strange combo allowed him to successfully add 35 pounds to his 5’9″ frame in only six weeks.
According to Hardy:
“For Bronson, I put on about 7lbs a week — with no steroids. In the end I’d put on about 2 and a half stone [35 pounds] by eating chicken and rice, which was my staple diet throughout the day. Then I’d have a pizza, Haagen-Dazs and Coca-Cola. So not good stuff, but I had to put weight on. I did very non-specific exercises such as press-ups, push-ups, abs work and resistance training.”
Warrior: Omitting the Pizza and Ice Cream, Keeping the Chicken and Broccoli, and Introducing Traditional Exercises at Odd Times of the Day
As you can tell from his front and back shot, it’d be a miracle if Hardy went on eating the junk he did for Bronson for his role as Tommy Conlon in Warrior. Really, for this role, the only thing he ate was chicken and broccoli. He kept up an extremely boring and consistent diet while preparing for the role, and, most likely, while filming.
According to Hardy:
“It was a carb-depleted diet with 5-6 meals of protein separated throughout the day. A lot of chicken and broccoli and not much else. Eating in this way ensures your body will not store fat, but it’s extremely tough to keep it up while also following a grueling workout routine.”
As for his workout routine, he did a lot of MMA workouts including boxing, kickboxing and muay thai. He also followed an unorthodox workout regimen in addition to his MMA training that allowed him to bulk up fast. To do this, he followed the direction of his trainer, simply referred to as Pnut.
According to Pnut:
“I call my philosophy ‘signaling.’ Throughout the day you need to send constant signals to your body, so that it adapts in the direction you point it in. It’s better to do 10 press-ups every hour than 100 in a single burst. If you do things often enough, your body adapts for the task you set it, and you evolve.”
Pnut shares Hardy’s Warrior workout here.
The Dark Knight Rises: Finally Getting a Little Help from Makeup and the Costume Department
What Hardy did to gain 30 pounds in three months for his role as Bane is mostly based on speculation. But there’s no denying that in The Dark Knight Rises a little forgiveness for too much or too little weight was afforded by makeup, the costume department, and digital refinements.
If you look at pictures of Hardy on set when the film isn’t rolling, it’s almost like looking at a different person. Which isn’t to say he doesn’t look like a total badass – he just doesn’t appear to have the same tone and size he does in the movie.
Hardy told MSN in an interview that Bane was a kind of middle ground between Bronson and Tommy Conlon. He referred to Bronson as fat, Conlon as pure muscle, and indicated that Bane was a hybrid version of the two.
He also told MSN the following about the chicken and broccoli that became like brother and sister to him.
“By the end of ‘Warrior,’ I went onto ‘Inception,’ which was really nice to wear silk pants and a silk shirt and suntan and lie down and sleep a lot. I didn’t have to get beaten up anymore. Now, Chris [director of Inception and The Dark Knight Rises] has asked me to come back and go through the whole thing again of the chicken and broccoli. We’ve been banished to more chicken and broccoli and even more weights.”
Now, it’s pretty obvious that Hardy has the genes – and a lot of drive – that more readily allow him to gain weight and put on serious muscle. If your body makes it harder for you to do this, or you just need a boost, Black Diamond Supplements recommends LG Sciences best bulking prohormones. For some aspiring bodybuilders, these are supplements that allow you to add a high spike to plateaus and achieve the gains you want.
As always, if you ever have any questions about prohormones or any other bodybuilding supplements, please leave a message in the comments.
Cheers to chicken, broccoli, and Tom Hardy!
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