While body transformations in Hollywood are nothing new, what Chris Pratt did in 6 months to prepare for his role in Guardians of the Galaxy is pretty amazing.
Chris went from looking fat and sloppy to sporting a lean and chiseled physique. So a lot of guys are probably wondering how they can duplicate Pratt’s results.
Getting a ripped body like Chris Pratt isn’t rocket science.
It’s just a matter of eating healthy and training hard.
But there’s so much BS out there when it comes to getting a Hollywood physique, so here are 8 ‘secrets’ for getting a ripped body like Chris Pratt.
1) Set a damn deadline
As Chris said in his interview below, “…if you just bust your ass and get after it all it takes is about 6 months really. ”
I’m not saying it’ll take 6 months to have a body like Chris Pratt, it could take more, it could take less. Everyone’s begins at a different starting point. Deadlines are extremely powerful for reaching goals.
6 months is a damn good timeline to see amazing results. So set the deadline and don’t give up until you reach the end of the 6 months. Yes, I know you probably don’t have a 7-figure, multi-picture Marvel deal in the pipeline, but you have to motivate yourself somehow.
2) Lift heavy even when losing weight
Too many people make the mistake of switching from building muscle and lifting heavy to lifting 5 pound pink dumbbells for 50 reps once they start trying to lose weight.
DON’T DO THIS.
Maintaining your strength should be your #1 priority when trying to lose weight and it’s the #1 rule I teach in my program SX12.
What do you think happens when you switch from pushing 100 pound dumbbells to 10 pound lady weights? That’s right, you lose strength, lose muscle, and look like shit.
I’m not saying you need to max out on every set, but the weight needs to be challenging.
3) Don’t think extreme dieting will make you get ripped faster
Yes, there’s a time and place for extreme bouts of dieting, but in general cutting down to 500 calories per day in hopes to getting ripped faster won’t work.
If you cut your calories down too fast, you risk the chance of losing muscle, screwing up your metabolism, and losing strength in the gym.
It’s much better to play the long game – aim to only lose about 1-2 pounds per week. As you get closer to your goal weight, you should only aim to lose about 1 pound per week.
4) Bulking doesn’t mean stuffing your face every day
When guys want to bulk up, they think they need to eat a lot more food and protein. And this is generally true.
But where most guys get it wrong is that they always overdo it and eat much more than needed.
Look, you probably don’t need to eat 5000 calories per day to gain weight. For those starting out, I would use the following formula:
Daily calorie intake to gain muscle = your BW in pounds * 16-18 cals per day.
You can make incremental adjustments by adding 200 calories per week if you aren’t seeing results.
5) You can still drink beer and get ripped
Chris Pratt gave up beer in his diet, but that doesn’t mean you have to too.
1-2 beers won’t kill you, just like eating a hamburger or a slice of pizza won’t completely derail you diet. It’s all about sticking with your diet 80% of the time. So don’t freak out if you eat more ‘unhealthy’ foods every now and then.
Because if you don’t enjoy your diet, then I guarantee you won’t stick with it in the long run.
6) You can get ripped abs without doing a single crunch
In Guardians of the Galaxy, Chris Pratt has very visible and sharp abs. This is due to having a low body fat percentage, but it’s also due to having very well developed ab muscles.
So how do you get abs that looks like that?
Well you could do 1000 crunches per day and hope for the best, but that’s boring and bad for your back.
Another way to get a great set of abs without doing a single crunch is by getting stronger and really focusing on contracting your abs during exercises.
For example, when doing the squat or bent over barbell row (or any movement done standing up), you really need to contract your abs hard if you want to use perfect form. If you don’t brace your abs during these exercises, your form gets all messed up and you won’t be able to use as much weight as possible.
And the more weight you use, the harder you’ll need to contract your abs, which translates to stronger and better looking abs. So as long as you’re getting stronger on exercises that involve your abs, you will have great looking abs with doing any ‘ab’ exercises.
Make sense?
7) Don’t complicate your workout
I don’t know exactly what Chris Pratt’s workout consisted of but your workouts shouldn’t be overly complicated.
I do recommend lifting weights.
3x per week is typically enough for most guys especially if you lift intelligently like I outline in Superhero X12.
I’m not going to get into too much of the nitty gritty, but check out the links below if you want some effective workouts I’ve written in the past:
Henry Cavill workout and Daniel Craig workout.
Both programs above are great for building muscle and losing fat.
8) Train for your goal (you aren’t a power lifter)
You need to train for your goal.
Power lifters train to get strong as fuck at a handful of exercises. They don’t care about how they look or how fat they get, they only want to get really strong.
Bodybuilders train to get as big and lean as humanly possible with or without drugs.
If you’re training to look like Chris Pratt, then I’m guessing you’re training mainly for aesthetics and want a lean and muscular body that isn’t too overly muscular like a bodybuilder.
If this is you, then you need to focus on building muscle smartly. Don’t keep focusing on getting huge legs if you don’t want huge legs. If you want a more aesthetic look, then focus on broadening your shoulder by adding more side lateral raises to your routine.
And if you’re really determined to getting that lean aesthetic Chris Pratt look (I hope you are), I recommend checking out Superhero Shredding, my full-blown course on how to build a body like Chris Pratt without extreme workouts and ridiculously restrictive diets.
How do you guys plan on getting a body like Chris Pratt? Let me know in the comments.
That’s a good tip on having 1-2 beers isn’t going to kill your gains. When I had read before that Chris Pratt gave up drinking beer for his workout, I was like,Nope not gonna happen!
Yup. Life’s no fun without beer.
Clarify please. 1 or 2 beers a day or per week?
Never a big beer drinker myself and NEVER American, Mexican or Australian beer – YUK! TIGER BEER from Singapore is my favorite but also Asahi and Sapporo Japanese beers.
1 beer a day is fine.
Never tried Tiger but Sapporo is good.
No American beers at all? That’s depressing. The United States in recent years has developed some of the best microbreweries in the world. It’s one thing to say you don’t drink piss water (Bud Lite, Miller Lite, etc.) but to discredit a whole country is ignorant.
I think it’s misleading to tell some average guy that looks like Pratt in the before photos whose never been that fit in his life that it would be possible to achieve Pratt’s after photo look in 6 months…at least not naturally. Pratt’s been that fit and ripped many times before which makes getting from fat to fit again much easier. Can one achieve that type of leanness in 6 months? Yes, but they won’t have the muscle mass that makes him look so ripped. It would take years, especially at Pratt’s age. These secrets are great tips but, to your point, it would be a long-game — a couple years at least.
Obviously everyone begins at a different starting point. I’m not saying you’ll look exactly like Chris Pratt no matter who you are at the end of the 6 months, but there’s no reason why you can’t dramatically change the way you look at the end of 6 months.
I’ve started cycling 50 miles a day on the gym bike to loose weight. Been going for 29 days straight now without a day off. As of tomorrow though I will be adding a small weights circuit to my workout and building that up gradually as well. Chris Pratt is a huge inspiration to me so gonna try and look into what he did to change his appearance so much!
Awesome man, let me know how it goes.
Sorry it took long to reply but I completed my cycling challenge, cycled 4724 miles in total over 96 days which was the distance from Portsmouth in the UK all the way to Vancouver Canada. Raised around £400 for my two charities as well. I’m looking more and more into the Chris Pratt workout now to build up muscle mass to replace the fat i lost lol which was a total of 3 stone 5 pounds so not too shabby!
Keith, I want to like your site and your advice. What’s not to like? Your whole mission of simplifying fitness for the everyman is refreshing and admirable. But, misleading stuff like this post seriously raise red flags and go completely counter to what you say you’re all about. To say it depends on your starting point (yeah, obviously) is a sweeping generalization and ignores the title and topic of your post. If this site is for the everyman, as you say, then realistic expectations should be brought to light. Posts and hype like this filled with unrealistic expectations stifled my progress for years. In your personal opinion, if you just saw an everyman guy like that looked like Pratt (not a professional entertainer) out and about, how long do you think it would take to look like the after photos following the secrets you laid out?
I’m not sure why you’re so upset.
I specifically say early on in my post “I’m not saying it’ll take 6 months to have a body like Chris Pratt, it could take more, it could take less. Everyone’s begins at a different starting point. Deadlines are extremely powerful for reaching goals.”
This is clearly going in circles and I’m sorry. Just delete my posts or ignore them as we’re clearly coming at this from very different points of view. I just thought your whole “about you” section was really cool and down to earth and wanting to avoid hype, etc. I guess I was wrong. No big deal. I’ll move on. Not upset here. Sorry you took it that way. You don’t have to answer my question or address my points if it upsets you.
I’m not upset at all.
I just don’t understand why you’re saying my posts are filled with hype and unrealistic expectations when they’re not.
So I’m a total noob looking to get into strength training/body building and I was hoping you could recommend some home equipment. I’ve heard free weights are best, so I was thinking of getting a set of adjustable dumbbells, a barbell with some Olympic plates and a rack+bench. Do you think that would be enough or do I need more? And are there any books/guides on the best exercises and how to do them properly you might suggest? Other than basic curls, I know absolutely nothing, so any info would be great. Thanks!
Yes that would be enough, a pull up bar would help too.
Check this page for some good books https://www.fitmole.org/fitness-resources/
Great tips, but you really didn’t have to make the ‘lady weights’ comment. There are tons of women who could knock your butt sideways with a single blow. Show some respect, don’t be sexist.
I wasn’t trying to be sexist in any way. I just don’t want guys to pick up the lightest weight they can find and do 100 reps with it thinking it will get them ripped.
This is a really cool and realistic way to motivate guys (and girls) to get buff and lean up. I don’t know why other people were getting so annoyed and taking it all so literally! It’s not sexist and it’s not unrealistic. It’s some really good down to earth tips and I’m keen to take it as it was meant and implement some of them myself
Haha thank you Linda, glad you agree and found it helpful.
Think some people need to get a grip… Keith is pretty much straight up in what he’s telling you and doesn’t make any outlandish promises, one of the things I like to much about this site is theres no BS its just simple advice thats going to get you results if you put the work in.
Thanks Pete 🙂
Keith,
You have a great site, and I found this article to be very well-written. I’m 39 and in decent shape (6’/215#). I can do 20-30 mile bike rides a few times per week and curl 75-80 pounds. To begin to engage in a goal-driven workout plan like this and get measurable results, how much time would I typically need to invest each day? I’m a teacher, and we’re heading back to school soon. Keep up the good work!
Drew
Thanks Drew.
If you follow what I laid out, you would only need to invest 3-4 hours per week (3-4 workouts per week at about 60 min per workout)
thank you for your post its very clear i still dont understand why some have complained. but what kind of foods would be the right food to eat to help you gain energy and allow you to work out more and build the lean muscle you’re looking for?
THanks Conrad.
In terms of the types of food you should be eating, I don’t want to tell you that you absolutely need to eat a certain type of food. But in general try to eat just wholesome nutritious foods. Get tons of fruits and veggies, eat plenty of lean meat, have some carbs like rice and potatoes and just try to moderate the amount of super high fat foods like deep fried shit and stuff like candy.
In other words, just use some common sense 🙂
thanks dude really appreciate it.
I’m only 18 and I think the 6 month goal is very reasonable I’m 5,9 190 at 17 percent body fat and I’ve been power lifting since I was 14 and I’ve finally gotten to the point where I want that awesome body so about 4 months ago I went on a very extreme diet and dropped 70 pounds which is why I weigh 190 at 17% body fat know that I’ve timesheet my diet I’m body buildind so I can be 190 but at 10% body fat or lower and its posts like this that give me the motivation to stay strong thanks for the info
Awesome Branden, glad to help.
My issue is how do you set deadlines if you have no understanding of what is a realistic time frame for your goal, or what your goal weight or whatever should be. The number doesn’t say everything so it is incredibly difficult to discern whats fat, whats muscle and what a real ideal weight is before really focusing on muscle.
You’re right. Numbers don’t tell the whole story.
There is no ideal weight, it’s better to go off the mirror and how you look and feel more than anything else. The whole 6 month deadline thing is more so to just keep you accountable for an extended period of time.
Give me some more details about you and your goals so I can better help you.
I am 5’11, 25 and currently sitting at 179 lbs, quite a bit is still fat though I have no idea how to gauge the amount of fat I still need to lose to reduce the gut I still have, and most of all the chest fat I’ve had for over 10 years. I lost about 40 pounds over the last 2 years, having usually fluctuated between 200-220, but I have more to go.
When it comes to working out have a difficulty telling if I am working out hard enough. Sure in the moment certain lifts may feel tough, but later on in that same day or the next day I don’t feel sore at all in muscles I feel like I should. My chest in particular I can’t seem to ever feel engage in exercises. I try to do both decline, incline, and flat bench DB presses and flat flies but even still I feel like my arms are doing the work, not my chest. There was one occasion where I managed to make my chest sore, but I can’t recall what exercises I was doing to accomplish it to reproduce.it. Maybe I am just recovering too fast, but I dont have the long time consistent experience of exercising to gauge that either.
My “goal” i guess is to cut back on all the fat. I want to be lean for once. More Stephen Amell than Chris Pratt I guess. I know a lot of it can be genetics.
I know realistically I will not have the team of fitness experts and nutritionists like many of these guys, but I am a college student with access to weights in my apartment and in the gym and I just want to push as hard as is healthy and realistic. Have quite a lot free time alotted to me so I am willing to put in a large fraction of the amount of daily work these guys did to get their results as quickly as they did. I know its not all instantaneous, but still the harder I can push the quicker it will come all the same.
I’d be willing to share in e-mail photos of where I am at, but not here on a comments section.
ya man email me at [email protected]
Organized thoughts, well written, to the point. Very nice job with this article. I promise you, some people are always looking for things to take too literally, exaggerate, or take offensively. Just keep doing what you’re doing, it’s working for you. I’m 20 years old and 190 lbs, and with this (while I’m currently at work) I plan to drive to the gym tomorrow to start my 6 month journey! (:
Best Regards
– T
Awesome. Thanks Tanner.
So you say only 3 to 4 workouts a week and to be 60 minutes each. Does that include any cardio? I’m 210 and I would like to drop down to 180 lean. I’m 6 1. So should I lift heavy still or do more cardio?
Thanks!
Luke
You can just lift. Cardio isn’t necessary.