When Chris Evans signed on to play Captain America, he knew it would change his life. Not only did the role make him a global superstar, but it also required him to change the way he lived – specifically his daily diet and training.
With the Avengers still on the rise in the box office, let’s break down the Chris Evans Captain America workout routine.
Chris Evans’ Transformation Into the Marvel Hero
Evans is six-feet-tall with a mesomorph body type. This means that he is naturally strong and athletic, has low body fat, and it’s not as difficult for him to gain muscular strength.
But similar to Tom Hardy, he can also gain fat relatively easy, so he has to be careful with his calorie intake.
The mesomorph body type responds incredibly well to weight training, and can see gains very quickly.
When Evans landed the role of Steve Rogers in the first Captain America movie, he didn’t have a lot of fat on his body, but he wasn’t incredibly muscular either.
So, to transform into a superhero and get that perfect V-shape, he turned to personal trainer Simon Waterson to help him build the perfect muscle base so he could achieve the ideal core, get chiseled abs, and build muscle in his chest, arms, back, and shoulders.
Similar to Thor’s workout routine and diet plan, this transformation was going to take a full fitness program to build Evans into a larger than life character.
What you’ll find is that some of the techniques in Chris Evan’s workout routine don’t work well for average guys like you and me. That’s why I recommend a very specific kind of program to anyone that wants to build a powerful, muscular body that resembles a blockbuster superhero.
More on that later…
He also worked on the lower body, and has muscle definition in his legs and butt. But, they’re definitely overshadowed by his upper body.
With Waterson’s guidance and a special Captain America workout, Evans ended up gaining about twelve pounds of muscle and decreasing his body fat by about 4 percent.
It took two-hour workouts five days a week and a high-calorie diet with the right combination of macros to make sure that he gained muscle instead of fat.
Evans explained…
The preparation for Captain America was really about me bulking up looks wise, so it was a lot of weight training so I could get big. The training regimen was based on heavyweight/low-rep sets of the classic compound lifts. I did stuff like squats, deadlifts, shoulder press, incline bench presses, weighted dips, and chin-ups.
But, he didn’t stop there. After the first movie, he continued to train and eat the right food so he could take his physique to a new level for the sequels.
Chris Evans’ Diet
Waterson told Men’s Fitness all about Evans diet and nutrition, and he said that the biggest challenge for Evans was eating enough to put on muscle, but avoiding storing any excess energy as fat. So, he relied on low-carb protein shakes in between meals.
Remember, Evans isn’t a naturally large guy, so getting bigger meant putting in the work. Contrast this with Ben Affleck when he prepared for Batman and already weighed 198 pounds pre-shoot.
Bulking up takes a calorie surplus, but if you consume too much it can result in added fat storage. The trick was to make sure Evans fell into that sweet spot to get lean muscle gains (a goal we also saw in Rob Mcelhenney’s training program).
This is an example of what Evans ate on a normal workout day:
- Breakfast – Chicken sausage with zucchini and egg whites
- Pre-Workout – Apples and almonds
- Post-Workout – 5g BCAA and a protein shake
- Lunch – Two plain chicken breasts with Romaine lettuce, medium-sized pitas, and low-fat yogurt
- Afternoon Snack – 5g BCAA and a protein shake
- Dinner – Two plain chicken breasts, peppers, and brown rice
Evans diet is rich in protein and balanced with fruits, veggies, and complex carbs. His biggest source of protein was chicken and fish.
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Captain America Body Workout
For five days a week, Evans hit the gym and focused on working out two muscle groups each training session. To challenge himself, he also added some gymnastic and plyometrics.
He avoided intense cardio workouts, but like Chadwick Boseman’s Black Panther workout, he did include circuits because he wanted to add muscle mass without gaining excessive fat.
On Saturdays, he would give his body a rest, and then do cardio circuits on Sunday.
Here’s the Chris Evans workout routine that caused him to transform into Captain America.
Chris Evans Chest Workout (and Shoulders)
2 sets with 5 reps of each of the following:
- Standing Military Press
- Incline Bench Barbell Press Medium-Grip
- Kettlebell Thrusters
- Barbell Bench Press Close-Grip
- Incline Push-Ups
- Standing Military Press with kneeling
- Weighted Pushups
Chris Evans Arm Workout
3 sets with 8 reps of each of the following:
- Weighted Bench Dips
- One-arm Kettlebell Row
- Incline Hammer Curls
- Overhead Cable Curls
- Incline Inner Biceps Curl
- EZ-Bar Curl
Chris Evans Legs and Back Workout
- 1 set of Barbell Squats
2 sets with 10 reps of each of the following:
- Front Box Jump
- Barbell Deadlift
- Chin-Ups
- One-Arm Kettlebell Swings
- Kettlebell Sumo High Pulls
- Pullups
Waterson would have Evans do abs every other day as a cool down. He would switch up the exercises so he could work different sections of the abs group.
Chris Evans Abs Workout
3 sets with 30 reps of each of the following:
- Ab Crunches
- Upper Body Crunches
- Reverse Crunches
- Double Crunches
- Bicycle Crunches
How To Build Your Own Captain America Body
The single most important factor in getting positive results from strength training is progressive overload. Your body is smart and capable of adapting to its environment. So, the only way your body will change and improve is for you to force it.
- Progressive overload is forcing your body to adapt to a tension that is above what it has previously experienced. So, if you lift the same weights for the same number of reps and never change, your body will not change or improve. You’ll just maintain.
- But, if you increase the weight, or increase the reps, the only choice your body will have is to adapt and improve so it can perform the task. This is what leads to more muscle, more strength, and less fat. This is how you get results.
- Also, like Evans, you’ll want to keep your cardio to a minimum if you want to build your own Captain America body.
- And, with your diet, you have to eat above your maintenance calories if you want to bulk up. But, there’s a calorie sweet spot you need to hit to prevent putting on too much body fat.
This is especially important if you’re a mesomorph like Evans.
If all of this sounds a little confusing (it used to be more me too), why not follow a step-by-step program that teaches you exactly what you need to do to build a body that resembles that of a powerful action hero?
If that sounds good to you, check out this Superhero Bulking Program to discover just how easy it is to make your own superhero transformation.
Build a Superhero Body Without Training Like One
Getting in shape isn't easy. But this program gives you a real-life approach to building a leaner, more muscular body without obsessing over fitness 24/7.
