MGM
Was anyone else sitting there watching Creed II thinking as the movie played out, “Wasn’t Adonis Creed like a light-heavyweight or something? Why is he now fighting these giant men?”
The answer to the first question would be, “Yes, he was a light-heavyweight because the guy he fought in the climax of the first Creed movie was Ricky Conlan, the light-heavyweight champion.”
And the answer to the second question is, “I truly have no idea.” Maybe it was because they thought it would be easier to buy Adonis moving up to heavyweight than it would be for the gigiantic Ivan Drago to have a son who is a light-heavyweight.
Anyway, it is what it is, and perhaps the most impressive part of the change in weight classes is the fact that Michael B. Jordan was able to pull it off.
As for how he pulled off such a body transformation, we go to the folks over at Men’s Journal who spoke with Jordan’s trainer Corey Calliet to find out.
“He’s huge,” Jordan said during promotion for the movie. “I was like what weight class are we fighting in again?”
During a pre-production meeting, Calliet remembered film director Stephen Caple Jr. also commenting on the huge size difference. “He was saying they looked like David and Goliath,” says Calliet. “I couldn’t wait to get back into the gym with Mike, because I knew that we were going to build him into another Goliath.”
Calliet set an intense four-month plan in motion, which would give Jordan the same size he built for his Black Panther character Killmonger, while making him more explosive. The regimen included complex lifting movements Calliet developed using his bodybuilding background, as well as exhaustive boxing sessions — more than they had done on the first Creed.
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Calliet also explained that in order to put on the weight needed for Jordan to play a heavyweight they focused on using dedicated circuits, focusing especially hard on the shoulders.
As anyone who has seen the film knows, it definitely paid off.
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The Creed II Workout: Shoulders & Chest
Directions: Rest 90 seconds between chest exercises and 60 seconds between shoulder exercises.
• Incline Smith Bench Press — 4 sets following this rep scheme: 15-12-12-10
• Standing Cable Flye — 3 sets following this rep scheme: 15-12-10Superset:
• Incline Dumbbell Press (lowest incline possible) — 3 sets following this rep scheme: 15-12-10
• Incline Dumbbell Flye — 3 sets following this rep scheme: 15-12-10
• Standing Barbell Shoulder Press (alternating bar position to front and back) — 4 sets following this rep scheme: 20-12-12-8
• Seated Dumbbell Lateral Raises — 3 sets following this rep scheme: 15-15-12
• Bentover Dumbbell Flyes — 3 sets following this rep scheme: 15-15-12
• Smith Machine Single-arm Shoulder Press — 3 sets (each arm) following this rep scheme: 15-12-10
To see Calliet’s recommended post-lift boxing HIIT circuit, head on over to Men’s Journal.