The Batman Workout That Turned Christian Bale Into The Dark Knight

As a man, I'm flesh and blood. I can be ignored. I can be destroyed. But as a symbol, as a symbol, I can be incorruptible. I can be everlasting. Just like Bruce Wayne, Christian Bale had to get broken down before he could rise as Batman. For the film The Mechanist, shot just 6 months before Batman Begins, Christian Bale wanted to look as thin and malnourished as possible to portray his version of a clinically insane insomniac. To accomplish this, Bale followed every 40-year-old soccer mom's favorite diet and only ate a can of tuna and a single apple each day, losing an equally concerning and impressive 63 lbs in just over 4 months. Once filming for the Mechanist wrapped, Bale only had 6 months to revive his starved body for his first outing as the Dark Knight. Batman Began's director, Christopher Nolan, was understandably a bit concerned that Bale couldn't pull it off. But he clearly did not understand what kind of man Bale was. So when Nolan told Bale he needed to get as big as possible to fill out the bat suit, Bale embarked on the most reckless dirty bulk in Hollywood history since the filming of Superersize Me. Over the next 6 months, Bale lifted heavy almost every day, skipped cardio completely, and ate as much as he could of whatever he could get his hands on. So pretty much he adopted the lifestyle of the average American and just added some heavy weightlifting. He was fully focused on putting size back onto his frame, but let's just say it wasn't exactly how Batman himself would have walked. Bale later said, "I overdid it because I was enjoying gorging. I was ignoring advice about taking it slow because my stomach had shrunk and I should just go with soups. I was straight into pizza and ice cream and eating five meals in a sitting." Now, all of this really worked, but it definitely came at a cost. Bale ended up putting on close to 100 lb, but along with the muscle he packed back on, he also put on a significant amount of fat. It was only later when he shifted gears, cleaned up his diet, and followed a more calculated plan that he was able to build the final physique we see in Batman Begins. And don't worry, I'll break down that routine and give you a full training plan based on Bale's Batman training at the end of the video so that