Photo Credits: 2nd lead
The first thing you'll notice about the Dark Knight in , the second installation of the newly re-launched DC Universe, is that he's gotten bigger in stature, muscle, and armor. The next? He's also badder — gruff, aggressive, and the kind of character willing to square up to the Man of Steel. Given this, you might miss the third fact, that Batman — or at least Ben Affleck, the actor playing him — is also, well, middle-aged.
Affleck accomplished the proper frame with help from longtime trainer Walter Norton Jr. There are benefits of having history with a trainer. “Seven years ago the body bounced back a little quicker,” says Norton. “Like any relationship, it’s all about communication and honesty. I can tell him a little something that he doesn’t want to hear and that’s fine. We’re not tiptoeing around issues. So we just addressed it right at the top. We did what we needed to do to take care of him and protect his joints.”
But that does not mean that Affleck had it easy. Every week Norton created a new regime for him with specific goals, targeting each muscle group relentlessly, and with that mentality they found themselves even overachieving their target numbers. In context, Affleck weighed in at 198 pounds for , and for he went all the way to 231 at 7.7 percent body fat, which they ended up “dialing back” to 225. “This time around we did more bodybuilding. We wanted him to be strong but we wanted to add mass. The volume was higher. We lived on a lot of the basics, 80-pound dumbbell curls, heavy-loaded carries, and farmers walks with 60-pound weights.”
Affleck needed that extra strength on set: The batsuit weighs some 75 pounds. There are also plenty of workout scenes making their way into the final cut, showing off his ripped physique, like one he shot in the Batcave doing pull-ups, while strapped to an additional 50 pounds in weight. “If I had to say there were any critical exercises that we always went back to, it was pull-ups and chin-ups.”
“We wanted him to look like a thick MMA heavyweight puncher,” explains Norton. “This is a Bruce Wayne who’s been lifting for 20 years, hitting that heavyweight bag, and working out every day in the manor. I’ll just say that if you lined up all the Batmans before Ben and stood them next to each other, they’re not 6’4”, and they don’t weigh 225 pounds. He’s in a whole other class.”
