Brie Larson Captain Marvel Training: How She Became a Real-Life Superhero
No one said acting was easy, and winning an Oscar proves how talented an actress is, but it is a different ballgame fully preparing for the workload and the mental gymnastics as an actress stepping into the shoes of the first female lead of a Marvel Stalone film and the first female superhero in the mcu. She had no experience with this sort of thing. She had no passion, and no love for the gym. It was a lot of crying and watching the world fall apart while scrolling through her core book reading sessions and taking the path of least resistance. It all changed when she walked the road of grit, resilience, and determination for the first and incredible nine months of her life in training that would not just win you an Oscar, but change your life completely, She was going to prove it to the world, to herself, and everyone watching in just nine months and no time at all was going to change how everyone saw her and the world.
She had to get started and she was going to get started with the best. It was time to meet the best celebrity trainer and hero Jason walsh the founder of Rise Nation and the star trainer for hero Matt Damon, her trainer was not going to if she wanted to win that Oscar, and she had a small amount of time to get ready to have that Oscar plan ready to mes an a lot of effort was going to have to be deployed. She had nine months to get ready for the role that was going to change her life, and she had a lot prepared. He had a lot of knowledge and experience and more than that, she had all the determination. She was going to put in all the effort, she was willing to break all limits. He had a plan, and she had the heart. He was sure it was going to work out for everyone involved.
Larson has also stated that she was inspired by Blunt's performance in Edge Of Tomorrow and sought to gain some insight from her. In an interview she said to LA Times, “I realized that to completely understand who Captain Marvel was, I had to learn how to use my body as an instrument that could do incredibly amazing things.”
Training Program: Nine Months
Over the course of the nine months, Larson did not skip a single week of training with Walsh, who she worked with five days a week. Walsh’s description of Larson’s training was extremely unique, as it is not often she sees someone work as hard as Larson did. This was not the average “Hollywood” training program, where they “lift a little bit of weight, and then there are a lot of rest days.” She worked her ass off to get into shape for this movie. And for that dedication, Walsh Larson the best compliment a trainer can give someone.
In the beginning, the Captain Marvel work was interspersed with training for the large ensemble picture, Avengers: End Game. During this time, Walsh divided training into three months of functional training - maintenance workouts. Upon ending the filming of Avengers, however, Walsh had to ramp up the training. To quote Walsh, “When she got back from Avengers, it was game on.”
Training Focus: Real Strength vs Aesthetic Superhero Strong
All training sessions were built with a real, functional strength approach to avoid a superficial and purely aesthetic physique. Walsh always had mobility work, and warmup, activation exercises to get the body flowing before movement. The training focused on primary strength movement: squats, bilateral and unilateral exercises, hinge movements and a lot of posterior chain work for the hips and overall posterior chain.
After the primary lifts, Walsh focused on circuits of secondary exercises to make sure every muscle was fired up and all the joints stayed intact. The focus here was on real movement strength and the ability to do the physical work. Def for stunts and fight scenes.
Larson's Transformation and the Five Exercises That Built Her Superhero Physique.
Brie Larson was also able to construct the base of her superhero physique through the incorporation of these five exercises into her training:
One of the foundations of Larson's training program was hip thrusts. Larson was able to accomplish an incredible 400-pound hip thrust. This thrust is a massive testament to her strength gaining in the posterior chain, the glutes, and the hamstrings, and because of that strength, Larson was able to support her spine in all the action sequences.
Instead of doing standard push-ups and progressing to using chains as resistance, Larson did sets of push-ups that built upper body strength. Those Instagram posts of Larson showcase a wide variety of push-ups. Push-ups that are so challenging that most people would struggle to even complete one.
3. Deadlifts
Her program also incorporated 215-pound deadlifts which brought and developed strength all around the body as well as ensuring that Larson was taught the right way to hinge at the hip so that her back wouldn’t be damaged while she was doing her stunt work.
Because of these single leg exercises, she was able to build imbalanced leg strength, while also gaining a lot of control and coordination which is essential for all the quick and diverse movements in the choreography.
Another thing that Larson was able to achieve was doing pull-ups and she did them with good form. She also showed her upper body strength was immense as she was able to do one-arm pull-ups.
As a bonus, Walsh had Larson demonstrate real-life functional strength by pushing his Jeep.
Overcoming Mental and Physical Boundaries
This transformation went far beyond just the physical. Larson reflects on her journey going far beyond what she believed was actually possible for her body. For her, the experience of doing lifts she never thought possible was a revelation of her inner strength – 400 pounds hip thrust, 200 pounds deadlift, and pushing a car.
Walsh confessed that there were difficult times. “There were some moments where I made her cry in the gym,” he explained to Men’s Journal, “but because of how dedicated she was, she was able to push through that.” The mental toughness Larson developed became just as important as the physical for her to capture the essence of Captain Marvel.
Recovery and Nutrition
Training at this intensity for this long and doing this much stunt work requires serious attention to recovery and the risks involved. Injuries of any nature can severely impact production.
Proper recovery entails proper nutrition, manual stretching after workouts, soft tissue work, hydration, supplementation, and sleep (Walsh). Larson understood this and described her meal intake during workouts to be ravenous, knowing the importance of fuel for recovery and progress.
The aim of the training was not merely aesthetic but to be strong enough to take falls while filming and get up ready for the next take.
Walsh had been using a progressive overload training method for the last nine months and Larson was always encouraged to lift heavier weights and perform harder variations of the exercises. This method reduces the likelihood of plateaus and enables consistent improvement.
As Larson came to find, progress often feels non-linear. You may be putting in a lot of work without seeing results until one day, it all falls into place and you're able to do something you couldn't do before. This was an important lesson, that sometimes progress takes time, but it is definitely worth the effort, and this lesson extends beyond the gym.
Making the Impossible Possible
As an actress, Larson had never been an athlete, let alone one with any noticeable talent. It’s here that Larson’s story is most inspiring. An actress with an intellectual focus and a penchant for avoiding any physical activity, Larson decided one day that she wanted to be a trailblazer, an influencer.
Confronted with the great challenge of self-sculpting an athlete, the screen star worked with a coach to imbibe the discipline and self-control that she exhibited to the screen. She was, and for many years still is, a trailblazer, and a self-made one at that.
Her account has and is still inspiring quite a number of women who aim to gain confidence and strength in the gym. The account has helped and continues to help women gain the confidence to challenge the societal norms of strength training, and for that she is an unsung heroine.
Hurdles for Those Starting Out
Whether you are reflective of yourself in Larson or not, one thing is for sure, Larson’s Captain Marvel training is a testament to self-sculpting that anyone can look at to create a transformation in their physical fitness and sculpting training:
Best Buy Advice: Larson worked alongside one of the best to ensure she kept to the right form, trained to avoid injury and kept progressing.
Maintaining Momentum: With training sustained over nine months, she was able to maintain a training style that resulted in change and kept the training from becoming a fad.
Progress Over A Challenge: A challenge in training is the best way to ensure training improves and the body keeps changing to fit the challenge.Focus on multiple joint exercises: Movements such as deadlifts, squats, and thrusts build strength across multiple muscles and joints.
Prioritize correct recovery: Recovery, sleep and proper nutrition are as important as the workout.
Accept the challenge: Greater physical strength brings mental strength and confidence that can benefit every aspect of life.
The Impact that Remains
After the release of Captain Marvel, Larson kept training and taking on new challenges. It was evident that the discipline and love for challenges that Larson developed during the training of Captain Marvel became a important and lasting part of life, as she has maintained her strength training and even incorporated dance.
Her journey has been inspirational as she changed from a person who would get winded from walking up an incline, to an athlete who can do complex strength moves like 400 pound hip thrusts and single pull-ups. With commitment, right guidance and positive mindset, Larson has shown that a great transformation is not just a dream. There is always more to you than you think. You can do the work to find it.