How Michael B. Jordan was built
We do a session with his “Creed” trainer.
BURBANK, Calif. – If you consider Michael B. Jordan’s physique a statuesque work of art, Corey Calliet is the genius sculptor behind the masterpiece.
Celebrity trainer Calliet is the artist who has made Jordan’s pectorals ripple just so, veins pop just a bit, deltoids round just enough, to appear, as Calliet says, “more aesthetically pleasing” than ever before.
“Michael didn’t have muscles when we met, so I’ve been watching it grow,” Calliet says as we prepare to work out together at MusclePharm gym. “As his career grew, his muscles grew.”
What, exactly, does Calliet’s craftmanship entail? We find out in a training session ahead of “Creed II” (in theaters Wednesday), the sequel to the 2015 “Rocky” spinoff, which shows off a body even more ripped than the one Calliet engineered for “Black Panther” and the first “Creed.” Here’s what we learned:
Jordan trained six or seven days a week.
“Because we’re so busy, when we have time to train, we train,” Calliet says.
For “Creed II,” that meant Jordan trained for four months before the start of filming, then continued to work out four to nine hours a day, spaced throughout his day. Calliet says the hardest part was keeping Jordan in top condition for several days of filming.
“Bodybuilders, we work six to eight months for about three minutes (of competition),” Calliet says. “He kept the condition for 21 days,”
He ate a half-dozen protein-rich meals a day.
Jordan typically started his day with “turkey bacon, maybe egg whites and potatoes, in a bowl,” Calliet says. “For some reason, he likes stuff in a bowl. ... That’s just his thing.”
Two hours later, Jordan would eat more protein: chicken and/or steak and fish.
In addition to those meals, Jordan ate four or five more times throughout the day, combining protein, cups of vegetables, and fats such as avocado and nuts. “It all depended on how the body was,” Calliet says.
Weights, plyometrics, ab work and agony.
I do an abridged version of Jordan’s workout, which starts out gentle and then picks up after Calliet determines I’m stronger than I look. (I take that as a compliment.)
After taking me through a rowing machine, mountain climbers, tricep dips and bicep curls, it’s time for “the hardest thing you do the whole time,” as Calliet describes the sled. “If your trainer gets this, run very fast away.”
With the warning that even Jordan despises pushing the sled – a device that looks like a dog sled with two handles and a place to add weight – I sprint all out with the thing around a cone. And proceed to see stars.
Once I recover, there’s more: bicep curls, jump squats, leg lifts, barbell squats, walking push-ups and a multitude of ab exercises he promises are the last.
“You know, trainers can’t count,” Calliet teases. “We failed at math.”
Jordan’s cheat meal: Whataburger.
“I think cheat meals are great,” Calliet says. “When you’re eating clean so long, the body’s going to plateau. Give yourself something you deserve. It speeds your metabolism – it spikes it.”
Jordan’s cheat meal of choice is Whataburger. “He may get a double cheeseburger, something with bacon. He wants a piece of everything,” Calliet says. “He’s a foodie; he loves to eat. And when you say eat, he eats a lot.”
There were daily shirtless assessments.
Part of Calliet’s job involves taking a close, daily look at Jordan’s naked torso.
“Literally, every morning, I’m like, ‘Take your shirt off,’ “Calliet says. “I’m (seeing if ) his shoulders get wide, I’m looking at the thinness of his skin (the thinner the better, to emphasize his muscles and veins), I’m looking at how his back tightens up. I’m trying to see where I see a flaw so I can fix it.”
I ask for my (clothed) muscle assessment from Calliet.
His take: “You look like you’re not strong.” He recommends building out my shoulders, doing exercises to increase the size of my quads, growing my hamstrings and working on my abs.
“You want a triangle,” he explains, noting that my straight, boyish figure would look stronger if I had a smaller waist. “A lot of people are shaped boxy, (so) you have to make things move.”
I comment that he sounds like an artist at work. He likes the comparison.
“Remember, I’m the painter and you’re the picture.”