While critics and audiences are somewhat divided on Man of Steel, the new Superman film, there’s one thing we can all agree on – Henry Cavill definitely looked the part.
However, seeing the iconic superhero on the silver-screen portrayed so closely to his physically over-the-top comic-book counterpart made me think of a shamelessly nerdy question:
If Superman’s power comes from the sun, does he even need big muscles?
Recall what was said in the movie by Superman’s dad – not the one played by Kevin Costner (Robin Hood), but rather his alien-dad, Jor El, played by Russell Crowe (…the other Robin Hood).
Superman’s space-dad says that Earth’s sun is younger than that of Superman’s home planet. Because of this, Superman’s cells will ‘drink up’ our sun’s radiation, making him considerably stronger.
So it seems that Superman’s power is not so dependant on the size of his muscles, but rather on how much sunlight he’s getting. Whether he’s 150 lbs or 450 lbs is more or less irrelevant; if he gets his daily dose of sunshine, he’ll still be faster than a speeding bullet and more powerful than a locomotive.
So why exactly did Superman put on so much muscle then?
Does he just work out to impress Lois Lane? Does Superman do P90X?
How would the big blue boyscout even be able to put on so much muscle anyways? We know how Henry Cavill got this big, but with Superman’s super strength, the same workout would not have the same effect on his body. After all, muscles need to be pushed to their limits in order for hypertrophy to take place. There’s not a gym on Earth that would have kind of dumbbells that Superman needs; he’d have to lift entire buildings to put enough strain on his muscles. Maybe this is why he’s always so eager to catch falling airplanes and the like: he needs to get a workout in whenever he can.
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