Fitness
Aaron Taylor-Johnson Shares How He Got Beastly for ‘Kraven the Hunter’
THE MAKING OF a movie comic book hero (or anti-hero) is a difficult, demanding process. The cycle is now well-established over almost two decades into Hollywood’s muscle industrial complex: An actor is cast, then undergoes a total lifestyle shift to build the type of physique that might live up to fans’ wildest dreams of what their favorite character could look like in flesh and blood. Aaron Taylor-Johnson isn’t new to this world—having played cult-hero Kick-Ass in his early career, then his short stint in the MCU as Quicksilver—but his most recent turn for Kraven the Hunter challenged the actor to undergo a transformation that took his body to beastly levels to play the iconic Spider-Man antagonist.
Taylor-Johnson’s goals for the production were lofty. He set out to gain a serious amount muscle in six months. That’s the type of mission even a superhero wouldn’t scoff at—so the actor brought in experts to help him along the way. He tapped Nate Schmit to handle his diet, then brought in trainer David Kingsbury to help fine-tune his workouts to build up the Kraven physique. (To learn more about how Kingsbury helped Taylor-Johnson in the gym and beyond, check out our in-depth interview for those Hollywood muscle secrets).
Men’s Health got an exclusive look at the details of the program directly from Taylor-Johnson and his team to learn more about what it took to build up the Kraven body ahead of the film’s release on December 13.
Aaron Taylor-Johnson’s Kraven the Hunter Nutrition
To eat like the world’s greatest hunter, Schmit built Taylor-Johnson’s diet around real food and stripped away the extras, like sugar. “The idea was, we have this monumental task of eating this much food—how can we do it, and keep you functional?” Schmit says. That meant getting protein from real sources in any way possible, from bone broth and gelatin gummies and marshmallows to steaks. Then, they added carbs for plenty of fuel to burn.
Aaron Taylor-Johnson’s Kraven the Hunter Upper Body Workout
After the diet had run for three months, it was time to kick the training into gear. Taylor-Johnson began working with Kingsbury to refine the accumulated mass into the svelte, slightly-scary Kraven shred to drop body fat. “From my perspective, it was the perfect starting point because this person’s already got muscle mass,” the trainer says. “Building quality muscle takes months and years. Dropping body fat takes weeks.”
The workouts were generally organized by upper-lower body splits, with four to five training sessions per week. Kingsbury challenged Taylor-Johnson to take on each exercise for 2 to 3 sets of 6 to 10 reps, pushing to failure with one rep left in reserve. Each session, Taylor-Johnson’s focus was to do one more rep than he did last time to drive muscle growth.
Bench Press
2 to 3 sets of 6 to 10 reps
Lat Pulldown
2 to 3 sets of 6 to 10 reps
Seated Row
2 to 3 sets of 6 to 10 reps
Cable Preacher Biceps Curl
2 to 3 sets of 6 to 10 reps
Single-Arm Triceps Cable Pushdown
2 to 3 sets of 6 to 10 reps
Seated Dumbbell Shoulder Press
2 to 3 sets of 6 to 10 reps
Aaron Taylor-Johnson’s Kraven the Hunter Stunt Prep
The weight room was only part of Taylor-Johnson’s physical prep to portray the animalistic Kraven. He needed to be able to move convincingly as an apex predator onscreen, too. “I was doing a lot of parkour movements and quadruped movements—meaning I run on my hands and feet,” the actor says.
That meant Kingsbury had to add some movement-specific exercises to the workouts. The trainer also had to make sure that Taylor-Johnson kept up with his preparation outside the gym too; whenever there was a physically-demanding maneuver during the shoot, there was an extensive warmup before every take.
The extra work paid off. Taylor-Johnson’s physique communicates the character’s lethality, all lean muscle without the bulk that would slow lesser anti-heroes down. All accomplished, according to the actor, with no major issues. “We got through an entire shoot with a ton of action with not one injury,” he says. “I thought that was amazing.”
SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (Dakota News Now) – Finding time to work out as a mom with young kids can be a challenge in itself, especially when you’re new to an area and don’t know where to start. However, a new fitness option strolled into Sioux Falls today. iStroll offers moms the chance to work out and meet other moms all while their kids can play or even join alongside them.
iStroll is a national organization that has more than 35 locations in the country but this is the first time one opened in South Dakota. It’s a full body workout that incorporates dumbbells, body weight, and jogging strollers when the weather’s nice.
“I found iStroll in Oklahoma and fell in love,” said Kelsi Supek who started the affiliate in Sioux Falls. “We made friends. It became our entire social network. The kids loved it and then we moved to Arizona during COVID. And all the moms were stuck at home. They were inside with our kids and lonely, honestly. And we were like, why can’t we start an iStroll and be out at the parks with the kids every day? And it took off.”
When Supek moved to Sioux Falls, she was encouraged by her family to start an affiliate and own it herself.
“Gym daycares did not work out for my children,” said Supek. “I would get 10 minutes into a class and then I’d have that person trying to knock outside the yoga studio going, Can I have Kelsey and her kids screaming in daycare? And it just didn’t work for us. So at iStroll they could be with me or I could be breastfeeding the baby as I was teaching in class.”
Classes are planned to continue each Wednesday and Friday at We Rock the Spectrum and First Presbyterian Church. For a full schedule for January and February, you can look at their Facebook. The first class is also free and memberships are for the whole family.
“Letting the kids see you work out is, it’s similar to homeschooling where like, you know, how are they going to love working out if they don’t see you working out,” said Kelly Jardeleza, a stay-at-home mom of three kids. “Whereas at other gyms they put them in a room and they don’t get to watch you. And how are you going to inspire them if they’re not watching you do it?”
Copyright 2026 Dakota News Now. All rights reserved.
There’s no bad time to take a more active interest in your health, but the new year, for lots of us, feels like a fresh start. Maybe you’re planning to sign up for a 10k or finally have a go at bouldering, eat a bit better or learn to swing a kettlebell. Maybe you want to keep up with your grandkids — or just be a little bit more physically prepared for whatever life throws at you.
To help things along, Guardian Live invites you to a special event with public health expert Devi Sridhar, journalist and author Mariella Frostrup, and health and fitness columnist Joel Snape. They’ll be joining the Guardian’s Today in Focus presenter Annie Kelly to discuss simple, actionable ways to stay fit and healthy as you move through the second half of life: whether that means staying strong and mobile or stressing less and sleeping better.
To make the whole event as helpful as possible, we’d love to hear from you about what you find most challenging — or confusing — when it comes to health and exercise. What should you actually be eating, and how are you going to find the time to make it? What sort of exercise is best, and how often should you be doing it? Is Pilates worth the effort — and should we really all be drinking mugfuls of piping hot creatine?
Whether your question is about exercise, eating, or general wellness, post it below and we’ll put a selection to our panel on the night.
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Jan 6 (Reuters) – The U.S. Food and Drug Administration said on Tuesday that it will limit regulation of wearable devices and software designed to support healthy lifestyles, issuing new guidance to clarify its regulatory approach.
The guidance, along with comments from FDA Commissioner Marty Makary, adds to existing policy that classifies low-risk wellness tools, such as fitness apps and activity trackers that encourage exercise, as non-medical devices exempt from stringent regulation, provided they do not make claims related to disease diagnosis or treatment.
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“We have to promote these products and at the same time, just guard against major safety concerns,” Makary said in an interview with Fox Business about artificial intelligence software such as ChatGPT, adding that “if people are looking up a symptom on an AI-based tool, let’s have that conversation when they come in to see their doctor or do a virtual visit.”
“We want to let companies know, with very clear guidance, that if their device or software is simply providing information, they can do that without FDA regulation,” Makary told Fox Business.
“The only stipulation is if they make claims of something being medical grade … like blood pressure measurement. We don’t want people changing their medicines based on something that’s just a screening tool or an estimate of a physiologic parameter.”
The agency also sent out a broader warning to consumers about the risks posed by unauthorized devices.
Reporting by Puyaan Singh in Bengaluru; Editing by Peter Henderson and Sherry Jacob-Phillips
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
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