While body transformations in Hollywood are nothing new, what Chris Pratt did in 6 months to prepare for his role in Guardians of the Galaxy is pretty amazing.

Chris went from looking fat and sloppy to sporting a lean and chiseled physique. So a lot of guys are probably wondering how they can duplicate Pratt’s results.

Getting a ripped body like Chris Pratt isn’t rocket science.

It’s just a matter of eating healthy and training hard.

But there’s so much BS out there when it comes to getting a Hollywood physique, so here are 8 ‘secrets’ for getting a ripped body like Chris Pratt.

1) Set a damn deadline

As Chris said in his interview below, “…if you just bust your ass and get after it all it takes is about 6 months really. ”

I’m not saying it’ll take 6 months to have a body like Chris Pratt, it could take more, it could take less. Everyone’s begins at a different starting point. Deadlines are extremely powerful for reaching goals.

6 months is a damn good timeline to see amazing results. So set the deadline and don’t give up until you reach the end of the 6 months. Yes, I know you probably don’t have a 7-figure, multi-picture Marvel deal in the pipeline, but you have to motivate yourself somehow.

2) Lift heavy even when losing weight

Too many people make the mistake of switching from building muscle and lifting heavy to lifting 5 pound pink dumbbells for 50 reps once they start trying to lose weight.

DON’T DO THIS.

Maintaining your strength should be your #1 priority when trying to lose weight and it’s the #1 rule I teach in my program SX12.

What do you think happens when you switch from pushing 100 pound dumbbells to 10 pound lady weights? That’s right, you lose strength, lose muscle, and look like shit.

I’m not saying you need to max out on every set, but the weight needs to be challenging.

3) Don’t think extreme dieting will make you get ripped faster

Yes, there’s a time and place for extreme bouts of dieting, but in general cutting down to 500 calories per day in hopes to getting ripped faster won’t work.

If you cut your calories down too fast, you risk the chance of losing muscle, screwing up your metabolism, and losing strength in the gym.

It’s much better to play the long game – aim to only lose about 1-2 pounds per week. As you get closer to your goal weight, you should only aim to lose about 1 pound per week.

4) Bulking doesn’t mean stuffing your face every day

When guys want to bulk up, they think they need to eat a lot more food and protein. And this is generally true.

But where most guys get it wrong is that they always overdo it and eat much more than needed.

Look, you probably don’t need to eat 5000 calories per day to gain weight. For those starting out, I would use the following formula:

Daily calorie intake to gain muscle = your BW in pounds * 16-18 cals per day.

You can make incremental adjustments by adding 200 calories per week if you aren’t seeing results.

5) You can still drink beer and get ripped

Chris Pratt gave up beer in his diet, but that doesn’t mean you have to too.

1-2 beers won’t kill you, just like eating a hamburger or a slice of pizza won’t completely derail you diet. It’s all about sticking with your diet 80% of the time. So don’t freak out if you eat more ‘unhealthy’ foods every now and then.

Because if you don’t enjoy your diet, then I guarantee you won’t stick with it in the long run.

6) You can get ripped abs without doing a single crunch

In Guardians of the Galaxy, Chris Pratt has very visible and sharp abs. This is due to having a low body fat percentage, but it’s also due to having very well developed ab muscles.

So how do you get abs that looks like that?

Well you could do 1000 crunches per day and hope for the best, but that’s boring and bad for your back.

Another way to get a great set of abs without doing a single crunch is by getting stronger and really focusing on contracting your abs during exercises.

For example, when doing the squat or bent over barbell row (or any movement done standing up), you really need to contract your abs hard if you want to use perfect form. If you don’t brace your abs during these exercises, your form gets all messed up and you won’t be able to use as much weight as possible.

And the more weight you use, the harder you’ll need to contract your abs, which translates to stronger and better looking abs. So as long as you’re getting stronger on exercises that involve your abs, you will have great looking abs with doing any ‘ab’ exercises.

Make sense?

7) Don’t complicate your workout

I don’t know exactly what Chris Pratt’s workout consisted of but your workouts shouldn’t be overly complicated.

I do recommend lifting weights.

3x per week is typically enough for most guys especially if you lift intelligently like I outline in Superhero X12.

I’m not going to get into too much of the nitty gritty, but check out the links below if you want some effective workouts I’ve written in the past:

Henry Cavill workout and Daniel Craig workout.

Both programs above are great for building muscle and losing fat.

8) Train for your goal (you aren’t a power lifter)

You need to train for your goal.

Power lifters train to get strong as fuck at a handful of exercises. They don’t care about how they look or how fat they get, they only want to get really strong.

Bodybuilders train to get as big and lean as humanly possible with or without drugs.

If you’re training to look like Chris Pratt, then I’m guessing you’re training mainly for aesthetics and want a lean and muscular body that isn’t too overly muscular like a bodybuilder.

If this is you, then you need to focus on building muscle smartly. Don’t keep focusing on getting huge legs if you don’t want huge legs. If you want a more aesthetic look, then focus on broadening your shoulder by adding more side lateral raises to your routine.

And if you’re really determined to getting that lean aesthetic Chris Pratt look (I hope you are), I recommend checking out Superhero Shredding, my full-blown course on how to build a body like Chris Pratt without extreme workouts and ridiculously restrictive diets.

How do you guys plan on getting a body like Chris Pratt? Let me know in the comments.