Besides being a total hunk (a really handsome one, at that) and the ultra-powerful Kryptonian who’s there to save the day, Henry Cavill has also proven that he can be a total beast with a sword. While his perfectly muscular Greek-ancient-ones-like body immaculately presents him as Geralt of Rivia, what further boosts his capabilities are his incredible sword-fighting skills.
But of course, this was anything but easy to learn and channel while acting in his smash hit The Witcher series, even for someone with a well-built physique like Cavill’s. That said, one particular bicep workout especially helped him out in this tough task of his. Coupling it with some moves for core strength and shoulders, and it was just what he needed to immaculately wield that sword.
This 1 Bicep Workout Move Helped Henry Cavill with Swords
As fans must have been amazed after noticing in The Witcher, Henry Cavill is incredibly efficient when it comes to wielding a sword. This efficiency came from his one bicep workout move that “really helps with my forearms,” eventually helping him wield a remarkably heavy sword with such ease like it was all a game for him.
For an episode of the Train Like a Celebrity series by Men’s Health, the Man of Steel star discussed the same. This exercise was what they called a “dumbbell curl alternating from a static hold.” During this, the performer has to hold dumbbells in each of his hands and practice curling the arm up and down while fighting the urge to rock at the waist or lean backward.
This move especially helps out with the “sword work” by adding that “muscular endurance in the forearm,” and here’s Cavill explaining how:
That constant time under pressure, when you’re holding a sword, the first few takes are fine but when you’re into take 16 of the day and you’re doing very complex movements with your wrists, your forearm does start to die and then you’ll end up throwing swords across the room rather than making a swing.
Additionally, as his trainer and professional fitness and strength coach Dave Rienzi emphasized, this exercise is unique and helpful as “it allows us to keep the biceps under tension for a longer period of time. It allows us to get more activation out of the forearms and then also continue working on that muscular endurance that is so important for his role.”
Of course, adding that muscular endurance in the biceps helps wield the sword with much more ease, and thus, helped Cavill outstandingly perform all those exceptionally perfect action sequences in the series. But this isn’t the only move that has helped the 41-year-old actor effortlessly carry on as the perfect Geralt of Rivia over the years before leaving the role.
Henry Cavill’s Core and Shoulder Strength Workout Further Helped Him Out
While the biceps were one thing, Henry Cavill also needed to add that extra strength to his obliques and shoulders, especially for carrying out all those sword-wielding scenes. For this, The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare star had to do two specific workout moves in sets: An Oblique Static Hold for the core strength and a 3-Way Shoulder Raise for his shoulder strength.
For the Oblique Static Hold, Cavill had to extend his arms out and inward while keeping his glutes engaged and holding his core tight, allowing both his traverse abdominals and the obliques to activate at the same time. To perform this, he had to start off by holding out the arms for 30 seconds before going into extensions. This is to be done in 3 sets, with a 30-second hold per side.
Then came the shoulder strength exercise, for which he used a variation of side laterals and front raises. For this, Cavill had to start out in the traditional side lateral for the first rep before coming a little further forward for the next one, then doing a traditional front raise for the next one. This targets the medial deltoid and the anterior deltoid in one movement, allowing him the strength to move in those explosive fight sequences.
Needless to say, all of these techniques worked perfectly when it came to giving Henry Cavill all the strength and endurance he needed to lift that heavyweight sword up and swing it around all day long while embodying the most perfect real-life Geralt of Rivia in one of the most excellent live-action adaptations of The Witcher game/book series.
You can stream The Witcher on Netflix.
