People

Henry Cavill Shares His Mental Health Philosophy: 'Only Worry About the Things You Can Control'

Henry Cavill has never been afraid of a challenge.

The British actor, known for his ripped physique in Man of Steel, spends hours training for his physically demanding roles. But the 38-year-old says he didn't discover his love for the gym until later in life. "When I was in school I played sports," he tells PEOPLE. "I wasn't the most spectacular physical specimen back then, but I definitely had drive."

That drive helped him land his first major physical role in Immortals. "I was doing a lot of martial arts and bodyweight exercises because it was apt for the character," he says. "And the first time I really moved into lifting weights properly was for Man of Steel."

From there, says Cavill, his fitness journey took shape. "It's evolved and developed in its own way depending on the characters that I've played or what I've had access to — the facilities, where I've wanted to go with my body and what I've wanted to do."

These days, he says, he likes to maintain a baseline level of fitness that can be adjusted depending on his work. "I will do a lot of body building work for an aesthetic look for a project or a role," he says, adding that he focuses on different body parts on different days.

Cavill's fitness came to a halt in December after injuring his hamstring while working on The Witcher. While some people suffer a mental blow when injured, the Justice League star chose not to see it as a setback.

"When I look back, I realize, yes, it was a hard time," he says. "I think one of the skills I've picked up over the years is just forging ahead regardless of difficulty or hard work or trials and tribulations. So when the hamstring injury came, I tried to look at the silver lining. It was like, 'Ok. I was working insane hours and it was exhausting and I now physically can't work because I'm on crutches.' So I was focusing more on taking the time off and going, how can I best heal myself?"

He explains further. "When it comes to my mental health, [I] focus on what I can control and work on that. And that gives me something to work towards rather than something to deal with or work through or manage my life through."

With the injury now behind him and no immediate roles coming up, Cavill is working on sprinting. "I want to build a better engine," says Cavill, who has partnered with MuscleTech supplement company. "One of the things my physical therapy for my hamstring showed me was that I have a lot of capacity in my engine but I have not accessed it. And it's something which I really want to build upon."

Nutrition plays a big role in this endeavor.

"My diet at the moment is more maintenance because I don't have any shirtless scenes coming up," he explains, before listing his daily intake:

"Breakfast is a scoop and a half of [MuscleTech's] 100-percent grass-fed whey protein with a cup and a half of oats and berries blended with water, plus a two-egg omelette with two turkey rashers and 4 ounces of beef filet."

"Three hours later I'll have 6 ounces of chicken breast with white rice, and three hours after that, another 6 ounces of chicken breast with brown rice. Three hours after that I'll have 5 ounces of filet of beef with sweet potato." Before bed, he'll have another protein shake.

He also allows himself one cheat meal a week. "It all depends on location and what I'm feeling. One of the great things about cheat meals is that you'll probably be thinking about it for a week and once you get there, it'll be an excited order of a pizza or Indian food or it will be a Sunday roast which I'll cook to make an event out of it."

Cavill admits that mental health plays a huge role in his overall wellness.

"I've been dabbling in stoicism. I like some of the core tenets: Don't let that what you can't control affect you, don't let it affect your mental state. Only worry about the things that you can control."

"We have all the necessary ingredients within us to become whatever we wish to become," says Cavill. "We have that strength, we have that resilience. And it's just about keying into those necessary ingredients and then utilizing them to intentionally create a physical self as well."

https://people.com/health/henry-cavill-shares-his-mental-health-philosophy/

Insider

4 high-protein meals Henry Cavill swears by for sculpted, toned abs

Cavill's trainer instructs him to eat white rice or white potatoes when he needs quick energy before training, and brown rice or sweet potatoes when he needs slow releasing energy post exercise.

Rienzi changes Cavill's workouts depending on the role and the goal, but when it comes to building defined abs and a strong core, there's one move he focuses on: planks.

He does a variety of planks, including standard ones, stability ball planks, planks with shoulder taps, and side planks, he said.

While he puts in the work to build muscle in the gym, Cavill said it's his diet that keeps his abs visible.

"You can have the most extraordinary abs in the world, but if you're not lean enough, you can't see them," Cavill said. "But to make particularly aesthetic abs or a strong core, then yes, planks have worked for me."

When prepping for a new role, Cavill sends Rienzi progress photos, and they'll tweak the workout plan and diet accordingly.

A small home gym allows Cavill to fit workouts in first thing in the morning.

Cavill is currently preparing for a role that requires a lot of stunt work and fighting, so his training is centered on interval sprints, bodybuilding, and fighting.

At other times, hypertrophy or muscle-building may be the goal, so he might do a mix of muscle growth and strength-focused sessions.

https://bit.ly/3yGlyqF

So you can eat white rice and white potatoes. I’d expect sweet potatoes to give you an energy boost quicker because it’s sweet.

@AnnaB said:

So you can eat white rice and white potatoes. I’d expect sweet potatoes to give you an energy boost quicker because it’s sweet.

According to Eating Well, sweet potatoes are full of slowly digested carbohydrates for sustained energy. Sweet potatoes are also lower on the glycemic index than white potatoes. That means that sweet potatoes will make the blood glucose rise more gradually than white potatoes.

According to Very Well Fit, athletes and weightlifters eat white rice as a primary carbohydrate source for quick energy and glycogen replenishment. White rice ranks high on the glycemic index. That means that it will make the blood glucose rise quickly. Athletes and lifters recognize the high glycemic value of white rice to provide quick fuel for hard workouts and facilitate muscle recovery. The goal of the athlete and lifter is supplying adequate amounts of macronutrients to fuel extreme training and replenish severely depleted glycogen stores.

Unlike brown rice, white rice doesn’t come with negative drawbacks of potential gastrointestinal (GI) issues, allergy symptoms, and blocking the ability to absorb micronutrients. Brown rice and other whole grains contain phytic acid (phytate). Phytic acid is an anti-nutrient binding to essential minerals like iron, zinc, calcium, and magnesium preventing our body from absorbing them.

Celeb Well

Henry Cavill Reveals Secrets to Staying Strong With Exact Workout

Read on to see his 8 essential tips.

1. His Diet Is Extremely Regimented (Henry splits his eating up into five meals a day, supplementing his food intake with shakes and supplements.)
2. He Cheats Just Once a Week (His go-to? Pizza. Other faves include fish and chips if he is in the UK or a Sunday roast.)
3. He Prioritizes Sleep (between six and eight)
4. His Workouts Are Intense (Henry shies away from heavy lifting, despite the fact that he once famously lifted deadlift 495 pounds. "I don't really have a huge benefit towards doing a max bench press," he admits. "It can be handy for some stuff, but I'm never going to use it." Instead, his workouts are focused on doing high reps of lower weights, or hypertrophy, which involves pumping the muscles with "as much blood as possible," in order to put enough pressure on them. "So you're doing micro tears and you're creating size in the muscle and not necessarily huge amounts of strength.")
5. Leg Day Is His Favorite (And Least) Workout ("There's something enormously rewarding about finishing a leg day. There's something terrifying about going into it… if I'm feeling pretty tired and I just want to end up leaving the gym looking good, then there's nothing better than shoulder and arms day.")
6. He Does Cardio ("When I'm coming up to a shirtless scene there will be, I would say 15 minutes to 20 minutes of cardio in the morning and then again another 20 minutes after a workout and 20 minutes before bed." Recently he has been adding interval sprints into his morning training.)
7. How He Looks His Most Ripped While Filming ("Before a show, before I shoot a scene and throughout the day, I will do what we call trying to build a pump and then maintain it," he explains. "And so that'll be using bands and dumbbells and weights just enough to fill the muscles with blood, to make them look their best and their largest, the most round." He will continue to train and maintain throughout the day, "which can be exhausting, essentially doing like an eight hour workout," he admits.)
8. He Takes These Supplements ("I have my basic line of supplements, my regular stack as we call it," he reveals. "At the moment I stick to 100% grass fed whey protein, and I have that as part of my breakfast, my post-workout shake and my pre bed shake. I also take a pack of multivitamins every day. I use Shatter Pre-workout if I'm feeling particularly tired before workouts. And I also use Amino Build during my workout to make sure that I'm getting the most out of it.")

https://celebwell.com/news-henry-cavill-reveals-secrets-to-staying-fit/

@AnnaB said:

Insider

4 high-protein meals Henry Cavill swears by for sculpted, toned abs

Rienzi changes Cavill's workouts depending on the role and the goal, but when it comes to building defined abs and a strong core, there's one move he focuses on: planks.

He does a variety of planks, including standard ones, stability ball planks, planks with shoulder taps, and side planks, he said.

While he puts in the work to build muscle in the gym, Cavill said it's his diet that keeps his abs visible.

So much talk about abs, but HC doesn’t show his abs. Again, he has robbed of an opportunity to see him shirtless. It’s official, HC’s punishing me.

@AnnaB said:

So you can eat white rice and white potatoes.

HC can eat that, not skinny girls. Stick with brown rice and sweet potatoes… or no potatoes.

@Blue-Rose said:

So much talk about abs, but HC doesn’t show his abs.

Maybe next month.

H. Cavill

First time cooking pizza on the Egg this weekend! I even risked it all and made my own dough last night. First one tasted ok, but looks like Kal made it while drunk, so I ended up cranking the heat to 370-400C (700-750F) and making the bases suuuper thin, which may have just done the trick! My topping placement still needs work, though. Swipe for pizzas 1,2&3

https://www.instagram.com/p/CS1yG92INWq/

Tom and Lorenzo

Something I have always believed in, and seen throughout my travels and experiences, is that strength is far more than muscular power, or cardiovascular fitness. It’s something that comes from within,” said Cavill. “Not only does MuscleTech understand this, but they preach it. Redefining strength is their by-word for accessibility for all, and cultivation of ourselves, no matter our starting point. This is a brand for everyone who is willing to explore the depths of their inner fortitude and see where it may take them. My partnership with them is an exciting opportunity, and I am looking forward to sharing our ideas with the world.”

Adweek

Chief Creative Director Henry Cavill on His Confidence in MuscleTech's Rebrand

The action star wants to celebrate fitness in all body types

Insider

Henry Cavill said he was told he wasn't lean enough to play James Bond

At the time, Cavill was about age 21.

"It was his tough love way of saying, 'Look, mate, you're in a Bond screen test. Next time you come to a screen test, really focus hard on making sure you lean up if it's for something like Bond.' And I wasn't by any means chubby, but I was probably overweight for taking my shirt off on camera," Cavill, 38, said.

Cavill said he wishes he had more time to train and is sometimes so "knackered" he takes two scoops of MuscleTech Shatter pre-workout supplement before hitting the gym.

Indian Express

Henry Cavill opens up on his diet, fitness and mental health: ‘I focus on what I can control’

With many conversations around mental health happening around the world today, it becomes important when a celebrity joins in, and talks about their experiences, conveying the message that everyone deals with these issues, and that you are not alone, no matter where in the world you find yourself to be.

GQ

So the age-old question for you then: What do you mix your whey protein powder with?
Water.

Water!?
Yeah, I know. Once you’ve had milk with your protein shake, it’s really hard to go back. You’re like, “Hold on a second, this doesn’t taste like dessert anymore!”

Exactly. That’s the whole point of the workout!
MuscleTech has done a really good job with that. Especially with the grass-fed whey protein, which are the ones which I'm taking every day. Day in, day out. They have two flavors, chocolate and vanilla. The chocolate one is genuinely amazing, even with water. And I will just put less water depending on how dessert-like I want it to taste. It's got a really good sort of a mint taste, which makes it taste like real chocolate rather than typical artificial-protein-shake chocolate. And the vanilla one is really, really good for when I'm having berries in my shake in the morning because a chocolate oatmeal berry shake for breakfast before doing interval sprints can be a little too much sometimes.

HC

More sweat, more sunshine, more MuscleTech. more to come…
@MuscleTech

https://www.instagram.com/p/CS8j1r1Ixny/

@Blue-Rose said:

So much talk about abs, but HC doesn’t show his abs. Again, he has robbed of an opportunity to see him shirtless. It’s official, HC’s punishing me.

It’s official, you always complain about something.

@Triksy said:

https://www.instagram.com/p/CS1yG92INWq/

We went from thirst trap to nerd trap. A very adorable nerd with that cap.

H. Cavill

Happy International Dog Day, everyone! For those that dont't know, this is Kal. He's an American Akita, 7 years old, and behaves like a puppy half the time and a wise old man the other half.

https://www.instagram.com/p/CTB8FNFI0oD/

H. Cavill

https://ibb.co/2W5nFvX

@Triksy said:

H. Cavill

https://ibb.co/2W5nFvX

He looks hotter moving.

https://www.instagram.com/p/CTeRFPVDlta/

@Triksy said:

GQ

Which one is more awful, when you must eat something that you don’t like or when can’t eat something that you like?

HC: I kind of like sweet potato fries because I'm not a huge fan of sweet potatoes.

Well, he doesn’t say he’s not a fan of sweet potato. That leaves room for him to kind of like sweet potato fries. It’d have been awful if he hated sweet potato fries or baked. He must eat that everyday.

I’m not a fan of baked potato – white or sweet. I love white potato fries. I could eat sweet potato fries once in a while.

@Sue-Yin said:

It’s official, you always complain about something.

If HC thinks because he’s a Ken doll and I adore him I’ll accept whatever he feels like throwing at me, he got another thing coming. I’m very critical.

@Blue-Rose said:

HC: I kind of like sweet potato fries because I'm not a huge fan of sweet potatoes.

I shouldn’t question someone whose first language is English, but that sentence looks weird to me. I’m aware that there’s a difference when you say something and when you write it down. But I feel like HC should have said he’s not a huge fan of sweet potatoes but he kind of like sweet potato fries. Anyway…

H. Cavill

Strength Redefined!

The fruits of our labours, and hopefully the seeds of yours! 

If you want to begin your journey, fuel it, or reinforce the machine you have already built, head on over to our home at MuscleTech.com (link in my bio). There you will find training tips, articles, and, of course, exceptional supplements.

Stay Strong, my friends.

@MuscleTech

https://www.instagram.com/p/CUH0ZeplG9B/

@Triksy said:

H. Cavill

Strength Redefined!

@MuscleTech

https://www.instagram.com/p/CUH0ZeplG9B/

OMG, he’s delicious!

That grass-fed vanilla deluxe Whey better be as delicious as HC looks or those muscle geeks and gym rats from MTech will hear from me and it won’t be pretty.

That said, I may not have complains about the ad, but I do about the “storied” Thirst Trap. I almost missed the trap!

If the trap will stay up for only 24 hours, then it should be posted in the weekend so I have time to get trapped and then try to wiggle my way out of it all day. HC doesn’t seem aware that some of his fans got stuff to do. You don’t get degrees and doctorates by lusting after a sweaty 6’1” Ken doll.

That’s my whining of the day. I take nothing back.

H. Cavill

The amazing, the wonderful, the electric and the enigmatic Kristofer Hivju. Kristofer was extraordinarily brave for season 2 of the Witcher and decided to play his character of Nivellen with zero make up or visual effects, as you can see above. Kristofer, we are all so proud.

https://www.instagram.com/p/CUQf3qpITpr/

A little over the shoulder of Geralt's mentor, master and guide. Vesemir. Kim very much brought a special energy to this character. Our scenes together were some of my favourites.

https://www.instagram.com/p/CUQf91BIPX_/