This Actor Actually Trains Like a Superhero

Stephen Amell is that rare actor who actually trains like a superhero.

By Jill Fanslau

Actors playing superheroes are fit. In order to wear those unforgiving costumes, they have to be.

But thanks to digital effects and stunt men, they can concentrate more on their acting chops than trying to attain their characters' super-human strengths.

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Then there's Stephen Amell, star of the hit TV show Arrow. The guy moves like a superhero onscreen and offscreen. Watching him train, you might believe he really is the hooded vigilante who leaps on and off moving semi-trailer trucks and scales tall sections of scaffolding in the show's fictional crime-ridden city. He soars, dives, climbs, flips, and runs his way through the gym. And like Arrow, Amell makes it look easy.

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"He's a fitness freak," says BJ Gaddour, a Men's Health fitness advisor. "He has cat-like reflexes, complete mastery of his own body weight, and a high level of conditioning that allow him to flow seamlessly between different movement skills. To do what he's doing takes world-class athleticism."