DESPITE IT BEING more than a decade since American Sniper was released, Bradley Cooper recently reflected on his extreme preparation for the role of Chris Kyle while appearing on The Joe Rogan Experience. The actor detailed the training and nutrition required to bulk from 185lb (84 kg) to 238lb (108 kg) – a gain of around 24kg – in under six months.
Speaking about portraying the most lethal sniper in US military history, Cooper was clear about the limits of what he could replicate. ‘I couldn’t do anything that would ever achieve what he achieved,’ he said. ‘But it was like, what can I do to look like a master?’
Physically, Cooper shared several similarities with Kyle. He was the same age, height and shoe size. The key difference was weight. ‘I was 24kg lighter,’ Cooper explained. ‘So the first thing was 6,000 calories a day.’
Initially, he attempted to hit that intake entirely through whole foods. ‘That was a big mistake,’ he said. ‘I couldn’t get up. I remember the first week, I had an incredible chef, and I couldn’t move. I couldn’t even move my stomach.’ Eventually, Cooper split roughly half of his calories into protein shakes, but the total intake remained the same.
When pressed on what he meant by not being able to get up, Cooper clarified that his body simply couldn’t process that volume of food, leaving him in significant pain and discomfort.
Training was equally intense. Cooper worked out twice a day under the guidance of celebrity trainer Jason Walsh, with the sole focus on building strength. ‘I had three rest days. No cardio. It was all strength training, and it was all focused around deadlifting,’ he said.
His weekly structure followed a demanding split. ‘Monday was 5:30am and then again at 4:30pm or 3:30pm. Monday, Tuesday, rest Wednesday. Thursday, Friday, rest Saturday and Sunday.’ Alongside frequent deadlift sessions, Cooper spent considerable time training his neck and shoulders to ensure he filled out the frame on camera.
Cooper was also keen to stress that the transformation was achieved without performance-enhancing drugs. ‘Cancer’s in my family. I’ve had skin cancer and I’m terrified of anything like that,’ he said. ‘So I wasn’t going to do that.’
In terms of supplementation, however, creatine played a role – and still does. Cooper shared that it remains part of his routine today, even outside of movie prep. ‘I’m on this push-up thread with a bunch of dads at my kids’ school. We do 100 push-ups a day, and if you don’t, you have to pay $10 into a pool,’ he explained. ‘When we get to 800, we go to Chinatown and have a meal with the money.’
More recently, Cooper said the group increased the target to 150 push-ups a day after he started supplementing with creatine. He also noted that watching a YouTube video helped him realise his push-up technique needed work, and creatine supplementation made the higher volume more manageable.
