Erik Killmonger is a very powerful character in Marvel’s Black Panther. The supervillain, played by Michael B. Jordan, along with his dominating spirit and his pain, was just as important to the story line as the evolution of T’Challa. While there’s generally an antagonist in films (spoiler alert coming if you haven’t seen the film) – we didn’t find Killmonger to be so much of a villain after all.
Corey Calliet is the man behind Michael B. Jordan’s gains, and arguably another person who contributed the overwhelming success of the movie. The celebrity trainer, seen now on Revenge Body on E! helped Jordan bulk up, as well as help other stars like Angela Bassett, be at peak physical condition for Black Panther. Calliet has worked with Jordan in the past, most notably for Creed and the Fantastic Four reboot.

Photo: Men’s Fitness
“When you see him, you need to be scared, you need to be intimidated. We don’t want the nice, young-looking Michael,” Calliet said in an interview with Men’s Health Mag. He also describes his training style to that of an artist taking a chisel to a block of marble. “I’m talking about sculpting a body, not just conditioning it to be fast…I wanted to make his shoulders look better. I needed his upper chest to pop. I needed his back to tell a story. I wanted his back to look like a globe, like a map.”
So how did Jordan get his gains?
Jordan’s Black Panther Workout
To make Calliet’s vision come to life, Jordan was doing two to three workouts and eating six meals a day. To sculpt his chest and back, Calliet had the actor going back to basics — with a lot of weight.
“[We did] a lot of old-school bench presses, lat pulldowns, deadlifts — nothing fancy, just really contracting the muscle,” Calliet says. “We lift heavy — a lot, a lot of times.”
Get more details on Calliet’s training with details with Jordan here .