{"id":585786,"date":"2026-08-31T10:24:09","date_gmt":"2026-08-31T10:24:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/585786\/"},"modified":"2026-08-31T10:24:09","modified_gmt":"2026-08-31T10:24:09","slug":"kit-connor-is-packing-on-muscle-heres-how-hes-training-ahead-of-his-x-men-debut-as-cyclops","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/585786\/","title":{"rendered":"Kit Connor Is Packing on Muscle \u2013 Here\u2019s How He’s Training Ahead of His X-Men Debut as Cyclops"},"content":{"rendered":"

Kit Connor<\/a> is no stranger to transforming his physique. The 22-year-old packed on considerable muscle during his time on Netflix’s Heartstopper, and now he has another superhero-sized role on the horizon.
<\/p>\n

Connor has been cast as Cyclops in Marvel’s upcoming X-Men reboot, joining a new generation of mutants heading to the MCU<\/a>. And while we don’t yet know exactly what his physical preparation for the role will involve, a recent gym photo suggests he’s certainly not getting any smaller.<\/p>\n

Connor had previously been tipped by some fans as a potential successor to Hugh Jackman as Wolverine<\/a>, but he’ll instead take on the role of Scott Summers, aka Cyclops.<\/p>\n

The character was previously played by James Marsden in the original X-Men films \u2013 with Marsden returning for Avengers: Doomsday \u2013 and later by Tye Sheridan in the younger iteration of the franchise.<\/p>\n

We’ve seen Connor putting in serious gym work before, but the actor has now shown off an increasingly muscular physique in a new mirror shot from the gym, with his arms in particular looking considerably bigger.<\/p>\n

Connor has been training with personal trainer Mark Humphreys, although there’s currently no suggestion that his latest progress is specifically part of his preparation to play Cyclops.<\/p>\n

How Kit Connor Builds Muscle<\/p>\n

While we don’t yet know how Connor’s training might change ahead of X-Men, which is currently slated for release in May 2027, he has previously given Men’s Health an insight into the workouts behind his physique.<\/p>\n

‘I normally train with dumbbells, so I haven’t done a bench press<\/a> in quite a while,’ he told our colleagues at Men’s Health US.<\/p>\n

‘I usually do 3 sets of 12 reps for most exercises, maybe 4,’ Connor explained.<\/p>\n

His training split has evolved over time, too. ‘I used to do push, pull, legs, but I was only training legs once a week… Then I decided to switch to shoulders and arms, chest and back, and finally legs.’<\/p>\n

Exactly what Cyclops will demand of him remains to be seen. But judging by Connor’s recent progress, Marvel certainly isn’t starting with a blank canvas.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Kit Connor is no stranger to transforming his physique. The 22-year-old packed on considerable muscle during his time…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":585787,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[9174,156,409,111,139,69],"class_list":["post-585786","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-movies","tag-discover","tag-entertainment","tag-movies","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/585786","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=585786"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/585786\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/585787"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=585786"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=585786"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=585786"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}