J.K. Simmons said his muscular gym photos were not part of a planned transformation for Justice League. He traced that period to losing 35 pounds for I’m Not Here, then returning to the gym with his friend and trainer Aaron Williamson, increasing his protein intake, and working to regain some of his athletic youth.
Did J.K. Simmons get ripped for Justice League?
No. Simmons said the timing of the photos was coincidental: they were taken while he was training, then circulated months later as he was associated with Justice League. Their appearance led people to assume he was building a superhero physique for the film, but Simmons said the character’s biceps were not the reason for his training. In a 2024 interview with ComicBook.com, he said he was trying to stay fit, reclaim his athletic youth, and give his wife “some eye candy.”
What Simmons said he did
He lost weight for another film
Simmons said he lost 35 pounds for I’m Not Here. That figure describes weight lost for the film, not muscle gained during the later gym-photo period. He did not provide a detailed diet plan or a precise timeline for the subsequent training.
He returned to training with Aaron Williamson
After the weight loss, Simmons said he went back to the gym with Williamson, a friend and trainer. Simmons also said he was “pounding the protein.” He did not name a supplement, brand, or dosage, so the statement supports increased protein intake—not a claim that he used a particular protein powder.
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What is known about Simmons’s workout routine?
A complete routine has not been documented in the accounts cited here: there is no verified weekly schedule, exercise list, set-and-repetition scheme, or individualized training plan. The available description comes from Williamson, not a workout log confirmed in detail by Simmons.
Williamson told The Daily Beast in 2016 that their training included traditional weight training, supersets, and drop sets, with work from different angles. He described using lower loads to stress muscles while being easier on joints and tendons. That is a trainer’s account of their approach, not enough detail to reproduce Simmons’s program or establish exactly how often each method was used.
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Simmons had described fitness as a longer-term lifestyle concern before the later gym-photo story. In a 2016 CBS interview, he said he had gone through cycles of being fit and healthy, then gaining weight. He credited his wife with urging him to find a sustainable healthy lifestyle and said he had come to enjoy traditional weight training as one of the ways he was trying to stay healthy as he aged.
His account places the photos in that personal context: a return to training after a film-related weight loss, rather than a body transformation commissioned for Commissioner Gordon.
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