MORGAN SPECTOR WANTS to get massively swole. Unfortunately, he says he’s in the wrong line of work as an actor currently starring in HBO’s The Gilded Age. Spector has actually been told to stop training to appear more period-appropriate for his roles. That hasn’t prevented him from fantasizing about finding a project that might offer him the opportunity to bulk up to be “yoked in a contemporary way.”
“There’s part of me that has always been like, someone hire me to get enormous,” he admits. “Let me take steroids. Let me get huge. But you can’t be an actor and have a body like that—you have to be able to put on clothes and cover it up.”
We can point to plenty of thespians who have packed on mass and transformed their bodies to play superheroes, athletes, and real-life people, so hopefully Spector can find his own opportunity to sculpt some Hollywood muscle. He’d be well-suited to the task, too; he’s been lifting and training since he was just 10 years old and knows enough to name-drop weight room luminaries like Louie Simmons while he talks about his workouts.
Spector says his father introduced him to the world of powerlifting at a young age as a way to help his “awkward, clumsy kid” develop physically. Now approaching age 45, strength training remains a pillar in his life. “I still love it, and it’s a big part of my mental health practice at this point,” he says. Along with the mental aspect, Spector trains to stay health, move well, and be strong—he prefers focusing on developing strength, rather than hypertrophy (building muscle)—but he’s also self-aware enough to acknowledge he has aesthetic goals, too.
“When you have to do photo shoots where they want you to take your shirt off, you want to be able to be within a couple of weeks of not being embarrassed about that,” he says.
Spector visited the MH Fitness Hub to walk us through his leg day workout routine. He might not be getting jacked for his day job, but his tr