Kit Connor has revealed he felt pressured to bulk up after reading fan comments criticizing his physique. The 20-year-old who plays Nick Nelson in Heartstopper, spoke with Vulture and said he started going to the gym because fans began saying his body didn’t match the drawings of his rugby-playing character in Alice Oseman’s webcomics and graphic novels that the show is based on. He said “I wouldn’t say I was forced into it by fans, but it was me as a young adult coming to terms with the body that I had and feeling I wasn’t completely equipped to play the role “That wasn’t a good way of thinking, but I was a teenager. I still am.”
The actor sent the internet into a media frenzy when he appeared in a YouTube video with fitness influencer Nathaniel Massiah, where Kit revealed his buff physique and spilled all on his workout routine. The internet went mad and were amazed at his transformation. One user wrote ‘this boy got BUFF in such a short time omg’ another said ‘So proud of Kits progress’. The workout began with Kit revealing that he normally trains with dumbbells, so spends some time focusing on achieving the correct form with an empty barbell. The rest of the workout includes the shoulder press machine, dumbbell flys and standing cable curls. Revealing in the video that he generally does 3 sets of 12 for most things, maybe 4 sets. He goes on to say "I used to do push/pull/legs, but I would do legs like once a week... And then I decided to change to shoulders and arms, chest and back, and then legs." In the video, Kit once again opened up about his motivations for getting into the gym, saying "The reason I got into the gym in kinda deep, to be honest," reiterating that the he started hitting the gym after fans were saying he was ‘too skinny’ to play his Heartstopper role. He goes on to say "I was doing 200 push ups a day and the only thing that was developing was my chest "If you look in Heartstopper, there’s a couple of points where I’m wearing quite a tight shirt and...the boobies were looking quite large."
When trainer Nathaniel posted this video to YouTube, and subsequently some snaps from the workout. Heartstopper fans flooded the comments, with one saying ‘Bros going to go into the next season looking like a bodybuilder and I'm here for it’ However, others also empathized with him opening up about why he started going to the gym, due to online pressure, with one user writing ‘the reason why he went to the gym is so sad. poor kit, he deserves better’ The video also sparked conversations around Kit possibly starring in a Marvel movie, speculating this might be why the actor has been hitting the gym, to achieve a superhero physique.
Users were fan-casting Kit as ‘Hulkling’ saying he would be a great fit, mainly because in the Marvel Universe, Hulkling’s boyfriend is Billy Kaplan, who Kit’s Heartstopper co-star plays in Agatha all Along. However, during a recent interview with MTV’s Josh Horowitz at this year’s San Diego Comic-Con, Kit shut down the rumors, saying “My friend did send me this rumor, no I’m not… not that I know of,” Kit says he now has a much healthier relationship with his body now and finds working out to be good for his mental health. #heartstopper #netflix #fitness #muscle #lgbtq #queertok
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