Last updated on October 2nd, 2021 at 09:40 pm

Marvel’s Avengers was revealed for release in 2020 and with it, so was Taskmaster as the villain.

Which brings us here. Because if we want to face him, we have to know how he trains.

Taskmaster, if this wasn’t clear, is a super villain, and is seen most prominently as a Captain America, Deadpool and Avengers villain.

He’s also been “confirmed” as the villain we will be seeing in the Black Widow movie with Scarlett Johansson.

We’ll go more in depth with his background, powers and abilities in the research section, but it is good to know what we’re getting into.

I’ve been asked to include more villains in our character workouts, but if you got through the workout database we actually have been seeing a good handful; even getting Shredder and Karai from TMNT this week on top of this one and Hellcat’s!

Taskmaster Stats:

Height: 6’2

Weight: 220 lbs

Real Name: Tony Masters

Powers: Yes

Tony Masters (Taskmaster) is right around average height.

And that goes for male celebs we’ve seen AND male characters.

Vegeta were tied Wolverine for the shortest spot among comic characters we’ve seen at 5’3, prior to the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles coming in at 5’2, (and Gimli even shorter) – but Damian Wayne (Robin) is only 5’4.  Goku isn’t that tall either, though, standing only 5’7, with Miles Moralesonly an inch above him.

One Punch Man falls in at 5’9 right there with Ryu, Nightwing at 5’10, and then Spider-Man, Daredevil, and Green Arrow coming in around 5’11 and Beast joining them.

Just above them are Aquaman, Red Hood and Punisher standing only an inch or so taller.

We’ve had Superman and Eddie Brock’s Venom at 6’3, and Captain America, Scorpion and Batman at 6’2, and Carnage at 6’1. Thor and Cyborg are towering over them at 6’6, Thanos and King right there with them at 6’7, Bane at 6’8, and Deathstroke right below at 6’5, and Black Manta at 6’4.

And, of course, Hulk and Broly are both up there with them, and sometimes even portrayed much taller.

Yeah, that means All Might was the tallest at 7’2, only sometimes surpassed by The Hulk – and Zangief just missing the tallest spot at 7’0!

And I say “was” because Ronan and Sagat are 7’5, and Doomsday came in at 8’10, and I doubt any characters are touching that anytime soon.

But, don’t worry if you’re not the same height or weight range.

We write these routines to be utilized by anyone and everyone.

Want The Unofficial Marvel Workout Booklet?
Grab The Unofficial Marvel Workout Booklet and Unleash Your Inner Superhero!

Taskmaster Diet and Nutrition

**Keep in mind: this section will be nearly identical for each hero, unless I mentioned differently (for example someone like Hellboy may get something specifically different)**

Every hero needs to still have a good diet.

Unfortunately we can train like them, but I don’t think any of us are suddenly getting their powers, or the ability to magically stop caring about nutrition.

You can’t out train your diet, so I want to still give some pillars for nutrition.

You can start by checking out The Nutrition Pillars on the site, but I’ll break down some more information for you guys as well.

Guys like Dwayne Johnson and Kevin Hart incorporate 80/20 dieting with big weekly cheat meals, Hugh Jackman, Tom Hopper, Benedict Cumberbatch and Terry Crews utilize intermittent fasting (something I use daily as well), Ariana Grande, Mustafa Shakir and Madelaine Petsch are vegans, Brandon Routh and Frank Grillo opt for paleo, and tons of others utilize their own variations as well.

It’s all about sustainability.

AND, there are a thousand different ways to reach your goals, so finding the most sustainable way is what’s important.

Which is why our Academy utilizes multiple different Nutrition Classes (Greek Gods, Vikings, Spartans, Hunter Gatherers, Monks, Samurais, Minimalists, SuperHumans) to allow people to choose what is right for YOU!

Need Help Choosing The Best Marvel Inspired Workout?
Take The Marvel Workout Placement Quiz Now!

Taskmaster Workout Routine Research

We’ve made it to “the fun part”.

And, if you don’t know by now, I say that every single time we get to the workout routine research section for character workouts.

This is where I get to break down the “how” and “why” of the workout we’re going to build based on the characters, in this case Taskmaster’s, powers and/or abilities.

Let’s start with what his Wiki Fandom lists for his “occupation”, though:

Sheriff, Assassin, Mercenary, Spy, Saboteur; formerly Military Trainer, Hand-to-Hand Combat Instructor, Head of Initiative training camp, bodyguard

Which is going to lead us right into a bit of his background story and how he actually started as a SHIELD Agent.

Fast forwarding to before that, though, here’s a bit about Tony Master’s (Taskmaster’s) early life:

Tony Masters was born with the ability to duplicate the movements of others through brief observation. At the age of 8, he continued to discover his photographic reflexes to immediately copy other skills like learning to dive in a swimming pool when he saw someone else having performed a dive, learning special techniques from the best NBA basketball players, and learning to twirl a lasso by watching cowboys on T.V.

Which all somehow led him to this:

As an adult, Tony joined S.H.I.E.L.D. and became an agent.  During a mission, Tony found an elderly scientist, shot in the chest and slowly dying.Before the scientist died, he gave Tony a syringe containing an experimental Nazi version of the Super-Soldier Serum to enhance the abilities gained through his photographic reflexes. After Tony injected himself with the Nazi Super-Soldier Serum, he began to develop additional powers, set back by the fact that the memories he gained by watching others overwrote his personal memories. As a result, Tony forgot his wife and field agent partner, Mercedes Masters, as well as his own history with S.H.I.E.L.D.  Mercedes crafted an elaborate set-up to help control and guide Tony in his new guise as “Taskmaster”. Using a series of muscle memory and reflexive tasks, she linked Taskmaster to “the Org”: his “handler” between jobs and a constant to keep him on task despite his frequently overwritten memory. The Org was actually Mercedes herself, gathering intelligence and feeding it back to S.H.I.E.L.D. thanks to Taskmaster’s reports. Tony, therefore, became the ultimate double agent in the super-villain underground — one who didn’t even know what he was.

So Tony Master’s became Taskmaster after utilizing the Nazi version of the Super-Soldier Serum.

Look’s like we have some competition for Captain America after all.

That leaves us with these powers listed for Master’s:

• Artificially Enhanced Physiology: Tony was born with the ability to duplicate other abilities that he either saw someone else performed or watched on T.V. After injecting himself with a experimental Nazi version of the Super-Soldier Serum, his brain capacity begin to absorb knowledge instantaneously. The serum also altered his brain chemistry to make him hypercognitive in the area of skill observation and retention. This particular serum was an elaborate modification of the adrenal steroid cortisol, which even enhanced Tony’s short-term memory.
  • Photographic Reflexes: Tony’s primarily superhuman power is his photographic reflexes.  He can watch another person’s physical movements and duplicate them without any practice or training, no matter how complex. Tony is able to duplicate almost any physical activity after seeing it done by someone else only once. Taskmaster can use this ability to master complex gymnastics routines and play difficult pieces of music. However, he typically prefers to use this ability to copy the combat skills, both armed and unarmed, of costumed crime-fighters and expert martial artists from around the world. By reviewing recordings of movements periodically, Tony can retain duplicated moves indefinitely. When facing an opponent, he has already studied countless of martial arts, and can virtually predict his enemy’s attacks. He can also copy the subtle muscle movements of others so precisely that he can at times do things such as copying another person’s voice so precisely as to fool voice recognition software although he must practice a voice to ensure he has perfected it enough to fool such devices.
    • Limited Superhuman Speed: Tony is capable of running and moving at speeds that are twice as fast as the human body. He has discovered that after watching martial arts movies in double speed, he can briefly duplicate the moves at double speed, effectively giving him a limited form of superhuman speed. However, he can only maintain his heightened state for minutes before risking temporarily physical damage to his body.
    • Physical Movement Prediction: Tony can also do things such as figuring out the sleight of hand techniques of a master poker cheater simply by watching them. He has often shown the ability to actually predict an opponent’s next move before they make it if he has studied their fighting style enough. Opponents who are skilled at improvisational fighting styles, or who have a more random unpredictable style are less likely to have their moves predicted by Taskmaster.
    • Superhuman Reflexes: Due to Tony’s photographic reflexes, his reaction speed is two times greater than those of a normal human. He easily caught a crescent blade thrown at him from behind by Moon Knight, without even looking. He was also able to deflect bullets with a chain, and even catch a bullet that was shot at him.
    • Superhuman Agility: Due to his photographic reflexes, Tony has the agility comparable with Spider-Man’s and Daredevil’s superhuman agility.

And his abilities are listed as such:

• Master Martial Artist
• Master Tactician
• Weapon Mastery
• Master Marksman
• Master Assassin

We have a lot to work with.

Do you think you can handle it?

Ready to Transform?!
Check out all The SHJ Programs and start unleashing your inner SuperHuman.

Taskmaster Workout Routine

Training Volume:

4-6 days per week

Explanation:

We’re throwing it back to Captain America’s workout routine and including pieces from the original that Coach Richie programmed for us.  This routine is pretty brutal.  BUT, it’s effective and will leave you sore and wanting more.  There are 4 days of programmed training, and the other 1-2 days can be added as activity or mixed martial arts training.  All heroes should know how to defend themselves.

What you need to know:

A Superset means you’re performing those movements back to back.  If a movement is part of “Superset 1” it’s part of the grouping of movements in that superset and you perform them back to back and then proceed to break and do another set [of those movements] after.

HIIT stands for High Intensity Interval Training.  Do one minute ON (sprint 6-10mph) and one minute OFF (walk 2.5-3.3mph) for 25 minutes.  That means you go back and forth every minute for the duration.  On, off, on, off, etc.

When lifting your initial lifts/compounds (especially), you should be using pyramid training.

Want To Upgrade This Workout?

The Superhero Academy now comes with an Upgrade Your Workout Tool that allows Academy members to turn any SHJ workout into a 4-8 week fully planned regime detailing exact weights to lift and including reverse & traditional pyramid training, straight sets, super sets, progressive overload and more.

Day 1: Squats and Chops

Warm Up:

15 min HIIT training treadmill

Compound:

Back Squat:

12, 10, 8, 5, 3

Supersets:

Superset One:

A. Kettle bell Snatches

3X10(each side)

B. Lunges

3Xfailure

Superset Two:

A. Turkish Get Up

3X10(each side)

B. Downward Chop

3X10(each side)

Trisets:

Triset One:

A. Box Jumps

3X20

B. Man Makers

3X10

C. Heavy Bag:

3X1 min

Triset Two:

A. Floor Wipers

3X20

B. Sit Ups

3X50

C. Flutter Kicks

3X50

Day 2: Bench and Walk

Warm Up:

25 min incline walk

Compound:

Bench Press:

12, 10, 8, 5, 3

Supersets:

Superset One:

A. Kettle Bell Clean

3X10(each side)

B. Push Ups

3Xfailure

Superset Two:

A. Turkish Get Up

3X10(each side)

B. Upward Chop

3X10(each side)

Trisets:

Triset One:

A. Jump Rope

3X1 min

B. Burpees

3X10

C. Heavy Bag

3X1 min

Triset Two:

A. Floor Wipers

3X20

B. Sit Ups

3X50

C. Flutter Kicks

3X50

Day 3: Deadlifts and Chops

Warm Up:

15 min HIIT training treadmill

Compound:

Deadlifts:

12, 10, 8, 5, 3

Supersets:

Superset One:

A. Kettle Bell Clean and Press:

3X10 (each side)

B. Pull Ups

3Xfailure

Superset Two:

A. Turkish Get Up

3X10(each side)

B. Downward Chop

3X10(each side)

Trisets:

Triset One:

A. Box Jumps:

3X20

B. Man Makers:

3X10

C. Heavy Bag

3X1 min

Triset Two:

A. Floor Wipers

3X20

B. Sit Ups

3X50

C. Flutter Kicks

3X50

Day 4: Press and Walk

Warm Up:

-25 min incline walk

Compound:

-Military Press: 12, 10, 8, 5, 3, 1

Supersets:

Superset One:

A. Kettle Bell Clean

3X10(each side)

B. Ball Slams

3Xfailure

Superset Two:

A. Turkish Get Up

3X10(each side)

B. Upward Chop

3X10(each side)

Trisets:

Triset One:

A. Jump Rope

3X1 min

B. Burpees

3X10

C. Heavy Bag

3X1 min

Triset Two:

A. Floor Wipers

3X20

B. Sit Ups

3X50

C. Flutter Kicks

3X50

Bonus 1-2 Days: Activity and MMA

If you want to step your game up and start training with mixed martial arts, these are some of the programs Coach Derek has created for us outside of The Academy to do so.

Check out programs on the site from Coach Derek here: Moon Knight, Deathstroke, Daredevil, and Sagat.

For some Thai Boxing fun check out Anna Diop’s routine.

The Parkour Workout (Nightrunner) designed by Academy member Felix.

Looking to step it up a notch?
Join The Superhero Academy and start unleashing your inner SuperHuman.