Henry Cavill (Theseus) refused all assistance from the make-up and visual effects departments to achieve his eight-pack for the movie. He told them, "I do not want you to draw abs on me." Cavill said it was "a pride thing" for him, and he "actually wanted to have that body for real, and show it in the film."
When the project was set up, the financing was still being negotiated, even though filming was set to begin just six months down the line. Henry Cavill began his intense training regimen for this movie right away, even though the producers said that they did not have money for the trainers yet. Cavill elected to pay the trainers out of his own pocket, until funding could be acquired, and he continued training. Six months later, as the filming date approached, the producers told him the financing had fallen through, and he should stop training, so Cavill stopped his physical prep then. Another six months later, the producers told him they had now acquired alternate financing and he should start training again, and so Cavill set out to achieve the required physique for the character a second time, only for the financing to fell through yet again. The producers again asked him to stop for the moment. After some time, the producers finally acquired concrete financing, and when they called Cavill the third time to tell him to start his training, they realized that he had not stopped since the last time. He had maintained his physique and was ready to start filming. They said that Cavill effectively ended up building his body three times over three separate six month periods for this role before filming finally began, and they saw this as the best demonstration of his commitment to the role and the movie.
Henry Cavill did not do any weight training for his preparation for this movie. His physique was achieved through a tabata-style training regiment, consisting of only body weight exercises. This training methodology was chosen because the goal was to not put on much mass, but to develop a very lean, highly defined physique.
The bronze bull, originally called the "Brazen Bull", a torture device used by King Hyperion for cooking people to death in the movie, was an actual torture and execution device in ancient Greece.