Chris Hemsworth As God Of Thunder Thor
If you watched the movie Thor I’m sure you were impressed with what you saw. I’m not talking about the movie; I’m talking about Chris Hemsworth’s chiseled body. The movie was great, but I was more impressed with Chris’s transformation from George Kirk in Star Trek to the god of thunder Thor. At first I was thinking maybe it’s just the suit that makes him look big or maybe it’s just camera angles and Hollywood magic at work. Then there was the “scene” or as I like to call it, the “obscene” where Thor walks around without his shirt and you can see that there was no Hollywood magic or camera tricks involved. I watched the movie twice and the second time around as the “obscene” came on I looked around the theater to see people’s reactions. I could see every woman’s face light up and every man’s face grimace. It wasn’t the kind of grimace because it was disgusting; it was the grimace of embarrassment because first off we don’t have a body like that and second the girl sitting next to us knows we don’t have a body like that!
Chris’s body wasn’t always like this. As a young Australian he was a constant surfer with a slim surfer’s body. He worked vigorously with trainer Michael Knight to transform his body from thin surfer to god like in 3 months. This is what Chris said about his transformation to Thor.
Chris Gained 20 lbs Of Muscle For The Movie Thor
“I put on a lot of weight — I put on about 20 pounds at one point. It was purely eating, eating, eating, working out and working out, trying to sleep as much as you can — that’s the other third of the equation. The eating was the biggest thing; since stopping shooting I probably work out the same but don’t eat as much, and I’ve probably lost 15 pounds or something. Chicken breasts and protein shakes, boiled chicken . . . clean meats, the right carbs. Sickly stuff.”
As Chris stated; there are 3 crucial steps to building an amazing body: Eat a ton, workout hard and Sleep.
Eat a Ton
It Takes a Lot of Lean Protein, Good Carbohydrates and Healthy Fats To Build a Body Worthy of Thor
The foundation of any muscle-building plan is to eat lots of protein, but if you want a muscular lean build you have to focus your diet around lean proteins, unprocessed carbohydrates, and good fats.
Chris states, adding that much weight required a constant intake of food, most of which came from protein sources, vegetables, and fruit. “I feel as if I’ve been busy, but all I’ve been doing is eating all day,” he says while passing a farm stand brimming with organic broccoli. “Eating when you’re not hungry and taking in that amount of food is exhausting.”
Chris had to eat every 2-3 hours whether he was hungry or not. As he states it’s not easy taking in that many calories from what he calls “not fun food”. Chris mentions that he ate lots and lots of chicken and protein shakes at each meal along with carbohydrates from a combination of steamed vegetables, quinoa (sometimes brown rice) and fruits. He would also eat fats, but limit his fats to around 20% of his diet. His fats were coming from good whole food sources such as fish, quinoa, avocados, walnuts, almonds and olive oil.
Key Points
- Avoid all processed foods (fast food, eating out).- Nutrients have been removed from these types of food.
- Eat between 4,000-6,000 calories a day depending on your height. – Chris Hemsworth is 6’3 so you need test what is the perfect amount of calories for your height.
- Limit sugar intake. – Empty calories.
- Limit sodium intake – Makes you retain water.
- Aim for a 40-40-20 diet. 40% protein – 40% carbohydrates – 20% fat.
- Eat the majority of your carbohydrates throughout the day before your workout. – This allows your body time to use the carbohydrates as fuel and not store it as fat.
- Drink lots of water. – Keeps your muscles hydrated and aids muscle recovery.
As you can see his diet is extremely strict and it takes the most disciplined individual to eat nothing but “boring” food as he likes to call it. I would suggest you have 1 to 2 cheat meals a week where you can eat whatever you want (within reason) so you don’t feel deprived, keeps you mentally focused and you feel satisfied. Also the majority of his protein came from chicken so I would suggest preparing your chicken in different ways to “spice” things up a bit. Try cooking your chicken in the broiler, on the grill, baking, or stove top and add seasonings that do not add calories such as herbs and aromatic vegetables such as onions and garlic. Another good way to flavor your chicken is to add spices such as peppers, curry, and cayenne. These spices will not only add flavor but boosts your metabolism and they are loaded with antioxidants to help with muscle recovery.
Workout
Michael Had Chris Workout in 2 Phases, BodyBuilding and Total Body Circuits
The Thor workout consisted of 2 phases. Chris’s trainer , Michael Knight states, “The first was a bodybuilder-type protocol focused on high-weight, low-rep moves designed to pack on maximum size, while the second was total-body circuits designed to shift his excess fat while maintaining muscle.”
During the Phase 1 Michael Knight required Chris to do compound workouts ensure you get the most amount of muscle fibers per workout while varying his workouts by changing the reps, speeds, weights, and hand grip to ensure Chris’s growth would not stagnate.
The workout was done 5 days a week for no more than 60-90 minutes per workout.
Workout provided by Mens Fitness.co.uk
Thor Workout Part 1 – eight-week bulking plan:
How to do it:
- Week one – sets 4 reps 4-6
- Week two – sets 4 reps 6-8
- Week three – sets 4 reps 8-12
- Week four – sets 4 reps 4-6
- Repeat for weeks five to eight
Session one – chest and back:
- Bench press
- Bent-over row
- Weighted pull-up
- Weighted dip
Session two – legs:
- Squat
- Deadlift
- Hamstring curl
Session three – arms:
- Weighted chin-up
- Close-grip bench press
Thor Workout Part 2 – four-week fat loss plan:
Circuit one – Tabata
(20sec on/10sec off):
- Double kettlebell squats – four rounds
- Eight rounds of snatches – eight rounds
Circuit two:
- Kettlebell swings – 30sec two-hand, 30sec right-hand-only swings, 30sec left-hand-only swings, 30sec
alternate swings
- Cleans - 5 right, 5 left, 4 right, 4 left, 3 right, 3 left, 2 right, 2 left, 1 right, 1 left, then back up to 5 each side for a total of 60 reps with no rest
Circuit three:
- Turkish get-ups – 5min continuous
- Windmill - 5 each side
Sleep
No Matter How Much You Eat & How Hard You Workout , if You Don’t Get Enough Sleep it Will Severely Limit Your Growth.
Sleep is the most commonly overlooked part of this equation. Proper nutrition gives you the building blocks to build muscle. Muscles are broken down in the gym. Lastly, muscles grow while you are sleeping. No matter how much you eat and how hard you work in the gym, if you don’t get enough sleep it will severely limit your growth.
There are 4 stages of sleep. We won’t go into the details of the different stages but you should get enough sleep to go through all the stages especially REM sleep (Deepest sleep) which releases the greatest amount of growth hormone so you wake up feeling refreshed. For most people this is between 6-9 hours a night. While you are sleeping your body is doing many things to help it become stronger:
- Repairs broken down muscle tissue and rebuilds them bigger and stronger.
- Increases blood flow to the muscles.
- Increase growth hormone production which promotes fat loss.
- Increase testosterone production which promotes muscle-building.
- Reduces cortisol levels which make you gain weight around the mid section.
Conversely Lack of sleep will deter you from building muscle by:
- Reducing your mental focus.
- You will not have the energy to push yourself in the gym.
- Reduced strength.
- Impairs your immune system.
Conclusion
Chris Before Thor. Not As Genetically Gifted as You May Think
I know getting a Thor like body is not easy. If it was we all would be walking around with capes and no shirts, but that’s just not the case.
You may be thinking Chris Hemsworth is an actor who has trainers, nutritionists and gets paid to be in shape and most normal people have real jobs so there’s no time to dedicate to our bodies…..Right? Wrong! You just have to plan ahead. Your meals need to be prepared ahead of time so you can take them to work and have food throughout the day. Also you have to get at least 6-8 hours of rest a night so you have the energy after a long day of work to get into the gym and push yourself for another hour.
At the time Chris was training he was working 12 hour days filming Thor and Red Dawn and he still made time and had energy to work hard. If you’re thinking that he is just genetically more muscular than us, look at his before picture. I don’t think so. If Chris can do it, you can definitely do it. It takes knowledge, hard work, dedication and discipline to achieve the results you want, but if you follow this article and stay motivated, you can build your own Thor body.
