A god-worthy workout routine! It’s no secret that Chris Hemsworth has remained jacked to take on the mantle of Marvel superhero Thor — and he’s not shy about taking fans along his wellness journey.
The Australia native first played the God of Thunder in 2011’s Thor, before returning in the sequels, Thor: The Dark World and Thor: Ragnarok as well as all four Avengers films ahead of July 2022’s Thor: Love and Thunder. Each franchise iteration Hemsworth worked on impacted his Thor-worthy workouts.
“[It depends] on what version of Thor we see, and we saw the different condition he was in [Avengers:] Endgame. If I’m playing a healthy version of Thor, I want to step it up a notch and I’m definitely looking at evolving again,” Hemsworth opened up to Men’s Journal in November 2020. “With all the muscle memory, you only look a certain way after years and years of doing it. There’s a different sort of density to your muscle mass.”
He continued: “This is something I say all the time, but I want to be able to have function to it. You can see people who just do strict bodybuilding, they move a certain way. There’s an impressive visual image there, but for me, it’s got to be agile and mobile and have flexibility to it.”
While the Norse mythology-inspired hero often showed off his chiseled ab muscles or massive biceps during marvel-ous fight sequences, he gained weight post-Snap. After notorious Infinity War villain Thanos (played by Josh Brolin) snapped half of the Earth’s population into oblivion, Thor coped with his losses by excessively eating and drinking beer.
“We had a sort of fat suit that I think was 60 or 70 pounds,” Hemsworth explained of his behind-the-scenes prep during a 2019 Marvel Studios’ featurette on YouTube. “It was the hottest I’ve ever been. We had the beard, the hair, these things that go in the mouth that sort of plump my cheeks a bit, which sort of had a little effect on the voice as well but in a good way, it was a different Thor.”
By Love and Thunder, Thor was ready to get back to his former physique as the film’s teaser trailer showed the Avenger working out with massive chains as he goes from “dad bod to God bod.”
The Ghostbusters star’s MCU fitness journey also inspired him to launch his own fitness app, Centr.
“I believe we all have untapped potential. And we all need support to achieve our goals,” Hemsworth — who shares daughter India and sons Tristan and Sasha with wife Elsa Pataky — said in a February 2019 statement about the application’s launch. “Centr puts the world’s best in the palm of your hand, to help you develop a healthier body, stronger mind and a happier life.”
Love and Thunder also welcomes Natalie Portman‘s Jane Foster back to the MCU. In the film, Jane has taken up the Mighty Thor persona as she wields Mjölnir to OG Thor’s surprise.
“We trained for 10 months, starting around four months prior to filming,” trainer Naomi Pendergast exclusively told Us Weekly in July 2022 of working with the Black Swan actress to get into superhero shape. “Natalie did five sessions a week and did not miss one session for the whole time period we trained.”
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The RPX Fitness founder added: “The initial goal was to build arm and abdominal definition. We also worked on stability and agility for injury prevention as Natalie had some dynamic stunt scenes that required her to move, twist and land in various positions. … I was also really pleased she got through the challenging stunt process without any injuries.”
Scroll below for insight into how Hemsworth prepared to return to his role of Thor:
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