CHRIS HEMSWORTH is a busy man. When he’s not looking after his three children in Australia, he’s either climbing a 600ft dam in Switzerland or training with the South Korean military as part of his new series, Limitless. And, in the meantime, it’s essential he maintains a superhero physique worthy of the God of Thunder.
So, whenever he’s short on time but still in need of getting in an effective workout, Hemsworth likes to hit as many different muscle groups as possible and work through as many sets as he can feasibly manage. He admits that he enjoys chasing the pump, but the circuit-style training allows him to get in some conditioning as well.
“I’ll pick about six or seven different machines, all different body parts, and just do a set on each one and see how many times I can get through that,” Hemsworth tells Men’s Health. “It’s usually 20-30 minutes, but I’m continually moving through chest, chin-ups, squats, lunges, biceps, triceps – I like to try and hit every part of the body. It’s nice to get a pump on, it keeps the heart rate up, and you get the muscle fatigued as well. It seems to do a bit of everything.”
And even when Hemsworth isn’t short on time, there’s a clear exercise he’ll actively shy away from. “Steady state cardio, especially long runs,” he answers when asked what his least favourite thing to do is. “I’m not a distance runner.”
The 41-year-old isn’t averse to putting himself out of his comfort zone, however. During filming for the second series of Limitless, the Aussie actor had “no mask to wear or hide behind – there was a certain vulnerability and a lot of fear around that.”
Hemsworth adds:
“I kept asking, ‘Why the hell am I doing this again?’ And, as I would, I would push through the barrier of pain or discomfort or anxiety and come out the other side, where I would be hit with this profound lesson and wisdom that I wasn’t aware of before, and learn something different about myself.”
“In some regard that was conscious, but I didn’t realise it to this extent until I was doing the second season. Especially around the deeper discovery and understanding of myself, I was given a very unique opportunity to confront fears, face challenges, be pulled out of my comfort zone, and face these crazy orchestrated spaces of adversity.”
“I would encourage anyone, if they have an opportunity, as we all do as human beings, just to get out there and seek new adventures and not be not settled for the familiar. Seek the unknown, remove the the barriers of safety and comfort, and seek the things where there may be a little more calculated risk involved – but exposure to different challenges, that’s where our true growth occurs, and that’s what I took from this [second series].”
Chris Hemsworth’s full-body circuit
Within 30 minutes, do as many sets as possible of:
Chest press – 10 reps
Chin-ups – 10 reps
Bodyweight squats – 15 reps
Bodyweight lunges – 20 reps
Hammer curls – 10 reps each side
Preacher curls – 10 reps
Tricep pushdowns – 10 reps
National Geographic’s Limitless: Live Better Now will be available to stream on Disney+ from 15 August.
This article originally appeared on Men’s Health UK.
