Celebrity exercise regimes are often characterized by cryo chambers, saunas and state-of-the-art gym equipment. But the latest Chris Hemsworth workout is refreshingly accessible.
How accessible, you ask? Well, I was able to tackle it in a garden using a single set of old-school spinlock dumbbells. It ticks the “time-savvy” box too, taking just 40 minutes to spike my heart rate and pump up the muscles in my back, arms and shoulders.
How to do Chris Hemsworth’s Furiosa workout
There are six parts to this workout. The first two involve one exercise each, performed in straight sets – perform all sets of the exercise in a row, resting for the prescribed amount of time between sets.
Parts three, four and five are supersets. These are pairs of exercises (labeled A and B) which are performed back-to-back with a minimal break between them. Only after the prescribed reps of both exercises have been completed do you take the allotted rest.
The final part of this workout is a high-intensity resistance training (otherwise known as HIRT) finisher – a four-move circuit designed to spike the heart rate.
Perform the exercises in order, with a 10-second rest between moves. Once you’ve finished all four exercises, take a 20-second breather, then repeat the circuit one more time to complete the workout.
1. Dumbbell shoulder press
Sets: 4. Reps: 8. Rest: 40sec.
- Sit on a weight bench with a dumbbell in each hand, held at shoulder height. I performed a standing dumbbell shoulder press in my garden, as I didn’t have access to a weight bench, so you can modify the exercise to suit your needs and equipment, or lack of.
- Press the dumbbells directly overhead until your biceps are close to your ears, then control them back to the starting position.
2. Wide-grip bent-over row
Sets: 4. Reps: 8. Rest: 40sec.
- Stand upright with your feet roughly shoulder-width apart holding a dumbbell in each hand.
- Keeping your back flat and your knees soft, hinge at the hips until your torso is almost parallel to the ground, letting the dumbbells hang towards the floor. This is your starting position.
- Drive your elbows out wide to row the dumbbells upward until they are level with your torso, then control them back to the starting position.
3A. Dumbbell lateral raise
Sets: 4. Reps: 8. Rest: 10sec.
- Stand upright with a dumbbell in each hand and your palms facing each other.
- With a slight bend at your elbow, lift both arms out to your side, rotating the dumbbells forward slightly, as if you were slowly pouring out a bottle of water.
- Lift the dumbbells until your forearms are roughly parallel to the ground, then control them back to the starting position.
3B. Standing rear delt dumbbell raise
Sets: 4. Reps: 8. Rest: 40sec.
- Stand upright with a dumbbell in each hand.
- Hinge at the hips until your torso is roughly parallel to the floor, letting the dumbbells hang toward the ground. This is your starting position.
- Like with the lateral raise, keep a slight bend at your elbow and lift your arms out to the side until they are level with your body, then control them back to the starting position.
4A. Alternating cross-body hammer curl
Sets: 3. Reps: 12 on each arm. Rest: 10sec.
- Stand upright with a dumbbell in each hand, your palms facing each other and your arms tight to your sides.
- Keeping your palm facing your body throughout, curl the dumbbell in your right hand across your body, toward your left shoulder. At the top of the rep, the handle should be vertical.
- Control it back to the starting position and repeat on the other side.
4B. Standing dumbbell curl
Sets: 3. Reps: 6. Rest: 40sec.
- Stand upright with a dumbbell in each hand and your palms facing forwards.
- Keeping your elbows tight to your sides, curl both dumbbells up towards their respective shoulders, then control them back to the starting position.
5A. Alternating dumbbell overhead triceps extension
Sets 3 Reps 12 Rest 10sec
- Stand upright with your arms extended above your head, a dumbbell in each hand and your palms facing each other.
- Keeping your elbows facing forward, bend your right elbow to lower one of the dumbbells behind your head.
- Straighten your right arm, then repeat on the other side.
5B. Dumbbell triceps kickback
Sets: 3. Reps: 6. Rest: 40sec.
- Stand upright with a dumbbell in each hand and your palms facing inwards.
- Keeping a neutral spine (try not to arch it), hinge at the hips until your torso is roughly parallel to the ground.
- Hold your upper arms level with your torso, allow your lower arm to hang toward the floor, and pin your elbows to your sides. This is your starting position.
- Extend both elbows so your arms are parallel to the ground, then control the weights back to the starting position.
HIRT finisher
6A. Dumbbell thruster
Sets: 2. Reps: 10. Rest: 10 sec.
- Stand upright with your feet approximately shoulder-width apart, your toes turned outward slightly, and a dumbbell held in each hand at shoulder height.
- Keeping your chest up, squat down until your hip is below the top of your knee like the image above.
- Drive through your feet to stand up explosively and, at the same time, drive the dumbbells overhead until your elbows are locked out and your biceps are next to your ears.
- Control the dumbbells back down to your shoulders, beginning the descent into your next squat as you do this.
6B. Dumbbell swing
Sets: 2. Reps: 30 sec. Rest :10 sec.
- Stand with your hips slightly wider than shoulder-width apart, holding a dumbbell in each hand with your palms facing each other. Allow the dumbbells to hang just in front of your pelvis.
- Keeping your back flat, hinge at the hips to bend over and allow the dumbbells to fall between your thighs.
- Drive your hips forward to stand up forcefully and, keeping your arms straight, propel the dumbbells up to roughly eye level.
- Allow them to fall back between your thighs, then repeat.
6C. Jumping jack
Sets: 2. Reps: 30 sec. Rest: 10 sec.
- Stand upright with your hands by your side.
- Jump your feet out the side to widen your stance. As you do this, bring both arms overhead in a wide arcing movement.
- Reverse this motion with your arms and jump your feet back to center, then repeat.
6D. Dumbbell pyramid plank switch
Sets: 2. Reps: 30 sec. Rest: 20 sec.
- Start in a high plank position, with your weight spread between your hands and toes, and your hands beneath your shoulders.
- Keep your core tight, so your body forms a straight line from your head to your heels, and have your hands resting on the handles of two dumbbells.
- Lift your hips into the air so your body forms a pyramid. As you do this, holding onto the dumbbells, reach your right hand toward your left foot.
- Reverse this action to return to the starting position, then repeat on the other side.
How did Chris Hemsworth train for Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga?
Hemsworth initially considered “losing a ton of weight” to play Dementus in Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga, he told Brandon Davis of Comicbook.com.. But director George Miller told him the character was a “powerful, big, impressive figure” who “needs to hold a lot of space”, putting paid to that idea.
To achieve this, Hemsworth’s long-time trainer and Centr expert Luke Zocchi prescribed lighter weights, lower rest times and three to four full-body workout per week, often capped with short circuit-style bouts of cardio.
“There were no body fat percentages to hit, he just wanted to be lean and strong, and not overly bulky like Thor,” Zocchi explains.
“Thor training is more like the classic Centr Power program approach – we would train to failure with heavy loads and take longer rests in between sets.
“For Furiosa, we were lifting a bit lighter, but balancing that with shorter rest breaks to keep the heart rate up. And not quite pushing to failure, so Chris still had something in reserve for the cardio.”
They did this for two months. Then, when filming began, Zocchi took a “day on, day off” approach to the actor’s workouts “so Chris had energy for the long shooting days”.
Centr is now offering its 14-week Furiosa-inspired Power Shred program and nutrition guide to members, with the tagline “cut body fat and gain muscle”.
However, it can take military planning to hit these goals at the same time, with a calorie surplus optimal for muscle-gain and a calorie deficit imperative for weight loss.
As anyone familiar with the Thor films knows, Hemsworth is already flush with muscle, so he instead aimed to maintain brawn and cut fat. He did this by eating considerably less than he did when preparing for Thor, with “three meals a day, whole foods with a decent serving of protein in every meal”, Zocchi says.
Hemsworth also loosely followed a 16:8 fasting schedule, aiming to eat all of his meals within an eight-hour window of the day. This included skipping breakfast and eating his first meal at roughly lunchtime.
My experience trying Chris Hemsworth’s Furiosa workout
There’s no such thing as the perfect workout, and you’re not always going to have a gym filled with equipment at your disposal. But that doesn’t mean you can’t enjoy an effective session with minimal kit.
This workout is a great example of that – I hit it while visiting family, after finding a rusty set of spinlock dumbbells in their shed. Pressed for time, I wanted something that was fast and fun, so I dragged the weights into the garden and set to work.
The first thing that struck me was just how short the rest times are. I usually take a two or three-minute break between strength-focused sets, allowing my muscles to recuperate enough to hit the next set with renewed vigor. But Hemsworth’s workout gave me just 40 seconds to recover before my hands were back on the dumbbells.
You might need to lift lighter weights than you’re used to with this approach, so it isn’t the best if gaining strength is your primary goal. However, it’s sure to work your muscles hard, providing the stimulus needed for growth.
It also keeps your heart rate high (mine was rarely below 130bpm according to my Apple Watch Ultra 2), elevating calorie burn and boosting your metabolism.
This intensity was spiked further by the introduction of supersets, and finally a four-move HIRT circuit. Minimizing rest periods meant squeezing a lot of work into a short time frame – I had the entire session wrapped up within 40 minutes, even with the cumbersome process of changing the weight on a set of spinlock dumbbells.
The first of my requirements for this workout was that it was fast, and it nailed the brief. My second criteria was that it was fun, and it did well on this front too.
I liked the exercises, which were mostly bodybuilding staples like presses and rows, and the fast-paced nature of the session left no time for boredom to kick in. The short-rest format inflated my muscles and ego in tandem by delivering an enviable pump (particularly for the arms), and the circuit finisher served up a digestible test of athleticism.
Having tackled the routine first thing, my muscles felt heavy with the unmistakable remnants of hard work, but my body on the whole didn’t feel beaten up, leaving me ready to face the day without suffering a post-workout energy lull.
I also enjoyed how I felt afterwards. Having tackled the routine first thing, my muscles felt heavy with the unmistakable remnants of hard work, but my body on the whole didn’t feel beaten up, leaving me ready to face the day without suffering a post-workout energy lull.
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Harry.Bullmore@futurenet.com (Harry Bullmore)
