Chris Hemsworth Switches to Smarter, Simpler Training for ‘Avengers: Doomsday’ as Trainer Shares His Full Workout and Diet Plan

Chris Hemsworth is preparing for his role in the upcoming Avengers: Doomsday movie, but this time, his training looks a lot different from before. Instead of pushing himself to the extreme like he did for previous Marvel films, the actor is taking a smarter, more balanced approach. His longtime trainer, Luke Zocchi, shared details about how they’ve changed the plan to suit Chris’s current needs.

In past movies, Hemsworth’s routine involved intense workouts and eating huge amounts of food, up to ten meals a day, to build a massive physique. This time, Zocchi says they’ve eased up, listening more closely to how Chris feels and avoiding overtraining. “I hate to say it, but I think we’re just getting a little bit older,” Zocchi joked, explaining that the focus is now on staying in tune with the body rather than going all out.

The current training schedule includes working out every other day, alternating between strength sessions and cardio. Chris follows a push-pull-legs routine, meaning he targets pushing muscles like chest and triceps on one day, pulling muscles like back and biceps on another, and legs on a separate day.

Cardio days include various activities like walking on a treadmill, boxing, and some running. They even adjust workouts based on how Chris feels—if he’s tired, he’ll do lighter cardio instead of heavy lifting.

One example of his strength workout focuses a lot on shoulders and arms, since those parts will be more visible in his costume. The session starts with a light warm-up using dumbbells.

Then he moves into seated dumbbell shoulder presses, doing multiple sets with a special technique called drop sets, which help push muscles harder by lowering weights gradually without rest. Other exercises include incline dumbbell presses, cable lateral raises, rear delt flys, and triceps pushdowns, all done with careful rest periods to keep intensity high but manageable.

He starts with a light dumbbell warm-up doing lateral raises, front raises, and military presses for three rounds. Then he moves into the main workout.

The first exercise is the seated dumbbell shoulder press. He does 4 sets of 8 to 12 reps and finishes with a drop set, which means he lowers the weight three times in a row and keeps doing reps to push his muscles.

Next is the incline dumbbell bench press, where he presses dumbbells while lying on a slightly tilted bench. He does 3 sets of 12 reps.

Then he does single-arm cable lateral raises, 4 sets of 12 reps on each side. This targets his shoulder muscles.

After that comes the rear delt fly on the cable machine for his back shoulders. He does 3 sets of 15 and ends the last one with another drop set like before.

The final move is the straight bar triceps pushdown on a cable machine. He does 3 sets of 12 reps to work the back of his arms.

Each exercise has about 60 seconds of rest between sets. The focus is on building his arms and shoulders since his costume in the movie shows those areas the most.

Diet-wise, things have changed a lot, too. The old plan meant eating constantly to keep up energy and size, but now Chris eats fewer meals, around four or five a day, and isn’t trying to bulk up as much. This makes it easier for him to enjoy other activities, like surfing, which he found harder when he was very bulky in earlier films.

Recovery is also a big part of the process. Zocchi says they use saunas and ice baths but avoid cold plunges right after workouts, as new research shows they might slow muscle growth. Instead, those happen in the morning. After tough sessions, Chris practices guided breathing and meditation to help calm his nervous system and improve recovery.

Filming for Avengers: Doomsday is underway, but fans will have to wait until December 18 next year to see the final look. Before that, The Fantastic Four: First Steps will arrive in theaters on July 25, 2025.

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