Aussie celebrity personal trainer Luke Zocchi turns Chris Hemsworth into Thor
Ever wanted to look like Chris Hemsworth as Thor? His childhood friend and Melbourne-born PT shares the workouts and meals behind the superhero’s killer body — and it’s not as extreme as you’d think.
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Melbourne-born personal trainer to the stars Luke Zocchi remembers the first time he met Avengers star Chris Hemsworth.
Before Chris became one of the biggest names in Hollywood, the pair grew up together in The Basin and The Dandenongs, went to school in Ringwood and trained together in an amateur boxing gym in Melbourne’s east.
“I went to primary school with Chris, he was a childhood friend for years,” Luke says.
“I’m originally from Heathmont and we went to Southwood Primary (Tintern acquired the site in 1999), which was next door to the Cadbury Factory out at Ringwood.”
But Chris never made it into the ring, possibly good reason.
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“We used to spar in the gym, but he’d always say: ‘I can’t go in the ring. I can’t ruin my face, I’m going to Hollywood, I’ll ruin my face’,” Luke says.
Chris went on to appear in Home And Away before chasing his Hollywood dream.
Luke and Chris reconnected when the star invited him to holiday in Costa Rica, where he asked the Aussie trainer to help him lose weight for a movie.
“It kind of snowballed from there. We went onto another film and now it’s been seven years and 12-13 films later,” he says.
So how does a Melbourne PT turn Chris Hemsworth into Thor?
“Training is important but it all comes down to food,” he says.
While filming Avengers: Age of Ultron, Chris was eating a 200g fillet steak every morning, three boiled eggs and 100g blueberries — which would help him reach his daily 3000 calories limit. He’d also eat six meals a day.
“On the latest Avengers film, we went vegan,” Luke says.
“So there were a lot more beans than we’re used to eating and a gassy few months.”
“He cut down on animal based proteins, so he wasn’t completely vegan.”
Surprisingly, nobody was able to tell the difference between Chris’ animal and plant-based body gains in the two films.
“Actually he maintained the same size because he was so used to eating animal proteins, he was eating even more food. He kept his size,” Luke says.
Diet was also crucial to another leading role Chris played In the Heart of the Sea in 2015.
Luke became the food police, making sure the actor never ate more than 500 calories a day.
“He did intermittent fasting. Eight hours of eating and 16 off food, for six weeks,” he says.
“For 4-6 weeks, it was literally a boiled egg and piece of broccoli for breakfast.”
Luke says people often think Chris is in the gym, training for hours to become a ripped superhero, but that’s not the case.
“Your body isn’t designed to work out for hours on end,” he says.
“Even when we were training for Avengers and Thor, we weren’t doing more than one hour a day.”
Luke’s training expertise is seen in Chris’ new training program Centr — an app he created with his wife Elsa Pataky to teach people how to lead a healthy lifestyle through training, diet, yoga and mindfulness.
The app launched in February and Luke was in charge of creating a workout program, which he designed for the time-poor person.
“I find everyone I speak to is pushed for time, so I went into the app with the mentality of designing 20 minute workouts that’ll get results.”
As for whether you’ll see Chris and Luke back in the ring anytime soon?
“He’s pretty good on the pads. But he won’t want to ruin that beautiful face,” Luke says.
HOW TO LOOK LIKE THOR
Here’s an example of one of Luke’s workouts from the Centr app.
Complete 10 reps of each move, followed by a 30 second rest.
This is one round, complete five rounds in total.
1. BURPEE CURL TO PRESS
Begin standing, feet hip-width and hands holding dumbbells by your sides.
In one fluid motion, bend down and place your hands and dumbbells under your shoulders as you jump your feet backwards to a push-up position. Complete a push-up before jumping your feet back under your body, standing back up and raising the dumbbells straight above your head as you do so. Lower the dumbbells to the starting position. This is one rep.
2. WALKING PLANKS
Take the plank position with your weight supported on your forearms and toes, your elbows beneath your shoulders, and your core muscles engaged (squeeze your glutes and tense your abdominals).
Take your right arm from the floor, placing your hand below your right shoulder.
Push up with your right hand while raising your left arm and placing it beneath your left shoulder. The top position resembles a narrow push-up. Return to the start position.
This is one repetition. Complete the next repetition by leading with your left arm, then alternate.
3. DUMBBELL RENEGADE ROW AND PUSH UP
Start in a high plank position — hands positioned beneath your shoulders, feet apart (the wider they are, the easier the exercise will be), a straight line from your shoulders to your ankles and a dumbbell in each hand. With your core muscles engaged (squeeze your glutes and tense your abdominals), complete a push-up. At the top of the push up, row the right dumbbell up and back down in line with your belly button, then the left.
This is one rep. To reduce the difficulty, perform the exercise on your knees.
4. DUMBBELL BENT-OVER REAR FLYS
Take the position by standing with knees slightly bent, and hinge from the hips to bend so your back is flat and parallel with the ground. Hold your dumbbells straight down, touching underneath your chest and refrain from arching your back. While tensing your stomach, raise each hand up to the side of your body at the same time, forming a T shape and not going above your back. Slowly lower arms and repeat.
5. DUMBBELL HAMMER CURL AND REVERSE LUNGE
Stand holding your dumbbells by your sides, with your palms facing toward your body.
Step your right foot back behind your body and lunge down, your right knee touching the ground and left knee staying in line with your ankle. At the same time, raise both dumbbells up to shoulder height, while keeping your elbows tucked in. Lower the dumbbells as you return your right foot to the starting position. This is one rep, complete the next rep with your left leg.
6. HOLLOW-OUTS
Lie down flat on your back and hold your arms and legs straight out from the body, with hands and toes pointed, hovering slightly above the ground. The key with this exercise is to tense your abs and glutes to move with control rather than momentum.
So, with control, slowly begin to rock back and forth — raise your upper body off the ground as you lower your legs, then rock back the other way just before your legs touch the ground. Maintain lower body contact with the ground for the duration of the movement. Rock forward, then back — this is one rep. Repeat.
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