You’re probably going to see The Avengers this weekend. And while you’re watching you’re likely to see Chris Hemsworth as Thor and see just how damn buff he got for the role. But how did he do it? Well, a lot of hard work.

The good people over at Men’s Health talked to him and put together his workout. Basically, Hemsworth didn’t even use weights before he was casted as Thor. He kept healthy by being active. He regularly surfed and played both soccer and rugby. Only three of the most physically intensive sports you could play.

But he still had to pack 20 pounds of muscle onto his body for Thor, so he increased his intake of food with plenty of fruit and vegetables. The nonprocessed carbohydrates, like fruit, helped him rebuild muscle because they slow muscle protein breakdown. Fruits and vegetables also contain fiber, which helps cardiovascular health. The antioxidants provided also help with muscle recovery.

That’s not all he did of course, the actor preached a balance routine of diet, rest and exercise to Men’s Health. His trainers preached to him to vary his workouts and change weight, reps and speed so that his muscles couldn’t adjust to his workout. They even mention that minor changes like hand placement on a pull-up change mix things up.

His workout worked so well that he was too big for the Thor suit initially, he had to lose weight to fit into it.

The exercises below are meant to be done as a circuit, as described by Men’s Health. They say to move from one to the other without rest and to only rest for 60 seconds when you’ve completed them all. Repeat it all 3 times.

You can do this one with a sledgehammer and a tire. If you don’t have those then you can use a medicine ball instead. But instead of swinging a hammer you’re doing overhead medicine ball slams. KABOOM.

Anyway, stand a foot from the tire and keep your knees bent. Rotate your upper back slightly to the right and raise the hammer above your right side and then brace your abs and slam that hammer down like the mighty hammer of Thor! Ah HAH! You want to aim for the center of the tire. After you do eight reps switch to the other side.

Stand with your knees bent, chest up and hips back. OK, now you should look like a defensive back before the snap of an NFL game. EXPLOSIVELY launch will your left leg and move horizontally to your right, land on your right foot and stick it so your body doesn’t move. Pause and go the other way. Now you can dodge Loki’s attacks!

Get some hex dumbbells and get into a pushup position. Go down. As you push yourself back up rotate the right side of your body and pull your right arm into your torso. Once your torso is parallel to your left arm push your right arm up and keep it straight so you look like a giant T that fell over. Lower the dumbbell and do it on the left side. It’s like you’re wielding two mighty hammers! Great Odin’s Beard!

Get in the pushup position and make sure your arms are straight. Lift your right leg off the floor and move it toward your chest slowly. Then touch the floor with your right foot. Put that foot back and do the same thing with your left leg and you’ve completed 1 rep. Kazam! You are now doing the God of Thunder workout, as provided by Men’s Health.

You can check out more over there. They go in depth with their interview and have some neat-o pictures of the workout. Now you have about a year until Thor 2 hits. So get ready puny mortal! [Men's Health]

the avengers, thor, workouts