- Here’s a detailed breakdown from Pendergast of Portman’s workouts and diet during the training.
To tone her arms for “Love and Thunder,” Portman didn’t just lift a lot of weights, she also adjusted her calorie intake.
Pendergast said Portman, who is vegan, didn’t need to overhaul her diet but instead needed to eat more calories so her body could increase her muscle mass.
“To work out her requirements, Natalie did a metabolic test. This is a test that gives you a very accurate reading of your daily calorie needs,” Pendergast told Insider. “From these numbers, we were able to work out how many more calories a day Natalie needed to bulk up.”
The result was this diet for Portman through training:
Breakfast: Vegan-based breakfast of oats and berries, plus a plant-based protein shake (taken after training).
Snacks throughout the day: Fruit, nuts, salads.
Lunch: Vegan falafel dish again with a plant-based protein shake.
Dinner: Vegan curry and a plant-based protein shake.
Aside from having noticeably strong arms to play Mighty Thor, Portman also needed to strengthen her core to get through her performance, Pendergast said.
“The original goal for Natalie with her training was to have bulked up and strong arms, but we quickly realized that her role was so much more than just the look,” Pendergast said.
“Natalie had to perform quite a few stunts which required her body to be agile and very strong in the core, so this also became a focus in our training sessions to make sure that she was able to perform her stunts without getting injured and recover swiftly after a stunt day,” she continued.
Here’s what the core-focused workouts consisted of:
1 set/20 reps: Basic abdominal crunch (feet down)
1 set/20 reps: Abdominal crunch (feet up)
1 set/20 reps: Abdominal crunch with a twist
3 sets/1 minute: Weighted overhead arm raise
Pendergast noted that they only had four months before shooting started to get Portman to look like Mighty Thor. She said it was the star’s dedication that led to the results they got.
“Natalie is a very focused, hardworking, and determined woman, which was the main reason we were able to reach the goal look in time for filming,” Pendergast said.
Here’s the workout routine Portman did to get her toned arms:
Warm-up:
30 seconds: Marching arms
30 seconds: Lat stretch
30 seconds: Beast crawl
10 reps: Roll down walk outs
25 reps: Power band kneeling reverse fly
Main set:
4 sets/12 reps: Banded pull-ups
4 sets/25 reps: Dumbbell straight arm lateral raise
(rest 1.5 minutes)
4 sets/20 reps: Straight arm raise (palms up)
4 sets/1 minute: Reverse plank
(rest 1.5 minutes)
4 sets/10 reps: Seated dumbbell Arnold press
4 sets/20 reps: Kneeling banded tricep press
(rest 1.5 minutes)
4 sets/12 reps: Dumbbell bicep curl
4 sets/20 reps: Banded kneeling rotation
(rest 1.5 minutes)
4 sets/12 reps: Dumbbell tricep press
4 sets/1 minute: Squat jumps
(rest 1.5 minutes)
Cardio:
3 rounds of 2 minutes: Boxing followed by 1 minute of skipping.
(rest 1.5 minutes then repeat set)
Cool down:
Stretching and release using a foam roller.
This content was originally published here.