You’ve likely already seen the Greek Warrior Program, and are now intrigued by the Thor program. Well, this can almost be seen as the ‘bigger’ version. Almost like the next level.
Granted, not all guys will want to be as big as Chris Hemsworth was in the movie Thor, and this was made clear to me via the Twitter poll. Brad Pitt’s physique in Troy was ranked as the most aesthetic, and Chris Hemsworth came in second place.
However, if you want to be even bigger, stronger and more powerful, then this is the program for you!
The biggest difference between Chris Hemsworth and Brad Pitt in their respective movies, is muscle mass.
They’re both approximately 10% body fat, and they both have excellent definition. The difference is in the sheer size, power and intimidation that the Thor physique has over the Greek Warrior physique.
Brute strength over just aesthetics.
Monster vs Warrior.
Muscle Mass
Your muscle mass is going to provide the foundation for any physique. But this physique requires more than just a foundation. It’s a damn powerhouse.
Chris Hemsworth stands at a little over 6’2, and in this movie he weighed in at 220 pounds. This is going to be the absolute maximum genetic potential for most lifters, with decent genetics. You won’t get bigger than this. It will take a lot of hard work, eating a calorie surplus and sleeping like a baby.
Hard Work
Hard work means time spent in the gym. High volume training; volume that increases incrementally over time. This is the only way to get as big as Thor.
Instead of performing 6-10 sets per muscle group per week like the Greek Warrior program, you will be doing much more throughout this program. This will also be a much longer program, and it will progress in terms of sets per week and weight every four weeks, instead of just weight lifted.
Calorie Surplus
Whilst Thor is about 10-11% body fat, he didn’t get lean first. He got lean after he had built all his muscle. You will never build this amount of muscle whilst being lean. You will have to gain weight, and then cut down later.
Gaining weight requires a calorie surplus, of course.
How big should it be?
Approximately 10%. That is, 10% more calories than your body needs to maintain itself. So if your maintenance is 2500, eat 2750.
But over time, you will gain muscle. And as you gain muscle, your maintenance calories will slowly shift upwards. You will also need to increase your caloric intake. Once you stop gaining 1-3 pounds every month, you will need to increase your calories by a further 100-200 per day.
Now, although protein is important, I wouldn’t over-focus on it. The reality is that it’s easy to get your protein needs met when in a calorie surplus, and that it’s when you’re cutting that protein becomes more crucial.
Shoot for 0.7-0.85 grams per pound of bodyweight.
Where I would be focusing would be ‘healthy’ carbs and fats. The rest of your calories are going to come from these two; and they’re both crucial for muscle gaining.
Your healthy carbs are massively important for recovery, energy, and they make it possible to eat enough calories. If you only eat protein and super-clean fats, it will be very difficult to eat 3500 calories, for example (which you may need to do eventually!)
Think:
- Sweet potatoes
- Boiled potatoes
- Rice
- Pasta
- Bread
- Veggies
- Fruit
Bread and pasta are a grey area when it comes to fat loss, but seeing as we need to maximize muscle growth, I would actually advise you to eat these. I don’t care if it’s controversial.
Do you want to get jacked, or not?
Exactly.
Fats are going to be crucial for maximising your testosterone production and helping you to get as big as possible.
Think:
- Eggs
- Salmon
- Mackerel
- Tuna
- Nuts
- Full fat milk
- Cheese
- Etc.
Very important. They’re a great easy way to get extra calories in, especially from the nuts, cheese, and full fat milk, that other guys are going to be missing out on. And you NEED these calories to recover from the high volume training too.
Sleeping Like A Baby
This is really important. Too many guys seem to think it’s ‘cool’ to grind all day and only sleep five hours per night.
They have no chance getting the Thor physique.
You have to sleep well. Frankly, with all the healthy fats and carbs consumed in the evening (Intermittent Fasting style), you shouldn’t have any major issue with this.
But additionally, here’s three key points:
1. Alcohol will ruin your sleep. Eliminate it from your diet.
2. Turn your lights down, turn all electronics off, and just have lamps on, at least one hour before bed. Then start reading a hardback book. This will send you off to sleep.
3. Take ZMA 30 minutes before bed.
If you do the above three in addition to my Intermittent Fasting schedule, you will be sleeping like a baby every night in no time.
If you still have issues, you have lifestyle factors that need to be fixed and are beyond the scope of this program.
Low Body Fat
So Thor is approximately 10-11% body fat, but as I’ve stated before; he definitely did not gain muscle and lose fat at the same time to get this look. Whilst it’s perfectly possible to do with the Greek Warrior physique, there’s just too much muscle to build with the Thor physique to do this. Trust me, it takes time. And food.
But once you have built enough muscle, it’s time to get lean.
And you know what that means?
Correct!
- Intermittent Fasting with morning coffees
- Protein at 1 gram per pound of bodyweight
- Lots of green veggies
- Most of your protein at 1pm
- Get active every day
- Save your carbs for the evening
- Cut back on some of the fats mentioned above
- Keep sugar and alcohol out of your diet
You should already have been eating a clean diet for the bulking part of this program – zero alcohol and zero junk food.
But now we’re reining it in on bread, pasta, and some of the calories from the fats (depending on how many you needed to gain muscle).
Do the above, and then make sure your total energy balance is a 10-15% calorie deficit to start losing fat. Once the water weight is off, you want to lose about 1 pound per week, possibly less to ensure that you conserve all of your hard-earned muscle.
The Thor MASS Program
Okay, it’s time to see the program itself:
Week 1
Monday
Flat Bench Press – 3 sets of 12
Incline Dumbbell Press – 3 sets of 12
Barbell Rows – 4 sets of 12
Side Raises – 3 sets of 15
Skullcrushers – 3 sets of 15
Hammer Curls – 3 sets of 15
Tuesday
Squat – 3 sets of 12
Stiff Legged Deadlift – 2 sets of 12
Pull Ups – 4 sets of RPE 8 (rate of perceived exertion, on a scale from 1 to 10)
Leg Extensions – 3 sets of 15
Crunches – 3 sets of 15
Thursday
Standing Overhead Press – 3 sets of 12
Seated Dumbbell Shoulder Press – 3 sets of 12
Pull Downs – 4 sets of 12
Cable Flies – 3 sets of 15
Skullcrushers – 3 sets of 15
Hammer Curls – 3 sets of 15
Friday
Deadlift – 2 sets of 12
Leg Press – 3 sets of 12
Pull Ups – 4 sets of RPE 8 (rate of perceived exertion, on a scale from 1 to 10)
Hamstring Curls – 3 sets of 15
Crunches – 3 sets of 15
Saturday
Incline Bench Press – 3 sets of 12
Standing Overhead Press – 3 sets of 12
Barbell Rows – 4 sets of 12
Side Raises – 3 sets of 15
Skullcrushers – 3 sets of 15
Hammer Curls – 3 sets of 15
There is a strong upper body emphasis here, with three upper body workouts and two lower body workouts per week. The upper body can generally hand greater workloads, especially when we’re looking at the squat and deadlift for the lower body.
Overall, this is a solid amount of work and frequency to get your body moving.
By the way, if you’re not used to higher training frequency, I would start off very light, and gradually increase the weights for a few weeks before progressing from week 1.
Higher frequency training can be pretty rough. Take a couple of ‘introductory’ light weeks before beginning properly.
Once you’re fully adapted to higher frequency training, it’s time to ramp up the volume.
Week 2
Do the exact same as week one, but increase the number of sets by one, for the following exercises:
- Any bench presses
- Any shoulder presses
- Any deadlifts
- Any squats or leg presses
- Any rows or pull ups
The compound movements, essentially. Whilst the isolation movements can remain the same.
This will take more time in the gym, and will significantly increase the workload on your body overall. Good. You need it. You’ve already got your diet and sleep dialed in at this point, so you will be able to recover from it.
Week 3
Same again. Increase the number of sets performed by another one, for the same compound exercises.
Week 4
Deload. Perform 2 sets for ALL exercises, allowing your body to recover and recuperate.
That is the end of block 1. To start block 2, week 1, you do exactly the same as block 1, week 1, but you increase your:
- Upper body lifts by 5 pounds.
This is a strict rule for the compound movements. However for isolation movements, you’re free to do what you like, as the margins will be much smaller with them.
Each week, the volume increases. Each block, you also have weight increases.
Make sure you raise your caloric intake when you stop gaining weight, and make sure you continue to sleep like a baby.
It’s time to get the Thor physique.
Enjoy!