Luke Zocchi tells us what it’s like to train a superhero

Centr trainer Luke Zocchi is known for many things—like his hilarious Instagram cooking tutorials—but if there’s one name that’s forever linked to his, it’s Chris Hemsworth. Luke is the trainer responsible for getting Chris’s “Thor body” in shape, and he’s also worked with actors like Cate Blanchett and Liam Hemsworth.

If you’ve watched any of Luke’s workout videos, you’ll know his 20-minute programs are no joke – and nobody knows that better than Thor himself. Luke has been working with Chris over the course of a dozen movies so far, and the team show no signs of slowing down.

Luke and Chris are old mates, and that means training The God of Thunder doesn’t always go according to plan. “We know each other pretty well, so there would be times that I’d come into the gym and say, ‘Alright, we are going to do this, we are going to do ten pull-ups and 20 push-ups.' And he'd be like, ‘Yeah, I don't really feel like doing that.' And I was like, ‘What do I do now?’” Luke laughs.

Quickly, Luke worked out that the best way to train Chris to superhero standard was to forget about shouting orders at him from across the gym and join in himself. “Because he is so competitive, I'll go do my pull-ups, my push-ups, and next minute he's behind me doing more than me,” Luke says. “He is very competitive and that is how I kind of trick him into doing things.”

When they’re not turning Chris into a Norse god, Luke adjusts their training program to suit the role. This might mean upping cardio or introducing boxing-style workouts (with Luke sometimes receiving an accidental kick in the face during a sparring session).