Chris Hemsworth's no-frills holiday workout proves you don't need a hotel gym to stay in shape

centr chris hemsworth workout — (Image credit: Centr)

While most of us tend to choose a hotel with a decent gym when going away, Chris Hemsworth proves that if you want to squeeze in a workout on holiday, a lack of a gym or equipment doesn't need to stop you.

Then again, when you're weeks away from filming Extraction 3, there's probably no such thing as completely switching off.

While holidaying in Costa Rica, the muscle-bound Marvel star braved the Costa Rican heat, grabbed a kettlebell and a resistance band and put together a 17-move full-body circuit designed to hit every muscle, with barely any equipment.

Chris Hemsworth's 17-move circuit workout

Hemsworth performs 17 consecutive exercises to complete one round, then rests for two minutes and goes again. He completes two rounds in total. The moves are as follows:

1. Banded kettlebell curl

Reps: 10

Loop your resistance band around the kettlebell to add resistance as you curl, targeting the biceps and forearms.

2. Banded reverse fly

Reps: 12

A great move for targeting the rear delts and upper back while helping strengthen the muscles that support good posture.

3. Banded kettlebell side bend

Reps: 10

With your kettlebell looped, lower the bell toward the floor by hinging at the hips, then return upright. This move works your obliques and entire core.

4. Banded kettlebell suitcase carry

Reps: 30-40m each side

Hold your looped kettlebell on one side and walk, resisting the urge to lean or twist from the pull of the bell. This move challenges your grip, obliques and overall core stability.

5. Banded glute kickback

Reps: 12 each side

This lower-body exercise isolates the glutes while requiring your core to keep your pelvis stable.

6. Banded hip abduction

Reps: 12 each side

Moving your leg out to the side against the resistance of the band targets the outer glutes while challenging hip stability.

7. Banded single-arm fly

Reps: 10 each side

This upper-body move targets the chest while requiring plenty of control and stability through the shoulder.

A woman performing pallof press exercise

8. Banded Pallof halo press

Reps: 6 each side

Combining resistance with controlled movement around the body, this move puts your core stability to the test.

9. Banded single-arm row

Reps: 10 each side

This pulling exercise targets your lats and upper back while challenging your core to keep your torso stable.

10. Banded rotational punch

Reps: 10 each side

Punch against the resistance of the band while rotating through your torso to challenge the shoulders and rotational core.

11. Half-kneeling kettlebell press

Reps: 8-10 each side

Pressing from a half-kneeling position works the shoulders while forcing your core and hips to stabilise your body.

12. Half-kneeling kettlebell woodchop

Reps: 8-10 each side

This rotational exercise challenges the obliques and teaches your core to transfer force across the body.

13. Push-up into mountain climber

Reps: 20

Combining push-ups with mountain climbers works the chest, shoulders, triceps and core while sending your heart rate soaring.

14. Kettlebell jackknife

Reps: 10

Holding the kettlebell overhead as you bring your legs up towards your upper body turns this into a pretty challenging core exercise.

15. Back extension

Reps: 10

This move targets the posterior chain, particularly the lower back, glutes and hamstrings.

16. Back extension with rotation

Reps: 8 each side

Adding rotation to the back extension brings the torso into play while continuing to challenge the posterior chain.

17. Cross-body dead bug punch

Reps: 10 each side

Holding the kettlebell in one hand while moving the opposite leg challenges your abs as your upper and lower body work in sync.

Once you've completed all 17 exercises, take a well-earned two-minute breather before repeating the whole thing for a second round.

Why this workout works so well

Hemsworth's workout is built around the idea that you don't need a fully equipped gym to train your entire body.

By combining resistance-band exercises with kettlebell movements and bodyweight exercises, you're able to hit multiple movement patterns within one session.

The program includes pulls, presses, and rotational exercises for the upper body; carries and glute work for the lower body; and plenty of ab exercises to keep your core busy and help build a body that performs well and looks even better.

The resistance band is particularly useful when equipment is limited. Unlike a dumbbell or kettlebell, where the load remains relatively constant, a resistance band generally provides more resistance the further you stretch it.

That means your muscles keep working as tension increases, even without access to a full rack of weights.

Then there's the core work. Functional exercises such as the suitcase carry, Pallof halo press and dead bug punch require you to resist unwanted movement and keep your torso stable, while the side bends and woodchops introduce lateral (side-to-side) and rotational movement.

In other words, your core isn't just working forwards and backwards. It's resisting, rotating and stabilising in several different directions, which is much closer to what it has to do during sport and everyday movement.

And while this is primarily a resistance-based circuit, Hemsworth hasn't forgotten about bodyweight work and conditioning. The push-up into mountain climber recruits multiple muscle groups at once, while moving through the 17 exercises with little rest between moves should keep the heart rate high and the session moving at a decent pace.

That's also what makes it such a handy holiday workout. You get strength, core, coordination, and cardio in one session without hunting down a fully equipped hotel gym, proving that minimal equipment doesn't have to mean minimal effort.

Lucy Miller is a journalist, Level 3 Personal Trainer, Nutritional Advisor and Children’s Fitness Specialist. She holds fitness qualifications from NASM Training and Premier Training International and has been a fitness journalist and fitness (and cover) model for over 20 years. Since going freelance in 2014, Lucy left Men’s Fitness Magazine to write for an abundance of top consumer titles such as Women’s Health, Women’s Fitness, Waitrose, The Times, The Guardian and Runners World.

She’s also extremely passionate when it comes to educating others about health and physical activity and loves inspiring and working with children and adults to help make fitness fun, sustainable and accessible. In her spare time, Lucy is ever the sportswoman. Once a national gymnast, having won three national titles, she has also run a handful of marathons around the world and loves to test her physical and mental side with daily running and gym sessions, not to mention ballet, bootcamp, boxing and TRX.