Chris Hemsworth is dying. He’s just blasted through Sunset Pines Retirement Village on a gurney, ambulance lights flashing. The defibrillator paddles fail; all that’s left is a long, flatlining beep. Then darkness. A death doula hovers over his head.
But more on that later, because he’s back from the Great Beyond to answer a gravely important question: What the hell is that new tattoo? It looks like he’s planning to cheat on an AP Geometry quiz at Pink Floyd University.
“Ha,” he booms, squinting down at the overlapping prisms, circles and parallelograms inked inside his right forearm. “I listen to a lot of Pink Floyd Dark Side of the Moon. ‘Time’ is great, ‘The Great Gig in the Sky,’ that whole album is pretty fascinating.” He pauses. “You a fan?” he asks, and it feels like we’re having beers at a pub, even though we’re on different continents, with the sun rising in America and the sky darkening outside of his hotel room in the center of Sydney, Australia.
Michael Muller
It’s disarming, this level of laid-back geniality from a deity (Thor, unless you’ve been hiding under a rock named Korg) with the No. 1 movie in the world at press time (Thor: Love and Thunder; see aforementioned rock), which, with his previous three films in the franchise, has grossed over $2.5 billion globally—and that’s not even counting clams from the other five Avengers films he’s graced in the nearly $30 billion-grossing MCU machine. Multiply that by the crowd-pulling power of his other ass-kicking hero, Tyler Rake in Extraction, Netflix’s most-watched original film ever, and it’s clear the world is mainlining Hem’s freshly cut content faster than a Dhaka drug lord.
What’s more, the guy who seemingly has all the time in the world to chat has spent his entire day sweating it out on the set of Furiosa, the hotly anticipated 2024 prequel to Oscar-winning Mad Max: Fury Road. Furiosa will be the biggest film ever made in Australia, with a $185 million budget, 528 times that of the 1979 original in the saga.
Meanwhile, my humble new mate is still contemplating his tattoo. “Y’know, my buddy came up with this thing, we were having a few beers.” He stops, breaking into laughter. “I told him to start drawing some stuff and the next day I was like, ‘Ah yeah, what is that?’ I wish it had a greater meaning, but maybe that’s it. There was an acceptance and surrendering to whatever the hell this is.”
Fast and Furiosa
Hemsworth is in wind-down mode before hitting the sack, which, at 39, happens earlier these days. “I used to run on four, five, six hours, and then you start getting eight hours’ sleep and you realize, ‘Oh my God, this is what it feels like to run at a hundred percent.’”
Still, he admits to being a 2:30 a.m. worrier. “I’ve always had that, ever since I was a young kid, I would sort of do something through the day that I wasn’t proud of, I’d fight with my little brother, and then in the middle of the night I’d feel guilty and wake him up and apologize,” he says. “It was always the nighttime for me where there was a real honesty, and it was quite abrupt. It still happens now.”
The last thing that kept him up was Thor. “You’re waking up worrying, ‘Is the film gonna work? Have I let people down? Did I do a good enough job? Did I promote it properly? Are fans responding?’ Just all the stuff I like to think I’m beyond, but it’s a very tricky thing to care about something so much, put your heart and soul in it and then let go and not care about the result.” He calls it “almost PTSD” from years of coming up in the business, facing criticism and judgment. He’s learned to deal with it better over time, thanks to pivotal advice from his mum, Leonie, “but there are some old scars that pop up.”
But there’s no time for licking battle wounds tonight, because tomorrow he’s due back on set. “We’re in the thick of it with Furiosa and it’s fantastic, so much fun,” he says. “I came into this film pretty exhausted, just off the back of a few press tours and a few other films, but reinvigorated. [Director] George Miller is just incredible. So I’m all good, long day, but I’m happy,” he says, and you get the sense he’s almost amused that his eyes are still open.
On tap for tomorrow: more “character and world building” after his daily postapocalyptic prosthetic makeover to transform him into the warlord Dementus. Hemsworth’s stubble is shorter than usual, because the glue for his yak hair—yep, Dementus’ wild red ZZ Top beard is made from sheared yak tresses—is a pain to remove when his own beard grows beyond three days. Does he scare himself in the mirror? “Nah,” he says, though he warns there’s “some pretty shocking things and quite a few variations” with his look in the film.
Michael Muller
Anyone who remembers Hemsworth’s hypnotic rattlesnake of a cult leader in the 2018 neo-noir Bad Times at the El Royale and his psycho prison warden in last summer’s sci-fi thriller Spiderhead knows Dementus won’t be his first villain rodeo. He finds playing against type liberating. “You’re allowed to be completely unhinged,” he says. “You don’t have to apologize or play it safe as far as offending anyone, you can kind of just go for it. Especially coming off the back of playing superheroes and heroic characters. It’s kind of why I got into acting. Same as when I was a kid in the backyard, playing dress-up or make-believe, having all sorts of crazy characters and your imagination’s allowed to run wild.” He cites The Hobbit, The NeverEnding Story and The Princess Bride as early favorites, and played a lot of war games, where he mimicked his fair share of Rambo-isms and Van Damme fly kicks.
Call it fertile training ground for leading a Biker Horde as Dementus, which he says was another attraction for jumping into Furiosa. “I had an old Yamaha DT-175 when we were kids, and then a Pee Wee 50, which we’d fang around on through the forest where we lived, dodging the rangers.” The “we,” of course, being his Melbourne-born, outback-raised brothers, Luke, 41, and Liam, 32. “As we got older, I’ve gotten a Ducati Scrambler and a couple of Aprilias,” he says. “Our dad raced motorbikes and still does, historic bikes from the ’60s, ’70s and ’80s, and is up on the podium every couple of months, so a lot of that bike riding influence came from him.”
Michael Muller
Braking Point
Following Hemsworth’s career is like watching his character James Hunt beating it around the track in his 2013 Formula 1 drama, Rush. It’s dizzying, even record-shattering, but you start to wonder how much the pace has worn on the superstar. Two and a half years ago, which he says feels more like 10, he nearly hit a wall.
“It was right before Covid, I was really exhausted,” he remembers. He’d done film after film while raising three kids (daughter India Rose, 10, and twin sons Sasha and Tristan, 8) with his wife, actress Elsa Pataky. “It was crazy and has been the most incredible experience, but really taxing at times trying to juggle everything. Just a constant influx of adrenaline and stimulation through different pressures and so on, and the physical toll my body was taking from going up in weight and then taking it off for another role. I wanted some downtime.”
But an opportunity surfaced that he couldn’t pass up: a National Geographic series focused on health and wellness, a world Hemsworth knew intimately. “Originally, it was a three-week shoot,” he says, “a pretty simple kind of docuseries. Darren Aronofsky was heading the whole thing, so I thought, ‘Great, it should be fun.’” But then Covid happened, and three weeks turned nearly three years. One thing was for sure: This was going to be a lot more intense than a male version of GOOP.
Called Limitless with Chris Hemsworth, it drops this November on Disney+. Among the feats Hemsworth performs in pursuit of longevity: walking across a crane 88 stories in the air overlooking Sydney Harbor, doing a Navy Seal–style drowning simulation, putting out a raging fire, pulling a vehicle with his own bodyweight, fasting four days, rope-climbing 1,000 feet over a ravine, being aged into an octogenarian… and, well, dying.
“I’ve always thought, ‘Oh yeah, I’m not gonna die,’” he says. “I remember in high school, thinking I could survive a car crash, a plane crash, whatever. I’d figure it out, right? I remember telling my grandpa about it, and he had the same thing. It wasn’t arrogance; it was just a very positive attitude about life. Like, I’ll figure it out, I’ll work it out, I’ll overcome that, I’ll succeed. So it never scared me. And then as I approach 40, I’m all of a sudden going, ‘Oh my God, I’m potentially halfway there.’ It was all very confronting.”
Couldn’t he have just bought a midlife crisis Ferrari and called it a day?
Apparently not. Turns out, the only way to turn back the clock is to subject the body to extreme conditions and ask it to adapt (damn). But luckily for the rest of us, the six-episode series is the perfect level of pulse-pounding. You feel like you’re finally meeting the real Hemsworth, without a gun or a hammer or CGI. The Hemsworth who has nothing in his tool kit but breathing techniques and a prayer. The mortal, like you and me. Well, except for superior genetics. And that’s when you realize what a badass he really is.
“There was no faking what I was going through,” he says. “I tore ligaments in my ankle, I hurt my back, I was training nonstop for both Thor and different episodes, it was full-on. But there’s an authenticity to it. If we’d shot in that three-week period, it wouldn’t have turned out that way. The running joke between me and my mates was, we were gonna call it Limited, ’cause we were capping out,” he laughs.
When I ask which challenge was the hardest, he says the “Shock” episode, when he surfs the Norwegian Arctic, followed by swimming 250 meters in 37-degree water. “It was insane,” he remembers. “Halfway through, my brain felt like it was being stabbed by a thousand knives.” But there are lighter moments, too, like when Chris pulls Luke and Liam into a polar plunge and soccer match. “We used to go on surfing trips together and this felt similar, but in a place so removed from everything. We were wide-eyed and fascinated.” In Hemsworth’s eyes, he and his brothers will always be 12, 18 and 21 to each other. “That period to me, just finishing high school, Luke’s already finished, Liam’s coming up, when we were our most active and surfing and talking about acting and all the things we wanted to do, is so vivid in my mind. As we get older and we’re supposed to be men, when the three of us hang out, it feels like we’re back there, kids still.”
Which begs the question: If the bros took on his Love and Thunder castmates Christian Bale, Russell Crowe and Tom Hiddleston in a three-on-three, who’d win? “Bale, I think, can play soccer. Crowe is rugby, so I think we’d be able to take him. But Hiddleston’s a distance runner, he’d run circles around us,” he laughs.
Michael Muller
Cruise Control
Looking back, Limitless put everything into perspective, he says, even an afterlife he can’t comprehend. “It was the most beautiful appreciation for life and then a real hope that there is some sort of continuation. I was like, ‘Man, I hope there’s some version of all this continuing in any shape or form, I don’t know what or when or how.’”
It was also a wake-up call. “Hey, soak it up, enjoy it, ’cause the clock’s ticking. I like the fact that it scared the shit out of me at times, and now also has become a friendly reminder,” he says. “You hear it all the time: It’s been right in front of us the whole time. The now, the moment, the present, it’s right in front of us, and we’re so distracted and caught up in these future goals, or past experiences, that we’re not appreciating what’s right here.”
He pauses, taking in his own words. “And that was the moment where I thought, once I’m done with the next run of films, which are taking me through to now, I’m having some time off.” When he reemerges, he’d like to dig into a smaller, contained drama or love story, without all the special effects. But don’t mark your calendar. “I’m gonna throw my phone away and remove myself from all of it for a while,” he says. “I’m not saying years and years, but I would love a little distance to soak up some time with my family, my kids.”
So while fans get their next fix when Extraction 2 hits screens next spring, you’ll find Hemsworth at home in the coastal suburb of Broken Head, noshing on his favorite steak, bacon and cheese pie and almond latte from Suffolk Bakery, reading The Untethered Soul, a book he heard about on Russell Brand’s podcast, and barbecuing with friends and family. He may even slip into a local music festival in disguise. And before the rest of the world wakes up, he’ll be catching clean five- to six-footers along Byron Bay’s coastline, as the sun rises from the easternmost point on the planet. “I can just sit at peace, in the stillness of those early hours,” he says. “I’ll send you a photo of it from my roof.”
Wait—wasn’t he chucking his phone? “Ah, right, I’ll take it with old-fashioned film then,” he promises with a laugh. We both know he won’t, but an image instantly develops anyway: all 6-foot-3 of him, floating in the waves, surrendering to whatever the hell this is, just like his tattoo, as the circle of sun shoots a gold triangle over the ocean from a razor-sharp horizon line, its own trippy sacred geometry.
Hem’s Greatest Hits
Nothing beats this basic bodyweight circuit 5 to 6 days per week:
5 rounds of all, in this order:
10 squats
10 chinups
10 lunges, each leg
10 pushups
10 side lunges, each leg
10 biceps curls into shoulder presses with dumbbells (he uses 22 lbs. each)
There’s no doubt when the weather turns colder as we settle into winter, stouts take center stage. And while we enjoy all its iterations: standard stout, imperial stout, and robust barrel-aged stouts, we think this malty, chocolate-filled beer’s close cousin deserves a little respect as well. Of course, we’re talking about the oft-overlooked porter. And the best porters, oh buddy, they’ll have you rethinking your seasonal bevvie of choice.
For those uninitiated, the porter style had its genesis in England like many other iconic beer styles. It first appeared in the 1700s and is (you guessed it) named after porters—individuals tasked with transporting luggage.
A confusing origin story
“Stout is the direct descendant of porter. In the 1700s, it was common to use the word ‘stout’ to refer to a bolder, higher-alcohol version of any beer style, much in the same way we use the word ‘imperial’ today,” says Zach Fowle, advanced cicerone and head of marketing for Arizona Wilderness Brewing Co. in Phoenix, AZ. “Porter was the most popular beer of the day, and over time, “stout porter” became a popular variant. But by the late 1800s, demand for regular porters evaporated, and stout porter shortened simply to stout.”
But more has changed between the 1800s and today than just our penchant for wearing top hats. “Today, most brewers seem to market beers as either stout or porter based on vibes, rather than on any notable stylistic differences,” he says.
Specifically, porters are known for their dark, almost pitch-black color and rich, sweet flavor profile. If you were to drink a porter and a stout side by side, you might even have difficulty discerning the differences between the two.
Stout versus porter is an enduring topic of discussion in the brewing industry. “While there’s no debating the porter came first—and stout used to be called stout porter, so it was a stronger version of a porter—the lines have become very blurred over the years,” says Rob Lightner, co-founder of East Brother Brewing in Richmond, CA.
“I would venture that even among professionals, a blind taste test would often yield inconclusive results,” says Lightner.
The difference between porters and stouts
Porters tend to be on the milder, more chocolatey end of the spectrum, Lightner says, whereas stouts are typically a little stronger and more roasty. Of course, this isn’t a hard and fast rule
Fowle agrees, “Porters tend to be fruitier, sweeter, and less bitter than stouts, with cocoa and caramel flavors in balance with dark malt bitterness. And stouts are usually hoppier, drier, maltier, and more coffee-forward—and may even have a touch of acidity.”
Whether or not they fit neatly into boxes, one thing’s for sure: both make for incredible cold-weather brews.
“As the nights grow longer, drinking a light, summery beer just doesn’t seem right,” says Fowle. “Porter is the perfect style for the transition to winter: warming and toasty yet not too heavy, with flavors of coffee, chocolate, and pie crust that correspond with autumn weather and holidays.”
It’s the perfect time to broaden your repretoire. Sweet, robust, warming, and well-suited to the season, here are the best porters to drink now.
Courtesy image
1. Deschutes Black Butte Porter
There are few porters more well-respected than Deschutes’ iconic Black Butte Porter. It’s brewed with Cascade and Tettnang hops as well as 2-row, Chocolate, Crystal, and Carapils malts as well as wheat. This 5.5% ABV year-round offering is great for cold-weather drinking because of its mix of roasted malts, coffee, and chocolate. It’s a robust, subtly sweet beer perfect for imbibing on a crisp fall night.
The key to 360-degree muscle: 90-degree eccentric isometrics. It might seem like we’re throwing a lot of geometry at you, but the concept behind time under tension (TUT) is simple, says Joel Seedman, PhD, owner of Advanced Human Performance: “Perform the lowering phase of a movement in a slow, controlled fashion, usually 3 to 5 seconds; pause in the stretched position, typically around 90 degrees; then perform the lifting phase in a powerful yet controlled fashion.” Believe us, a time-under-tension workout can humble even seasoned lifters…Eccentric isometrics are like the pressure cooker of training.
“Rather than mindlessly performing slow-tempo reps, you’re using the increased time under tension as a means to fine-tune your body mechanics and alignment, which requires more mental engagement and focus,” Seedman adds.
If you want to forge functional muscle mass and strength while simultaneously bulletproofing the joints and connective tissue, give this 10-move, full-body eccentric isometrics workout a go.
Directions
Perform the following moves as 90-degree eccentric isometrics following the above protocol. Use heavy weight, but not at the detriment of proper form. Rest 60 to 90 seconds between sets and 2 minutes between circuits. Perform once every 2 to 4 days for optimal results.
Best Time-Under-Tension Workout for Total-Body Strength
Circuit 1
Marius Bugge
A. Barbell Back Squat
Set a squat rack up with heavy weight, then grasp bar and step under it. Squeeze shoulder blades together, then stand to unrack bar and step back with feet shoulder-width apart. Inhale, hinge at hips and slowly bend knees to 90 degrees. Pause, keeping natural arch in low back, then extend through hips to powerfully stand. 3 x 4-6 reps
Marius Bugge
B. Renegade Row
Start in the top position of a pushup with hands shoulder-width apart on moderate-to-heavy dumbbells (shown). Explosively drive right elbow back to row dumbbell toward ribs while balancing on opposite hand and feet. Pause, then slowly lower weight, stopping a few inches above floor. Switch sides after all reps are done. 3 x 5 reps each side
Circuit 2
Marius Bugge
A. Dumbbell Bentover Row
Stand with feet hip-width apart, holding two moderate-to-heavy dumbbells in front of thighs, palms facing you. Push hips back and hinge torso forward so it’s nearly parallel to floor, soft bend in knees. Dumbbells should be near shins. Drive elbows back to row weights toward ribs. Pause, then slowly lower down for 3 to 5 seconds. 3 x 4-5 reps
Marius Bugge
B. Incline Dumbbell Chest Press with Legs Raised
Set an adjustable bench to a 30- to 45-degree angle and lie back with dumbbells in either hand. Engage core and lift legs off floor, flexing feet. Press weights overhead, palms in. Slowly lower to 90 degrees, staying tight and compact. Pause, then drive weights up directly over chest. 3 x 4-5 reps
Circuit 3
Marius Bugge
A. Dumbbell Bulgarian Squat
Stand lunge-length in front of a flat bench, holding heavy dumbbells in each hand by your sides, palms facing in. Rest the ball on top (shoe’s laces) of your right foot behind you on the bench. Slowly lower your body until your front thigh is parallel to the floor. Pause, then drive through your heel to stand. Switch sides after all reps are complete. 2 x 3-4 reps each side
Marius Bugge
B. Single-leg Romanian Deadlift
Stand with feet hip-width apart holding dumbbells or kettlebells. Drive right leg up, foot flexed, knee aligned with hip, making a 90-degree angle. Hinge at hips as you slowly lever your torso toward floor, lowering weights and driving right leg back for counterbalance. Hold, then squeeze glutes to reverse. 2 x 3-4 reps each side
Circuit 4
Marius Bugge
A. Pullup
Hang from a pullup bar using an overhand grip with legs extended and feet flexed. Engage lats and draw shoulders down your back, then pull yourself up until chin is higher than hands. Pause at the top, then slowly lower. Pause at bottom, then reset before your next rep. 2-3 x 4-5 reps
Marius Bugge
B. Kneeling Overhead Barbell Press
Hold a bar with moderate-to-heavy load at shoulder level with forearms perpendicular to floor. Kneel at end of bench with feet flexed to grip edge for support. Inhale, engage your core and glutes, then press the bar overhead, pushing your head forward so it passes your face, exhaling at the top. Slowly lower until elbows are at 90 degrees, then hold to maintain tension. Begin your next rep from here. 2-3 x 4-5 reps
Circuit 5
A. Dumbbell Pushup
Place hands on dumbbells (this provides greater range of motion) at shoulder width and feet wider than shoulder width with just toes touching the ground. Keep head neutral and hips high to increase tension on core, chest and tris and reduce stress on spine. Slowly lower to the floor. Stop once elbows hit 90 degrees, pause, then push up to start. 1-2 x 6-8 reps
B. Biceps Curl
Stand with feet hip-width apart with moderate-to-heavy dumbbells in each hand hanging by sides. Engage biceps to curl the weights up, keeping upper arms still. Pause at the top, then lower slowly. Don’t let arms drop all the way down to keep greater time under tension on biceps. 1-2 x 6-8 reps
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If you haven’t picked up a jump rope since elementary school, you’re missing out on a fantastic cardio workout. Not only will you burn a ton of calories in a short amount of time—200 to 300 calories in 15 minutes—but jump ropes can also improve your coordination and agility. Better yet, jumping rope doesn’t require much space, so it’s easy to do at home, and it’s often more mentally stimulating than jogging or swimming.
Choosing a Jump Rope
When deciding which jump rope is best for you, it’s important to determine what your goals are. While lightweight speed ropes are popular for cardio-focused training, weighted or drag ropes will be best for those focused on strength training.
No matter what your training goals are, we’ve got you covered with this roundup of 10 jump ropes from top brands including Crossrope, TRX, Rogue, and more.
The Best Jump Ropes of 2022
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