The Surprising Exercise Chris Hemsworth Doesn't Do

Chris Hemsworth has made a name for himself as Thor, Marvel's God of Thunder. And being the heir to Stan Lee's Asgard comes with certain expectations. Not only does Thor have to be worthy of wielding Mjolnir, but there's a certain physique needed to fill the mighty god's armor.

Hemsworth has blown every expectation out of the water through his long career with Marvel. He's done so well, in fact, that many fans wonder just how far he can throw his hammer. Or, more specifically, how much he can bench. BestLife mentions a specific thread on Quora where fans speculated on this very topic. The thread went up in 2017, but it wasn't until a year later that fans got their answer. Hemsworth himself responded to the thread in 2018, shocking readers with his answer. Because, as it turns out, Chris Hemsworth doesn't do the bench press unless he absolutely has to. He wrote on the thread, "I don't bench press at all. I do lots of push-ups. So whatever I weigh—the math is there—but for the first Thor I was bench pressing a lot. But it's a pretty boring exercise and pretty useless unless you have to *bench press shove* bad guys, you know?"

Hemsworth really didn't leave any room for fans to mistake his feelings about the bench press. Instead, he said, he prefers to do "lots of push-ups". And as BestLife points out, his Instagram is full of other activities that might account for Hemsworth's off-screen appearance. When he's not filming, it seems that the actor likes to fill his days with surfing, boxing, and swimming.

However, Hemsworth isn't the only one that skips the bench press. In fact, a bodybuilding magazine titled — ironically enough — Iron Man published an article in 2010 challenging the idea that the bench press is an ideal chest workout at all. The exercise, according to Iron Man, only works the chest muscles through a limited range of motion. Similar motions with resistance bands or dumbbells work the pecs more thoroughly and allow for more dynamic movement.

The bench press likely isn't going away anytime soon. As Iron Man points out, it's often called the "King of Chest Exercises" and has been around almost since the beginning of weight lifting that used bars instead of individual weights. But folks who hate the barbell can rest assured that they're not alone. And that they may be getting more benefit from their kettlebells than they do from a bench press.