For his latest film The Northman, Alexander Skarsgard stretched himself to the extreme to reshape his physique. Magnus Lygdback, the 45-year-old actor’s trainer, outlined the arduous fitness and diet program that the True Blood star endured to embody the Viking Prince Amleth in Robert Eggers’ action-adventure film in an interview with Variety.
Alexander Skarsgard’s Dietary Consumption:
Alexander Skarsgard consumed up to 3,700 calories per day to create those gigantic traps, with healthy protein every two to three hours to get his metabolism going. Lygdback claimed Skarsgrd’s food plan comprised of 20 meals every four days, with 17 of them containing a protein (typically fish), a vegetable, and a complex carb or fat. The other three meals were treats that allowed Skarsgrd to fulfill his appetites.
The Exercise Routine to become a Viking warrior:
However, the job did not just finish with this actor’s diet program. Skarsgard’s gym regimen was similarly important, as they needed to build a contextually appropriate physique. His coach began by examining Amleth’s personality qualities. “This character, his spiritual animals were a bear and wolf. So that is exactly what we were trying to embody in terms of Alex’s build and movements,” Lygdback said. “The wolf is really agile, and then you have the size of the bear in this Viking. You can just get one look at him and get scared.”
While it’s easy to believe Skarsgard spent a year in the gym prior to the shoot, Lygdback stated that his sessions were actually relatively brief, focusing on effectiveness over quantity.
“You see it in interviews all the time where an actor says, ‘I trained for multiple hours a day.’ That’s not necessarily true,” Lygdback said. “They might have been moving around for four hours a day, let’s say, but the actual gym session? I never train my clients for more than an hour because what doesn’t happen in the first hour will not happen in the second hour at the gym. All you do after the first hour is just start to break down your body. So one hour a day, six days a week. While filming, five days a week.”
Related: Here’s what Alexander Skarsgard would look like as Adam Warlock.
Areas of focus for Alexander’s gym routine:
The shoulders were a high priority, and they were prepped to guarantee that Skarsgard not only looked fantastic as an axe-wielding Viking but also didn’t damage himself. It necessitated a lot of attention to the traps and workouts engaging the back and core muscles. Banded training for the hips and shoulders to improve stability, agility, and movement was also popular. Skarsgard also used free weights for workouts such as deadlifts and squats, as well as the bench press and isolated exercises with other strength techniques.
