ALEXANDER SKARSGARD’S THE NORTHMAN WORKOUT ROUTINE

Alexander Skarsgard is no stranger to getting into phenomenal shape for movie roles. In the past, he has proven that he has was it takes to undergo a complete physique transformation when he conquered the main role for the movie Tarzan. These days, he’s swapped the exotic African jungle for the ice cold fjords and rainy forests of Scandinavia, where he starred as the fierce Viking warrior Amleth.

The movie poster alone convinced people that once again,  Alexander has done an amazing job at revamping his body into that of a powerful, fierce warrior. What I noticed about his physique is that it is brute and raw. By that I mean that there has not been put an emphasis on getting those perfect bodybuilder proportions. His physique represents strength, brute force and looks like it was sculpted by doing the activities Vikings would typically do.

Tasks such as rowing their ships would create a strong, thick back. Lifting and carrying heavy objects would develop beastly traps, a powerful midsection and strong legs. While he looks strong and beastly, he doesn’t have those perfect bodybuilding measurements. The Northman’s physique doesn’t have the harmony where every single muscle group has been targeted to create that typical aesthetic physique that was sculpted to get up on a state or is ready for a photoshoot. This is actually a good thing for the movie, because it makes it more realistic as Vikings didn’t care about having aesthetic physiques or bodybuilding. They cared about having a lot of mass and strength to be the best warrior they could be to win any battle that would come on their life’s path.

Unlike Thor, played by Chris Hemsworth, Skarsgard’s character Amleth is not a superhero. Therefore he doesn’t need a perfectly sculpted superhero physique, but rather the raw brute strength necessary to complete the tasks the Vikings had perform on a daily basis and to survive bloody, human combat.

THE NORTHMAN’S PHYSIQUE ANALYSIS

The most obvious eyecatchers of Alexander’s physique are his strong dominating core and protruding traps. Having big traps creates a more dominant physique and portrays a powerful image. A strong and well developed core is always impressive to look at when one takes his shirt off, but it’s also a sign of strength. Especially in Amleth’s world of constant hard physical activity, a strong core was necessary to completely the Viking’s daily tasks. To stimulate these areas for growth, we will have to focus on getting stronger at lifting and carrying heavy objects.

Alexander’s back was strong and thick, but not necessarily very wide as that of a superhero. Rowing movements are exactly what creates a back like that of the Northman. All that rowing makes the upper back extremely strong and heavily contributes to the look of having strong, dominant shoulders. When intruding enemy camps, they had to climb ropes to get over the defense walls. Rope climbing targets the lats heavily and hits the biceps hard. This combination of rowing and climbing is what sculpts an impressive back.

The Northman’s shoulders radiate strength, but aren’t 3D bodybuilders shoulders by any means. They simply look like the shoulders of a strong fighter that can kick some serious ass. To develop these accordingly, we will push heavy things overhead. Getting strong on presses will not only cause growth in the shoulders, but also the triceps and core. To accompany these broad shoulders , Skarsgard developed a strong, but not overly bulky chest. It looks like he can throw a serious punch and can push the enemy hard if the situation requires it.

Alex’s arms are athletic, but not dominating his physique. They will get sufficient stimulation to grow in the proportions of Alexander’s by mostly compound exercises. We will throw in one accessory exercise for the arms just to make sure that you’re arms won’t lag behind, but keeps everything in proportion.

What concerns Alexander’s legs, he would probably have strong, athletic legs that are able to handle heavy loads, yet are still explosive and are able to sprint well. Heavy compound leg work will also demand a lot of the abdominals, which will contribute to developing the core of the Viking warrior.

THE WORKOUT

The physique analysis has made clear that Alexander Skarsgard didn’t need a bodybuilder’s physique for this movie role. What he needed what a strong warrior’s body with a solid amount of muscle mass in the right places to carry out the tasks a Viking would have needed to do. Instead of persuing pure aesthetics, we should focus on becoming extremely strong and efficient at certain functional movements that replicate the Vikings daily tasks. As a result of becoming strong at the movements Odin himself has prescribed, you will gain muscle mass, you will become insanely strong and you will look like your own version of a fearless Viking warrior.

The Northman’s workout will be a full body workout performed 3 times per week. It will include foundational strength movements to bulk up your body as a whole, with added supplementary work for the abdominal area and the traps to stand out from the crowd and to replicate the look Alexander Skarsgard showed to the world.

The workout routine will have 2 workouts that should be performed in an alternating manner on non-consecutive days. For example: Monday: workout A, Wednesday: workout B, Friday: workout A, Monday: workout B, etc.

Training 3 days per week on non-consecutive days allows you to go hard and heavy on your training days while allowing for enough recovery between your lifting sessions. If you wish to perform some type of physical activity during your non gym days, you can go for long walks or perform sprint training 1-2x per week.

Walking is an excellent, yet underrated form of physical activity that massively improves blood circulation, lowers the risk of diabetes and if you’re trying to lose body fat it’s an excellent way to burn calories without messing up your recovery. While sprints are more taxing on the body and considered to be a form of anaerobic exercise, it’s the ultimate way to boost your conditioning and to raise your testosterone levels. Don’t perform sprint training more than twice per week as it can hinder your recovery for your workout in the gym.

Workout A

• Single arm dumbbell overhead press 3-4 sets of 5 to 8 reps
• Deadlift 3-4 sets of 5 to 8 reps
• (Weighted) Dips or (weighted) push ups 3-4 sets of 6 to 10 reps
• Lat pulldown 3-4 sets of 8 to 12 reps
• EZ bar bicep curl 3-4 sets of 8 to 12 reps
• (Weighted) Roman chair crunch or cable crunch 3 sets of 8 to 15 reps

Workout B

• Medium grip barbell bench press 3-4 sets of 5 to 8 reps
• T-bar row or cable row 3-4 sets of 6 to 10 reps
• Barbell or dumbbell walking lunges 3-4 sets of 6 to 12 reps
• Skull crushers or triceps cable pushdowns 3-4 sets of 8 to 12 reps
• Shrugs 3-4 sets of 8 to 15 reps
• Hanging leg raises 3 sets of 8 to 15 reps

 The workout is centered around big compound exercises that will bulk up the majority of your body parts with the least amount of exercises necessary. They will be responsible for packing on slabs of muscle on your body fast and efficiently, as well as gaining insane amounts of strength. You will undoubtedly notice that you will be able to progress on these lifts pretty much every week, especially if you are a beginner.

The higher frequency of the workout routine combined with a lower to medium training volume will allow you to train with proper intensity on a frequent basis. This is extremely advantageous because you’ll perform the movements often with just enough volume to trigger an optimal growth response without causing any unnecessary muscular damage. As a result, your muscles and central nervous system will be able to recover quickly between sessions so that you are fresh to hit the targeted areas again the next training day.

The single arm overhead press is an amazing and underused movement that hits the shoulders hard. It triggers hypertrophy, neurological coordination and when done correctly, an even stronger shoulder joint than a double arm overhead press due to the stability factor that is involved. Since the body has the weight shifted to one side of the body, the core and especially obliques will have to work insanely hard. The obliques are a muscle group in the core which are underdeveloped in a lot of people since they rarely do single arm work for their upper body. The single arm overhead press solves this problem. Old time strong men used to love a variation of this exercise called the bent press. They got insanely strong with this movement, it blew up their shoulders, blasted their triceps and carved an admirable mid-section.

The deadlift is an overall full body strength builder that hits the posterior chain and the core hard. Most muscles of the human body are involved during the deadlift. Your hamstrings, glutes, quads, traps and back will become strong and you’ll be able to carry heavy loads without a problem. This is a vital skill for a Viking warrior. Therefore deadlifts cannot be left out.

To develop the quads and your overall leg musculature even more, we will throw in some walking lunges. These can be performed with a barbell on your shoulders or a pair of dumbbells held in your hands. The most important thing is that you pick a weight that allows you to perform the exercise correctly and safely within the recommended rep range. Due to the nature of the movement, your traps and abdominal musculature will get a big workload and will get an extra growth boost.

To develop the chest and give the front delts and triceps even more stimulation, the dip or push up and the bench press are excellent exercises to throw in the functional training routine of a Viking warrior.  These will give you a lot of horizontal pushing strength and will give you a dominant, intimidating torso. Combine that with heavy overhead presses and you have the full package when it comes to push training. If dips are too challenging for you or you have issues with your collar bone, I suggest that you leave them out and swap them for push ups. They essentially train the same muscles, but are much safer on the shoulders. If regular body weight dips or push ups become too easy, start adding weight to them slowly and stay in the recommended rep range. This will allow you to become strong at mastering body weight exercises and will be a hell of a challenge for your core too.

To develop a powerful upper back and to create back thickness, which is an essential element in Skarsgard’s physique, rows will be your main pulling movement. It mimics the movement of a Viking’s ship rowing crew. Become strong at rows and I promise you that your upper and mid back will become thick and powerful. To mimic pulling ropes and still give the lats some work so they don’t completely lag behind, you will perform a couple of sets of lat pulldowns as well. These can be done with a cable set up or a plate loaded machine.

We will throw in skull crushers for the triceps and EZ bar curls for the biceps to supplement the stimulation from all the compound pulling and pushing movements. This way you won’t end up with a huge core and smaller arms. While they don’t have to be huge by any means, they do have to be in proportion and getting stronger on your accessory exercises may help in becoming stronger on your main movements.

Lastly, some people do have stubborn abs. If your abs are lagging behind in terms of hypertrophy and need more direct stimulation to grow, then perform weighted roman chair crunches and hanging leg raises. Doing these are pretty challenging, but certainly worth the extra effort. Abs are a muscle group just like any other muscle and if they lag behind, giving them more direct training volume means that they will undoubtedly improve and grow in size.