From the teenage heartthrob to the terrifying Viking: Movie star Sam Corlett shows a whole new side of himself, and not just as an actor. He’s also made significant physical changes for his new role, gaining muscle through rigorous training.
Many Netflix viewers will probably remember Sam Corlett as the lanky dude named Caliban from Chilling Adventures of Sabrina. But the Australian has left this role behind and can now be seen in «Vikings: Valhalla». As Leif Eriksson, the 26-year-old has changed significantly and it’s not just because of his new hairstyle and beard. He’s also flexed his muscles properly. Now Sam Corlett shows the workout that made him do it.
After the casting came the hard workout
Corlett landed the role of Greenlander Leif Eriksson before he had even gained muscle mass, as he revealed in an interview with US magazine Men’s Health: «I got the role shortly after I finished filming ‘Chilling Adventures of Sabrina.’ At the time, I was still auditioning for high school roles.” Similarly, Sam Corlett’s workouts at the time were still geared towards the teenage look: he was doing high-intensity interval training and intermittent fasting when it came to nutrition. However, once he landed the Viking job, that all changed very quickly: “They wanted me to build muscle. So I went straight to the gym. And I ate a lot.”
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Hypertrophy training for more muscles
With the change in training and diet, the 26-year-old gained 10 kilograms within four months. A tough workout designed to build muscle, also known as hypertrophy training, helped him. The aim is to increase muscle size through the ideal intensity of strength training, alternating with breaks between sets. With gyms still closed in Australia at the time, Sam Corlett worked out at home with pal and personal trainer Mitchell Briggs in preparation for filming Vikings: Valhalla.
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In the video you can see which workout Sam Corlett uses to get Viking fit:
Sam Corlett’s Viking workout
After the actor built muscle through hypertrophy training and created the Leif Eriksson look, the next step was to get fit for the shoot, including fights and stunts. For this, Sam Corlett relied on a different workout: “It was about portraying the wild and the primal. So we did a lot of crossfit and compound training (compound movements that work multiple muscle groups at once). I also learned new movement sequences, e.g. B. with the kettlebell or crawling movements.”
From teen star to muscular Viking fighter, Sam Corlett is almost unrecognizable.
Typical workout in preparation for season 2 of «Vikings: Valhalla»
Sam Corlett is currently preparing for the new season of his hit Netflix series. In the «Men’s Health» interview, he explained what the focus of his workout is at the moment: «I’m back in the building phase right now.» R.) and strength training on the cable pull. Finally, there is volume training. «In the end, I focus on my joints and slowly let my body relax,» explains Corlett.
In this way, Sam Corlett trains his entire body, as an example he leads you through a typical upper body workout.
Sam Corlett’s upper body workout
warm up
- foam roll
30 seconds for each muscle group - shoulder displacement
30 seconds – for more mobility in the shoulders - Controlled joint rotations
Slow, circular movements with the outstretched arm. Repeat until your shoulders are relaxed - Lateral shoulder rotation with the band
3 sets of 10 reps
workout
- bench press
2 sets of 12 reps, then a 3rd set of drop sets (as many reps as you can to muscle fatigue) - Butterfly on the cable pull or Cable Flys (for metabolic stress)
3 sets of 12 repetitions
between sets, instead of resting, go into a push-up (arms spread) position to further maintain muscle tension - Hold the weight overhead with one arm outstretched
Do 3 laps of 20 meters up and down - lateral raises
4 sets of 12 reps (hold 8 seconds at the end of each set)
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finishers
- EMOM: From push-ups to bear crawl or bear gait (forwards and backwards)
EMOM stands for «every minute on the minute» and means to perform a certain number of repetitions of one or more exercises (in this case two) as quickly as possible in one minute. Then there is a short pause until the beginning of the next minute. Sam Corlett goes from push-ups to the bear crawl in a minute and does a total of 7 minutes of EMOM training.