If you’re one of Elsa Pataky’s 6.1million Instagram followers, you’ll know she hits the gym hard. The 49-year-old Spanish model and actress regularly posts clips of her workouts on her feed – and right now, there’s one particular method she swears by: the Norwegian 4×4 technique.
‘Since last year, I’ve been doing a type of HIIT called the Norwegian 4×4 workout – four rounds of four minutes, at 85% to 95% of your maximum heart rate – to maintain my VO2 max [a metric linked with a lower risk of cardiovascular disease and increased longevity],’ she tells Women’s Health UK, adding that, ‘I have three kids [daughter India Rose, 13, and twin sons Sasha and Tristan, 11, with husband Chris Hemsworth] who keep me active. But I also train pretty hard. I go to the gym at least three times a week to do a mixture of weights and cardio.’
The 4×4 method is often seen as the gold standard for aerobic fitness, with the biggest pro being that it can transform your VO2 Max: in one study, it led to a 13% improvement over eight weeks with three sessions per week. VO2 max measures the max amount of oxygen your body can effectively use during exercise. It’s expressed as a number – the higher, the better – and reflects how efficiently your heart, lungs, and muscles work together to use oxygen. As a result, it could make cardio workouts such as running, stairclimbing and padel easier. It could also boost longevity: a review published in the Frontiers in Bioscience-Landmark found that higher VO2 max levels are associated with reduced risk of mortality.
Inspired? See how to do it below, then read on for the one nutrition technique Pataky uses to support her training, and the macro she focuses on.
How to do the Norwegian 4×4 method
- Warm-up: Complete a low-intensity warm-up for 10 minutes. This could be a light jog and dynamic stretches.
- Intervals: 4 minutes each interval of a cardio exercise of choice, at 85-95% of your maximum heart rate. This could be running, swimming, rowing, cycling or high-intensity bodyweight exercises. If you’re running, this could be your 5k or 10k pace.
- Active recovery: 3 minutes rest of low-intensity activity like brisk walking or jogging, taking your heart rate down to 60-70% of your max heart rate.
- Repeat: For a total of 4 high-intensity intervals and rests.
- Cool down: Bring down your heart rate slowly, then stretch.
Elsa Pataky’s nutrition
Fitness is just one piece of the health puzzle alongside nutrition, sleep, stress management and more. For Pataky, nutrition is a big one, and she takes stock of both when and what she eats.
‘Intermittent fasting works for my body,’ she tells us. ‘I try to do at least 14 hours overnight. I’ll have dinner with my kids at 6.30pm – far earlier than the 10pm meals I grew up with in Spain – and then I eat breakfast around 9am the next day. I’m trying to get more protein – I’m at an age when you start to lose muscle – and I have miso soup for my gut health. Living in Australia, there are certain foods I miss. I make Spanish tortilla, but it doesn’t taste the same. When I go back to Spain I love the jamon with bread, tomato and olive oil.’
Get it, Pataky.
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As Women’s Health UK’s fitness director and a qualified Pilates and yoga instructor, Bridie Wilkins has been passionately reporting on exercise, health and nutrition since the start of her decade-long career in journalism.
After earning a first-class degree in journalism and NCTJ accreditation, she secured her first role at Look Magazine, where she launched the magazine’s health and fitness column, Look Fit, before going on to become Health and Fitness writer at HELLO!
Since, she has written for Stylist, Glamour, Cosmopolitan, Marie Claire, Elle, The Metro, Runner’s World and Red. Today, she oversees all fitness content across Women’s Health online and in print, spearheading leading cross-platform franchises, such as ‘Fit At Any Age’, which showcases the women proving that age is no barrier to exercise.
She has also represented the brand on BBC Radio London, plus various podcasts and Substacks – all with the aim to encourage more women to exercise and show them how. Outside of work, find her trying the latest Pilates studio, testing her VO2 max for fun (TY, Oura), or posting workouts on Instagram.