After making the podium at the 2021 CrossFit Games, Annie Thorisdottir is definitely back at the top of her game. The Icelandic athlete, who scored 1st place two times in a row (in 2011 and 2012) and ranked 2nd in 2014, finished third last year, with many attributing her hugely inspiring comeback to sheer determination. Despite a painful back injury in 2013 and having to bow out of the 2015 Games due to heat exhaustion, the 31-year-old CrossFit veteran never stopped training, not even when she took a year off in 2020 to become a mother.
Thorisdottir, whose last name literally translates as "Thor's daughter," has always been open about her workout routine and what she does to find motivation. Twice-crowned "Fittest Woman on Earth," the Reykjavik native, who is also a coach and has her own gym, Crossfit Reykjavik, often shares her fitness secrets with her 1.6 million Instagram followers, and there's plenty to learn from browsing her feed.
Here's how the two-time CrossFit Games champion maintains her insanely fit figure.
Training 3 Times A DayOne look at Thorisdottir's ripped physique is enough to tell you she practically lives at the gym. The professional athlete works out two to three times a day for six days a week, reserving one day for active recovery. That's right, she doesn't take a break from getting her sweat on not even on her day off, telling Women's Health she uses that time for "an easy swim or an easy warm-up and dynamic stretching to help my body recover."
As for her workout regimen, her days consist of metabolic conditioning sessions in the morning, usually entailing "gymnastic techniques or gymnastics strength," and strength training in the afternoon, specifically, "Olympic weight lifting and strength training and squats."
However, Thorisdottir doesn't stop there, putting in a third session that's all about "control work" and mobility, which is what you'll often catch her posting on Instagram.
Giving followers a lesson in rope climbing back in November, the bodybuilder shared three different techniques along with some important tips: "USE YOUR LEGS AS MUCH AS POSSIBLE. they are much stronger than your arms so save your GUNS as much as possible."
Watch her grinding away at the gym in the videos below!
Scroll for more rope climbing action!
Her Favorite WorkoutsJust like fellow CrossFit athlete Brooke Wells, Thorisdottir is a big fan of EMOM (Every Minute on the Minute) workouts, with the athlete's idea of a "fun" session being "3 OTM at 60% – 70% for 5min; 2 OTM at 70-85% for 5min; 1 OTM building up to heavy of the day," as evidenced by the video below.
Thorisdottir is also big on back-to-back AMRAPS, with a typical circuit including eight-minute sessions of "400m run, 8 bar MU, 16 heavy balls" followed by two minutes of rest and another eight minutes of "500m row, 8 strict HSPU, 16 TTB," she detailed on Instagram.
Her fierce deadlifts are also a treat to watch, with the athlete expaining back in May: "Lifting weights is as much in the mind as it is physically. You have to believe you can lift it. There’s no room for a faltering mindset."
Check it out below!
Barbell Cycling & Bike TrainingOther workouts she favors are barbell cycling and bike training, with the athlete demonstrating the latter in a November video shot at her gym. The impressive footage showed her performing five rounds of "20/22cal BikeErg; 5/7 ring MU; 10 burpee over parallettes."
Watch it below!
Her varied workouts are definitely hitting the spot for Thorisdottir and have played a big part in her recent success. Just take a look at her shredded abs before the semifinals!
"I am beyond grateful for what my body was able to do and for all the incredible support I’ve gotten from my team and everyone who has been following my journey – you all have played a role to bring me back to the competition floor," she wrote on Instagram at the time.
Legs & GlutesWhen she's not working her steel abs, "Thor's daughter" is training her strong legs and glutes. Demonstrating a heavy set of hamstring curls, belt hip thrusts, and single-leg kickbacks on Instagram, the former CrossFit Game champion taught her audience to "keep the weights lighter, move slowly through the range and control the movement." She also included a video of herself doing banded hamstring curls, barbell hip thrusts, and Bulgarian split squats as an alternative.
In one of her most recent updates, Thorisdottir also revealed she has "jumped on the interval training train,” detailing her full workout in the caption as follows.
"Min1 – 7 cal ski + 7 CTB + max reps box step ups; Min2 – max cal AB (steady); Min3 – 8 burpee to target 8 TTB max reps wall ball; Min4 – rest and get mentally ready for another round."Muscle ScrapingWhile Thorisdottir clearly goes above and beyond at the gym, she also practices Gua Sha for muscle definition. Also known as muscle scraping, this Chinese technique involves scraping your muscles with a metal instrument to improve circulation and reduce inflammation.
"This is very effective on repetition injuries, which is common with runners and for any weak part of the body of a CrossFitter," explains BOXROX.
Thorisdottir often shares Gua Sha videos on Instagram, talking her audience through what and how to scrape to improve muscle recovery.
Watch her extensive tutorial on shoulder recovery below!
Her Meal PlanFor Thorisdottir, nutrition is a huge part of being in peak physical condition. The CrossFit athlete, who has also been a gymnast for eight years, a ballet dancer for two years, and a pole vaulter for two years, confessed that “In those sports, I never learned anything about diet.”
However, things changed for her after making the transition to CrossFit, with Thorisdottir telling Women's Health: "For me, it's all about remembering to eat enough high-quality food! I've tried Paleo; I've tried a lot of diets and I think what they all taught me was what's going inside my body affects my training – most importantly where I get carbohydrates."
Thorisdottir describes her diet as mostly Paleo with extra carbohydrates and added dairy for calories. Although she tries "to eat as clean as possible," she does treat herself to ice cream and chocolate every Sunday.
“I eat dark chocolate. That’s healthy, right? I also eat fajitas and wraps every once in a while.”Breaking down her meals, the athlete revealed: "On a typical training day I would eat four fried eggs, three pieces of bacon and then a little oatmeal and that would be my breakfast."
"Then I would train and after that first session, I would have a smoothie with banana, protein powder, and some almonds. This is high calorie so I have it before another session," she continued.
Watch her detail her meal plan in the video below.
]]>The Inquisitr
