For Chris Hemsworth, it’s just mind over matter.
The Avengers star sets out to confront his chronic pain in a bold, immersive journey through South Korea in an episode of the upcoming season 2 of National Geographic’s Limitless: Live Better Now. This journey involves Hemsworth facing “pain valley” in the final test, which is a brutal gauntlet of Special Forces trials that push him to his limits.
In a clip from one such trial, which Entertainment Weekly is debuting exclusively (above), the Thor actor and a partner are tasked with swimming across an ice-covered lake to grab a box of supplies. Naturally, they face threats of hypothermia — and obtrusive thoughts of death.
“This challenge simulates the recovery of supplies dropped from a helicopter. Chris and his teammate must swim across the icy river and release the crate from the parachute,” pain expert Dr. BJ Miller, who explores ancient healing traditions and cutting-edge science with Hemsworth in the series, explains in the clip.
Before Hemsworth can proceed, Miller gives him a pep talk. “Okay, buddy. When you get in that water you might panic, your body might revolt,” he says. “Roll with it, keep breathing through it, try to slow your breath.”
The Marvel star nods, then tells him, “It’s just the mind overriding the sort of body screaming at you that ‘We’re gonna die. We’re gonna die. This is cold. This is bad.'”
National Geographic
Chris Hemsworth on ‘Limitless: Live Better Now’
“You won’t die, and you’re not your thoughts,” Miller comforts him.
When it’s time to actually do the challenge, Hemsworth slips on the ice and falls — not a great start. “The initial fall was a shock, now the doubt is coming in. Am I gonna be able to do this or not?” he muses.
Once in the water, Hemsworth says there were no doubts that the temperature was “freezing” but he kept himself busy trying to convince himself otherwise. “‘It’s not that cold, it’s not that cold, it’s not that cold,'” he says he told himself.
Hemsworth admits this method worked for about “10 meters.” And then he realized, “Uh oh, I’m freezing,” he says, laughing.
As for what his body is physically experiencing in this moment, Miller explains that the temperature receptors in Hemsworth’s sensory neurons are responding to the cold, and to preserve heat, blood vessels in his skin, hands, feet, and extremities are narrowing quickly causing a sharp, aching pain.
National Geographic/Evan Paterakis
Chris Hemsworth on ‘Limitless: Live Better Now’
All of which Hemsworth himself confirms, telling the camera, “My body feels like it’s burning, feels like I have frostbite, but I’ve learned to make my own painkillers. Because like playing Jenga with my mates, I can release endorphins by embracing humor and camaraderie.”
Right on cue, as he and his partner are swimming back with the box of supplies, he makes a Titanic joke, quipping that he can be Leonardo DiCaprio’s character Jack and his partner can be Kate Winslet’s Rose in this frozen water scenario.
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National Geographic/Evan Paterakis
Chris Hemsworth on ‘Limitless: Live Better Now’
The new season of Limitless: Live Better Now sees Hemsworth take on three epic challenges over the three-part series, that seeks to test the action star’s limits while exploring science-backed ways to improve health.
Some of Hemsworth’s other adventures this season include learning to play drums for a live performance in front of 70,000 fans with Grammy winner Ed Sheeran; scaling a 600-foot climbing wall in the Swiss Alps; and enduring electrocution and pepper spray to reconfigure his response to pain. “All to discover how we can live longer, better lives,” according to the show’s logline.
All episodes of Limitless: Live Better Now hit Disney+ and Hulu on Friday, Aug. 15, before airing on National Geographic on Aug. 25.
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