Why Former Model Frida Gustavsson Loved Her Vikings: Valhalla Training: 'It's Great Feeling Strong'

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The recent series debut and success of Vikings: Valhalla has put several up-and-coming actors on the map, as well as given them unique opportunities for many of the warrior-centric roles.

For model-turned-actress Frida Gustavsson, getting cast to play Viking warrior Freydis Eriksdotter gave her the opportunity to find a strength she didn't realize she had.

"I've never trained to be strong, I've trained to be skinny and I think a lot of women do that," Gustavsson, 28, tells PEOPLE in this week's issue. "Freydis has meant so much. This is absolutely the biggest challenge I've ever been faced with in my career. In terms of the physicality, I kind of saw that as my Mount Everest."

The star adds, "I had four months of personal training to bulk up and to be able to build the body that would be authentic for Freydis. We focused a lot on building a strong back, building core muscles, chest muscles, a lot of arms and shoulders to portray a person who spends her time hunting, rowing, slaughtering animals, cooking her own food and living a very tough life."

The Stockholm native says she feels like some of Freydis came home with her after filming wrapped on the first and second seasons of the series, which are set 100 years after the events in Vikings.

"Freydis is so in tune with her physicality, she embraces her power and she knows that she is strong, that she's ferocious, she's a warrior to be counted with," says Gustavsson. "But she also knows that she has the stature that makes people look at her in a certain way."

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Gustavsson, who is 6'1", says channeling Freydis' self-confidence along with her own new physical strength has been a blessing.

"I think I took a lot of that from Freydis and try to apply it to my everyday life," she says. "I think my posture has gotten better. I enjoy now going to the gym and lifting something really heavy. When I have to do something in my everyday life that used to be so heavy, now I can just lift it with these. It's a great feeling that you can take care of yourself and that you're capable and you're strong. So I guess that would be a big gift that Freydis gave to me."

And while some of her other cast members may have had to do more research into the real-life Vikings they were playing, Gustavsson has been steeped in Vikings history for much of her life.

"It's history here. Where I grew up in Stockholm, this is where we have the biggest collection of ruin stones and only 20 minutes from where I grew up is the island that was the capital of Viking Sweden, which is the 11th century kind of trading port," she explains. "The remnants of the Vikings are very present in the landscape of where I grew up. You could just go out for a run when you were little and you would run into these huge stones painted with red pecks, with the kind of dragon shaping around them."

Gustavsson continues: "It's definitely a part of our culture that we grew up hearing, maybe more about the Viking men than the women, but hey, that's what we're here to change."

Vikings: Valhalla is now streaming on Netflix.