Nick helped Simon with his body transformation (Picture: Nick Lower)
Simon Pegg stunned us all when he revealed his lean physique and
six pack after months of gruelling training for a new role. The 49-year-old
went from 78kg on the scales to 69kg and dropped to 8% body fat from 12% for
his upcoming film Inheritance, and Simon admitted that the response to his
transformed torso was ‘so weird’.
And the man that helped Simon achieve his
goals found it pretty bizarre too. Personal trainer Nick Lower worked with
Simon for six months to achieve his lean physique with strength training,
cardio, core work and trail runs, but was surprised that everybody was so,
well, surprised at Pegg’s new body. Speaking to Metro.co.uk, Nick said: ‘I took
the picture and posted it on my Instagram, and didn’t really know what to
expect. It sort of went crazy. For some reason, people still think of Simon as
the guy from Run Fatboy Run. But over the last six, seven years, he’s not been anywhere
that – certainly since he turned 40. So a lot of people, to see him in that
shape, the everyman, it was shocking.’ instagram.com Nick, who works with Rebourne Fitness and Nutrition in Hertfordshire, has been
working with Simon ever since he finished filming 2013’s Star Trek Into
Darkness, and got him into shape for The World’s End. However, for his role as
Morgan in the upcoming thriller Inheritance, Pegg was going for a very
different look. Nick told us: ‘It is drastic. It’s different. The remit was,
his character has been trapped in a basement for 30 years, so he’s not going to
look like Arnold Schwarzenegger. He was kept alive and he did exercise, but the
brief was very, very lean. He’s in shape most of the time, but for this movie
he had to get down to single figure body fat, which we achieved. We had a set
period of time – about six months to knuckle down. The movie actually got
delayed, and we’d peaked a bit early, so we just carried on.
‘We kept his calories in check and he trained very hard. Simon had
one rest day, then he would do our sessions and extra cardio. We didn’t do
anything magical or out of the ordinary – we made sure Simon had the right balance
of macro nutrients and we trained a lot – a mixture of strength training and
circuit training and some cardio added on to make sure we achieved that calorie
deficit. ‘Essentially, it’s got to be a mix of strength training. Strength
circuits work really well, where you hit as many muscle groups as you can in
one session, keeping it high intensity, then move onto 10-15 minutes of cardio
or ropes. But then we trained so much we could spread it out a bit – we would
maybe do core and legs on one day, and move onto other sections for two days –
but Simon had the luxury of time for training. He did a lot of cardio on top of
that as well.’ Nick added: ‘It’s not maintainable and it’s very hard. It’s
going to take a lot of training. Simon may have had one day rest, but he worked
hard every day and he was strict, and that’s how he got those results. But it’s
a short-term thing, you do not want to do that long-term.’
Simon works with Nick even when he’s not prepping for a role (Picture: Monica Schipper/Getty Images for 2019 Tribeca Film Festival)
So while we commend Simon for his body transformation, it’s
clearly not something we all should be aiming for. Thankfully, Nick also works
with people on much more achievable goals, and has some advice for those of us
hoping to start a fitness regime. He said: ‘It comes down to the individual. If
you’re used to not training at all, maybe train once or twice a week and see
how you recover. Once you know how you recover, then you can maybe add a day.
For the average gym user, at least two days of training hard – but it all
depends on the person. Resting is probably the most overlooked part of
training, the recovery is one of the most important parts.
‘I would start with the basics. Before you start looking at what
to eat and what reps to do, look at your own habits. If you’re someone that
doesn’t eat breakfast or you eat quickly or you’re eating a lot of sugary,
high-fat food, I would look at that first and get into the habit of eating
better and going to the gym. ‘Without your foundation, it doesn’t matter what
program you try – you won’t fix it long-term. If you go for a short-term fix,
you’re going to get a short-term fail. Play the long game if you can, make
small changes, and that will create the biggest long-term change.’
Source: Metro.co.uk
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