In 2002, after he won the US Open, tennis legend Pete Sampras reportedly gave Peterson a tennis racket signed: “Thanks for extending my career.” He is so effective at getting people where they want to be that Khloe chose him for her hit TV show Revenge Body, in which he took ordinary people and showed them what they could do with the right attitude.
And while many of us have been getting through the pandemic by eating junk food and not exercising, Gunnar simply says “don’t wait for tomorrow” to start making the changes needed for better health and improved fitness.
But Gunnar wasn’t always such an expert. Hailing from Houston, Texas, he was a self-described “fat kid” and his mother took him to Weight Watchers aged 10. He learnt the importance of diet and nutrition for staying healthy and looking good, but it wasn’t an easy fight. When he went to college he got into working out and discovered the benefits of weight training.
“I discovered being active and working out, and how weights could change proportions and shapes of your body versus anything cardiovascular which could change the size,” he says.
“I felt very empowered by the weights. And then I thought well I was a fat kid and now I can even control the shape and proportion and size of parts of my body.
“When I first saw abs I almost fainted.
Before I wouldn’t want to take my shirt off in PE or at the beach. Now I could control it to that detail? I wanted to share it with everybody. I want everyone to feel great about their body and how they look.
“It ups your confidence in literally everything you do.”
And that is what he has done. Specialising in functional training, he takes a holistic approach to fitness and works the body using motions that make everyday life easier. His gym is a safe space, one he describes as “calm and ordered”. He wants his clientele to arrive somewhere that is entirely predictable before the chaos of a workout begins.
He is one of the few trainers that celebrities will rely on before performing a major role – and he prepared Hugh Jackman for Wolverine, Sylvester Stallone for The Expendables and Matthew McConaughey for Magic Mike.
But he says mostly people have the same issues no matter what their background is.
“I work in a huge city and we get all sorts of people. It can be a bride before her wedding, or people who have had a health scare, or an actor preparing for a movie. Literally anyone.
“I had a guy who said ‘I saw my body in the mirror and who would ever want to date me?’ This guy was about 30 at the time and a big, big star. He thought, ‘I don’t want someone to date me for my money, but for them to be physically attracted to me.’ I can relate to that.”
He believes you can achieve the same results as celebrities, as long as you have the right mindset, explaining: “The main difference with celebrities is scheduling. People always say, ‘Oh, if I had a trainer like her’ “But no, you wouldn’t do it. They are being pulled in so many directions by so many different people. They still have to put the work in.The work in the gym is the same.You’re either going to work or not.
“You can 100 per cent do what Khloe did,” he adds.
This all sounds very tempting, but why, despite the obvious mental and physical benefits, do so many people struggle to get back on the fitness bandwagon?
“It is too easy to not do it, that’s what it comes down to. You can be great all week and then one happy hour, followed by one late night watching a movie, ice cream, one morning skipping breakfast, making bad choices at lunch. It is hard for people.
“Start today. Don’t wait for tomorrow.
There’s no such thing as an anniversary, new year, a 30th birthday, the start of the month. Find a class, get your clothes together and go do it and you’re halfway there already.”
NOW HE IS working with F45, a global fitness class brand that aims to give you an all over body workout in just 45 minutes and has studios across the UK and across the world. He has designed an exclusive ascending weight resistance workout, which will be launching on the global F45 timetable in April 2022, meaning his approach will be available beyond Beverly Hills.
He says: “F45 is a great programme, it keeps changing and you never get bored. The ethos is very much like my own, which is why I’m getting behind it. The number one excuse I get is, ‘I don’t have time’. With this you can do it all in 45 minutes.We can all find 45 minutes in our day.
“The reason I don’t have a string of my own gyms, is it is not for me to go out and pitch it, and have the conversation and argument.
“Here’s a company and they embody the same training I have done for years and have the platform. There’s a reason I haven’t aligned myself with other companies and trends. This isn’t a trend, this is real.” ?
For more information visit: F45training.com