How Hollywood's breakout star Glen Powell got in impressive shape for Top Gun: Maverick
Top Gun: Maverick star Glen Powell built his impressive physique for the film’s beach scene in just SEVEN WEEKS, after teaming up with Ultimate Performance.
Glen plays ‘Hangman’ in the long-awaited sequel, starring alongside Hollywood legend Tom Cruise.
Shooting for the film began in 2018, and Glen had just seven weeks to get into incredible shape for a sequence in which he is seen shirtless playing American Football– a homage to the iconic volleyball scene in the original film.
Glen wanted to reduce his body fat, build broad shoulders, a muscular chest and sport a chiselled six-pack for the sequence. To achieve this, he enlisted the expertise of U.P., the world’s leading personal training business.
To ensure he was in absolute peak condition, Glen partnered with U.P. founder and Global CEO Nick Mitchell. Nick is widely regarded as the world’s leading personal trainer and founded U.P. in 2009. He has since overseen the expansion of the business, which now has 20 gyms operating in nine countries and four continents.
And Nick, who was born in Yorkshire, stepped out of the boardroom and back into the gym to personally train Glen at U.P.’s Los Angeles facility.
Under Nick’s watchful eye, Glen saw astonishing progress.
Nick said: “The brief was to get Glen to look as good, and as lean, as possible in a very short space of time.
“We analysed what the ‘money shot’ would be. What would make Glen pop on camera. So, we concentrated on his ‘mirror muscles’ – chest, shoulders, traps, abs.
“We couldn’t build massive muscles in just seven weeks. But, what we could do is make Glen look leaner, sharper, crisper, and give him a look of strength and power. We didn’t do any kind of body building-style leg training. Instead, we focused on strongman-type exercises, such as pushing a sled, pushing a Prowler and Farmer’s Walk to ramp up his metabolism and burn calories.
“You will always get people saying: ‘It’s easy for a pampered celebrity to get in shape.’ Don’t be stupid. Glen was part of an ensemble cast in one the biggest Hollywood films in decades, starring alongside Tom Cruise, the biggest movie star in the world. His life wasn’t his own.
“It was down to Glen to get up at 5am and lift weights. He didn’t have a personal chef, so it was down to Glen to prepare and eat the right foods. It was down to Glen to fit his training around a manic schedule of filming late into the night, reshoots, looking at scripts, learning how to fly and so on.
“And so were always rushed. We only had three or four hours a week a week to train. But Glen is a very dopamine-driven guy that loves high energy, hard, all-out exercise. And that speaks to my soul. He went all-in, and he achieved tremendous results.
“It really was genuinely great fun, and a genuine pleasure, to train Glen. It was uplifting to be on the gym floor with. He is the most upbeat, positive person you’d ever wish to meet.”
NOTES TO EDITORS
A full media package can be made available on request. This includes a genuine sample workout, a sample of Glen’s diet, more quotes from Nick about Glen’s training, audio and video clips of Nick and Glen training together and more pictures. To receive this and discuss any interview opportunities, please contact Stefan Jarmolowicz at stefan.jarmolowicz@upfitness.com
ABOUT NICK MITCHELL
Nick Mitchell is an Amazon best-selling author, writer, fitness expert, founder and Global CEO of the world’s leading personal training business, Ultimate Performance (U.P.).
He is widely recognised as one of the world’s foremost personal trainers and body composition experts. He has been hailed as “London’s Best Personal Trainer” by TimeOut London.
Nick is the son of a self-made millionaire from Yorkshire. He attended Bradford Grammar School and has degrees in both English and Law.
He started as a Barrister in the City of London, before he built and sold a headhunting company.
His passion for fitness and bodybuilding, inculcated as teenager after being inspired by Arnold Schwarzenegger, saw Nick become a personal trainer in his early 30s. He was too ashamed to tell his parents...who only found out when he got his first feature in Men's Health.
Nick launched the U.P. business in the City of London in 2009, and it has now expanded operations across four continents, with an ever-evolving team of 300 elite personal trainers.
Nick is the author of a number of best-selling books including 12 Week Body Plan, Your Ultimate Body Transformation Plan, Principles of Muscle Building Program Design, and most recently, Body Transformation Meal Plan Design.
He is now based in Marbella, Spain where he is spearheading the expansion of the U.P. business across North America, Europe, Asia, and the Middle East.
ABOUT ULTIMATE PERFORMANCE
Ultimate Performance (U.P.) was founded in 2009 in London by world-leading personal trainer Nick Mitchell.
U.P. have forged a reputation as the world’s foremost body transformation experts delivering exceptional client results under the mantra ‘maximum results, minimum time’.
The business has grown to become the world’s only truly international personal training company, with 20 private personal training facilities across the globe, including London, Liverpool, Leeds, Manchester, Cheshire, Los Angeles, Hong Kong, Dubai, Singapore, Sydney, Amsterdam, Marbella and Mumbai.
Now, U.P. boasts a team of more than 300 elite personal trainers across the global business, and has worked with more than 25,000 clients across the world to achieve unrivalled body composition transformations. The average time for clients to achieve their results is just 2.7 hours a week.
Men’s Fitness Magazine describes UP as: ‘The Goldman Sachs, Real Madrid and Apple of Personal Training. They’re that far ahead of the field.’
Other notable U.P. clients include Olivia Colman, Kevin McHale, Lamorne Morris and Dustin Hoffman.
The company prides itself on a results-driven training and nutrition methodology across its Personal Training, Group Training and Online Personal Training packages to optimise health, fitness and body composition.
