Get ready to break a sweat like Beckham. Celebrity trainer and F45’s Chief of Athletics Gunnar Peterson curated a new full-body workout with soccer legend David Beckham aptly titled the DB45 workout. Peterson, who has worked with Kim Kardashian and Jennifer Lopez, recommends the soccer-inspired cardio class for individuals looking to target visceral fat. “A hundred percent for any fat, but not just for fat,” he told Parade.com at an exclusive preview of the DB45 workout at F45 Training Coral Gables. “Look at it like this: I’m doing something for my body. I’m doing something for my overall health and then hey, look like a side effect, the body fat started coming off. Your body composition changes and then, to me, that should spur you on to want to do more of it.” “We’ve alleviated the boredom for you,” he added. “We’ve taken away all the guesswork of you putting together a workout.” The DB45 workout, which includes lunges, reverse burpees, cycling, using a sandbag, medicine ball, dumbbells and more, is made up of 11 stations that represent soccer positions. Although you could do squats, push-ups, Supermans and crunches at home, Peterson noted “that’s all one plane” and “less thorough, than something like this.” And while finding time to squeeze in a workout can be tough, the celebrity trainer pointed out that “you have to map it out.” “I’m not saying it has to be for you the cornerstone of your life. For me it is, but if it’s not it should be definitely one of the pillars that you work on, right? What time is your kids’ school pickup? Cause if your kids’ school pickup is at 2:45, you better not show up at 3:15. So you build it around that and you make that date. What time do you have to be at work? You have to be at work at 8:30 all right, you’re not gonna show up at nine o’clock,” he said. “So if you can lock those in, now lock in the workout time.” “So, you can fit this in. We make the mistake of saying priorities with an ’s’ and in fact, it’s a priority. There’s one and that’s a problem in the world. Everybody prioritizes everything. That’s very hard to do,” Peterson continued. “So if you whittle it down to your one, even if you take the latitude to your three, you can’t have 30 priorities in a day, you’re not gonna get it all done.” Continue reading to find out what Gunnar Peterson told Parade.com about creating the DB45 workout—launching May 11 at all F45 studios worldwide—with David Beckham, plus treating workouts “like a first date that you want to go on”…
What is the best way to lose visceral fat?
Visceral fat is the fat that’s marbled in the muscle. So adipose fat, subcutaneous fat, and visceral fat, are three different kinds. Keep active. You got to keep moving. Workouts like this, this DB45 workout is gonna hit you in different directions. There’s a change in direction. There’s multiplanar. There are things that you do in real life, now you’re doing them under load, so you’re less likely to be injured in real life. And from an athletic standpoint, this is gonna improve everything you do.
How often should someone be doing these types of workouts?
So, that’s one of the cool things about F45. These aren’t just one-off workouts, you know, strung together where an instructor pushes you in the last five seconds to crush it. These are done with the whole athletics team… Everybody working from a macro viewpoint so it’s done programmed out for the month that’s why there are different phases as there should be in your life and your training from an athletic standpoint. You’re gonna have phases like this, which are a little more intensive. If you think about this leading up into summer, it’s the perfect way to go and this workout is gonna be put into the programming once a week and then there are other programs that are cardio strength hybrid programs all set out so you could actually do something every day without overtraining, without risking or courting injury. And to me, it’s the comprehensive approach to programming that F45 takes that makes it a no-brainer.
How long does it usually take for clients to see results?
Well, remember, it’s 45 minutes. So what are you doing during the other 23 hours and 15 minutes of the day? If you’re doing this workout and you’re crushing it, but then you’re not recovering, you’re eating bad, you’re drinking, you’re not managing your stress levels, obviously, it’s gonna be a long road. But if you are not falling asleep at the wheel in all your other aspects, you’ll see and feel differences right out of the gate. I mean, you’ll leave here feeling better than when you got in here. To me, everything is a step in that direction.
How do you encourage your clients to stick to their routines/regimens?
I think you’d look at the bigger picture, is life in general. Everything you do within the walls of the F45 studio makes everything you do outside of the studio better, easier and more fun. So this is just a facet of your day, right? There are your meals, there [is] your shower, there are your interactions with people, there’s your exercise, there’s your sleep. It all just sort of fits in. I don’t look at it as this big thing looming out there that you have to do every day, and the way it’s dialed and it’s so efficient from a time standpoint. You get in. You get after it. You get out… If you think about it, we’re a 365 24/7 society now. Everybody’s on-call all the time. You have to find a way to slot your workout in and I think F45 takes the guesswork out of it for you.
For individuals who aren’t able to carve out time to go to an F45 studio or the gym, what workouts would you suggest at home to target that visceral fat?
I mean, I’d stop you at the beginning of your question and say your priorities are off. If this is something that’s gonna help everything else you do, why wouldn’t you take the time for it? Don’t put it in pencil, put it in pen, and okay, it’s a dated reference, but lock this in your schedule. Build the rest around it. If you know that mornings are hectic and crazy for you, don’t book a morning workout. If you know that you can slip out at lunchtime and there’s an F45 right down the street and you have a window to do that, then make that your F45 time and put these things ahead of other things. Treat it like a first date that you want to go on. Treat it like a job interview where you really want the job. You wouldn’t miss those and you wouldn’t be late for them. But be realistic in what your schedule can fit.
What if you do get to the gym and don’t have a trainer, is there a certain workout you’d recommend?
I would recommend this [DB45] workout. Honestly, I would. That’s the reason I got involved with this company because it’s as close to personal training in a group setting as you’ll ever find. They’re always two coaches on the floor. That’s in the F45 curriculum. So you’re having people come around and it’s not just rah-rah stuff. These are coaches that are gonna coach you up in terms of your form, your performance when to regress the movement when you can progress the movement, so you’re getting everything you could possibly need in a workout in this 45-minute block of time.
Now let’s talk about what went into creating the DB45 workout. What was important for you and David [Beckham]?
David wanted this to be something that reflected athletic movements that football players here, soccer players use in their training, but also wanted it to be accessible for everybody. So it’s an athletic workout for athletes as well as non-athletes. And the final thing that he said on the way out was ‘Oh, and I want it to be the best workout.’ And then he looked and he goes, ‘No pressure.’ But I like that. I like the challenge. And I like the fact that even though he’s been retired for nine years, he’s still shooting for the top and the best. To me, that’s a mindset and if you adopt that mindset, you’re more likely to be the kind of elite champion level guy that David is. This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity Next, Brooke Shields Shares Her Top Tip for Feeling Energized and Thriving As You Age
