Why Brooklyn and Nicola’s ‘Beckxit’ Mirrors Harry and Meghan’s Rift
Another day and another olive branch from David Beckham is snubbed by his increasingly absent son Brooklyn Peltz Beckham. Posting to Instagram…
When David Beckham was asked to pose half naked in a pair of tight underpants for photographs due to be splashed across billboards all around the world, he probably could be forgiven for a touch of reticence at the idea.
The man nicknamed Goldenballs in his footballing heyday had become a little self-conscious about his body.
After all, he’s just weeks away from turning 50 (his big birthday is on May 2) and the last time he stripped off for a photoshoot was a decade ago when he fronted a campaign for Calvin Klein.
After much persuasion, however – and a lucrative financial offer from Hugo Boss – Becks decided to do it.
Although he was already in enviable shape, having long trained with his wife Victoria at their home gym, he knew there was still a lot of work to do if he was get body perfect for the Boss ONE Bodywear campaign shoot, which took part in New York late last year.
And he had just 14 weeks to do it.
While Victoria is famous for her punishing self-discipline and restricted diet, what David put himself through for those three months made her look like an amateur.
‘Getting back into my underwear at 50 years old in front of the world was quite, quite a thing that I actually wasn’t looking forward to,’ David said.
‘I actually hung my pants up ten years ago and never thought I would do it again… I was under quite a bit of pressure at that point, so I agreed to it, and then I trained for it 14 weeks.
‘As someone that loves their food and wine, I cut that out for 14 weeks and just went for it.’
Helping him ‘go for it’ was his personal trainer, Bobby Rich – a former Team GB judo star and jiu-jitsu black belt.
Here, he reveals exclusively to KATIE HIND the secrets behind the Becks’ back-to-buff body.
KITCHEN CURFEW
Bobby gave David a strict rule – no food after 8pm. ‘That was really important,’ says the trainer. ‘He needed three meals a day, but dinner had to be early evening. It gives time to digest the food and also for David to have some down-time before he goes to bed.’
As well as helping digestion, eating late can potentially increase weight gain. And with his workouts starting early in the mornings, it also helped to prevent him feeling sluggish when he hit the gym.
NO WINE O’CLOCK
Becks has a reputation for being something of a wine connoisseur, with his favourite being a £3,000 Château Mouton Rothschild. While Bobby says David isn’t a ‘big drinker’, he has been known to sip on a few glasses over dinner or on a winter’s evening, so it was a sacrifice. Thankfully, the shoot was done before Christmas, so he didn’t have to endure a dry festive season.
DIET GOALS
David ate three meals a day throughout his 14-week regime – all carefully, nutritionally planned. As Bobby aimed to keep David’s intake between 2,000 and 2,500 calories a day, sauces were banned, and portion sizes were controlled. Breakfast would typically be eggs – poached or scrambled, not fried. Porridge was also allowed as Bobby says it helps the digestive system.
But despite fruit being deemed healthy, anything sweet was on the banned list. ‘David had to stay clear of sweet fruit, basically all of the ones that taste lovely,’ says Bobby. So mangos and pineapple were not allowed, while more boring options such as grapefruit and melon were.
Carbohydrates were mainly cut out of his diet, and he was only allowed certain breads containing either pumpkin seeds or sunflower seeds – and even those were limited.
‘David loves cooking food – he likes pasta and Italian food, so it was a big thing for him to give up,’ reveals Bobby. Refined sugars also had to go.
And as if it wasn’t miserable enough for Becks, his snacks were also cut out completely. He’s often spoken of his fondness for salt and vinegar crisps, and baked-bean toasties, but not a single one passed his lips.
‘It is amazing how many extra calories just having the odd snack can add,’ said Bobby. ‘They had to go.’
PROTEIN POWER
Bobby says that one of the main goals he and David had was to increase his lean muscle mass and improve his abs, to achieve the intended ‘ripped’ aesthetic for the photoshoot. That meant consuming as much protein as possible in the form of lean meat such as chicken and fish.
A typical lunch or dinner would be filled mainly with protein, along with as many vegetables as he could fit on the plate.
And to ensure that he had all the nutrients he needed, David took his own new supplement, IM8. The daily powder and capsules include the antioxidant CoQ10 as well as methylsulfonylmethane (MSM) to help treat joint pain. IM8 also contains prebiotics, bacterial strains that help with digestion, and digestive enzymes, which break down proteins, carbohydrates and lipids, which are fatty compounds in the body.
TRAIN LIKE A PRO
Bobby, who has been a trainer for 20 years, compared Beckham’s photoshoot regime to a boxer getting ready for a fight. So he says they varied the intensity throughout the 14 weeks.
‘You can’t have your engine revved at 100 per cent all of the time,’ says Bobby. ‘So it was about cycles.’
But by the time Becks stepped into his £45 boxer shorts he was at his peak fitness – just like a boxer would be.
NEW BALLS PLEASE
While David is no stranger to other sports than football – he’s dabbled in both golf and tennis over the years – he has recently found a new activity to keep himself fit – padel. Like tennis, it’s a racket sport, but the court is a third as big. Bobby says that Becks plays the game, which originated in Mexico, on both sides of the Atlantic, competing in London and Miami when he visits the US for his football team commitments. Bobby says it’s fun, but it has also been perfect for his fitness.
‘It’s great for his cardio and he loves it,’ says Bobby. ‘And he was a trainer’s dream because he kept it up on his own. It also means that his gym sessions could be centred around strength training.’
When it comes to cardio at home, though, David did do the odd run on his treadmill or session on the stair climber at the state-of-the-art gym at the £25million mansion he shares with Victoria in Holland Park, central London.
BELL ON THE BALL
When it came to getting David’s body as buff as possible, it was all about bells – bar, dumb and kettle bells. During his daily sessions, which would average from between 60 and 90 minutes, he would be put through a gruelling routine featuring dead-lifts with bar bells, which would be mixed in with some kettle bells to get his abs in shape. Dumbbells also played a part in his regime, mostly for this arms.
David also trained with ‘battle ropes’ – long, thick, heavy ropes that are fixed to a wall and then shaken or slammed against the floor in a double-handed action for three or four, minute-long sets.
Then there were the dreaded squats, to work on his glutes and lower-body strength. After a warm-up set, David would be put through his paces with four reps of 20 on a hard day or three reps of 12 on an easier day.
While many gym classes promote the idea of having days to work out particular parts of the body, for example a ‘legs day’ or an ‘abs day’, Bobby’s regime focuses on a full-body work-out every day.
Pull-ups were also part of the class, along with core cable rotations, an exercise used to build stronger and more stable core and abdominal muscles.
David would finish each session with some dynamic stretching such as lunges with twists, high stepping and hip circles, as these exercises help to prime the body for more intense training.
Bobby points out that consistency was the key to David’s final results. ‘His engine was already running because he keeps himself fit and he used to work as an athlete, but this workout was harder than the normal ones he did.’
VARIETY IS THE SPICE OF LIFE
Bobby insists on mixing things up when it comes to exercise. While it is tempting to keep repeating the same exercise, he says that it is fundamental to ‘keep the mind engaged’, adding: ‘It’s important to take into account the mental impact, so it’s a balance between that and getting in as much exercise as you can.’
For David, his travel to Miami had an impact on his training as he would be jet-lagged and his meal prep would also be interrupted, but Bobby was always there – at the end of a Zoom connection – to put him through his paces.
SLEEPING BEAUTY
Even David Beckham needs to make sure he gets enough shut-eye. ‘It was a strict seven and a half to eight hours each night,’ says Bobby. ‘Once he finished eating he would have some down-time before bed as recovery is 50 per cent of the work he was putting in.’
For David, down-time means talking to his children on FaceTime wherever they are in the world or watching a good television drama with Victoria. But the best time for David is spent watching his favourite movie – Father Of The Bride – with his daughter Harper. Then David has to be up and ready for 8am when Bobby arrives for his next workout.
AND FINALLY – THE REWARD
David’s hard work paid off in time for the 15-hour shoot in a loft space in New York, where he was photographed Mert Alas and Marcus Piggott.
And at the end David was beaming, Bobby reveals – not just because of the quality of the end result, but because, waiting for him, were boxes of his favourite pizzas, which he’d dreamed about for 14 long weeks.
The welcome surprise came from the Brooklyn restaurant Lucali, where David loves to tuck into a margherita and pepperoni pizzas – presumably followed by a large glass of his favourite French red.
