The picture of Nicholas Galitzine, a 31-year-old British actor best known for period romances and quiet intensity, squatting under a loaded barbell for three hours on a Monday morning in a West Hollywood gym almost seems humorous. During the better part of three months that he spent getting ready to play He-Man in Amazon MGM’s “Masters of the Universe”, that was essentially his life. It’s not exactly funny. When you realize what was really expected of him, it’s more like subtly impressive.
The Los Angeles-based trainer Jason Walsh, who oversaw Nicholas Galitzine’s workout, has undergone rigorous physical transformations on numerous actors. Walsh has witnessed the entire spectrum of Hollywood male egos enter his gym, including Bradley Cooper, Matt Damon Jake Gyllenhaal.
He was struck by Galitzine’s genuine openness, which is something he doesn’t always get. “Males typically arrive with their own mindset. According to Walsh, it’s really macho. That was not the case with Galitzine. If you’ve spent any time with serious coaches, you know how uncommon it is that he showed up prepared to learn.
The Nicholas Galitzine workout was not designed with boutique fitness trends or exotic movements in mind. Walsh reduced the exercises to their most basic forms: squats, deadlifts, lunges, rows presses. Rather than chasing numbers from the first session, the two trained together up to five days a week, methodically increasing load and technique.
Walsh also included dead hangs, isometric hold planks holding the bottom of a squat all of which may seem insignificant until you attempt to hold a loaded squat position for a considerable amount of time. Drama wasn’t the point. Tissue preparation was involved. Three weeks before a film shoot starts, people get hurt because it takes longer to build tendons and connective tissue than it does to build muscle.
It’s possible that this strategy’s effectiveness was exactly what made it unglamorous. Galitzine’s athleticism was evident because he had participated in county-level sports as a child and had a rugby background. The kind of organized strength training needed to add He-Man-level mass to a lean frame under pressure was absent.
Walsh was aware that the heaviest weights weren’t the fastest path. It was steady, well-done exercise that advanced every week and was backed by enough calories to truly grow. Galitzine reportedly consumed up to 5,000 calories a day during peak prep. He has stated that food is everything to him. At least that part seemed effortless.
Observing how this kind of change is discussed in public gives the impression that people anticipate a complex secret. A proprietary protocol. Some advanced science. More uncomfortable than that is what Walsh and Galitzine’s preparation actually implies: the fundamentals are effective when applied consistently, with adequate sleep and food behind them, over an extended period of time.
That’s all. The isometric holds are not magical. There is nothing revolutionary about the compound lifts. The discipline to perform routine tasks without getting sidetracked is uncommon. By most accounts, Galitzine did not drift. He arrived, listened, lifted consumed.
It’s also important to note that the Nicholas Galitzine workout was aimed at improving both functionality and appearance. He-Man is not a physically intimidating figure who stands motionless. For months on set, he moves, fights swings a sword during staged action scenes. Even though a body built on machinery and isolation work might look good in photos, it would crumble under that kind of constant pressure.
Walsh’s method produced something more resilient: strength that endures fatigue, rotation the physical unpredictability of stunt work. That was directly influenced by the isometric holds. When a stunt coordinator asks you to perform the same sequence for the fifteenth take of the afternoon, positional awareness, grip endurance core stability are all important.
Galitzine’s next director instructed him to essentially do nothing for three weeks after filming was finally completed. No instruction. Simply relax on a couch with some potato chips. He said that it sounded like music to him. In contrast to most fitness narratives about Hollywood transformations, that detail feels genuine. His body was impressive. Building it was also incredibly taxing. Recognizing that doesn’t lessen the outcome; rather, it makes it more authentic.