With gratuitous topless beach shots probably definitely written into his contract, The Bachelor Richie Strahan likely felt a fair bit of pressure to get his bod into shape for the show.
And by “shape” we mean ripped-to-rival-Brad-Pitt-in-Troy kind of fit.
Aware that rope accessing alone wouldn’t quite be enough, Strahan went to Australian Institute of Fitness graduate and Personal Trainer, Renae Wauhop for help.
Watch: Mamamia chats to Richie about love and reality TV. Post continues after video.
1. Set a seriously difficult goal.
Richie’s? It wasn’t anything to do with aesthetics – it was to get race-ready for the Rottnest Channel Swim, a 19.7km ‘dip’ to raise money for charity.
Legend.
“Richie contacted me at my gym, Anarchy Training Centre in West Perth, as he needed some guidance on training and eating well to max his performance on the day,” said Wauhop.
“Richie is an avid fitness enthusiast who lives an active lifestyle year round and knows what he’s doing in the gym, but the swim just gave him that something to work towards in preparation for his time on The Bachelor.”
2. Swim. HEAPS.
When you’re training for a major swim, time in the water probably helps.
“The first thing that needed changing straightaway was increasing his time in the pool, as he did not come from a swimming background,” she said.
While Richie was reportedly always keen for chest and ab day, he had to be encouraged a little to don his budgie smugglers more frequently.
“When training for the swim, Richie would hit the pool a few times a week doing drills, technique and laps to get his swimming up to scratch. He would also do a couple of strength and conditioning sessions that were specific to swimming to help strengthen him for the swim.”
Plenty of time was also spent reassuring his nerves that he would not get eaten by sharks. (Post continues after gallery.)
2016 Bachelorettes
3. Eat plenty of ‘cool’ bananas.
It was the phrase that earned him a place in the hearts of thousands of Bachelorette fans and it played a major role in preparing for his return on The Bachelor.
“I also made sure he knew his carbohydrate intake needed to go up with him training more than usual (more ‘cool bananas’?),” Wauhop said.
4. Eat chocolate.
“Richie’s a good eater, so I didn’t really need to tweak much [in terms of his diet]. He does however have a weakness for chocolate, but I believe you need to have some balance in your life, so I let him get away with that,” she said.
5. Treat everything as a competition.
This season Richie is technically the “prize”, but his competitive nature certainly helped him in his Bachelor prep.
“Some of the locals in the pool lanes next to him used to find themselves in a race they didn’t know about,” joked Wauhop.
See you at the pool?
Image: Instagram/@richiestrahan.