A personal trainer for the super-rich has revealed the "farcical" health fads followed by some celebrities - like drinking urine and period blood. Matt Hodges insists getting fit is hard work, there are no quick fixes and no such thing as "super-foods".
The 40-year-old from south London found success as a personal trainer to the rich and famous after a brief role as Neil the barman in EastEnders in 2007. Soon he was working with socialites, celebrities, the uber rich and even some Russian oligarchs – but the wealthier his clients got, the more outrageous their get slim quick schemes became.
““I knew a woman who we caught drinking her urine as part of her holistic lifestyle,” he said. “Another had also been drinking her period blood, it’s just lunacy.
“I think I have PTSD from a client who was on the cabbage diet – I have never done sports massage again." Explaining what happened in the awful incident, he said: “I was massaging this extremely wealthy woman from LA.
"She was on this cabbage diet despite me warning her against it. My hand slipped on her glute and then I was covered in poo.
"It was in my mouth, all over my face and my arms. I looked like I was inseminating a cow! So I’m standing there covered and it stinks.
"There was a huge swimming pool next door, so I just legged it out the room and dived straight into the swimming pool with all my clothes on. Then I see this figure standing above me and the client just lost it with me for jumping in the pool."
Another woman passed out during a session because she had covered herself in plastic wrap, he said. “When you’re at that higher level, you’ve got all of these specialists who can tell you everything about your body and you pay a premium for it," Matt said.
"And the more farcical the fads become. But actually, all you need to do is probably just reduce your calories every day to lose weight.”
Matt is now releasing his tell-all book, ‘Behind Gym Doors’ on December 1. In it, he looks back on his most horrific and laugh-out-loud moments during his 15 years as a personal trainer, as well as food myths.
“Superfoods don’t exist,” said Matt, who is single. “Most health fads are just expensive products, like 300-year-old Himalayan salt with a year sell by date. It’s just lunacy.
“It’s just marketing gurus creating the next quick fix. Getting fit is hard work, it takes time and effort."
Falling in love with the gym when he was studying industrial design at Loughborough University, Matt started brushing shoulders with celebrities in 2007 when he bagged a speaking role in EastEnders as Neil the barman. “I was working in design in London and I just got picked up by a photographer,” he explained.
"I got to know the actors and actresses on it and they started asking if I could help them out with their workout or what they should eat. I realised I was good at it. So I went back to studying and got my personal training qualifications and founded the MPH Method in 2010.”
But he was thrown into a deep depression when he had to close his dream gym. “When it rains it pours,” he said.
"I took 18 months to build my gym and within two months of opening it was shut because of Covid. I had so much stuff going on. My stepfather nearly died. My dog died. I was in a car accident, I lost my girlfriend, I lost my house."
When Matt took a friend’s advice and started penning his memoir, he felt a shift – calling writing his therapy. “It sounds cheesy but the book gave me focus,” he said.
“I didn’t know if I was going to be there the following year and it was explaining to my two younger half-brothers why. It was kind of for them."
Despite the hard times, Matt wants to put the fun back into fitness. And he says he is tired of Instagram stars and diet fad shops turning the industry into an unwelcoming place.
“I hate social media with a passion,” he said.“I always use this analogy, everyone can brush their teeth, but it doesn’t make you a dentist.
“Just because you’ve got a set of abs doesn’t make you a trainer. It seems to be rife in the health and fitness world that we can give out advice, that actually can be detrimental to people’s health and fitness, without a qualification.”
Behind Gym Doors is available from December 1. Go to www.matthodgesauthor.com to find out more.
