- Magnus Lygdbäck, a personal trainer, found a niche in training entertainers such as pro athletes.
- Lygdbäck was introduced to Alexander Skarsgård, his first Hollywood client, by a friend in Sweden.
I've been in the sporting world from as early as I can remember. When I was just 3, my dad would take me to the gym. I played for an elite hockey team as a teenager in Sweden. Becoming a personal trainer felt like a natural progression.
At 21, I became a certified personal trainer and slowly built up my client base in Stockholm.
Now, I train Hollywood actors such as James McAvoy, Gal Gadot, and Alexander Skarsgård and singers including Harry Styles and Britney Spears.
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I worked for free a lot in the beginning
I started as a young, unknown trainer working many free hours and saying yes to everything. Unfortunately, that's the nature of the industry.
I slowly built up my client list with successful athletes, entrepreneurs, actors, and artists in Sweden.
My first high-profile client was Sweden's answer to Jane Fonda – a trainer known for her fitness videos.
While it was luck that we connected, I made my luck in a way. I was very aware certain gyms had more-high-profile clientele, so I would work out in those gyms where I would meet these kinds of people.
I naturally gravitated toward very ambitious, successful people because I was ambitious myself.
I found a niche in helping celebrities prepare for tours
When I started working with performers in Sweden, I realized that no one saw them as athletes.
I created a program to help performers focus on tailored movements and breathing. I would analyze everything involved in a performer's show — song lengths, dance moves — and created a perfect training plan so they'd be able to execute it.
My first musician client was E-Type, a European pop star. I happened to be working the day he walked into the gym, and the owner thought we'd be a good fit.
Working in this niche, I scaled my offering from trainer to celebrity life coach
I specialized in this kind of training in Sweden in the early 2000s. I would travel with the artists and realized I trained them for only an hour a day in the gym. The rest of their lives were chaotic and could be unhealthy.
As a result, I became a "lifestyle" coach in 2008 to help artists with structure and healthy habits.
I give advice on things such as their performances at night. I suggest when they should wake up, what they should eat for breakfast, that they do mental and physical preshow warm-ups, and how to decompress afterward.
Being an entertainer is an extremely challenging job. I couldn't do it, and I'm a structured, stable man who lives a healthy lifestyle.
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I'd worked with only small Swedish actors until I was connected with Skarsgård for "The Legend of Tarzan" in 2014.
We had a couple of mutual friends in Sweden, and I'd worked with some artists he knew. It was pure luck that I got to sit down with him to discuss the film. He introduced me to the director, David Yates. We hit it off and I got the gig.
When Ben Affleck saw "Tarzan," he wanted to hire me as his trainer for playing Batman in "Justice League." My Hollywood career snowballed from there.
A big part of my success in Hollywood is reputation and networking. I've now worked with some of the biggest names in music, from Styles to Spears.