“I want a Heated Rivalry ass.”
That was the first thing I said to my trainer when we met at Equinox yesterday for our biweekly session. I’d just finished episode three of HBO Max’s viral gay romance series, and the star hockey players at its center may just have the most jaw-dropping bodies that have ever graced a streaming platform.
I’m not the only one inspired by what I’ve seen: Fans have been posting ogling odes and glutes routines inspired by the backsides of main characters Shane Hollander (played by Hudson Williams) and Ilya Rozanov (Connor Storrie) since the show premiered last month.
In a way, Williams saw this coming. “When I got the audition, I was like, fuck, if I get this role a lot of people are going to see me naked,” he recently told Vogue over Zoom.
Although he was in “pretty good shape” already, landing the role of Shane demanded sweeping changes to his routine. They began with his diet. “The first time I saw Connor, I was amazed by how muscular he is,” Williams confesses. “I just started pounding the protein, eating as much ground beef as possible, and through the process I gained 10 pounds of really lean muscle.” Chicken thighs were another important addition.
Then came the workouts: Suddenly, he was exercising six days a week, plus taking hockey lessons. (Rather than work with a trainer, Williams mostly followed the advice of kinesiologist friends at the gym.) So, to what does he owe the derrière that fans can’t stop talking about? “The Pitt Shark will change your butt immediately,” he says, referring to a monstrous-looking glutes machine. “It takes all the pressure off your back so your butt is just being ripped apart.” Also in rotation were weighted hip thrusts (something my trainer had me try—very intense) and Romanian dead lifts.
Now, he considers himself a bit of an ass expert. “Hip thrusts are amazing for growing your butt out, while RDLs are key for growing that bottom part out,” Williams offers sagely. “If you want to grow your butt out sideways, not just get a long butt, you should do banded walks and abductor exercises.” Noted for my next gym session.
He has only one regret about his Heated Rivalry prep: that he didn’t start sooner. “Unfortunately, when we filmed that first shower scene, I hadn’t had a chance to train that much yet,” Williams says. “My butt got so much bigger, and we never filmed me from the back again. I need to really show it off in season two.”
