Celebrated for his role in the sixth season of Game of Thrones, Joe Naufahu boasts more than just a diverse acting ability.
The personal trainer and gym-owner is the gatekeeper to a wealth of fitness and health knowledge, ready to help the willing and able 'shred' for the popular New Year's Eve festival.
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The phrase 'Shredding for Rhythm' was coined to label the efforts of festival-goers' prioritising their fitness and health, just in time for summer.
Naufahu, who runs Auckland-based gym Ludus Magnus, sat down with Newshub to pinpoint the most critical components of going into any health transition.
Here are his top tips to shedding the winter layers:
Set goals - and make sure they're realistic
If you've got a certain timeline, it's just having a look and seeing how much time you've got and what you can achieve. It's about setting yourself up with habits and a routine that you can maintain beyond immediate goals.
Make sure that you've got enough time get what you want to get done, and do it in a way that's able to be sustained long beyond when you achieve that goal.
Get a good night's sleep
One thing that gets overlooked in terms of training and nutrition is the quality of sleep.
If you don't sleep well, you're going to wake up and probably want to eat crap food, you're not going to want to train, or when you do train, you're not going to train at a high quality so getting enough sleep as well as the quality of sleep are two really important things in the whole scheme of the holistic approach to training.
Get a squad and have fun
Having good buddies and mates to call up can add a social element to training and can make the work out far more enjoyable. Training with mates widens the scope of activities; you can hit the gym or get outside with a rugby ball.
Things are always a lot easier to get into when you have a bit of fun. It depends on what kind of person you are, if you're someone that likes going to the gym and pumping weights, then get a gym buddy that's going to push you in the weights room.
If you like doing social sport, grab a group of friends and do some indoor netball.There are heaps of options out there, so that's an easy tip before summer comes.
Stay on the outside of the supermarket (stay away from sugar and processed food)
There are so many fads and diets around these days, you're spoiled for choice.
What I would suggest is one really simple rule, everything in moderation, whatever you do decide to do, just don't hit so hard that you can't maintain it. Keep in mind, moderation.
I love food, I train twice as hard, because I enjoy eating, but a basic rule is trying to stay away from processed stuff.
One easy way when you're going shopping is to stay around the outside of the supermarket, because that's where all the good stuff usually is, your fruit and your vegetables and your natural stuff.
Don't forget to keep the sugars down.
Limit your food intake in the evening
Don't just be mindful of what you eat but also the times of day that you eat.
Try and limit the amount of calories the closer you near to sleep - you'll be lying in bed, not burning anything.
You want to cut out the carbs closer towards your sleeping time and have them during the day when you are active and burning fat.
Start small
It's always daunting, if you're not naturally drawn to exercise or never enjoyed sport at school. What I suggest is to start really small - even five or 10 minutes a day, it's as simple as that.
Try a few push ups, with a little run. Really basic stuff, next time throw in some squats.
You might do a week or two weeks of that every day and get that routine into your system.Once your confidence is up you might do 15 minutes… Before you know it, you're cracking out a 30-minute workout at high-intensity.
Eat a variety of food
Try new things, if there's a vegetable that you've never given a go, don't be afraid to try it; it could be something you end up throwing into a salad. Different types of meats are good to explore variety in what we eat.
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Now you're set to 'Shred for R&V', an expression co-founder Hamish Pinkham told Newshub first popped up in 2012. He believes it was an offshoot of festival culture where people "Shredded for Sterio" in Australia.
"We think it's a fun little slogan and culture that has sprung up around the festival. We are all for a bit of health and wellbeing so are all for it. R&V is a marathon not a sprint so we encourage people to get festival fit to last the distance," he said.
Newshub.
