From playing Division 1 football to acting as a body double to training some of the most famous celebrities and athletes, Manning Sumner has done just about everything in the fitness world.
now Bad Boys: Ride or Die The 46-year-old box office topping body double looks back on how his journey began on the set of the 2003 film “Star Wars.” Bad Boys II. Even though he never actually met the film's stars, Will Smith and Martin Lawrence.
“The stunt doubles and body doubles were all in their own areas,” Sumner says of his experience on set, recalling that he was used in a key scene that made it into the final cut.
“One day, [director] Michael Bay came in and yelled at me. “He said, 'You need to understand that your hands are the only thing the audience will see on the movie screen,' so he said, 'Don't screw it up.' It was a lot of pressure. I think I was lighting the fuse.”
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Still, “those moments were really cool,” he says. “Overall it was a lot of fun. But it's kind of weird to quit and think, 'Oh, I'm going to get another role and be a movie star,'” like the plot of a Ryan Gosling hit movie. Scapegoat, “It didn't work out that way, but it was definitely a fun experience,” he says of his big dream.
Sumner's film experience Bad Boys 2 The film helped spark a reputation for his training and he soon began traveling across the United States to train professional athletes and celebrities.
“I actually had the opportunity to mentor Scott Stapp, the former lead singer of Creed,” Sumner says. “That was also a really unique experience and I learned a lot from it. I was in the studio a lot, helping him with his nutrition and diet and getting to see the rock star lifestyle, which was amazing to see.”
He took advantage of the opportunities to train at facilities across the country and eventually decided to develop his own facility to bring people from all walks of life together in groups and be better equipped to train everyone from athletes to regular gym-goers using his PIT method.
“You have to understand each person,” Sumner says. “You have to find out what connects them, and that's really the same for everyone. Not everyone has the same, what I call a 'workout love language.'”
As the training facility expands, Sumner is focusing on new areas for the No Days Off brand, recently launching a canned water that will eventually be introduced at the Casseya Center, home of the Miami Heat basketball team.
“Our cultures were a perfect fit,” Sumner says, “so we set up a meeting with the Miami Heat and we literally brought cardboard cutouts of our idea to the team and they loved it.” Now his water is the official brand used by the team, and he himself has coached basketball stars such as Kevin Durant and James Harden.
Even with his hectic schedule of business ventures and projects, he still finds time to “spend time” with his family, who recently welcomed their second child.
“I wake up at 4 a.m., go to the gym, work out, coach some people, check my email, then drive home and take my son to school,” Sumner said. “So making sure I'm the one taking him to school every day is really important to me.”
Sumner is preparing to expand Legacy facilities across the country, hoping to get a can of No Days Off water into the hands of as many people as possible.
“It's a commitment to be the best version of yourself,” Sumner says. “It's never too late to become a better version of yourself.”
