How healthy is Pope Leo XIV? In an interview with Italian media outlet Il Messaggero on May 16, Valerio Masella dispelled all doubts. For two years, this 26-year-old sports coach at Omega Fitness Club served as a trainer for someone he believed to be an ordinary man. It was with astonishment that the coach discovered, when he turned on his television on May 8, 2025, that his regular client had just been elected pope.
“I recognized him immediately. I couldn't believe it. I had practically trained the future pontiff: It was incredible, but to me he was just another client, and he behaved like all the other clients at the gym,” he says.
Masella adds that he thought his client was a teacher or an academic. “He hadn’t told me what his profession was; I only knew that he had a job that wasn’t physically demanding but that kept him very busy,” he revealed in another interview, with Italian media personality Caterina Balivo on her program La Volta Buona.
Reserved but approachable
The young man remembers his sessions fondly, describing the future pope as reserved but always approachable. He also says that he was very disciplined and punctual. Robert, as he had the privilege of calling the current pope, was “always very kind and smiling.”
“He came twice a week, sometimes three times.”
Their sessions usually began with “a little aerobics and warm-up using machines such as the treadmill or the exercise bike, followed by useful muscle-strengthening exercises and others more specific to posture.”
And what about his physical condition? The coach is full of admiration: “For a man of his age, he is in exceptional physical shape, typical of someone who has never stopped exercising, with an excellent ratio of muscle mass to bone mass and fat.”
Will Pope Leo XIV continue his exercise routine? It seems highly unlikely he'll continue to go to the same gym, but he wouldn't be the first pope to continue doing exercise or other personal activities after his election.
Pope John Paul II famously had a swimming pool installed at Castel Gandolfo, quipping that although it would be expensive, it would be cheaper than holding another conclave.
