Auckland's New Home of Celeb Sweat

Auckland’s leading celebrity gym Ludus Magnus has moved into a new home in Newton, which features a giant  portrait of its owner, Game of Thrones star Joe Naufahu, on an inside wall.

The gym has the likes of the Warriors, the NZ Sevens and All Blacks training alongside an array of actors and reality stars such as Art Green and Matilda Rice.

Naufahu agreed to the mural — but when he returned from overseas got a shock to see it was 3.5m high! He told Spy it was extremely humbling, but kind of weird.

The mural’s artist, Mark Rutledge, features Naufahu in the gym’s famous bear crawl exercise.

“To me, Mark’s work represents the struggle, the battle, down on hands and feet crawling through the chaos; the humble bear crawl, the essence of Ludus, and where it all began for me. It’s a reminder to never forget the struggle, never forget the pain,” Naufahu told Spy.

“Most of my trainers are actors or performers of some description and that seems to go down well when they’re taking the workouts!”

- SPY