Patrick Mahomes’ Former Trainer Says Chiefs QB Is Successful Because of His Dad Bod

It may be time to retire the Dad Bod and embrace the Mahomes Bod — at least that’s what his former trainer, Bobby Stroupe, believes.

“I think the problem is you look at him and his body type is not what you would think of,” the performance trainer told The Athletic in a story published on Thursday, January 30.

He added that Patrick Mahomes excels at “forecasting momentum,” or using his vision to gauge his speed relative to his opponents, resulting in elite reaction time.

Stroupe has seen this phenomenon before. He has worked with Major League Baseball pitchers, who often have higher body fat percentage than other pro athletes. The Athletic pointed to newly minted Hall of Famer CC Sabathia, who spoke about it in an interview with Pat McAfee in 2023.

“I always say ‘mass equals gas.’ I need a big ass to throw hard,” he said.

That means Mahomes, a three-time Super Bowl MVP, actually has a “dad bod,” in the original sense of the phrase — but a lack of six-pack abs doesn’t mean he’s not in peak physical condition.

According to Mackenzie Pearson, who coined the term while she was a student at Clemson, “dad bod” was never supposed to be synonymous with out-of-shape men. She used it to describe the men who would go to frat parties on campus — often former athletes who have had “a few too many beers.”

“It’s the Patrick Mahomes [body],” she said. “It’s that version of someone that is objectively physically in good shape and attractive. But not washboard abs. That’s the big thing.”

Mahomes himself has spoken about the dad bod allegations, and he agrees that his physique is critical to his success.

“I use those hips and that obliques muscle to really rotate through there,” Mahomes said in an interview with Tom Brady in October 2024. “The people who have seen the dad bod, that’s for a reason — that’s the obliques. I’m getting them right.”

Brady, 47, agreed, humorously adding, “We have to keep a little padding in there. We’re getting hit all the time.”

Mahomes said roughly the same thing last April in a story for Time.

“I definitely have the dad bod a little bit,” he said. “I’ll also say I have a great body for a quarterback. You’ve got to have some padding in there to take the hits that we take.”

The pair’s exercise and fitness regime clearly works. Brady won seven Super Bowls in his Hall of Fame career and Mahomes is going for his fourth. His Chiefs will face the Philadelphia Eagles in Super Bowl LIX on February 9 in New Orleans.