How the Agent Behind Some of the Biggest Sports Stars Stays in Shape
Casey Wasserman keeps a three-year-old photo on his iPhone. In it, he’s standing next to NBA star Russell Westbrook.
Westbrook boasts the jacked arms and chiseled body. Wasserman? He’s 200 pounds of out-of-shape PR maven. “I saw that picture,” he says, remembering the moment, “and I’m like, ‘I’m done. I need to make a change.’”
The photo is Wasserman’s inspiration, and it’s driving him right now, as he takes off for a 20-yard sprint up his driveway hill on this sunny morning in Beverly Hills. It’s the final run in a 45-minute hill session. Yet Wasserman, 46, is just starting his workout.
Five days a week, he wakes before sunrise, then pushes through workouts with trainer Christine Khuri that may last three hours. “As difficult as it is sometimes to get started, I just know how much better [I’ll feel] and how much more energy and focus I’ll have when I’m done working out,” Wasserman says.
He needs that focus because he spends the workday pulling double duty, as chairman and CEO of Wasserman—a company that brokers endorsement deals for people like Westbrook and Giancarlo Stanton—and as chair of LA 2028, the committee tasked with prepping the city for the 34th Olympiad. That means overseeing deals that land NFL safety Malcolm Jenkins two clothing lines one moment and studying Olympic venue plans the next. And no, the Olympic prep isn’t all fun, especially when Wasserman gets a brief on rush-hour traffic flow.
Training clears his head. On this day, he goes from hill to home gym—a1,150-square-foot sweat zone that looks like a mini Equinox—and knocks out five sets of wide-grip pullups. TRX rows, dumbbell rows, and biceps curls follow, leaving him massaging his arms.
Until three years ago, Wasserman wasn’t training like this. He’d played tennis when he was young and had always been active. But he kept an intense travel schedule, frequently flying to Europe, Asia, and South America. “I used to wear this badge of honor that I traveled a lot and worked hard,” he says.
Then, just before the Westbrook wake-up call, his doctor told him he wasn’t in great shape. Wasserman knew he had to make some adjustments. He hasn’t missed a training session since and has dropped to 165 pounds, a weight he’s maintained for 18 months. “I don’t want to find out what happens when you take your foot off the gas,” he says.
Wasserman constantly finds new ways to drive his body. Some days he pushes the bounds of his breathing and flexibility with yoga. Or he does more hill sprints. Soon after social distancing was ordered in L.A., Wasserman mapped out and ran his own half-marathon course through Beverly Hills. Anything, he says, to prevent reverting to his pre-Westbrook days. “In anything, that anxiety and that fear means you care,” he says. “I care about my health.”
Workout of the Century
When Wasserman travels, he keeps his workouts simple but intense. Do 100 reps of these 5 exercises as quickly as possible, resting when needed.
100 pushups
100 squats
100 dips
100 burpees
100 bicycle crunches
This story originally appears in the October 2020 issue of Men's Health.
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