Having trained stars to get fitter, lose weight and gain muscle, city-based fitness coach Kunal Gir reveals the workout sessions of four actors he has worked with.
Mr regular Venky
Among the stars that he works with, Venkatesh is of an older age group, but he is quite fit for his age. “The secret to his physique is that he is very consistent with his workout. He takes his workouts seriously and makes sure he’s a gym regular,” says Kunal. But with Venkatesh, there are a few restrictions.
“We need to take care that we don’t exert pressure on his joints as there is a risk of wearing them out. So he does a lot of strength training, but the intensity levels are kept at 70 per cent. Also, since he suffers from sensitive digestion so we add more fibre to his diet. For something sweet, he has Greek yoghurt with organic honey and a few fruits,” explains Kunal.
Sudheer Babu’s NFL training
Kunal says Sudheer is one of the fittest actors in T’town. “Sudheer trains for an hour each day. He is so particular about his exercise that if he is going out of town, he’ll make it two hours in a day,” explains Kunal.
While Sudheer maintains a low carb diet in general, but right before a shoot, he gets on to a strict high-protein diet. “Currently, Sudheer is gearing up for his Hindi film where he stars alongside Tiger Shroff. Those who know Tiger, know how fit he is and so Sudheer wanted to look as good as Tiger and he has bumped up his routine. He works on something called the Tred Sled which is used by NFL athletes. It drastically decreases the fat and increases stamina. Apart from that, he does weight training and body building. He also does High Intensity Interval Training to increase his stamina.
Rana Daggubati’s arm trick
The one thing that comes to your mind when you see Rana is that he has a huge frame and while that could suit various roles, it makes his shoulders look bulky. “We are working on shrinking, rather giving an illusion of a smaller shoulder for Rana, so we work on his arms and chest. Rana also does something called the blood-flow restriction training. Here, he ties a band near the upper part of his arm and he works out. This makes sure that the arm gains two inches within two months,” says Kunal.
As Rana prepares for his role in Baahubali 2, Kunal says that he will look much different. “His look is a little different in the second part and so we need to work on his physique for a more balanced look.”
Sam takes a HIT
Kunal believes that Samantha is one of the few people who doesn’t want to look skinny. “She has a set plan. She wants to be fit and she works towards that goal. The thing with Samantha is that she tends to shrink if she doesn’t work out, so she sticks to a very strict regime,” Kunal says. “There are two kinds of workouts, one is known as the systemic failure when the entire body feels tired after a strenuous workout. The other one is what Samantha trains for. I make sure she works one part of her body, for instance her legs. She exercises till she can’t feel them anymore. This way, we are isolating one muscle group and it keeps her fit, while not straining her. She too follows the High Intensity Training (HIT). Here she does eight to 10 sets instead of 20, but they are of high intensity. He adds, “She’s allergic to grains so she stays away from them, but she follows a high-protein and a high-fat diet to maintain her figure.”
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