MAY 29- When you meet Arjun Kapoor, the cocky, smart-ass hero of the 2011 starrer Ishaqzaade, and now starring in Aurangzeb and Gunday, you find yourself searching for a word to define this 27-year-old.
Off-screen, there is nothing specific to his charisma, you tell yourself. Try harder and you’d think he’s unpretentious, comfortable and fun… from his clothes to his smile to his super cool personality! Yes, Arjun Kapoor doesn’t come across as someone who’s overtly obsessed with his body. And then he drops the bombshell.
Just five years ago, Arjun says he could barely squeeze into airline seats because he was “fat!” He was so fat that he could only fly business class, “because of the wider seats” and that too, with extra belt to add to the buckle! At 140 kilos, he claims the manual weighing machine would take one full circle because there weren’t enough numbers on it. He was asthmatic, couldn’t run for more than 10 seconds at a stretch, was grumpy, sluggish, temperamental… and food was his “only replacement for everything in life”. Still, for much of his life, he thought he was happy. “Being fat was part of my life. Actually, I never wanted to lose weight, content with what I was. But I knew I was lying to myself that I was happy being this way,” says Arjun.
And then, his life changed. Salman Khan, by far the last word on fitness in the country, spotted him and took him under his “tutelage”. “Salmanbhai never promised the world to me. All he told me was that I could be an actor if I shed weight,” says Arjun. What followed was a two-year intense battle with fat: “I travelled with him, we worked out together, and he kept a strict vigil on what I was eating.
That man knows no pain. He psyched me into becoming a machine that didn’t do anything but lose weight. His dedication, discipline in life rubbed on me, and whatever I am today, I am like this only because of him.”
No doubt, Arjun is delighted to be exactly where he is, doing exactly what he’s always wanted. Over to the actor with the most inspirational weight stories of recent times.
On setting goals
One lesson I’ve learnt from my journey is: NEVER GIVE UP! Patience is the key-you have to live through each day, one day at a time. Fight the bad days just like you revel in the good ones. And never set any target date.
Say, you give yourself two weeks to lose 6 kilos. May be you’ll do it, but you’d end up gaining much more in a week if you don’t take care and continue with what you’ve been doing. Always plan long-term and never concentrate only on the short term.
In the beginning, I gave myself one full year: I gave up rice, bread and sweets. And I was addicted to all three. The key to losing weight is to give up a few things that you cherish the most.
On perseverance
Weight-loss, even getting healthy, is about a change in lifestyle. It is not about telling yourself that you’d be ripped and in perfect shape on January 1. What happens after that? You cannot go back to your old self on February 1.
What you’ve achieved then is pointless. The idea is not about just one January 1, or one day in your life. It is about the rest of your life. And you can reach there only by making small changes in your life.
On eating right
I’ve learnt a lot in the last five years. I was addicted to white rice, but realised that if you set your mind to anything, it is easy to give up what is not good for you. So I replaced it with brown.
I completely cut out sugar from my diet, and replaced it with healthier options such as strawberries, pineapple etc. Never underestimate the value of good supplements: a protein shake after your workout is enough to fill you up rather than eating any rubbish to kill your hunger.
If you know that a certain kind of foods don’t do you any good, avoid them. Like all whites-rice, maida, pizza, burgers….avoid them.
On sticking to a gym plan
Most people in India don’t go the gym because they are scared, even conscious of how people will perceive them. It is a very Indian thought process. If you notice, only people who look good go to a gym! They will pose in front of the mirror, lift heavy weights and keep checking out their own bodies.
But the common man who needs to be healthy, who spends the better part of the day in the office, will never go to the gym because he thinks everybody is judging him.
Going to the gym is about getting comfortable with your body, and taking care of it. Don’t bother about what others think about you.
When you are in the working out, that time is exclusively yours. That one hour or so is your chance to be yourself.
On enjoying the workouts
The most important thing when you are at the gym is that you should enjoy exercises. Working out should be a part of your daily life and it should be something you look forward to.
It should not be a chore. You shower every day? It should be the same for gymming. Don’t make the mistake of putting pressure on yourself. It should not be only gym.
If you like playing squash, for instance, then do that. Whatever you do, pick up something that allows you to invest in it as part of your lifestyle.
If you find walking boring, chuck it: play squash instead. Or football perhaps! Do whatever works for you, whatever excites you. But please do something.
On cheating
Fitness is not about denying what you want, but feeling that you deserve it. If you do well, you deserve an off day. I am going to eat like a beast after this shoot for Men’s Health because I have worked towards this shoot for the last eight weeks. But that does not mean I will eat unscrupulously tomorrow as well.
Plan your workout: work your hardest in the gym and follow your diet diligently from Monday to Friday. Take off on Saturday and even Sunday perhaps. If you do it consistently for a year, there is no way you won’t see the results. But you cannot just put in a month and expect results.
Cheating also does not mean you go overboard, and eat everything you want. If you have been avoiding carbs through the week, eat your carbs on the weekend. If you’ve been craving for something through the week, then plan things such that you can have it on your off days.
It’s your body, your life. Working out is all about your willpower. Your mind will play all the tricks, but only you can make the diff erence between a winner and a loser.
On fighting craving
I know it what it means to be fat! It can eat you up psychologically. The trouble is, you eat more and more to block your mind to your condition. At one time, I could eat 6 McDonalds burgers at one go! But now I know how to stay away from it: I feel guilty about myself for days every time I cheat. Today, I may have a piece. It’s not that you need to stop eating. The key is not to indulge yourself every day. Cheating every day will do you no good.
On motivation
I took two years to shed 40 kilos. You’d do well if you ignore the fi gures on the weighing machine. Fitness is a lifestyle. Correct your life, and the gradual changes you see will motivate you to do more.
Tell yourself that you will work out for the rest of your life and try to stick to it…
On destressing
Working out, running, walking, playing any sport… all these help you distress. Once you have spent your day in the offi ce, get out and play a sport.
You will be amazed at the difference it makes to your mood, and your body. It will improve your blood fl ow; you will feel better, and consequently, you will look great.
On six-packs vs healthy body
Being fit is not about six-packs. It is a lifestyle. It is much more than merely looking good. Your body can look great even without a six-pack. What most men don’t understand is that the healthier you are, the better you’d look. You cannot be healthy and look bad! The healthier you are, the lesser disease prone you are. You will fall sick lesser. Being healthy lets you enjoy life more. Imagine if you have asthma and you lose weight. Next you know that you don’t have asthma any more. You will no doubt be on top of this world. You will feel alive. That’s what happened to me. Your injuries heal faster. Your cholesterol goes down, so you can eat more red meat if you want. Your digestive system improves because you are eating healthier. If you start sprinting, your lung capacity increases. You sleep better because you are putting more oxygen into your system.
On being fit as an investment
Look at it this way: who wants to go to a doctor, and if you take care of your body, you don’t need to! I will be disappointed if at the age of 35-40 I have to worry about doing blood tests or have an appointment with my doctor because I have a blockage in my heart.
Forget all that, I don’t want to worry about acidity issues in my stomach. No way! What is 35-40? It is just the beginning of your life. You should be looking at the time when you are in your 60s.
If you take care of your body now, your body will take care of itself then. The problem is that if you don’t take care of things now, you will live half your life one way, and the other half will be completely diff erent from what you thought it would be. You should get healthier and fitter as you age. It cannot get worse.
On style
Style for me is whatever I am comfortable with. If I am not comfortable in whatever I am wearing, it is of no use for me. When it comes to what you are wearing, make the clothes look as if you own them, and not the other way around.
The clothes should fall like your own. Don’t wear something just because you’ve seen five others wearing it and you liked it on them. You should make the clothes look as if only you could make them look good.
Shoot it for the six-pack core
Don’t underestimate stretching. It makes you limber, increases the blood fl ow in your body and improves your fl exibility.
Cardio has always worked for me. When I cannot lift heavy weights, I compensate by doing a little bit of cardio. It gets your heart rate going.
Ensure that your gym sessions include enough functional training. It develops core strength.
If a six-pack is what you are after, try Cross-Fit. It helps if you’ve already got the muscles. Crossfit is all about using those muscles that normally don’t get used. A 20-minute crossfit workout is equivalent to an hour of gym session.
Concentrate on your form. Injuries can ruin you forever Be careful and don’t try to lift more than what you can. It is not about weights; you are in no competition with others in the gym. Be stable, be calm, controlled. Enjoy every rep you perform. It is crucial to get your form right.
Build your own breakthrough
Arjun Kapoor ditched his gut to be a six-pack hero by sticking to an all-body regimen. Here’s how he did it
Start with a 10-15-minute warm up. Do a lot of dynamic stretching to make sure that the blood reaches all your muscles. You could perhaps use a foam roller to warm up.
Follow it up with a 40-45 minute main session. This should include heavy lifting. I start off with the benches and the deads. I engage a lot in compound exercises.
Include bench press, shoulder press, some form of ropes, squats and deadlifts in your core exercises. Don’t do all of these every day, but make them the foundation of the week.
Keep isolation exercises like bicep curls and tricep extensions towards the end of the session.
Don’t forget to mix your routines. Do chest and triceps one week, and follow it up with the shoulders and arms in the next. Try and vary the exercises, but stick to the core ones.
Always ensure that you incorporate progressive overload in your routines. When I started, my bench press weight was 70 kilos. Now it is touching 90! It’s not that I jumped straight from 70 to 90. We have gone about it very gradually.
Cool down for 10-15 minutes. Use cardio for this. Add sprints to this sometimes. Remember, to keep cardio for cool down only for two to three sessions a week.
