After 32 years of working out, I still don't have more than 6 packs
Akshay Kumar, 47, is by far
the fittest man in the film industry. He leads an extremely disciplined
life and is a fitness freak. Yet, after working out for the past 32
years, he admits that he still does not have more than 4-6 abs. And that
is because he has never resorted to any shortcuts for building his
body, as he believes in building a strong healthy, long-term body. While
many stars flaunt their bodies and show off not just their 6, but even 8
and 10 packs now, for the very first time a fitness superstar breaks
the myths behind building a body the wrong way . I would urge all
young people, who believe in fitness, to read this story carefully.
Excerpts from a conversation with Akshay, where he gives out his fitness
mantra for the first time.
I DON'T TAKE ENHANCERS, STEROIDS, POWDERS OR SHAKES
Today, it
has become a joke to take enhancers, powders, shakes or steroids. What
about those days when you used to have whole milk, vegetables, sweet
potatoes and brown rice and eat meat if you were a non-vegetarian? The
muscles used to build up and be there forever.When you eat these
artificial enhancers, your muscles will die within a month of not
exercising. What is the point? There are actors who I know who are
writing their regime, basis how many pills and what protein shake to
take.You cannot. I remember a lot of people in the earlier days would
eat natural food and yet their body was solid. They would take a bath in
chilled water, children could take a bath with cold water and nothing
used to affect them.Their whole body temperature was so good.Their
immune system was so good and they would die at 90-95, unless they met
with an accident. Now it is not there. Get out of eating that processed
food. Don't fall prey to American marketing. Whatever your mother makes
at home is the best. I usually don't go to a gym unless I am travelling
and I have to, and I see how you can sell anything to a bodybuilder.
Tell him that you eat this hanky and teri body ban jayegi and he will
have it.Nobody is thinking. There is no science.
I DON'T EAT AFTER 6.30-7 PM IN THE EVENING
The important thing
is, control your diet and food. 6.30-7 pm should be your last meal of
the day . I am a Punjabi and love sweets, but after my evening meal, I
don't touch sweets. Your body gets used to it. It's also written in our
shastras that we should not be eating at night.And there is a scientific
reason for it. We need 3-4 hours to digest what we eat. So if we eat
late at night, all your body parts go to sleep, except
for your stomach, that needs to keep working to digest the food that you
have eaten. As a result, while your body gets rest, your poor stomach
does not get as much rest as when you get up, you again need to eat. And
we all know that all our problems start from our stomach. You need to
ideally eat by 7pm, so that you have given the body four hours to digest
so that the stomach gets complete time to rest along with the body when
you sleep. Even if you can't exercise, walk everyday and eat by 7 pm
and see how it will change your life. If you feel hungry after 7 pm, eat
an egg white scrambled or omelette or carrot or soup as that is easier
to digest. If I have to go out for dinner, I eat only proteins, no
carbs. It may sound stupid, but being a Punjabi, I have a sweet tooth so
after I eat my food, I quickly go and brush. One, it is a good habit
but more importantly , that little bit of sweet toothpaste gives me
that little satisfaction of feeling
that I have had a sweet at night.
THERE ARE NO SHORT CUTS TO BUILDING YOUR BODY
Despite practising all my life for 32 years, I still don't have more
than 6 pack abs. You need to be patient, you need to experience your
muscle growth. Now they just want to pump up their muscles in three
months. That cannot be done without resorting to many artificial and
harmful things. If your forearms are growing, experience it grow slowly,
slowly, slowly . How can your body come up like a balloon in three
months? I am happy that I never got tempted, as I know it is unreal.
Honestly, I don't even take allopathy, not that it is bad. I prefer to
take herbs or ayurvedic. I take what my mother gives me, be it haldi
with milk or gargle with hot water if I have a bad throat or eat gud if I
am going into a dusty terrain. When you
resort to artificial means to pump up, your hormones change, you become
hot-tempered, you lose your mental balance and it will also reduce your
semen power, so your sex life will go for a toss.
PICK UP YOUR OWN BODY WEIGHT OVER WEIGHTS IN THE GYM
I don't
pick up weights at all. At the same time, picking up weights is not bad.
It is good, but I have always believed in picking up my own body
weight. I believe in picking up myself, in swinging and climbing trees,
just as we did when we were children. However, people who believe in
body building, it is not bad, but don't eat powders and shakes. Also, be
careful of what kind of weight and how much weight you are picking up,
so that it does not harm your back. You need a proper instructor to
guide you. Don't mess with God's created body.
TAKE A PROTEIN BAR OR SHAKE ONLY UNDER EMERGENCY WHEN YOU DON'T HAVE ACCESS TO NATURAL PROTEIN
Everybody requires a certain amount of protein. For instance, I am 80
kilos and require 80 grams of protein. One egg can give me only 3 grams
of protein. So I have to eat 10-15 eggs and chicken and other foods to
consume the protein I need. I eat every three hours and I try and
consume, but sometimes I don't succeed.And while I do not ever take a
protein shake, if sometimes you have to take a protein bar or shake,
take it, but only once in a while, not everyday . And that too, only
when you actually cannot find something natural. Don't make it a habit.
Don't go for shortcuts. Don't be lazy.
I DON'T EAT THINGS MADE IN A LAB
Eat brown rice. It is so good
for muscles as it is good carb. Eat walnuts, cranberries, almond, milk,
meat. Avoid processed foods. I eat anything that is produced on earth.
IF YOU SMOKE, YOU CANNOT BUILD YOUR BODY
If you smoke, your lungs go for a toss. What do you require in a
workout? You require stamina. And if you smoke, you will not have
stamina as well as you destroy your lungs forever. I get shocked when I
see bodybuilders who are smokers. It tells me what a shortcut body they
have made and how they have made it. I have never smoked in my life.
TO BUILD 8 PACK ABS, I WOULD NEED TO LEAVE WORK FOR THREE YEARS AND DO JUST THAT, OTHERWISE IT IS NOT POSSIBLE
If I need to build 8 packs, I will need to leave my job and concentrate
on only building my body and work out for four hours everyday for three
years and controlling my diet, otherwise it is not possible. If you
have 8 packs any other way , it means that you have taken shit in
your body , be it through supplements, muscle enhancers, recovery
shakes or growth hormone shots. It means that you have become bigger,
stronger, faster in the most harmful way imaginable. I repeat, it is
going to harm a lot of people. I hope people read this, trust it and go
the natural way .I have never had more than 6 packs. I don't get
them. I know training is hard, muscles hurt and goals take longer to
reach, but when you are training naturally that is the best way . You
have to understand that. What people are doing is cheating and getting
you sucked into a multi-billion dollar franchise where they are teaching
you how to build a fake body . I have friends and people in my
industry , who are going crazy and people following them, as it is the
easy way out.But there is no substitute for hard work.
Watch the `Lazar Novovic Dear Hard Work' video on YouTube to see the
principle Akshay Kumar has followed all his life.Talking about Lazar,
Akshay says, “He only picks up his own body weight. You will see that
after doing so much, he has just 6 abs and not more. I challenge anyone
who has 8 packs with steroids, to do what Lazar is doing in this video.“
