Arjun Rampal Workout, Body, Diet

Arjun Rampal has a toned body etched from hours of disciplined workout regime. He however, does not like the overtly muscular look. Arjun says, “The minute my chest goes to 42 or 43, I feel like I would need a bra (laughs). It doesn’t feel natural. I can bulk up very fast. I can lift heavy weights because, like most people, I started off with heavy workouts. That’s stayed in my muscle memory.” Pinching his denims, he says, “I feel horrible when I feel my jeans are getting tight. Workouts peace me out.”

Though Arjun was a skinny boy in his school years, he began to workout during college and start to develop an athletic body. . “I think it is easier for thinner people to build on a frame once you get lean muscle. I get bored lifting weights at the gym and it isn’t enough as your body becomes stiff. So I train in different ways such as core training, cardio with weights, playing sports such as tennis, cycling, swimming and running 10 kms once a week.”

Listen to your body
Arjun Rampal says that one has to listen to the body and not push hard. He had got slipped discs on two occasions. “The worst was when I was squatting, about to lift weights. And as I bent… pop… my spinal disc popped. I felt a biting bolt of current shoot through my legs,” remembers Arjun, who was then shooting for Housefull. “I took painkillers and continued shooting. The lesson here is you must listen to your body, because it can go into a spasm otherwise.”

Arjun Rampal’s workout regime

Though he likes to stay fit, he starts to go for serious workouts when he is preparing for role.. “When I was shooting for Raajneeti, Shah Rukh told me I should also start shooting for Ra.One. Some crazy training was on its way. Training essentially means two unforgiving hours in the gym. About 40 minutes of various cardio, 10 minutes on treadmill to warm-up and then a specific body part. “I find 12 pm as the best time to work out. During training, I do two body parts a day: chest-back, back-triceps or chest-biceps so that my body doesn’t get used to a pattern,” says Arjun.

Arjun Rampal then spends 20 more minutes on the treadmill and then calms himself down for another ten minutes. . “I always stretch before a workout and run a lot so that my heart rate accelerates. I do my lower back exercises so that my core and back are warmed up enough because I am scared of injuring myself again. I work out very fast. I don’t take breaks and train non-stop for 80 minutes.”

When Arjun does these body parts for three days, he doesn’t lift weights on the fourth but does only core, cardio and stretching. He says, “At times, I do Tabata, a high-intensity Japanese training regimen, in which I must do 20 seconds of a specific body part with 10 seconds of rest. This must be done eight times within four minutes. Your heart rate shoots through the roof but you burn a lot of fat.”

How did Arjun Rampal build his body for Ra One? Since he was suffering from an injury, he couldn’t jump into hardcore training rightaway. . “No weights, no bending… only core training. It was very tough. But in 15 days, I worked out with a vengeance and made my core really strong. Zarine Watson trained me very scientifically because she had seen the seriousness of my injury in the x-rays,” he says. Freehand training and a lot of cardio with altitude training (wearing masks that simulate the effect of exertion at high altitudes) enhanced Arjun’s stamina and metabolism. “By the end of it, I was doing close to 2500 sit ups and 40 pound dumbbells while hanging from a pull-up bar. You push your body and it all happens.”

Arjun Rampal’s diet

- When he is training, he goes for two whole wheat toasts, a dozen egg whites and a protein shake in the morning. Dry fruits such as walnuts and cashews munched on every now and then. “I would eat five small meals, as they increase my metabolic rate. For lunch, I would include some carbs. So it would be a roti or two with dal, tandoori chicken and whole wheat bread sandwiches.”

Arjun Rampal is a foodie
“I am a foodie and I don’t avoid anything. I know guys who have an occasional kheer or chocolate cake and fall sick. Now that is ridiculous. I don’t ever want to be in that space. A red wine connoisseur with an aversion to aerated drinks, Arjun hails salads as ‘essential food’ and recommends eating half an avocado a day, ‘because it contains good fats and burns your stubborn fat.”
However, he believes in having his dinner early. “Avoid carbs because after 9 pm, your system shuts down. So dining late means everything you are putting in there will stay like garbage, with no nutritional value.”

Arjun Rampal’s smoking habit
He feels that he badly needs to get rid of this ‘terrible habit’.. “I think if I wasn’t smoking I would be running for the Olympics (laughs, When I work out rigorously, somehow my cigarette intake reduces. I can almost feel how each drag is undoing all the good I am doing to my body.”

Health supplements?
Arjun Rampal says, “I take only whey protein shakes. I haven’t ever tried amino acids or creatine, let alone steroids. I find playing with hormones very dangerous. Each of our body types are unique and special. So when none of us look alike, why should our bodies look the same?”