Building Biceps for Bollywood!

I'm not a great fan of working out. If I wasn't acting, I probably wouldn't! I generally work out with very heavy weights as I have a tendency to lose weight, my body-type is like that.
If I miss a workout, if I miss a meal, my weight just drops. I just deflate! So I do have to keep a strict tab on my diet and workout.

I don't like to go to most gyms as they are nice, comfortable, five-star air conditioned gyms. You don't sweat, you don't really feel you are working, and they are always blasting music as though it's a night club or something!

I find it very distracting. I don't listen to an iPod, I don't play music, I don't watch TV..nothing. I really like to focus on the workout. That's my taste, I guess a lot of people would disagree with me.

Normally I workout with a partner, my girlfriend's brother. We really push each other a lot, there's a slight competitive thing happening. That and my trainer Pawan. He's really amazing. It's a workout. You have to have people who inspire you, motivate you rather than music!

I don't like to work the legs and shoulders but have to do them for my own good. Though chest is always great fun, I love doing the bench press, that's probably my favourite.
Wide-grip pull ups is an overall great exercise. It builds up forearm strength, biceps, it is one of the best full body exercises. I think this and push ups are the best things you can do.

Now I have to build biceps. As you know, it's impossible to have a successful career in Bollywood unless you have very, very big biceps! I'm joking, I personally don't think you need to have an amazingly big body or big muscles to be an actor.
An actor is about the acting.

Which is not to say you shouldn't! You should always be fit and healthy but it is not necessary to be a body builder, unless the script demands it. Jaane Tu... didn't require me to have this amazing body.
But for Kidnap the director wanted me to build some muscle, so I did that. Now I've just started my third film, and the director wants me to put on more weight as it's an action film!

You base your entire workout around the script...what is the requirement of the film, what does this character need. The script is king! And I do keep a strong tab on my diet.
Most people tend to eat low-carb diets. That's not the case with me. I need to eat a lot of carbs to fuel my body as my body-type burns fat and then starts to burn muscle.

So for breakfast, I'll have brown bread, omelette and milk. For lunch - roti, chicken, (I don't eat red meat) any kind of vegetable, dal and rice. I have an evening snack around 5.00 pm, again a protein boost – A chicken roll, sandwich, something like that.
Dinner is the same as lunch – rice, dal, vegetables, chicken.

As you can see, my diet is quite simple. Mostly home food, I eat out occasionally but try to stick to the same kind of things. And after the workout, I normally have a protein shake.

My cool down is two-part: Stretch and the walk back home.
I never used to stretch and one day I woke up and realised I was very inflexible...I couldn't even touch my toes! So since then I have started stretching as part of cool down, it's a very important thing people.

A lot of people have told me about Yoga. I remember in school also they used to teach Yoga. It is supposed to be good for flexibility and relaxing. I might get into trouble for this but I hate Yoga! I never liked it, it never gelled with my personality.

But there are elements of it that come into stretching. So I pretend I don't know about it. If it is a morning workout, after I'm through I walk back home, have a quick breakfast, spend some quality time with my dog Kajri. And then the day really begins. It's not an easy life yaar!