Ram Kamal Mukherjee and Devyani G Ghosh's book Fitness Secrets of the Stars throws light on how celebs like Hrithik Roshan, Aamir Khan, Priyanka Chopra, Bipasha Basu Tiger Shroff and Shahid Kapoor, among others, stay fit and healthy.
With detailed daily workouts, diets and plans followed by these actors for specific roles, this book will inspire you to get in shape just like your favourite movie star.
The authors also provide a peek into each star's fitness philosophy along with interesting personal anecdotes and the ways in which they motivate themselves to not only achieve great bodies, but also maintain them.
Here we bring you an excerpt from the chapter Priyanka Chopra: Bold and Beautiful.
Priyanka is a strong proponent of yoga, which is highly recommended by fitness trainers these days because of its numerous health benefits.
Very good for increased muscle strength and tone, it helps perfect your posture.
Yoga also prevents cartilage and joint breakdown because each time you practise it, you take your joints through their full range of motion.
This prevents degenerative arthritis by activating areas of the cartilage that aren't normally used.
It can help protect your spine if you practise a well-rounded number of asanas that have plenty of backbends, forward bends and twists to keep your disks supple. This vastly improves flexibility.
In fact, Samir Jaura, who trained Priyanka for the movie Mary Kom, said he is yet to see someone as flexible as her.
Priyanka credits her flexibility and toned physique to yoga.
Yoga asanas, pranayama and meditation are part of her daily fitness routine.
Priyanka also turns to yoga as it is a great stress-buster, keeping her calm and relaxed in her busy and hectic schedule.
Yoga relaxes the system because it encourages you to relax, slow your breath and focus on the present, thus shifting the balance from the sympathetic nervous system (or the fight or flight response) to the parasympathetic nervous system.
The latter lowers breathing and the heart rate, decreases blood pressure and increases blood flow to the intestines and reproductive organs.
The right asanas, pranayama and meditation can also stimulate it to help you sleep deeper and boost your immune system's functionality.
Priyanka also credits yoga for her toned body and high stamina.
The tree pose, half lord of the fishes pose and warrior pose are some of the asanas she incorporates into her daily routine.
Priyanka once confided in Samir who wanted to train her more intensely for Don that she is not a gym freak, but does work out regularly to keep her body toned and fit.
She didn't want to shrink by two or three sizes though.
She has always maintained she is against drastic weight loss and avoids looking too skinny.
Her preference tends to a routine to maintain her weight at an optimum level she feels comfortable with.
Priyanka works out for four days a week for an hour in the gym.
Her routine in the gym looks like this:
- Running on the treadmill for about 15 minutes
- Push-ups and reverse lunges 20–25 reverse crunches and 20–25 bench jumps
- 20–25 bicep curls with light weights
- 60-second planks
Priyanka prefers resistance training over weight training as it increases the body's strength and endurance levels.
She also does running and takes spin classes from time to time.
For ideal results, fitness experts like Nawaz Modi Singhania recommend a combination of cardio and yoga: three to four days of cardio with two to three days of yoga each week is a killer combo.
The two schools of fitness training complement each other, according to Nawaz. One should also keep a day for resting. Clearly, this has worked well for Priyanka.
She also maintains a regular workout routine that is a combination of the two.
She does not believe in overdoing it at the gym just so that she can maintain her curvaceous figure.
Priyanka's Fitness Tips
1. Drink the required amount of fluids to keep your body hydrated during workouts.
2. Eat more home-cooked food. Make sure you have a balanced diet with lots of veggies and fruits for fibre, proteins and carbs.
3. Avoid oily and deep-fried foods.
4. Don't suppress your cravings totally. Indulge once a week if you are not prone to weight gain.
5. Practise yoga as it is excellent for the body and the mind.
Priyanka has proved time and again that her fitness mantras work for her, whether through her versatile roles in Bollywood or while working her way up to international fame and stardom in Hollywood through Quantico and Baywatch.
By making a niche for herself in Hollywood, Priyanka has proved that she is feisty, fearless and fabulously talented.
She has moved out of the comfort zone of Bollywood and into the international arena, where she is making a name for herself amongst other international celebrities.
Excerpted from Fitness Secrets of the Stars by Ram Kamal Mukherjee and Devyani G Ghosh, with the permission of the publishers, Penguin Random House India.
