John Abraham’s fitness regime

John Abraham is one of the fittest actors around. Even though he is 39 years old, he hardly looks the age and could give the younger lot a run for their money. Unlike other actors who dealt with childhood obesity (Sonam, Arjun and Kareena Kapoor), John has always been the natural athletic type who played football and basketball in his youth. He is a mesomorph – a body type which gains or loses weight quickly. This makes it easier for them to lose weight or pile on the muscles compared to ectomorphs and endomorphs.
According to his trainer Vinod Channa, “People born with his body type are the athletic type. Even if they do few exercises or not exactly accurate forms of exercise, they get results quickly.” His workouts usually consist of two body parts a day – chest and triceps on day one, back and abs on day 2, lower body on day 3 and cardio on all other days.

According to sources, the actor takes his fitness regime very seriously and works out two to three hours every day to workout, even during shoots. A body like his doesn’t come about without tremendous hard work. For example for the movie Force, he needed to gain weight and bulk up and he did this by completely changing his regime to load up on proteins and carbs and piled on an extra 10 kg of muscle which he lost after the movie.

The actor believes that anyone can

Here’s a table of some of his favourite exercises that help target various body parts -

Body Part
get in shape if they think clearly and follow a disciplined schedule. Fitness, the actor quips, is like a tripod stand. “It has three legs – good food, good sleep and good routine. Without that you’re not really up to speed.”
Exercises
  Sets
   

Repetition count

Chest Bench press – horizontal,
incline and decline
    3 each
    15,15,12 (Increasing weight)

 Dumbbell fly
  2
 15,15
Triceps Push down (on machine)
 3
15,15,12


   Dumbbell triceps
    2
15,15
Dumbbell triceps kickback
    2
 15,15
Back
 Bend over barbell
    4
  15,15,15,15

One hand dumbbell row
    2
15,15
Lat pull down
   2
15,15

Dead lift
    3
15,15,15

Collar
    Shrugs
    3
 15,15,15

Abdomen
    Crunches and leg raises
    3 each
    15,15,15

Lower body
    Squats
    4
15,15,15,15

Along with this he’d also do around 30 min of cardio everyday which would include running, jogging, kick-boxing etc.

The workout however is only half the battle and it’s what we eat that makes all the difference. His diet consists of six meals a day. Each meal has carbohydrates (to gain weight), protein and a small amount of fibre. Though John is a vegetarian he still eats egg whites and fish for protein which are essential for muscle repair. To beef up for the movie Force he went on a high protein diet. His sources of protein include soya, sprouts, milk, pulses, whey protein shakes, steamed fish and egg whites.

While he loads up on proteins, he doesn’t miss out on his carbs. His favourite carbs include sweet potatoes, corn grains, jowar, bajra, nanchi and corns. For fibre he eats green veggies and fruits like papaya, musk melon, apple, orange and sweet lime.

His daily meal routine -

Time and Food

8 am Black coffee/green tea, four egg whites/1 potato/sweet potato/corn/wheat flakes/brown bread and one apple

10:30 am Whey protein with milk or water

1 pm Boiled or grilled fish with roti or brown bread. Sprouts, sabji, dal, curd and a carrot

4 pm Black coffee/green tea, four egg whites, mashed potato, apple, orange, sweet lime or papaya

7 pm Whey protein with milk or water

10 pm Boiled or grilled fish/ Egg (scrambled or omelette) with roti or 2-3 whole wheat bread slices

 The actor steadfastly abstains from maida products, sweets, oily food and rice. He is also opposed to steroids or growth hormones that are popular among some bodybuilders as they usually have calamitous side-effects.  John’s regime not only gives us insight into the effort and determination that goes into an admirable physique but also proves that anyone can achieve it if they are willing to be diligent and motivated.