LEGS BY JUNAID KALIWALA
Junaid Kaliwala has been a recipient of The Best Personal Trainer Award by Men’s Health, and named the Best Influencer at the Fitness Excellence Awards ceremony in 2018. He boasts of a 170K plus Instagram following and a successful YouTube channel as well.
- Prioritise legs like any other muscle. It’s a common problem that most people either skip leg day or do not train hard enough.
- Go for compound movement first, followed by isolation movement. It is always a smart idea to train the big lifts first followed by other accessory movements. So start your workout with squats or deadlift first.
- Prioritise recovery. Legs are big muscle group and you might get sore for two days after you train them, which is good. However, it is important to keep your recovery in mind. Let your legs recover before you go for another intense session.
PRECAUTIONS
- Make sure you warm up nicely before you jump to the main workout. Warm ups help increase the body temperature, which further prevents injuries. A cold stiff muscle is more prone to injury.
- Say no to ego lifting. Keep your ego outside the gym door. Do not train to impress others. Respect your capabilities and get strong gradually.
- Do not take your medical conditions for granted. A lot of people get tempted to try the exercises which are not meant for them. Always remember, prevention is better than cure.
MYTHS
- Squats are bad for knees. This is the most common myth. As a matter of fact, squats can strengthen your knee joint. The problem comes when you do it incorrectly or do it with an existing knee issue.
- You can’t train legs if you have knee pain. Wrong, this doesn’t mean you ignore your legs completely. You can always find alternatives to the exercises that may be problematic.
- Not feeling sore means your workout wasn’t effective. Not always true since sore muscles are a good indicator of intensity but are not full-proof indicators of a good workout.
ARMS BY JITENDER RAJPUT
Jitender Rajput has spent close to 23 years in the industry and is known to be a transformation expert. He constantly educates his 240K plus followers with various tips and secrets for better results.
TIPS
- Avoid overtraining your arms. A total of 10 sets of biceps and 10 sets of triceps followed by 8-12 reps are good enough. Once a month, you can even add drop sets or super sets.
- The first exercise you do should cover the weakest part on your arm. If you are experiencing fewer peaks in your biceps, then start with the dumbbell concentration curl.
- Keep flexing your arms while you train. It helps your arms grow in size. Also, massaging them after you’re done will improve blood flow.
PRECAUTIONS
- Train with moderate weights. Don’t be overconfident and go for heavier weights at the start and risk injuring yourself.
- Avoid arm workouts if your elbow or wrist is already in pain. Or else, apply some ointment, wait, and train with less heavy weights if you want to maintain your muscles.
- Make sure you use gloves if you have sweaty palms. You would not want to have a slippery hold on a rather heavy weight.
MYTHS
- Using steroids or hormones are the only sure-shot way of growing your arms. False, proper exercising and good diet is more than enough.
- You can’t grow your arms if you can’t lift heavy weights. That’s untrue, consistency is more important than the weights you lift.
- Constant exercise will grow your arm size. No, you need to understand how muscles work and give them time to build and breathe sometimes as well.
SHOULDER BY PRANAV SAINI
Pranav Saini is a certified personal trainer and fitness influencer who currently has over 110K followers on Instagram. He runs a YouTube channel where he gives tips on not only fitness but also on grooming.
TIPS
- Give importance to the cuff. Most people only realise rotator cuffs exist after they get injured, which is why your rotator cuffs deserve extra attention.
- Always start your shoulder workout with rear delt exercises, such as rear delt flyes. Setting up your workout in this manner will create symmetry and keep you healthy.
- For each exercise, you should do 20 to 30 reps, three to five times. Keep your range of motion small at the beginning and increase it over time. If you choose to use weights, start small and increase a little each week.
PRECAUTIONS
- Watch your elbows. Whenever you’re doing an overhead press, you always want to have your elbows directly under the bar so you can create tension on the delt from the start.
- Pay attention to structural imbalance. Most people injure their shoulders due to structural imbalance — shoulders that are overdeveloped in the front and too weak in the rear.
- Don’t lift too high. The problem is that most people invariably lift the weight too high, which can lead to shoulder impingement.
MYTHS
- You don’t need to train your rotator cuffs, since it gets all the exercise it needs while you do other exercises. This is false and you should definitely divert your attention to the area.
- Empty-Can exercise is good for your shoulder. The Empty-Can exercise can actually be bad for your shoulders, especially if you have had an injury before.
- You can use the same weight for every shoulder workout. Not true, each area may need different forms of weights dedicated to it.
BACK BY KARRAN KHARAS
Karran Kharas is a lifestyle and fitness influencer who has had a meteoric rise on social media in the last few months. He provides personal training, curates personalised diets for his followers and is a major supporter of chest hair.
TIPS
- Always start with deadlifts. Deadlifts create the main foundation to build not only a huge back, but an overall massive physique.
- Stick to the basics. Pull ups and rows are all you need for overall back development after you’ve hammered your lower back.
- Do not forget to train your posterior deltoids. They are usually weak and are more often than not, left neglected.
PRECAUTIONS
- Use proper form, especially the right breathing technique. You certainly don’t want to injure yourself by doing things the wrong way.
- Increase your weights gradually. It is important you don’t rush into it and feel like it’s more than you can take.
- Always make sure you go through the full range of motion.
MYTHS
- Rows increase back thickness and pull-downs increase width. Truth is, both the movements target the lats, the difference lies in trap involvement. Rows target the mid traps, while pull-downs target the lower traps better.
- Deadlifts only help in powerlifting. False, because while it does build power, it is also an excellent exercise to create massive hormonal response and stimulate growth.
- Mind-muscle connection is all you need. Actually the mind muscle-connection is a by-product, it shouldn’t be the goal. If you use proper form, mindmuscle connection will automatically happen.
CARDIO BY VEDARRTH THAPPA
itness
Vedarrth Thappa is one of the country’s leading CrossFit athletes and coach.
TIPS
- Implement interval weight training to build muscular endurance and ability to move large loads for longer distances and quickly. Interval training can also help you mix things up and make your workout more interesting.
- Be aware of your capabilities and the limitations of your heart. You should know your heart rate and train according to your heart rate zones.
- Try to include an aerobic type of training in your cardio routine. This will effectively help build capacity and threshold.
PRECAUTIONS
- Make sure you always warm up before you get into the workout and cool down after you are done.
- Learn to pace yourself. Always know when you can, and need to push yourself, while also keeping your body’s limitations in mind.
- Most important of all, don’t forget to keep your body hydrated. Dehydration can be harmful to your health.
MYTHS
- Cardio is most effective on an empty stomach. No, this can actually have drastic effects on your body and even cause muscle loss.
- More cardio assures more fat loss. False, you also need to take your diet in mind and integrate other types of workouts for better results.
- Cardio causes muscle loss. Not at all. In fact, bad nutrition and absurd crash diets may contribute more to muscle loss.
