Getting celebrities in shape

Hyderabad: When Junaid Shaikh arrived in Hyderabad from Mumbai, little did he know that he would be training some of the biggest celebrities in tinsel town like Samantha Ruth Prabhu and Akhil Akkineni. The fitness trainer has over eight years of experience in the field and also worked as an assistant fitness trainer for Bollywood […]

Hyderabad: When Junaid Shaikh arrived in Hyderabad from Mumbai, little did he know that he would be training some of the biggest celebrities in tinsel town like Samantha Ruth Prabhu and Akhil Akkineni. The fitness trainer has over eight years of experience in the field and also worked as an assistant fitness trainer for Bollywood biggies Hrithik Roshan during his film War and Ranveer Singh during Padmaavat and Gully Boy.

Junaid is the trainer behind Akhil’s beefed up look in his upcoming film Agent. “My Hercules gym partner,” the actor had called Junaid. The fitness expert features in Samantha’s workout videos on Instagram frequently. “I have been training Samantha since the past 10 months and she’s a superwoman who is always pumped up. I have been training Akhil for almost one-and-half years and have completely transformed him from a chocolate boy to a beefed up guy. When you watch him in Agent, it will be like he has been reborn. I also train fashion designer Shilpa Reddy and her family,” shared Junaid about his clientele.

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Junaid is an engineer-turned-gym trainer and says fitness and athletics have been his passion since his school days. Says the 29-year-old, “People think that fitness is all about having six-pack abs or taking part in triathlons, but they miss the actual point. If you can wake up every morning and do some kind of physical activity like walking, running, cycling or playing badminton – that is fitness. If you don’t like going to the gym, you don’t have to force yourself. The point is to not live a sedentary life for 10-15 years and let your body rust. Basic workouts work better than all fancy experimentations.”

How different is it to train celebrities? “They are also humans, but just more athletic compared to common people. They do a lot of action sequences in movies so they are already quite fit compared to, say, IT professionals. However, the difference is in the amount of time they can give. If an IT professional can give one-and-half hours to training every day, celebrities cannot do that because of their hectic shoot schedules. Even if they can give 20 minutes, I have to do what’s best for them and determine what exactly is their goal,” shared Junaid.