Published: Release date – 5:58 p.m., Thursday – 2 Jun 22
Hyderabad: When Junaid Shaikh came to Hyderabad from Mumbai, little did he know that he would be coaching 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 has 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 souped-up appearance in his upcoming film Agent. “My Hercules fitness partner,” the actor called Junaid. The fitness expert can often be seen in Samantha’s workout videos on Instagram. “I have been training Samantha for the past 10 months and she is a super woman who is always pumped up. I’ve been training Akhil for almost a year and a half and have completely transformed him from a chocolate boy to a pimped guy. When you see him in Agent it will be like he has been reincarnated. I also train fashion designer Shilpa Reddy and her family,” Junaid says of his clientele.
Junaid is an engineer turned fitness trainer and says fitness and athletics have been his passion since he was in school. The 29-year-old says: “People think fitness is all about having six pack abs or competing in triathlons, but they miss the point. If you can wake up every morning and be able to do some physical activity, like walking, running, cycling or playing badminton – that’s fitness. If you don’t like going to the gym, you don’t have to force yourself. It’s about not leading a sedentary life for 10-15 years and letting the body rust. Simple workouts work better than all fancy experiments.”
How different is it to coach celebrities? “They are human too, but just more athletic compared to ordinary humans. They do a lot of action sequences in movies, so compared to, say, IT professionals, they’re already pretty fit. However, the difference is in the time they can give. If an IT professional can dedicate an hour and a half every day to training, celebrities can’t because of their hectic shooting schedules. Even if they can give 20 minutes, I have to do what’s best for them and determine what exactly their goal is,” Junaid shared.
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