Two things about Tiger Shroff hit you simultaneously - he is heartbreakingly young and looks like a Mongolian warrior with high cheekbones and woolly hair. The son of actor Jackie Shroff, Tiger aspired to play football professionally. "But then I realised that you cannot live on sports in India," he says and pauses. "Unless its cricket, and that's too slow for me."
So he turned to movies, but fitness remains his first love. He has always been an athlete - playing football in school, learning martial arts as a child; four years ago, he hit the gym to chisel his physique. "When I was four, I saw Bruce Lee and he became my hero," he gushes. "Fitness should be a combination of muscular strength, body composition, flexibility, muscular endurance and cardio vascular endurance."
Bend it like Bruce
Thanks to Bruce Lee, Tiger has been practising martial arts - Tae Kwon Do and Wushu - since he was 14. "Wushu is a Chinese martial art from where Tai Chi is derived," he says.
He Bboys in the morning, hits the gym afterwards and does gymnastics in the evening. The instructor, Jay Chauhan, takes his classes on Juhu beach, and teaches a mix of gymnastics, martial arts and filmi-fighting that improves flexibility, agility and alertness. "We work out for one and a half to two hours every day," says Jay, "We begin with stretching, push ups and running and practise leaps, jumps, high kicks, splits and punches."
Jay teaches gymnastics to children on the beach, company that Tiger finds most comforting. "There are things they can do and things I can, so it's fun to play together and compete with each other."
Poor little fit boy
Tiger eats every two hours and says he's been into healthy food for so long that he can't recall a temptation he misses. You can't help but pity him a little. "I don't eat out much," he says, "I eat mostly home food and no carbs after 5 pm. You are what you eat and Sunday used to be my cheat day, when I could eat chocolate; but there are no cheats to a good body. Now, I don't give in."
His trainer, Rajendra Dhole says, "He doesn't veer from the diet. He eats boiled vegetables and meat. He has cheat weeks when he can have red meats (he loves beef), fried foods, cheese and ice cream."
On Sundays he goes out for a Chinese or Japanese meal with his father, but even those are so far and few between. He doesn't smoke or drink alcohol. "At home, we follow a low sodium diet" he says. "because salt makes you look bloated." He also drinks 7 to 8 litres of water every day.
Breakfast: 8 egg whites; oatmeal
Snack: Dry fruits; whey shake
Lunch: Brown rice with chicken or fish; boiled vegetables
Snack: Protein shake. This is the meal before gymnastics class, so he keeps it light
Dinner: Fish; green beans or broccoli
Work out specs
Dhole, who has been training Tiger for four years, says the latter's body is a combination of discipline, hard work and genetics. "We focus on strength training and keep the body fat percentage low. Tiger's body fat is 8 to 12 per cent." Tiger works out seven days a week.
Dance and martial arts serve as his cardiovascular workouts. Instead, he just warms up the muscle they will be working out by starting out with lighter weights. The workouts change every four months or so, to keep Tiger motivated. Every day, they focus on a particular body part and on an average, does 12 sets of four to eight repetitions of each exercise.
"Everyone has a weakness, and Tiger's are his calves. They are strong, but need more attention to make the muscle development evident."
Workout lowdown
Monday: Pectorals, chest
Flat bench, incline machine and dumbbell presses. Chest flye. The weights are around 60 kg in each hand.
Tuesday: Back
Pull-ups, lateral machine pull-downs (80-85 kg), low & one-arm dumbbell rolls (100 kg).
Wednesday: Legs (4 Sets, 4-8 reps)
Squats (190 kg on shoulders), hamstrings curls (91 kg), step-ups (100 kg), free barbells and squats.
Thursday: Shoulders
Kneel and shoulder press (90 kg), military press, lateral raises (using dumbbells and the machine using 15 kilos), rear flyes (45 kg).
Friday: Arms
Olympic barbell curls (60 kg), dumbbell curls (32 kg), reverse curls (30 kg), close-grip barbell presses, press downs, skull crushers (68 kg).
Saturday: Functional
Dead lifts (250 kgs), squats (200 kg), kneel and press (100 kgs), plyometric push-ups.
Sunday: Abs and calves (10-12 reps into 10-12 sets)
Crunches, hanging reverse crunches, weight loaded reverse crunches (10 kg) and standing and seated calf presses (68 kg).
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