Farhan s tips to getting a ripped body:

1. Find the right trainer: First and foremost, find a trainer who knows what you r body needs. An experienced trainer will be able to tailor a regime that is apt for your body type. Farhan used to exercise on his own. After a few days, when he sa w that he got no results, he realized that he needed a trainer who taught him ho w to work out for his body type and maximize his results. 2. Maintain a routine: Farhan ensures that he sticks to a routine. He works out every alternate day for two and half hours. This includes a 45-minute ab workout , followed by different training routines that change once a week. On Tuesdays, Th ursdays and Saturdays, he either plays volleyball or goes for a swim. 3. Find a balance: Whether it s work or the home front find a niche time for yourself. A good balance between leisure time is very important to stick to an exercise n why Farhan calls exercising an emotional activity . after a while, you will feel like you re on top of the that is stressing you out, your stressors and your regime. This is the reaso It requires your time, but world!

4. Time management: There are a number of times when we say that we haven t had th e time to exercise or indulge in our favorite hobby. According to Farhan, if you love something enough you will always find the time to do it. He ensures he takes car e of himself physically. He indulges in sports such as football, volleyball, swi mming and running. At the end of the day he says it s about getting your priorities righ t. If you want to lose weight, then a stable exercise regime and a good diet sho uld be your priority. 5. The right diet: To get that lean athletic look Farhan eliminated basic carbs like roti and rice from his diet. He has five to six small meals throughout the day. He has fresh fruit juice, egg white or scrambled egg for breakfast, a light lunch, a snack of dried fruits, low-fat digestive biscuits and kebabs (not deep fried) and at around 4 PM he has a protein shake and dinner at 8 PM. He also has a protein sha ke before he goes to bed. 6. It s not your genes: Lastly, Farhan says that being athletic larly has nothing to do with genetics. He doesn t remember ever th his father, but he is as addicted to sports as any professional ealthy and having an enviable body is up to you. As long as you work towards it. or exercising regu playing a sport wi athlete. Being h want it, you can

On finding your core

The centre is what must hold; this involves striking a balance between taking ca re of yourself physically, nourishing yourself mentally and finding the right em otional balance as far as possible. All of these have an impact on each other; if you exercise, it affects the way y ou feel emotionally and mentally. If you have a good day, then you somehow start feeling physically better, too. It's all about finding the right balance and no t really letting things get to your core. On managing time At the end of the day, everything boils down to time management. I refuse to bel ieve that anybody can be so busy as to not find time for what he really wants to do. I ensure that I take care of myself physically-whether it's going to the gy m three times a week, playing volleyball, swimming or just going for a run on th e other three days. Things that are left unfinished, things you really want to d o, things you can't find time to do or don't get an opportunity to do-it all dep ends on how badly you want to do it; eventually it boils down to you. As long as you've set those priorities and keep finding the time to do the thing s despite whatever else is going on, it makes your life a lot healthier. You don 't feel like here are things you would have liked to do, but didn't get the time to do, that just tends to get you down and make you feel that everybody else is doing what they want to do. "Fitness is not about the vision a trainer has for you. It's about what you want to achieve for yourself." On training right When I came back after wrapping up the shooting of Lakshya in 2004, my body was feeling extremely high on energy; probably it was the energy burned up in the sh ooting or coping with the high altitudes. I didn't want that feeling to go away; so I started running and swimming. When I came back from Ladakh, I was skinny-6 2 kg only. A few people suggested I get into weight training to put on weight. The first and most important thing on joining a gym is to find a trainer. Or at the very least, you must find somebody who knows what you should be doing for yo ur body type. Initially I used to do it all by myself until this trainer came up to me and said, "I'd like to train you. Try it for a few months and continue if you're comfortable. I see you coming here every day and doing some random rubbi sh that is going to give you no results." I tried training with him for a few mo nths and he's still with me. He trains me three times a week, gives me a diet for what it is that I would lik e to achieve. He keeps reminding me to go to sleep before midnight and drink a l ot of water, instead of beer. Basically, he is the one who keeps advising me on all the good things in life.

On following a routine Fitness is not about the vision a trainer has for you. It's about what you want to achieve for yourself. I go to the gym on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays for 2-2 hours. This includes a 45-minute ab workout, followed by different training r outines that change once a week. On Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays, I either play volleyball with a group of friends or we go for a swim. On finding the balance At the gym, you have a trainer, but at some level, working out is a very solo ac tivity. When you work out, the zone that you are in is about you. Which is why I believe that at some level, exercising is an emotional activity. Apart from jus t physical exertion, there is a certain therapeutic sense to it as well. I find swimming and working out very similar on that level. There are always some people who are very demanding of your time and others who are not so demanding, and then there is also the time that you demand of yoursel f. Most people in my life know that the time I devote at the gym, whether I'm sh ooting a film or not, is the one important thing that I do for myself, so they t end to work around that.

On having your vision I cannot stand buff bodies; I find overtly muscular bodies unattractive. So I wo rk very hard towards trying to keep my body as lean as possible and of course, f at-free. My trainer can't put me on a programme to make me leaner and leaner; th at's obviously not good. So we go through cycles where we work towards building more mass, and then when we reach a certain kind of weight, we lean backwards an d out of it. At my height and frame, my aim is to reach a certain degree of lean ness and around 71-72kg on the weighing scale. Currently, I stand at about 66kg. Your trainer should be sensitive to what you want to achieve. For instance, Same er Chawra, my trainer, doesn't want to make my body a certain way, he wants me t o be comfortable with the goal I've set for myself. He really has no greater pla n for me; he just helps me go about what I want to do. On diet support When I'm working towards putting on weight, there are no carbs evening onwards, though I have a protein substitute. At work, I'm moving around constantly, espec ially when I'm shooting, I burn a lot of energy. You need a substitute because y ou tend to eat a lighter lunch when you are working. When I'm on a get-lean prog ramme, I remove basic carbs like roti or rice completely from my routine. I have more than three meals a day. I eat bits and pieces throughout the day; in the morning, I have some fruit juice, egg white or scrambled eggs at another ti me, a light lunch, then at around 4 o'clock, I have a snack or a shake, eat dinn er by about 8pm and probably another protein shake, which is like a mini meal in itself, before I go to bed. To me, snacks constitute dried fruits, low-fat digestive biscuits and kebabs, wh ich are an indulgence, but as long as they are not deep-fried; besides they are quite high in protein. On small indulgences Sunday is my day off completely. I eat whatever I want. On want to go out and have a few drinks with my friends, I do day I have to myself when I don't exercise at all. I make h myself, my wife, kids, mom and dad, my sister as well as ner. Saturday night, if I it. Sunday is the one sure I spend time wit with my business part

On inheriting fitness As a kid, I was very active; I used to really enjoy running, being in the pool a nd playing football. However, I don't remember ever having played a game with my dad in my life. The only possible genetic link is that he keeps insisting that he was a gymnast when he was in school. My mum, who was a badminton player, is a ctually the person who got me into swimming. I feel really bad for people who ca n't swim simply because it's just so refreshing. " My greatest lesson is to have realised that the most important time is right n ow." On style statements For me, style is what I wear-a pair of jeans, a T-shirt and chappals. To be hone st, I would not like to change for an evening out. I appreciate people who are w ell-styled, just that I don't know if I'd wear them. My sense of style comes fro m the people I know. You should take inspiration from people around you and refe rence your character with those people. On kids and sportiness My elder one, Shakya (7), is extremely active and while she runs around the hous e, I just chase her. Unfortunately, Mumbai has changed a lot. When I was her age , it was easy to just go out of the house and play cricket on the road. Whenever we travel, we have a lot of fun because then you can start kicking a ball aroun d, show her how to focus and catch a ball or grab a Frisbee. On right here, right now My greatest lesson is to have realised that the most important time is right now . Sure, you want to plan for the future, especially now when you have responsibi lities. But where you are at this point in your life is most important; you can' t ignore that because you want your future to be better. As long as you try and focus on the now as much as possible in every situation, you will find yourself centred emotionally, physically and mentally. On trusting the source Experience teaches you more of what to do and what not to do. But experience can also go against you at times. Since I made Dil Chahta Hai, I feel that I've don e and learnt so much more. But what had helped me then at times was what I insti nctively felt about a subject and the freshness of just not knowing. At that poi nt you don't have any baggage of having tried something that you already know ha sn't worked before. Experience also brings different things-it can bring insecurities into play at d ifferent times. So it's important to trust the source from where it comes. If yo u're wrong, fair enough; you can't be right all the time. It's much better than listening to things from here and there, analysing it and then coming to a logic al conclusion. On feeling responsible The one thing that surely changed the way that I was going ahead in life was the birth of my daughter, Shakya. From the point you have a child, life becomes mor e about what you are doing. You are suddenly responsible for somebody else, at l east for a couple of years. Of course, you are there for your parents, your wife, sister, business partner a nd friends. But somehow you always know that they'll be able to take care of the mselves if push comes to shove. But the child is the one person in your life you are truly responsible for. You are that much more responsible for all your acti

ons; it makes you aware that your life is no longer just about you or your choic es. "It's not always about you" Life changed at 26 for filmmaker Farhan Akhtar, when he became dad to Shakya. "I don't know how it could be any different because I've not really experienced it any other way. By the time she'll be 16, I'll only be 42. In a way, I'm growing up along with her," he says. Here are his tips on fatherhood: The best thing you can give them is your time. If they want to do something, we go out and do it. Unless it's something like robbing a bank, which of course, I will not do with them, it's fine with me. The more time you give them to do what ever it is they want to do with you, the better it is for them. Don't force them. You shouldn't force your child to play football if he doesn't want to kick a ball. If it's a new song or dance they've learnt at school and th ey want to perform it 20 times over and over again and want me to clap at the en d of every performance, then I am more than happy and will enjoy doing that.