Farhan Akhtar Workout Routine and Diet Plan for Bhaag Milkha Bhaag

Farhan Akhtar is an Indian film actor, director, producer, screenwriter and playback singer born on 9^th January 1974. He is one of the most versatile artists in Bollywood. His most notable performance has been his portrayal of Milkha Singh in the film ‘‘Bhaag Milkha Bhaag’’. He has achieved ‘Filmfare award for best actor’ for his performance in this film.

Bhaag Milkha Bhaag is a biopic of famous Indian athlete, world champion runner Milkha Singh who was also Indian army cadet. For his unimaginable running skill, Milkha Singh had bagged title as ‘Flying Sikh’! and was facilitated with India’s fourth-highest civilian award ‘‘PadmaShri’’.

Farhan Akhtar has done great had work to portray his role as Milkha Singh. He had followed a very strict workout schedule and diet plan to completely transform his look. With full dedication and determination, he has achieved athletic body type.

The movie was about Milkha Singh’s complete life. So, Farhan had to play the role of Milkha Singh as Army cadet earlier and later as an athlete. Physical requirements for these two roles are completely different. Farhan who was about 64Kilos weight before starting the movie had to gain 8-10 kg for the Army cadet role and again he had to reduce 10kg for athlete role! Hence Farhan Akhtar started following very much disciplined lifestyle with compulsory workouts and strict diet.

Farhan Akhtar Workout Routine and Diet Plan

Samir Jaura and Melwyn Crasto were Farhan Akhtar’s trainers to achieve required body physique for Bhaag Milkha Bhaag movie. Farhan used to work out six hours per day in three shifts. Workout plan was included three different pieces of training, athletic training, functional training and weight training.

Farhan Akhtar Workout Schedule

Athletic training: First session of the day used to be athletic training. Athletic training was about teaching running over a short distance in a limited period of time, professionally called ‘sprinting’. Melwyn Crasto used to provide professional sprinting training for Farhan Akhtar. Athletic training included upper leg motion, knee lift and push-off which are major components of running. This training helped him to play the sprinting sequences convincingly in the movie.
Functional training: Coach Samir Jaura used to provide functional training for Farhan Akthar six hours after the morning session. A major focus of this training was to improve flexibility and strength. This training involved abdominal exercises, climbing up the rope with a weight on the legs, hanging down, push-ups, pull-ups etc. Functional training used to take place approximately for two hours.
Weight training: Weight training used to be the third session of the day around 6 pm. The main focus of this session was HST (Hypertrophy Strength Training) and Tabata (High-Intensity Interval Training). This training helped Farhan Akhtar to gain muscles. In the first 6 months of training, early 3 months were dedicated to HST and later 3 months to Tabata. Tabata session included 8-10 sets of several routines with each set about 90 seconds.

Farhan Akhtar Bhaag Milkha Bhaag Training

Along with these training sessions, Farhan Akhtar used to do separate exercises to train major body parts.

Shoulder exercise: Farhan used to do 15 sets of Front raise and Lateral raise exercises each day. Lateral raise exercise helped him to develop round muscled shoulder.
Legs exercise: Farhan used to perform a set of lunges, squats, jump squats, leg press and leg extension exercises each with 300 repetitions and 100 calf raises. This helped him to play the role of great sprinter with legs in perfect condition.
Biceps exercise: 12 sets of curls, preacher curls, cable workouts and concentration curls exercise helped him to develop incredibly pumped up biceps.
Abs exercise: 12 sets of crunches with 200 repetitions, leg raises, side bends and other abdominal exercises helped Farhan to get perfect fitness to perform the role convincingly.

Farhan had to lose weight to portray as an athlete. For that, he underwent his weight training and endurance training by focusing on two muscle groups. His daily routine had involved 15 sets with 100 repetitions each. For 13 months he did the hard workout with full dedication.

Farhan Akhtar Diet Plan

Farhan Akhtar followed a very strict diet plan to transform his look like an athlete. His meal plan was broken down to 6-7 meals per day. His balanced diet plan included a source of protein, vegetables and carbohydrates. Early, to play Army cadet role he had to gain weight. That time he consumed approximately 3500 calories per day with 5ltrs water. Later, he had to lose weight to play an athlete role. That time he consumed approximately 1800 calories per day. But, thought the schedule his diet plan was the same. His diet plan was as follows :

Breakfast: Farhan Akthar used to have a healthy, protein-rich breakfast. His breakfast regularly contained 6 white-egg omelettes, mushrooms and a glass of orange juice.

Mid Morning Snack: Farhan would have a mid-morning snack about 2 hours after breakfast. It was consisting of oatmeal along with a half glass of skimmed milk. After 30 minutes of mid-morning snack, he used to have tender coconut water.

Lunch: Farhan Akhtar’s lunch consisted of vegetables like cabbage, beans, as Chinese cabbage, broccoli, asparagus etc. Chinese cabbage is rich nutrition source which was consumed around 250 grams in a meal. His lunch also included 150 grams of grilled chicken which is rich protein content. Olive oil was used for cooking.

Post Lunch: Since he was following a strict workout schedule, he had to intake enough protein for muscle recovery and development. Therefore, around 2 hours after lunch, he used to drink protein shake p

Evening Snack: Evening snack would consist of a split green gram or boiled split Bengal gram salad with cucumber and tomatoes. Since berries have a great amount of antioxidants and low on the glycemic index, Farhan used to had this fruit often.

Dinner: Farhan’s dinner was almost the same as the lunch menu. But, the chicken was replaced by fish like salmon or basa.

Before bed: Before going to bed he used to have a protein shake to improve sleep cycle and to increase muscle growth

Farhan had followed a very difficult diet plan. Sweets were strictly prohibited from diet and he was allowed to have only a glass of Lassi for every 15 days. This is how he achieved perfect physical appearance to portray the role of great athlete Milkha Sing in the movie ‘Bhaag Milkha Bhaag’.