If you desire to have Kumail Nanjiani’s 6 packs body, then you are at the right place. Here, you will get all the detailed information about Kumail’s workout routine, eating plan, and motivation.
Kumail’s recent physical transformation truly shocked the Internet universe. From having a “regular” body, now he possesses top-class model looks with shredded abs! This is because he was prepping to be featured in the upcoming Marvel movie, The Eternals.
Previously, Kumail certainly wasn’t a muscular man who spent a lot of time in the gym (in fact, I remember he did say before that he didn’t do much exercising at all). All of this has changed when he was cast to be the role of Kingo Sunen a superhero, which would make him the first Pakistani superhero to hit the big screens.
When he filmed the final episodes of the popular comedy series, Silicon Valley, his percentage of body fat was around 20%. He seeks help from Grant Roberts, a former recipient of Mr.Canada title, a well-known celebrity fitness trainer. Grant is very experienced, having help actors and actresses like Zachary Levi, Eva Longoria, and Hilary Swank to have wholesome transformations.
Grant designed specialized workouts and diet programs that saw Kumail goes through 10 months of grueling training. As a result, Kumail’s body fats go down by half, to an impressive 10%. That is super huge muscle gain for him!
One of the funniest characters people have seen in years, who is a skinny fat body type, has now managed to take his strength and fitness to a whole new level! And his new build is certainly worth showing off now. Just look at his before and after photo, you will know that Kumail really did put in great effort for those ripped, washboard abdominal muscles!
The big question is: What kind of workout routine training is needed to build this kind of muscle mass? His body transformation is definitely no joke, which is why now he has crazy abs. He goes to the gym 6 days a week & his exercise routine is very intense. Each session is about 1 hour plus and he usually loves to follow a regular bodybuilding split (concentrate only on 1 or 2 body parts at a time).
Kumail Nanjiani Exercise Routine
He goes to the gym consistently, without missing any workouts. He also closely watched his diet all the time. For example, carbohydrates are only allowed before strenuous training sessions.
Monday: Back & Shoulders
Each of the exercises is done in 3 sets with 6 repetitions, with heavy, optimal weights, right from the start.·
- Easy warm-up and stretching exercises ·
- Deadlift
- Weighted pull-ups
- Shoulder Flyes
- Dumbbell shrugs ·
- Upright Rows
Tuesday: Legs
Each of the exercises is to be completed in 3 sets, with 8 repetitions, with heavy, optimal weights, right from the start. You can go for 10 reps if you want to. Keep in mind, please stay away from using lower weights to make sure you have the maximum burn. ·
- Simple warm-up and stretching exercises
- Back squats
- Dumbbell lunges
- Leg curls
- Leg presses
- Weighted box jumps
- Calf raises (hold up)
Wednesday: Chest and Core
Each of the exercises is done in 3 sets, with 6 repetitions. Of course, you should raise the bar weights according to your goals. ·
- Easy warm-up and stretching exercises
- Bench press
- Incline barbell press
- Chest seated flyes
- Cable flyes
- Crunches: 3 times until failure
- Knee lifts: 3 times until failure
- Side plank: 3 x 90 seconds
Thursday: Full body
Basically, it is a mix of the previous two days’ exercises. Again, all of these exercises should be completed in 3 sets, with 6 repetitions. On this day you really should start pushing yourself to the max, to maximize muscle growth.
- Easy warm-up and stretching exercises
- Pull-ups with heavyweights
- Flyers with a cross cable
- Deadlift
- Front kicks
- Lunging & squats
- Lateral raises
Friday: Shoulders and Core
Yes, by now, you know that Kumail likes to go for 3 sets of 6 repetitions. You will definitely feel sore or pain at your core, but that is a great sign of progress.
- Easy warming up and stretching
- Standing rowing with machines
- Front or side lifts
- Loaded wide grip pull-ups on the bar
- Barbells or dumbbells shrugs
- Crunching: 3 times until failure
- Knee lifts: 3 times until failure
- Side plank: 3 x 90 seconds
Saturday: Arms
The final day of exercise! This should be easier compared to other days, but don’t be too relax and keep up with your good momentum to build those strong arms. Aim for 3 sets of 6 repetitions. Don’t need many reps with lower weights, so choose heavier weights that truly challenge you.
- Easy warm-up and stretching exercises
- Alternating dumbbell or barbell curls
- Pushdowns with cables
- Close-grip pull-ups
- Triceps extension (overhead)
- Hammer curls
- Squared triceps kickbacks
Sunday: Rest
A full day of rest is critical for avoiding any sorts of exercise-induced fatigue. Keep in mind, intense exercises use your muscles’ glycogen levels very quickly. If these aren’t replaced, you will definitely experience muscle soreness and tiredness. Even when you’re not working out, your muscles need glycogen to function optimally.
Kumail Nanjiani Eating Plan
In Kumail’s eating plan, the main objective is to drop the excess body fats and upgrade the muscular size to create total body symmetry. During his bulking phase in getting ready for the role in the movie The Eternals, his diet or eating plan is really strict.
Basically, he will eat lots of proteins and moderate fats to be in the best shape of his life. Kumail ate almost junk food and sugar for almost a year to prep for the Marvel movie. From Monday until Friday, Kumail would eat an extremely low-carbohydrate diet.
He did show to everyone in an interview, where he opens his refrigerator to the audience to see what he really consumes when bulking up. His food staples include different types of fruits such as pears, apples, and peaches. His morning meals usually consist of gluten-free eggs and toasts.
Besides that, he also practices intermittent fasting on the days off from filming the superhero movie. He would do a 6 over 18 fast, which means he will not eat anything for eighteen hours, and then he will compress all his food intake in just six hours a day. To make this intermittent fasting successful, he will generally, skip breakfast entirely.
As for what Kumail normally likes to drink (besides water, of course), his choice certainly seems a bit out of the ordinary. He will consume beet juice and treat it as a pre-workout drink. He stores the beet juice in large quantities in his fridge. Not only he likes the taste of the beet juice, he believes the juice gives him the energy needed for his stringent training.
Kumail also shared his secret to making the perfect protein shake. After mixing a scoop of protein powder with water, he will add in some kind of fruits (2 to 3 types) and also almond butter, with a tablespoon of peanut butter.
As for the rest of the day, the Big Sick actor likes to make pan-seared chicken breast with lots of native Indian or Pakistani spices. He’s also a huge fan of buffalo or bison burgers. But when he was filming in London, he will substitute them with grilled chicken or fish (as they do have buffalo or bison meat there). He also includes sweet peas in his diet, when asked about his favorite snack.
Having achieved his dream body, he is now focusing on maintenance. He has this maintenance eating plan of just having the appropriate amount of essential protein, water, fats, vitamins, phytonutrients, and minerals at the same time keeping non-essential carbs in check.
Kumail Nanjiani Workout Motivation
Kumail did admit that his body transformation couldn’t have been so smooth if he hadn’t had a full year with the best trainers and nutritionists (all fully paid by the biggest studio in the world). Although he has tremendous help, high credits go to him for sticking to the program diligently.
Kumail became obsessed with working out while filming for Marvel’s The Eternals in November 2020. He confesses that the beginning was the hardest part as it was difficult both psychologically and physically. However, after the first few months, it got easier and easier. He realized the secret is that he had to learn to enjoy training.
So what keeps the funny actor inspired to keep going with the training? Besides the fantastic reaction and great encouragement from his family to his new success, he also feels better every day. Ever since he has been exercising, he has a calm mind and has been sleeping better. He feels much less anxious and has a lot of energy for his day-to-day activity. It has become a form of mediation to him as well. Another motivation is definitely health – he just feels healthier now in his 40s than when he was twenty years old.
One tip that Kumail recommends to all is to listen to your favorite audios or music while working out. He loves listening to various podcasts on a wide range of topics while at the gym. From time to time, he would spend time working out with close, like-minded friends. They would encourage each other to do their very best in each session.
Kumail Nanjiani Workout Challenges
Initially, Kumail was disappointed as then he could not see his results, even after putting in a lot of effort in the first few weeks. He started to face body dysmorphia symptoms. He would look in the mirror & look at his body and when he look again, he would only see the flaws. Kumail reminded us to be easy on ourselves, especially in the first few weeks.
He is very glad that he persisted. He also understands why he never did it before as it would have been very difficult without the great resources and time. The actor shared what exactly was critical for such a fantastic transformation, from maintaining such a strict diet. He also uses high-tech equipment such as electric shocks to his biceps to keep his building muscle more effectively in addition to workouts at various times of the day. Now, the star wants to maintain his current healthier lifestyle for the long run.
Kumail Nanjiani Workout Mindset
For those of you who are working hard to reach a Kumail-esque body and look, being mentally and emotionally prepared for the journey is one aspect that you must be aware of. Although Kumail has so much positive feedback about his transformation, he also has his fair share of bad comments.
The bulk of the negative comment is that the haters tend to believe that Kumail’s transformation is not natural and that he depended on steroids.
We all know that steroids are a tricky subject in sports and Hollywood. Of course, don’t think even for a minute we are endorsing their usage. They are certainly prohibited by the majority of sporting organizations & illegal for even recreational use in most countries around the world.
However, actually, if you have professional trainers who push you to follow a strict diet for an entire year, you will see some serious results like Kumail. And keep in mind, he had an entire year to prepare. He had a great team of professional personal trainers. He had highly regulated workout sessions, at least 6 days a week. He had every food calorie counted.
People who comment “steroids!”at Kumail are people who don’t comprehend what our bodies are capable of. They are the people who want to prevent others from being motivated by transformations like Kumail’s. The decision to get in great shape must be firm. After knowing your program, you must be laser focus adhere to your program and don’t be easily affected by others. Change your mind, change your body.