Meet Ankit Mohan, the 'fitness freak'

Actor Ankit Mohan is having a gala time portraying two extremely contrasting characters on TV. While he plays the role of Ashwathama in Star Plus’ Mahabharat to the ‘T’, he essays the confident and negative-minded younger brother of Shabbir Ahluwalia in Zee TV’s Kumkum Bhagya. The man is a fitness freak and gets into a ‘beast’ mode once he enters the gym. Why are we saying so? That is because for Ankit, the gym is an ‘akhada’ where he listens to his power music and works out like a guy possessed. This habit of working hard on his body got into his blood from a very young age of 17. Says Ankit, “My journey with fitness started when I got selected for the Season 3 of Roadies. However, I could not make it to the final round and that is when I realized that I had to turn it over in the next 7-8 months by working out in the gym. And the rest was history, as they say!! The transformation I achieved in the Season 4 of Roadies stunned everyone. I even remember the phase of life where the fans of Roadies used to approach me on social networking sites to get fitness tips. They could hardly believed that I carried such a nice build at a very young age.” Well, this means that Ankit has successfully maintained his good physique for nearly 7-8 years. On his fitness mantra, the young lad states, “I always go opposite to my body at the gym. If my body asks for rest, I put more pressure and when my body asks for pressure, I give it rest. The main reason is that I don’t want my body to be the boss; I aim to transform it according to me. I believe that one should not carry the same routine for a longer time.” Ask him about his present work mode at the gym and she says, “I bought a cycle recently and I do cycling on the road for almost 15-20 km along with my gym routine of military training, functional training, circuit training and complete cardio.” Expressing his gratitude to two people, Ankit states, “Two people have always been a push in my life. The first is my dad because he literally threw me into the "akhada" (desi gym) when I was pretty young. My father always saw his shadow in his son and wanted me to get into the workout mode at a very young age. Secondly, my best friend Gaurav Sharma who is an international power lifter representing India has been my big support system.” As an advice to novices trying to get into a good shape, Ankit quips, “Don’t get tempted seeing someone else’s physique and don’t do anything to mess up your body. You should always measure your body level and capacity and calculate the depth before doing anything.” Rightly said, Ankit!!