Amidst the glittering lights and opulent allure of Bollywood, Akshay Kumar emerged as a trailblazer, reshaping conventional fitness paradigms during the filming of ‘Singh is Kinng’. Neha Dhupia’s revelation regarding their daily ascent of a towering 70-storey building’s fire escape in Australia offers a glimpse into Kumar’s unconventional ethos towards exercise. Far from a mere physical challenge, this regimen served as a profound symbol of his holistic approach to well-being, embodying an ethos that transcended the boundaries of traditional fitness routines.
Challenges and Triumphs
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Scaling 70 floors each day was no trivial task; it demanded a profound reservoir of mental resilience and unwavering determination from the entire cast and crew. Beyond the physical exertion, the ascent symbolized a journey of self-discovery and collective empowerment. With luminaries such as Sonu Sood and Katrina Kaif joining the arduous climb, Kumar’s leadership galvanized a shared commitment to health and fitness among the ensemble. More than just a routine, this endeavour epitomized Kumar’s capacity to cultivate discipline and foster a sense of camaraderie within his team, transcending the boundaries of conventional filmmaking.
Akshay Kumar: Embodiment of Fitness
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Akshay Kumar’s dedication to fitness transcends the confines of his on-screen persona, permeating every facet of his lifestyle. His integration of fitness into the fabric of ‘Singh is Kinng’s production exemplifies his unwavering commitment to lead by example and prioritize the well-being of his colleagues. By championing a culture of health and vitality on set, Kumar demonstrated his belief in the transformative power of physical activity, inspiring a generation of fans worldwide to embrace a more active and health-conscious way of life. His influence extends far beyond the realm of Bollywood, resonating with individuals from all walks of life who aspire to emulate his ethos of holistic wellness.
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Inspiring a Global Movement
The narrative of the ‘Singh is Kinng’ cast embarking on their daily ascent reverberates far beyond the confines of Bollywood, echoing a universal message of resilience and unity. Kumar’s visionary approach to integrating fitness into the film’s production underscored the profound significance of teamwork and collective endeavour in achieving shared goals. Beyond mere entertainment, Kumar’s initiative served as a catalyst for a broader societal shift towards prioritizing physical health and mental well-being. As we reflect on this extraordinary chapter in Bollywood’s history, Kumar’s indelible impact on fostering a healthier, more empowered society emerges as a beacon of inspiration for generations to come.
Every May, Special Olympics celebrates Fitness and Sport Month, recognizing the power of sport to support athlete health, fitness, and performance. To celebrate, I met with Special Olympics Pakistan athlete and Fitness Captain Muaz Khan to learn about his journey to becoming a Fitness Captain.
Muaz has been an athlete for six years and a Fitness Captain for two years. Fitness Captains are athlete leaders who promote health, fitness, and healthy lifestyle habits within their Special Olympics teams and communities. They are trained to lead their sports teams in fitness activities, including warm-ups, cool downs, and exercises that enhance overall health and sports performance.
Today Fitness Captains are represented across all seven Special Olympics Regions in 80 Programs worldwide. In 2025 alone, a record-breaking 1,329 new Fitness Captains were trained, bringing the global total to 2,255.
Driven by a passion for fitness, Muaz became a Fitness Captain and today inspires his fellow athletes to practice healthy habits every day. After completing the Fitness Captain training two years ago, he embraced the idea that a great athlete is a healthy athlete and gained skills to lead safe and effective warm-ups and cool-downs while teaching his teammates about habits that improve fitness and sports performance.
With this new knowledge in hand, Muaz became a peer-leader for his teammates on and off the field. During practice and at Games, Muaz conducts warm-ups and cool-downs. He understands how important both are for sports performance. “Warm-ups are important because it prepares athletes to start being active before playing any match. Athletes get tired after playing, so cool-downs help them relax their bodies.”
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Muaz also shares health tips during training sessions, often times emphasizing how healthy eating habits are crucial to both health and fitness and referencing Special Olympics Fit 5 Guide. “I tell my teammates that they should drink eight glasses of water each day and have three home-cooked, healthy meals.”
Implementing Fitness through Sport within practice and competition expands the reach of health and fitness programming through a focus on three connected outcomes:
Performance: Including endurance, speed, strength, and flexibility
Health: Including energy, healthy weight, and fewer injuries
Wellbeing: Including reduced risk of disease and improved quality of life
Muaz (middle) and fellow Fitness Captains lead morning exercises.
In addition to teaching his teammates healthy habits, Muaz also inspires his classmates to stay active daily. Every day at school, Muaz leads fitness activities and exercises he learned from the Fit 5 Guide.
“My favorite part about being a Fitness Captain is the Fit 5 activity. I conduct the Fit 5 activity every morning in front of my entire school.”
Muaz Khan, Special Olympics Fitness Captain and Athlete
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At the end of our conversation, Muaz shared advice to athletes considering becoming a Fitness Captain, “My life has changed a lot since becoming a Fitness Captain. I learned about the importance of exercise and so I do it very often, which has helped me become healthier. Once you become a Fitness Captain, your life will also change.”
Interested in learning more about Fitness Captains? Check out the Fitness Captain webpage and email Gwendolyn Apgar (gapgar@specialolympics.org) for more information on how to offer a training.
If you were interested in joining the military, there are some fitness tests you would need to pass in order to qualify.
But not all military roles are physical. In fact, many military workers are desk-based and experience the same challenges as regular office workers,
That’s where Lt. Col. Jason Barber, PA-C comes in. He is a U.S. Army Reserve soldier, strength and conditioning coach and a leader in the Army’s Holistic Health and Fitness (H2F) system.
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As part of Barber’s role, he supports desk-based military personnel to stay fit and ready for action, using a system inspired by special forces training methods.
This may sound like Barber builds intimidating, difficult workouts, but this couldn’t be further from the truth.
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He has shared his go-to exercises to improve strength and fitness—and you can do them at your desk, while at work.
He says that the full workout can be done “right at your desk, in 10 minutes, or less”.
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He has even included modifications to scale up or scale down the exercises to suit your fitness level.
Tell us in the comments how you fare, and whether you found this military-approved workout harder or easier than your usual training method.
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Watch how to do the equipment-free desk workout
Exercise guides
1. Squat
Sets: 2-3 Reps: 10-15
How to do it:
Stand with a chair behind you, with your feet shoulder-width apart and your toes turned out slightly.
Keep your chest up and core engaged.
Bend your knees and push your hips back to sit on the edge of the chair.
Press through your heels to stand back up.
Add intensity: Remove the chair, hold a heavy book or water bottle at your chest, or perform jump squats
Reduce Intensity: If you chair has arms, use them to push back up.
Barber says: “The bodyweight squat improves mobility and stability, while also strengthening your lower body by targeting the glutes, quads, hamstrings and core.”
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2. Desk push-up
Sets: 2-3 Reps: 10-15
How to do it:
Place your hands slightly wider than shoulder-width apart against your desk.
Step your feet back, so your body forms a straight line from your head to your heels.
Bend your elbows to lower your chest to the desk.
Press away from the desk to extend your arms and return to the starting position.
Add intensity: Lift one foot to add instability. Perform a push-up with your hands on the floor. If this is still too easy, elevate your feet on a chair and perform slow, controlled reps.
Reduce intensity: Use a wall to make the angle of your push-up less steep.
Barber says: “Leaning push-ups work the chest, shoulders and triceps, making them an effective upper-body workout. They are also easily modifiable.”
3. Reverse lunge
Sets: 2-3 Reps: 10-15 each side
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How to do it:
Stand with your feet hip-width apart.
Step your right foot back, then bend both knees to lower—keeping your left knee directly above your left ankle and your chest facing forward.
Push through your left heel to return to standing.
Repeat on the other side, alternating sides with each rep.
Add intensity: Hold weights or add a knee drive at the top.
Reduce intensity: Limit the depth of the lunge or hold onto a chair for balance.
Barber says: “The reverse lunge is a great way to improve balance and coordination, while also strengthening your lower body. Reverse lunges also have less of an impact on your knees than a forward lunge.”
4. Standing twist
Sets: 2-3 Reps: 10-15 each side
How to do it:
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Stand with your feet hip-width apart and your arms raised in front of you at shoulder height, holding something from your desk to add weight.
Moving from the middle of your back, but keeping your gaze forward, move your arms to the right, then to the left, keeping your hips facing forward.
Engage your core throughout the movement.
Add intensity: Hold a weight or medicine ball, or increase the speed of your twist.
Reduce intensity: Perform slower, smaller twists.
Barber says: “The standing twist can help improve rotational mobility and core engagement, and is a great exercise if you spend most of your day at a desk. It primarily activates the abs and obliques and helps to strengthen spine stability.”
5. Lateral hop
Sets: 2-3 Reps: 10-15 each direction
How to do it:
Stand with your feet hip-width apart and a slight bend in your knees.
Lift your right foot and leap to the right, landing softly on your right foot, keeping your left foot off the floor.
Immediately leap back to the left.
Continue leaping side to side, staying light on your feet.
Add intensity: Increase the hop distance or speed.
Reduce intensity: Step side-to-side instead of hopping.
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Barber says: “The lateral hop builds agility, coordination and endurance while targeting the glutes, quads and calves—as well as the stabilizing muscles around your joints. If you are a runner, consider incorporating this exercise into your training to improve joint stability through your hips, knees and ankles.”
About our expert
About our expert
Lt. Col. Jason Barber
Lt. Col. Jason Barber, MS, PA-C, has served in the U.S. Army for the past 34 years. He has spent time on active duty, in the Army National Guard and is currently in the U.S. Army Reserve.
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He holds advanced degrees in exercise science and physician assistant studies, as well as multiple strength and conditioning and sports medicine fields certifications.
He is currently activated to assist with the implementation of the Army’s Holistic Health and Fitness (H2F) system at the 81st Readiness Division at Fort Jackson, SC. In his role, he spearheads the U.S. Army’s H2F system, an initiative to enhance soldier readiness across physical, mental, nutritional, sleep and spiritual health.
Barber is also a high-performance coordinator for the U.S. Army’s World Class Athlete Program (WCAP), where he helps soldier-athletes prepare and qualify for international competition, most recently the 2026 Winter Olympic Games.
If the thought of gruelling gym sessions leaves you cold, you’re in good company. Almost eight years on from her Sport Relief cycling challenge, where she cycled over 350 miles from Blackpool to Brighton, beloved radio broadcaster Zoe Ball has turned to a more sustainable, low-intensity form of movement: NEAT exercise.
Standing for Non-Exercise Activity Thermogenesis, NEAT exercise refers to any movement you do that isn’t planned exercise, like walking or doing chores. For Zoe, it means gardening. ‘We cannot underestimate the power of gardening and how good it is for your health,’ she said on a recent episode of Dig It, the podcast she co-hosts alongside radio presenter Jo Whiley. ‘What I love about it the most is it doesn’t matter if I’m out there for two, three minutes, half an hour. The world is quite overwhelming at the moment, and when the kids drive me mad or anything like that I just get out there – whether that’s to tidy up, sweep up or just sit on a bench with a cup of coffee and watch the birds and all the insects.’
BBC / Joseph Sinclair//BBC
Back in lockdown, she even referred to gardening as ‘life-changing’ in an interview with the Radio Times, explaining that 15 minutes every evening had provided some much-needed solace.
While Zoe waxes lyrical about the mental benefits, the physical pros are unparalleled. Non-intentional exercise makes up significantly more of your TDEE (Total Daily Energy Expenditure – how many calories you burn across each day), compared to the time you spend exercising in a gym or doing a planned workout. NEAT makes up around 50%, while a planned workout typically counts for roughly 10%. The more you fit movement into your day, the more energy you expend.
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‘NEAT exercise is a great way to control and maintain a healthy weight,’ explains GP and trainer Dr Folusha Oluwajana. ‘Increasing your NEAT increases your metabolic rate as you will burn more calories throughout the day. People with higher NEAT levels are often more successful at achieving and maintaining weight loss.’
As for gardening in particular, research published in the Journal of Physical Activity and Health found that tasks such as digging, raking and weeding meet the criteria for moderate-intensity exercise and count toward weekly physical activity recommendations. Other research has linked regular gardening to lower BMI, improved wellbeing, and reduced risk of cardiovascular disease.
Need some inspo? Check out Zoe’s recent garden transformation.
Examples of NEAT
Washing the car
Using a standing desk
Walking upstairs over using the lift or escalator
Dog walking
Carrying grocery shopping
Playing with children or pets
Walking instead of taking public or private transport
As Women’s Health UK’s fitness director and a qualified Pilates and yoga instructor, Bridie Wilkins has been passionately reporting on exercise, health and nutrition since the start of her decade-long career in journalism.
After earning a first-class degree in journalism and NCTJ accreditation, she secured her first role at Look Magazine, where she launched the magazine’s health and fitness column, Look Fit, before going on to become Health and Fitness writer at HELLO!
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Since, she has written for Stylist, Glamour, Cosmopolitan, Marie Claire, Elle, The Metro, Runner’s World and Red. Today, she oversees all fitness content across Women’s Health online and in print, spearheading leading cross-platform franchises, such as ‘Fit At Any Age’, which showcases the women proving that age is no barrier to exercise.
She has also represented the brand on BBC Radio London, plus various podcasts and Substacks – all with the aim to encourage more women to exercise and show them how. Outside of work, find her trying the latest Pilates studio, testing her VO2 max for fun (TY, Oura), or posting workouts on Instagram.
