Fitness
Nargis Fakhri Focuses On Muscle Building With A Kettlebell Workout; Here’s Why You Should Do It Too
Nargis Fakhri, known for her roles in Bollywood, has recently captured attention not just for her acting but also for her dedication to fitness. The actress has embraced a rigorous workout regime, emphasising the importance of muscle building, particularly for women. Through her social media, Nargis shared insights into her fitness journey, focusing on kettlebell workouts, which have become a central part of her routine. Her message was clear: prioritising health is vital for a strong body, mind, and soul.
Nargis Fakhri’s Fitness Mantra: Health is True Wealth
In a recent Instagram post, Nargis Fakhri showcased her commitment to staying fit by sharing a series of photos where she is seen engaging in a kettlebell workout. Dressed in stylish sage-coloured workout attire, she held a kettlebell with confidence, radiating both strength and grace. Her caption highlighted the significance of muscle building, especially for women, emphasizing that consistency in workouts is essential for long-term health. “Muscle building is important for longevity, especially for women. It’s crucial to make time every day to invest in your future,” Nargis wrote, further stating, “Health is the one and only TRUE WEALTH!”
This message, paired with her powerful images, serves as a reminder of the importance of investing in one’s health, not just for aesthetic reasons, but for overall well-being and longevity.
The Power of Kettlebell Workouts
Kettlebell workouts have gained popularity for good reason. Unlike traditional weights, kettlebells have a unique shape that allows for a dynamic range of movements. The centre of gravity in a kettlebell is displaced from the handle, enabling a wide variety of exercises that can be performed with one or both hands. This design allows for ballistic exercises, swings, and more, making it an incredibly versatile tool for strength training.
Why You Should Incorporate Kettlebell Workouts Into Your Routine
Kettlebell workouts are not just a fad; they offer a multitude of benefits that can help you achieve your fitness goals. Here’s why you should consider adding them to your routine:
Also Read: Get Fit Like Blake Lively: Unveiling the Workout Secrets of the It Ends With Us Star
Full-Body Engagement
Kettlebell exercises target multiple muscle groups simultaneously. Whether you’re performing a swing, a snatch, or a press, your body works as a cohesive unit. This not only helps in building muscle but also improves coordination and balance.
Efficiency
Time is often a limiting factor in our busy lives. Kettlebell workouts allow you to maximize your time in the gym. Because they engage multiple muscle groups at once, you can achieve a comprehensive workout in a shorter period.
Strength and Power Development
The dynamic nature of kettlebell exercises helps in building explosive strength and power. Movements like the kettlebell swing generate power from your hips, engaging your core and lower body, which is essential for overall strength.
Improved Flexibility and Mobility
Many kettlebell exercises, such as the Turkish get-up, require a full range of motion. This helps in improving flexibility and mobility, which are crucial for maintaining functional fitness and preventing injuries.
Also Read: Vampire Diaries Fame Nina Dobrev Opens Up About Her Stricter Than Ever Skincare Routine
Cardiovascular Benefits
Kettlebell workouts are not just about building muscle. The intensity of the exercises also provides a cardiovascular challenge, making it a great way to improve heart health while building strength.
Adaptability
Whether you are a beginner or an advanced fitness enthusiast, kettlebell workouts can be adapted to suit your level. You can start with lighter weights and progress as you build strength and confidence.
A Lesson from Nargis Fakhri’s Fitness Journey
Nargis Fakhri’s dedication to her fitness journey is inspiring for anyone looking to improve their health. Her focus on muscle building, particularly through kettlebell workouts, highlights the importance of incorporating strength training into our daily routines. It’s not just about building muscles; it’s about building a healthier, stronger, and more resilient body.
As Nargis puts it, “Health is the one and only TRUE WEALTH.” This statement resonates deeply in a world where we often overlook our health in the pursuit of other goals. By dedicating time each day to our fitness, we invest in our future, ensuring that we remain strong, healthy, and capable for years to come.
Bottomline
If you’re looking for a workout that offers a blend of strength, endurance, and flexibility, consider adding kettlebell exercises to your fitness regimen. Not only will you see physical improvements, but you’ll also experience the mental and emotional benefits of a consistent, challenging workout. Just like Nargis, you too can achieve a balanced, healthy lifestyle through the power of kettlebell training.
Read Next
Leg Presses Vs Squats: Expert Explains Which Is Better For Building Lower Body Strength And Burning Calories?
Fitness
Business News Today: Stock and Share Market News, Economy and Finance News, Sensex, Nifty, Global Market, NSE, BSE Live IPO News – Moneycontrol.com
While exercise is known to improve memory, scientists have mostly studied this effect by using behavioral tests or brain imaging methods like MRIs, says Michelle Voss, PhD, one of the study’s authors, a professor, and the director of the Health, Brain, and Cognitive Lab at the University of Iowa in Iowa City.
But she says these approaches can’t precisely identify where “ripples” originate, particularly in the deep brain structures like the hippocampus, a part of the brain strongly connected to memory and learning, she says.
The current study, published in Brain Communications, recorded electrical activity directly, using surgically implanted (intracranial) electrodes. “This allowed us to observe how exercise changes the brain’s memory circuits in real time,” Dr. Voss says.
20-Minute Bursts of Exercise Increase Brain Ripples
The participants performed a 5-minute warm-up and then rode a stationary bike for 20 minutes at a pace they could maintain. Researchers recorded their brain activity before and after the biking session.
The electrodes showed an increased rate of so-called sharp-wave ripples from the hippocampus and connections with cortical regions of the brain, which are involved in learning and memory.
“Sharp-wave ripples have long been known from animal studies to play a central role in memory,” Voss says, adding that recent studies using intracranial recordings in humans also support the importance of ripples for human memory.
“Our findings are the first to show that exercise can modulate these ripple signals in the human brain,” she says.
Researchers also observed that larger increases in heart rate during exercise were associated with larger changes in ripple activity in cortical networks, Voss adds.
What’s Already Known About Exercise, Memory, and Learning
Exercise helps build connections between neurons, which deepens and strengthens brain networks, Franssen says.
Physical activity also improves metabolism, which improves insulin sensitivity, helping blood sugar regulation and giving the brain a “more stable and reliable supply of fuel,” Dr. Perlmutter says.
“This is critically important because the brain is an energy-intensive organ, consuming roughly 20 percent of the body’s energy despite representing only a small fraction of body weight,” he adds.
The Research Has Limitations
Voss says researchers were careful to “exclude signals that contained epileptic activity. However, of course, we can’t statistically control for the accumulated effects of having epilepsy on the brain.”
The exercise-brain ripple patterns observed in the current study also closely match those observed in healthy adults using noninvasive brain imaging, such as MRI, she added.
“That convergence across very different methods is one of the strongest indicators that the effects are not specific to epilepsy, but reflect a more general human brain response to exercise,” Voss said.
Researchers also didn’t directly test memory performance, Voss notes. “While hippocampal ripples are strongly linked to memory processing in decades of neuroscience research, the next step will be to measure how exercise-related changes in ripples relate to memory performance in the same individuals.”
Future studies should also compare exercise with other everyday activities, such as sitting quietly or light movement, to determine how specific these effects are to aerobic exercise at the intensity that was studied, she says.
Satisfy Your Brain’s Exercise Craving
It’s never too early or too late to start exercising for brain health, Franssen says.
People of any age, from grade-school children to people in their nineties, can benefit from increased physical activity, Perlmutter says. “My recommendation is to consider taking advantage of the connection between physical activity and brain health across the entire range of human aging.”
Any type of exercise is great, Franssen says, but especially “repetitive behaviors,” like swimming, jogging, and walking.
“Sometimes we let the hugeness of putting in a huge fitness routine get in our way,” she says. “Having a little exercise snack every so often is also very important to improving cognition.”
Increasing our level of physical fitness leads to a bigger release of brain-boosting proteins following one session of exercise, a new study led by a UCL researcher has found.
The study, published in Brain Research, took a group of inactive unfit participants through a 12-week training programme of cycling three times per week and made them fitter. Researchers found as their fitness increased, so did the amount of brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) released following exercise, resulting in improved brain function.
Just 15 minutes of moderate to vigorous aerobic exercise releases BDNF, a brain protein which is known to support the formation of new neurons and new synapses (connections between brain cells), and maintains the health of existing neurons. This is the first study to show that for unfit people, just 12 weeks of consistent training can boost the brain’s response to a single 15-minute workout.
The study, led by Dr Flaminia Ronca (UCL Surgery & Interventional Science, and the Institute of Sport, Exercise and Health), involved 30 participants – 23 male and seven female – taking part in the 12-week programme. To assess fitness levels throughout the programme, participants completed VO2max tests every six weeks, which measures the maximum rate of oxygen your body can consume and use during intense exercise.
BDNF levels were measured pre- and post-VO2max testing, alongside a series of cognitive and memory tests, while also measuring changes in brain activity in the prefrontal cortex – where executive functions such as decision-making, emotion regulation, attention and impulsivity are controlled.
By the final week of the trial, results showed that baseline levels of BDNF did not change, but participants did show a larger spike of BDNF following intense exercise, compared to how their brains responded to intense exercise before the 12-week programme. This was linked to improvements in VO2max (aerobic fitness).
Higher overall BDNF levels and stronger exercise-induced increases were also associated with changes in activity across key areas of the prefrontal cortex during attention and inhibition tasks, though not during memory tasks.
Overall, the results showed that increasing physical fitness can enhance the brain’s ability to produce BDNF in response to acute bouts of exercise, which can have a strong positive influence on neural activity.
Lead author Dr Flaminia Ronca said: “We’ve known for a while that exercise is good for our brain, but the mechanisms through which this occurs are still being disentangled. The most exciting finding from our study is that if we become fitter, our brains benefit even more from a single session of exercise, and this can change in only six weeks.”
Notes to editors:
For more information or to speak to the researchers involved, please contact: Tom Cramp, UCL Media Relations , T: +447586 711698, E: [email protected]
The research paper: ‘BDNF relates to prefrontal cortex activity in the context of physical exercise’, Flaminia Ronca, Cian Xu, Ellen Kong, Dennis Chan, Antonia Hamilton, Giampietro Schiavo, Ilias Tachtsidis, Paola Pinti, Benjamin Tari, Tom Gurney, Paul W. Burgess, is published in Brain Research, March 2026,
About UCL (University College London)
UCL is a diverse global community of world-class academics, students, industry links, external partners, and alumni. Our powerful collective of individuals and institutions work together to explore new possibilities.
Since 1826, we have championed independent thought by attracting and nurturing the world’s best minds. Our community of more than 50,000 students from 150 countries and over 16,000 staff pursues academic excellence, breaks boundaries and makes a positive impact on real world problems.
We are consistently ranked among the top 10 universities in the world and are one of only a handful of institutions rated as having the strongest academic reputation and the broadest research impact.
We have a progressive and integrated approach to our teaching and research – championing innovation, creativity and cross-disciplinary working. We teach our students how to think, not what to think, and see them as partners, collaborators and contributors.
For 200 years, we are proud to have opened higher education to students from a wide range of backgrounds and to change the way we create and share knowledge.
We were the first in England to welcome women to university education and that courageous attitude and disruptive spirit is still alive today. We are UCL.
www.ucl.ac.uk | Read news at www.ucl.ac.uk/news/ | Follow UCL News on Bluesky and LinkedIn
Journal
Brain Research
DOI
10.1016/j.brainres.2026.150253
Method of Research
Experimental study
Subject of Research
People
Article Title
BDNF relates to prefrontal cortex activity in the context of physical exercise
Article Publication Date
4-Mar-2026
Media Contact
Tom Cramp
University College London
[email protected]
Journal
Brain Research
DOI
10.1016/j.brainres.2026.150253
Journal
Brain Research
DOI
10.1016/j.brainres.2026.150253
Method of Research
Experimental study
Subject of Research
People
Article Title
BDNF relates to prefrontal cortex activity in the context of physical exercise
Article Publication Date
4-Mar-2026
Tags
/Health and medicine/Human health/Physical exercise
bu içeriği en az 2000 kelime olacak şekilde ve alt başlıklar ve madde içermiyecek şekilde ünlü bir science magazine için İngilizce olarak yeniden yaz. Teknik açıklamalar içersin ve viral olacak şekilde İngilizce yaz. Haber dışında başka bir şey içermesin. Haber içerisinde en az 12 paragraf ve her bir paragrafta da en az 50 kelime olsun. Cevapta sadece haber olsun. Ayrıca haberi yazdıktan sonra içerikten yararlanarak aşağıdaki başlıkların bilgisi var ise haberin altında doldur. Eğer yoksa bilgisi ilgili kısmı yazma.:
Subject of Research:
Article Title:
News Publication Date:
Web References:
References:
Image Credits:
Keywords
Tags: 12-week cycling training program benefitsbrain plasticity and physical fitnessbrain-derived neurotrophic factor after exerciseeffects of aerobic exercise on BDNFexercise and neuron healthexercise-induced neurogenesisfitness level impact on brain proteinsfitness training for cognitive improvementimproving brain function through fitnessmoderate to vigorous aerobic exercise effectsphysical fitness and brain healthVO2max and brain function correlation
‘Not a hiding place’: Ogden police lauded for role in catching Nevada, Wisconsin murder suspects
W.Va. lawmakers push through multiple bills as Saturday deadline nears
Wyoming Coaches Pick the Best of 1A & 2A Boys Basketball in 2026
Bitcoin has mined 20 million coins: why the last of the remaining 1 million won’t arrive until 2140 | Fortune
By the Numbers: Financial report reveals scale of financial costs, growth
Florida High School Football Rankings: Top 25 teams – Oct. 21
Cleary's 21 help Le Moyne down Central Connecticut State 69-64 in OT
How old is Bo Nix? What to know about Oregon quarterback ahead of 2024 NFL Draft
99th annual Pony Swim held in Virginia
Indiana Members Credit Union announced as new anchor tenant at Bottleworks District
EXCLUSIVE: ICE says El Paso detention facility will stay open under new contractor after $1.2B deal scrapped
Von der Leyen ‘acting outside of competence,’ Araud tells Euronews
Wheelchair curler Steve Emt’s path from drunk driver to three-time Paralympian
Map: 2.3-Magnitude Earthquake Reported North of New York City
Trump stirs GOP primary drama with visit to Massie’s Kentucky home turf
-
Wisconsin1 week agoSetting sail on iceboats across a frozen lake in Wisconsin
-
Massachusetts1 week agoMassachusetts man awaits word from family in Iran after attacks
-
Pennsylvania6 days agoPa. man found guilty of raping teen girl who he took to Mexico
-
Florida1 week agoFlorida man rescued after being stuck in shoulder-deep mud for days
-
Detroit, MI5 days agoU.S. Postal Service could run out of money within a year
-
Miami, FL6 days agoCity of Miami celebrates reopening of Flagler Street as part of beautification project
-
Sports6 days agoKeith Olbermann under fire for calling Lou Holtz a ‘scumbag’ after legendary coach’s death
-
Virginia7 days agoGiants will hold 2026 training camp in West Virginia