Digvijay Singh Rathee, recently evicted from ‘Bigg Boss 18’, has made a name for himself as a fitness enthusiast. With his first appearance on the reality show ‘Roadies’, the 26-year-old has been in the limelight for his well-built physique and six-pack abs. His journey to achieving a well-built body is inspiring and can serve as a guide for anyone looking to enhance their physical fitness. Regarding his abs, our expert, Varnit Yadav, exercise coach had a few tips on getting the perfect body. 

Strength Training

The Bigg Boss 18 ex-contestant incorporates various strength training exercises into his routine, focusing on major muscle groups. His workouts typically include weightlifting, bodyweight exercises, and dips that enhance functional strength.

Running Early In The Morning

To maintain cardiovascular health and manage body fat, Digvijay integrates cardio workouts into his weekly schedule. It consists of running or jogging for at least 30 minutes of moderate-intensity running several times a week.

High-Intensity Interval Training (HIIT)

Digvijay Rathee opts for short bursts of intense exercise followed by rest periods to maximize calorie burn.

Regular Intake Of Meal

For his workout, the former Splitsvilla contestant opts for meals at an interval of three hours. Foods like chicken, fish, eggs, and legumes play an important role in supporting muscle repair for the youngster. 

Adequate Sleep 

Understanding that recovery is vital for muscle growth and overall health, Digvijay emphasises having quality sleep. He ensures to have adequate sleep each night to allow the body to recover. 

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Expert Tips On Getting Six-Pack Abs

Achieving six-pack abs is a goal for many fitness enthusiasts, and requires a strategic combination of exercise, nutrition, and consistency. Regarding the same, our expert, Varnit Yadav, exercise and nutrition coach, gave a few tips. To take your body to the point where those abs are visible and popping out, you have to act on the following. 

• Keep dropping your body weight till you are satisfied with the body fat composition

• Creating a calorie deficit is crucial, which can be achieved by eating less, exercising more, or both.

• Ensure a high protein diet when reducing calories to preserve your hard-earned muscle mass; 1.5grams per kg of body weight should be a decent place to be in (considering you are staying reasonably active)

• Prioritise sleeping 7 or more hours to ensure the most optimum results 

• Supplement if required with necessary vitamins and minerals if you are not able to meet them from your diet

• Strength training at least 3-5 times a week will ensure consistent progress

• Treat your abs like any other muscle in your body, but do not overtrain them, as it will be counterproductive. You can train your abs three times a week by including movements such as hanging leg raises, crunches, planks, etc.

Achieving a well-defined six-pack is a dream for many fitness enthusiasts, but it’s essential to prioritize your overall health and well-being in the process. Before embarking on any intense exercise regimen, it’s highly advisable to consult with a dietitian or fitness expert. They can provide personalized guidance tailored to your specific needs, ensuring that you follow a balanced approach that supports your fitness goals while safeguarding your body.

Whether you’re getting in your last gym session before they close, or opting for home workouts this festive season, spending hours on your training is out of the question. Especially if you haven’t quite finished your Christmas shopping yet. Thankfully, Arnold Schwarzenegger has shared a quick 15-minute AMRAP workout in his Arnold’s Pump Club newsletter. And, you’ll only need a set of dumbbells or a weighted rucksack or vest.

He shares, ‘It is a beautiful mix of a muscle-building pump, full body strength, and cardio.’ Set a timer and get to it.

The Workout

Schwarzenegger recommends: ‘Perform 1 set of each exercise for 30 seconds. Once you complete each set, catch your breath, and repeat again. Complete as many rounds as you can in 15 minutes.’

Hold the dumbbells at your collarbone with your palms facing inwards, elbows in tight to your waist. Send your hips back with your chest upright into a squat. Once you break parallel, push through the heels back to standing, ready to repeat.

Hit a strong plank position, with your core tight and hands under your shoulders. Bend your elbows to bring your chest to the floor. Keep your elbows close to your body as you push back up explosively.

Stand tall with your weights or weighted rucksack pressed overhead. Take a deep breath and begin a fast, deliberate march. When you reach a 20 metre mark, get your composure, turn around and head back.

Stand tall with your dumbbells in each hand or wearing the weighted rucksack. Keeping your chest up at all times, take a step backward with one leg, bending your front knee until the back knee touches the ground. Stand up explosively, pause and repeat with the other leg.

Hold the dumbbells either side of your head with the elbows high or hold the weighted rucksack by the handles in front of your chest. Take a breath and brace your core. Press the weights overhead, while keeping the chest open. Lower under control to your shoulders and repeat.

Kate is a fitness writer for Men’s Health UK where she contributes regular workouts, training tips and nutrition guides. She has a post graduate diploma in Sports Performance Nutrition and before joining Men’s Health she was a nutritionist, fitness writer and personal trainer with over 5k hours coaching on the gym floor. Kate has a keen interest in volunteering for animal shelters and when she isn’t lifting weights in her garden, she can be found walking her rescue dog.

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In my time as a fitness writer, tight hips have been the most common complaint I’ve faced from readers. So I recruited a flexibility expert to explain why this might be the case, and what people could do to combat it.

“I believe a lot of it comes from sitting,” Cody Mooney, director of stretching app Pliability tells me.” Any time we do something for a long period of time there will be impacts, and these can be positive or negative.”

Sitting at a desk, day after day, can reinforce “poor posture patterns” and hold your hip flexors in a shortened position, leading to tightness, Mooney says. This tightness can make it harder to access certain positions, particularly during sports and strength training exercises like squats. “Compensation happens, and usually when compensation happens you get injuries,” he adds.

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One way to counteract this is to strengthen the key muscles in and around the hips. Another is to stretch them. Consistent stretching does the opposite of sitting down all day, Mooney explains, elongating the muscles and “allowing your body to move as it should”.

If you want to give it a go and fight tight hips, Mooney says the three moves below are the best place to start.

How to do Cody Mooney’s stretching routine for tight hips

Hold the stretches above for two minutes each. For the couch stretch and twisted lizard, hold them for two minutes on each leg.

“Allow yourself to be passive, don’t push yourself into discomfort where you don’t breathe, you’re sweating, you’re tense [or] it hurts,” Mooney advises.

He says you can do these stretches daily. Over time, he also recommends increasing the amount of time you spend in each position, gradually climbing up to five minutes.

“I think if someone spent five minutes a day in couch stretch, then saddle, then sat in pigeon for three or four minutes a day, that consistency would provide massive benefits,” he adds.

Read more: 14 best exercise bikes for hitting your fitness goals at home

The couch stretch 

How to do it

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Benefits

“This is a wonderful stretch which targets the front of the leg and the hip flexor area,” says Mooney. “If you learn to loosen this area, it will benefit you in many ways.

“With pain, we often have to look up or downstream for the cause. People develop patella tendonitis [knee pain] if they have a lot of tightness in their quads, the muscles on the front of the thigh, as well as lower back pain.”

“Doing the couch stretch – loosening up the quads, hip flexors and piriformis [a muscle running from the lower spine to the top of the thighs] – will really help you loosen up the hips, and [ease] the nagging lower back that many people have.”

Read more: These are the 12 best men’s gym trainers you can buy, according to our expert tester

The saddle 

How to do it

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Benefits

“Saddle really hits the quads and hip flexors, which tighten up in that sitting position,” Mooney explains.

The hip flexors are in high demand in daily life too. These muscles’ primary function is bringing the knee towards the chest, meaning they play a role in walking, running, squatting and even standing.

“So much of that is hip flexor, so really you’re creating a tight muscle, leaving it tight, then never doing anything to counter that,” Mooney adds, prescribing the saddle stretch as a first step for remedying this.

Read more: 14 best gym shorts for men, tried and tested by a fitness writer

The pigeon pose 

How to do it

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Benefits

Given how frequently the hip flexor muscles are used on a daily basis, it pays to have them working smoothly. But, as Mooney says, “no lunch is free”, so you need to dedicate some time and effort to keeping them in good nick.

“I think the pigeon pose is great because it really hits the hip, glute and lower back area,” says Mooney. “When you can learn to release that, it can help people in multiple different ways.”

It can ease lower back and hip pain, Mooney says, as well as improving freedom of movement around the joint.

“By stretching, or elongating muscle groups [around the hips] and allowing joints to function properly, you might not take away all of the negatives of sitting at a desk for eight hours every day, but you’re at least being proactive in an approach to counter some of them and allowing your body to get back to its natural, proper position,” Mooney says.

Read more: A leading strength coach shares his three ‘essential’ kettlebell exercises for ‘fitness and longevity’