In an interview with Outlook, Irfan opened up on his journey in the fitness world apart from how he led the transformation routines of people in showbiz. Excerpts from the interview:

Why did you decide to train celebs?

If formal training means going to an institution to learn about fitness, then the answer will be no. I am a self-taught man, I did my own research and extensive learning. A friend of mine from Mumbai, saw my work and told me that my right place is in Mumbai and my work will be truly valued here. So, I thought of giving it a shot and through my friend only I was introduced to many people, including Suniel Shetty who was one of my first clients.?

Which celebrities have you trained so far?

I have trained a lot of celebrities, starting from Anna aka Suniel Shetty. I did Himesh Reshammiya’s transformation. I still work with Sharad Kelkar and Pearl V Puri. I have worked with Kushal Tandon, Asim Riaz, Prince Narula and many more. My advice to people who aspire to be like them is to have realistic goals and to not fall into the trap of achieving a body which is unrealistic, just because you see a celebrity have it. Having abs all the time is not even very healthy because you have to cut down on water, your protein intake has to be extremely high, carbohydrate intake has to be extremely low.?

What advice do you give to normal people who aspire to be like them?

So, my advice to people is to not have a goal of having abs all year around. But your aim should be to have a good stamina, a fit body and a healthy work-life balance, that’s the most important thing. A lot of people who have celebs as their role models don’t get the right guidance or the right coaches to train them, so they fall into different traps and start taking steroids or other supplements that harm their bodies in the long run. So, I advise people to aim for a fit body rather than a six-pack abs any day.

With so many celebrity deaths, few while working out, how important is a healthy diet and nutrition?

Diet is almost everything when we speak about a healthy lifestyle. Workout does play a role in it, but the major player is still the diet. When we talk about recent celeb deaths while working out, I don’t see a direct relation between exercising and what happened to them. It is just unfortunate that the world we live in, everything is so adulterated that we have stopped getting pure things. Even at leading stores, you cannot guarantee if the food there is fresh or hasn’t had any chemical treatment done to it, be it fruits or vegetables, which harm our bodies in the longer run. This is the reason all these deaths are happening.?

What have been your learnings while training celebs??

My learning has been different with each of the celebrities I have worked with. Each of them come with a different body, different goals and different level of dedication. We need to work on their strength and postures. Sometimes the celebs are so occupied with work that even while at gym, their minds are elsewhere, thus I have to ensure their mind and muscle connection.?

I remember training Sharad Kelkar for ‘Har Har Mahadev’ and he had to really bulk up a lot for it but at the same time, it shouldn’t come to his face. As an actor, he had to be fit yet bulked up. So, my training style was completely different from that than what I had for say Pearl V Puri, who came to me with an aim of looking younger than his age for an upcoming project of his.?