With over 20 years of experience, she’s toned some of the hottest bodies in Hollywood through her signature 3-2-1 Training Method and 3-2-1 Nutrition Plan. Her client list, which includes Halle Berry, Amanda Seyfried, Anne Hathaway and Zac Efron, swears by her technique. Ramona Braganza may be the most sought after fitness guru in the West, but she still pines to return to her roots — India. Deebashree Mohanty caught up with her recently at the Fortis Gurgaon Mama Mia launch
Dressed in a simple salwar kurta and a bindi, Ramona Braganza is very much at ease in her Indian attire. How come, you wonder. “My parents belong to Mumbai. I am born and brought up in the US but my roots are here in India. Every time I come visiting my relatives, I don’t feel like going back. Such is the charm of the country,” Braganza tells you, adding that she bought this ensemble five years ago and so may not be very fashionable today. “I wore this suit at Halle Berry’s baby shower and everyone loved it. Halle wanted an Indian theme for her baby shower and it was nice to see how detailed everything was,” Braganza recalls.
Braganza has been a fitness guru ever since she was 15. What started of as simple gym-related blogging, soon took shape of a serious entreprenuership opportunity. Braganza has helped slim down tinsel town’s leading ladies for movie roles and return new celeb mom’s to their pre-baby bods. Whether you’re an actress or even a simple working woman, Braganza says most women have the same complaint — lack of workout time.
“Many women who enroll for my classes have this big challenge before them when it comes to getting fit. How to find the time to include a workout in their busy day and how to find time to indulge in a healthy diet, is the worry. They want fast results but don’t want to struggle doing that,” the fitness guru tells you. Although Scarlett Johansson is her favoruite celebrity and a close friend who Braganza has trained, she says she would love to work with Aishwarya Ray Bachchan.
“Its been a long cherished dream to work with Ash. I have met her at a couple of red carpet events. She is a gorgeous woman with a great body structure. I just have a trick for her to shed some kilos. It would be nice if I was given the opportunity,” Braganza tells you at the Fortis Memorial Hospital in Gurgaon. She was here for the opening of Mama Mia and for sharing her experience about fitness after childbirth.
She suggests that women make fitness a firm part of their lives by scheduling their daily workouts and maximising their valuable time by training harder for a shorter time. “Having a clear goal for your fitness and mixing up your routine is also important,” Braganza explains. “When staring a fitness programme, make sure you define your goal and be specific about the plan on how to achieve your goal,” she says adding, “vary your workouts and find ways to challenge yourself by trying new activities.”
To keep her celebrity clients on their toes, Braganza developed her signature 3-2-1 training method. The workout combines three cardio elements, two circuit elements and one core element, all of which Braganza believes are an integral component of losing weight, building lean muscle and strengthening your core. The programme became an instant hit with clients like Jessica Alba. Soon Braganza started churning out DVDs of this workout sample. For best results, she advises you to try the Kurtsey lunge, a move Braganza uses on clients like Scarlett Johansson and Kate Beckinsale, who she trained into body-suit shape for her movie Underworld: Awakening.
Ask her if the Indian body structure is very different from the Western counterparts and pat comes her reply: “Each individual has a seperate and distinct body strcuture. In the west they are slightly more bonier than Indian women. And their BMI is quite diffrent. But Indian women tend to lose wight much faster and easier than Hollywood celebs,” Braganza says. Being a fitness guru herself, she makes it a point to exercise four hours a day. “I keep myself engaged with a diffrent routine each time. I am also of dancing so that takes care of my entertainment as well,” she says.
Although she is very flushed with her A list clientiele, she doesn’t want to be too taken in. For her, fitness is an industry and she is happy that it is growing. “When I was introduced to Halle Berry in the summer of 2000 by a common friend, I hadn’t the slightest idea that I would end up being her trainer. It so happened that after a year of being her personal gym trainer, we became good friends. She referred me to her Hollywood friends and before I knew it, I was up there rubbing shoulders with Kate Beckinsale,” she says.
Apart from being the top fitness trainer to all these celebrities, Braganza has also started her mobile gym van which she gives out on hire to Hollywood producers. “Being with so many superstars, got me thinking. These people just don’t have the time to exercise. Won’t it be good if we have a state-of-the-art mobile exercise van with the latest equipment so that the actors could pump in the weights whenever they had little time to spare. Producers of Avengers were the first one to experiment with this kind of a mobile routine. Soon, it was trending. My van goes to each and every Hollywood action film so that the stars are never out of shape,” Braganza says.
Even if you look at international standards, her fees is pretty steep. With a weekly fee of up to $100, she is one of the highest paid trainers in the US. As for her van, the cost varies in between $1,000-$5,000, depending on the duration and the fitness needs of the starcast.
Though not a huge Bollywood fan, Braganza feels Hrithik Roshan has the best bod in town. “He not only looks fit, there is a positive charm around him too. I would love to be his trainer. He could do with additional lower push-ups to tone his abdomen slightly,” she says, scampering off to her next assignment.
Here's what you got to do
Set a target
“It's important for everyone to set a goal for themselves. It’s not just any old goal, but one that challenges you physically, mentally or even spiritually,” fitness trainer Ramona Braganza says. Approaching workouts like this boosts your motivation and sense of accomplishment, she adds.
Try to mix it up
“While training my clients, I always mix up the workouts. Not only do I continuously change the types of exercises, I also add various equipment into the mix so that the workouts don't get bored. It is good to switch to the weight, sets, repeats or the tempo of routine,” she says.
Take it outside
Ramona insists her clients do their cardio workouts outdoors at least once a week. She suggests enjoying the fresh air by jogging, hiking, biking or even snowshoeing. If you can’t get outdoors, try to find someplace that’s outside of the gym. “While training Amanda Seyfried for Red Riding Hood, I took her to the stairs, completing eight flights of 200 steps in half-an-hour for a 250-calorie burn,” Braganza tells you.
The golded 80/20 rule
To get the results her clients demand, Ramona stresses that they need to stick to eating healthy, but gives them a little wiggle room. She suggests cooking your own meals — five-and-a-half days of healthy ones and one-and-a-half days of food that’s normally off-limit.
Eat frequently
It may sound counter-productive, but “eating frequently keeps your blood sugar levels stable and keeps your body fueled with energy,” says Braganza. Her 3-2-1 Nutrition Plan consists of three meals and two snacks.
Plenty of water
Ramona asks her clients to drink at least a litre of water a day — and that doesn’t include tea or coffee. “Our bodies are over 70 per cent water and much of that is lost during the day and night. Replenishing it is essential,” she tells you. For those who don’t like water, she has Vitamin Water Zero or a similar low-calorie drink at hand.