25 minute read
POZNIC TRAINING
David Poznic Aamir Khan
Advertisement
Body Transformation is a herculean task and it becomes harder if you are dealing with someone, who never settles for less than perfection. In this talk, we have featured a professional acrobat who has worked with our very own Mr. Perfectionist, Aamir Khan for the major project of Dhoom3 and blockbuster P.K. We are talking about a Jack of every physical art, Professional Acrobat, David Poznic who has developed impeccable expertise after years of practice of martial arts, Kung Fu, Contemporary Dance and kayaking, rock climbing and many others. A great laureate and teacher of body science, David Poznic undertakes a multi-disciplinary platform viz. Poznic Training along with his wife, Prune. David who considers the current period of ‘no-gym’ as the great moment to explore your body movement in an equipment free fitness world highlights some of his insights in the conversation. Abhinav from the Sportz Business Magazine brings an exclusive talk with David Poznic, (Aamir’s Khan Personal Trainer for the movie Dhoom3 and P.K) and throw some light over the body transformation science and genetics.
1. David Poznic, you try different forms of exercises like Plyometric Push up, can you tell us how distinct your fitness regime is?
My approach to fitness and movement is heavily influenced by my experiences training, teaching, and performing acrobatics, martial arts, and contemporary dance around the world over the past 20 years. I’ve studied Kung Fu at a Shaolin monastery with no electricity in the mountains of China, Capoeira on an island off the coast of Brazil, and spent three years training at the Salzburg Experimental Academy of Dance in Austria. The vast majority of my coaching and training work has been professional acrobats, dancers and athletes around the world, so I’ve always been much more interested in how someone can actually USE their training in real life than how they look while flexing their abs alone in front of their bathroom mirror. So, my fitness work reflects that journey – and I work hard to share functional, efficient training and diet techniques, while also sharing fun and unusal exercises that will hopefully keep people inspired to find and enjoy new ways to move and work out.
2. As the whole world is upside-down, how do you see the current transition in the world of fitness?
COVID has completely shifted the entire fitness world in ways we never could have imagined. The positive side of that is that folks seem to be learning to use the internet and technology to much more effectively share - and learn - diverse techniques and approaches to fitness and movement. So, I do definitely feel there has been some benefits, as people are spending more time watching, reading, and learning the skills and information that they can use to make better choices for their fitness and health.
On the other hand, there’s an obvious downside to that same phenomenon, which is that people are spending more time than ever before in front of their screens, instead of using their bodies. Also, while people are connecting more online and finding more resources to learn from online, they’re also meeting up less often to workout in person. In my experience, there is no single factor that can contribute more effectively to rocking a consistent workout regime than having a training partner to work out with and keep you accountable. So, I have mixed feelings about what’s going on right now in the fitness world. But while there are some obvious cons to the whole situation, I feel that if we can move consciously toward blending the best of both worlds – online and in person – we could move out of this strange period in history with more information and connections than ever before.
3. Tell us about the training with Aamir Khan, how tough it was to work on a 40+ body? Share some moments with us.
Training Aamir Khan for Dhoom 3 and PK was one of the most exciting projects of my life. Not because he’s a movie star, but because of the scope of the project – When I met Aamir he explained that he didn’t just want to look ripped for Dhoom 3, but that he wanted to actually look, move, and feel like a professional acrobat. This was truly thrilling to me, as it meant I got to combine all of my diverse interests into one huge project, with higher stakes than ever before.
I trained Aamir HARD in the gym, lifting hard and heavy, with tons of acrobatics-based training techniques that had him sweating, screaming and swearing up a storm on a regular basis! But in the two years I trained Aamir, he only missed two
workouts: once of the day his son Azad was born, and once when the prime minister asked him to fly urgently to Delhi to help with the new laws being written to protect the rights of children with learning disabilities.
So, we had no challenges in terms of Aamir’s commitment. He trained like a beast from the very first workout until our last day together. He was completely committed to learning and honing his form and technique in each and every session. He was equally committed to sticking to his diet, and also to getting at least 8 hours of quality sleep every single night, even when we had to meet at 4am in the gym to train before early calls while shooting Dhom 3, which meant he had to go to sleep at 7pm!
The challenges we did face were more about keeping it fresh. We trained 5-6 days a week for almost two years, so I had to make sure to keep things moving, both in terms of protecting his body through appropriate cycling of training techniques (alternating lifting heavy, doing higher rep ranges, balance/stability training, etc.) and also in terms of keeping him excited and motivated to rock 100% effort on every rep and every set week after week and month after month for those entire two years.
We met that challenge through a hugely diverse approach to training exercises. While we lifted plenty of weights, I also had Aamir truly training like an acrobat, jumping over walls, doing daily handstand training, and exercises from Capoeira, parkour, acrobatics, and martial arts. This approach allowed us to get him ripped and lean for his roles in Dhoom 3 and PK, but just as importantly, to reach his goals of truly moving and feeling like an acrobat for the film.
4. What according to you is tough and why, getting lean muscle or bulking up?
Building lean muscle or bulking up are each going to be easier or harder for each person, based on their genetics and training style. For example, during most of the first year and a half I was training Aamir, we trained together every day, and I did literally every single exercise that he did. And in fact, I would always go first, which was one of the ways I pushed him to train harder. I was about half the size of Aamir, but for the first year or so, could still outlift him on every exercise. So I’d push myself at 100% effort on each and every exercise, and then challenged him to try to beat me. That kind of fun, friendly competition was another crucial way we kept Aamir motivated and excited to hit the gym every day.
But what shocked people who watched us train was the fact that I could outlift him, even though he looked twice as strong as me. This is where genetics come into play: Aamir has to work a lot harder than I do to lose bodyfat and get a lean look, and I have to work a lot harder than him to build more muscle mass.
There’s no one challenge or the other that’s universally harder for everyone. But I feel this is an important factor to consider when setting fitness goals and building a training regime. Because so often folks come to me asking what they need to do to look like Aamir did for Dhoom 3, but when I see their body, they are clearly complete ectomorphs, who will likely struggle like mad trying to reach that kind of goal no matter what their training regime and diet.
So, I feel it’s really important to learn about YOUR body. What kind of body type are you? How active is your metabolism?
What’s your relationship to carbs and protein? What kind of training do you enjoy, and what kind is most effective for reaching your fitness goals? By starting with an honest and thorough understanding of your own strengths and weaknesses, you can build a regime that can be fun and exciting, and that will also lead you toward realistic goals you can achieve and feel great about.
5. David, you blend too many functional movements in you training, can you tell us why you do this?
There are many reasons I integrated so many functional movements into my training style. The most important, to me, is that I’m always eager to train for real life. And in real life, we almost never push or pull something in a straight line while standing with our feet in parallel. In life we have to put a heavy box up on a shelf, get our keys we dropped under the car without getting our shirt filthy, carry our baby around while cleaning the house, etc. I also work as a professional acrobat, and also am an avid athlete. I enjoy kayaking, rock climbing, mountain unicycling (google it!), juggling, surf photography (from the water, in the waves with the surfers), hiking, etc.
So whenever I’m building a workout or creating a new exercise, I’m asking myself: how will this help me prepare for real life, whether on stage, in the mountains, or just while cleaning the house or moving something heavy. When I ask myself that question, it invariably leads me toward less traditional movements. In life we have to use strength in combination with flexibility. We push and pull thing while standing in unstable positions, and almost always in an asymmetrical fashion. So, I work to incorporate those principles into my training as much as possible.
6. Besides, Aamir with how many other high-profile clients, you worked with?
Aamir is the only high-profile client I’ve ever trained. While I was training him, sometimes friends of his would come by to train with us, so I occasionally had the chance to train other Bollywood actors as well for a session or two. Probably the most notable was when Tiger Shroff came over a few times to train with us. I specialize in training acrobats, dancers, and athletes, so we had a blast training together as I was able to dive right into super advanced exercises and techniques with Tiger.
But in general, you won’t find me training celebrities, or even training folks in a gym. You’re more likely to find me training acrobats and dancers while I’m on tour performing and coaching in Europe, or teaching at movement festivals around the world.
7. Can you tell us more about Poznic Training?
Poznic Training is a multi-disciplinary approach to movement that is inspired by fitness, acrobatics, martial arts, contermporary dance, and the French movement art Wutao, which my wife, Prune, and I both teach professionally.
The goal of Poznic Training is to help people learn to move with more strength, felxibility, freedom, awareness, and joy. Our live workshops integrate fitness, breathwork, dance, stretching, and partner work. Our work is also very personalized – Prune and I have trained professional dancers here in California,
as well as yoga practicioners, parkour practicioners, and performing artists across Europe.
We currenly have a channel at youtube.com/poznictraining and a page on Instagram @poznictraining. We create videos and content on these two platforms that provides both dynamic, original exercises, as well as informative live chats and videos about the science and practice of building workouts and diets, as well as diving into the philosophies and values that are the foundation of our approach to movement.
8. How do you fitness industry in near future of course in a post COVID world?
I hope very much that as things eventually calm down with regards to COVID, that people will feel inspired to re-engage on a whole new level with their bodies, health, and also new ways of training. Certainly the onilne aspect of training and fitness have now reached a completely different role, and I’m grateful for the chance, for example, to share my work here on Youtube and Instagram. But I also hope that people will take advantage of this time when all the gyms are closed to learn about and explore new forms of movement and fitness – to train outdoors and to learn new ways to build equipment-free workouts into their daily lives. We are certainly living through strange times, but I feel optimistic that we can take the best of what we’ve learned in this chapter of our history and use it to inspire ourselves and others to reach for new heights, and to find fun, efficient ways to move and enjoy healthy lifestyles.
(Part-8)
Market Your Gym
Is getting footfall still a snag despite installing state of the art equipment and recruiting best in class trainers? Then there are few marketing ideas that you can incorporate to your gym facility to augment your slow gathering of clients. By following simple marketing ideas, you can, in fact, market your gym facility in a very patterned way, for that all you need to follow is our series of articles that we have been bringing every month since our January edition. Just to stay ahead of this saturated market of gyms growing in every corner of our city, follow our series ‘Effective ways to market your gym facility’ and see how good things rollover. As each gym or club is quite distinct, so depending upon your requisites, you can choose appropriate ones and you can ignore which you don’t find feasible to attain. So, here are a few ideas through which you can market your gym membership and increase the revenue of your gyms:
Build Confidence of Your Clients
Now, when the gyms are opening after a long gap of four and a half month, people will be reluctant to re-join a gym session. At this time pandemic, you cleanliness as well as precautionary measures can be a great USP for you gym set-up. In order to build trust amongst fitness enthusiasts, You need to make sure that you are following government’s directed guidelines including:
Major Highlights of the Guidelines:
• Only asymptomatic persons are to be allowed entry • A minimum distance of 6 feet to be maintained every time • A mandatory thermal scanning of everyone • Isolated batches for the fitness sessions • No rush on the floor • The proper arrangement at parking space, corridors, and elevators • Administrations meed to keep a keen eye over detailed check-ins and checkouts of the users • Mandatory bookkeeping of the users including their contact details
Walk the Gym Floor
This can sound less technical and an Old School Marketing thing, but talking and sharing gym flyers can still be handy to market your gym brands. Under this tactic,
you can walk on the floor and then invite your existing gym members and their family members to join your new form of fitness regimes on the floor. While pitching them about their new fitness regimes, you should us punchlines like,’ "You would love our CrossFit Class'' or " you would love to attend our newly added yoga classes".
Keeping the same marketing pitch, you can also invite people to get some personal training sessions at your gym. Personal Training being an excellent way to reach fitness goals, people especially newbies would love to get one.
Create an Online Workout Community
At this time of Pandemic, when majority of people are not comfortable to hit the gym again, you can always pitch them a virtual training programme. By creating an online workout community, you can not only follow norms of social distancing at its best but also deliver them a group personal training option.
During the period of lockdown, there were a number of gyms and fitness centres were indulged into this and believe some reports, people were quite liking it especially working professionals. All you need to do is to filter out select group of people according to their age or their fitness goals and then start giving them fitness tutorial at their assigned timing. By doing you can extend the reach of your gym as well as reduce rush at your gym.
Gym Membership Flash Sale
Gym Membership Flash sales pose to be great success as they inculcate an element of exclusivity and limited time bracket that can compel people to act quick. Remember one thing that your gym membership is not like limited edition offer of some designer dress to offer people, it's your established business which wholly runs on membership as well as personal training of clients. Hence, you need to make such flash limited to hours or days. You can't afford to relax it for weeks and months.
In order to keep such campaigns short and catchy, you can use ideas like, 'enrol your beloved and workout free for a month'. To make it more vocal you will need to post it on sort of social media platforms including your Gym WhatsApp group. This way you can remarkably change in the graph of your gym membership sale.
Hailing from Ukraine, Kseniia Markcheva (Ксения Маркчева) has turned heads in the Indian Modeling and growing Fitness Industry. Her sudol, lean body is a sheer artifact aligning to her hobbies and lifestyle. Doing leading modeling shoots in Greece, Italy, Ukraine & Spain; she also wears the crown of being Miss Europe Continental Georgia 2018. Now in India, her virtuosity in other forms of fitness regimes including: dancing. Gymnastics, ballroom dancing, latin dances, hip hop, belly dancing is worth mentioning. In an exclusive catch-up with Niloy from Sportz Business Insights, we travel with her to those dream destinations, rovering back to India and exploring her part of success story in this mystic land which has for centuries kept fitness as centrestage and attracts various forms of art. Edited Nub Below.
Kseniia tell us a bit about yourself, modeling career, India as a fitness sector?
So, I have two passions in my life - painting and modeling. Its definitely not anymore a work but a part of my life, which perhaps keeps be blissful. I'm also painting since my adolescence, and modeling since I was 19. Indian modeling business is new for me, because before I was working in Europe and in my home country, Ukraine. But India is something different not only if we talk about modeling here, but life in general. And India has opened yoga for me. To be honest, a lot of years I've been thinking about yoga, how good it is for your body and soul, and when you, “Kseniia” finally will start doing it. Callously, I'm get free by evening, when usually yoga centre is closed. But when I came to India my mindset has changed and I made that first step for doing yoga, and now I find it amazing and I regret that I have lost so many years.
A bit about your diet, lifestyle and how do you keep yourself fit?
Well "diet" is a wrong word. I never used to have any form or specific diet. All my life I was just eating healthy food, it's rather like a lifestyle. My mother gave me this habit and I'm thankful to her for that. I'm trying to avoid fried food, fat food, oily food, ready to cook food, fast food. I like to cook, therefore, from my childhood I'm in love with homemade food. I eat a lot of fruits and vegetables, seafood, meat. And I prefer using oven to bake the food, which is much more healthy way of cooking than frying. And I'm a fan of different salads, soups, which is good for one’s digestive system. It is not a secret that if your digestive system is healthy so your body will be healthy too. And I think my blessing is that I don't like sweets, I don't have that addiction to chocolates, cookies, cakes etc. Even if I want something sweet, of course, sometimes it happens, I'm cooking it by myself so I'm sure there is nothing chemical. Talking about how I keep myself fit, I just walk a lot. Everyday, I stride around 10-12 kms. Of course there are some days when you don't walk that much, because of some daily routine, in this case some exercises can be done instead. Since I was 7, I've been into dancing, different forms of dancing starting from gymnastics to hip hop, I've been changing styles year by year, but I’m into it. Also, I have a habit of doing some exercise at home, even simple dancing keeps your mind and body fit.
Mental and physical balance and what would you suggest to young fitness freaks?
Actually mental and physical balance is very important. Firstly never try to achieve someone's goals. When you are focusing on wrong -things in your life it brings only unbalance. Yes, one can have someone as an inspiration, but not as icon. Only thing that you have to be focused on is yourself. For that you have to sit and think what you want from this life, where do you see yourself in future. And also you have to analyse your present, are you happy with it, with yourself? And nobody is perfect, even your said so ‘icon’ is not perfect. Young people have to remember it. Just think about your pluses, best sides and best characteristics. To all the aforementioned will make one achieve goals faster and definitely will expedite better result. First steps are always hard, people give up, and they will try to make you give up, but if you will have strong will and clear focus nobody can break you.
Amidst lockdown, gyms are closed and so are other fitness centres, hence how do you manage with your daily fitness regime?
I just don't have habit of going 3-4 times a week to gym. I never can manage my day for it, maybe because I'm an art person, I'm getting free always late, always at wrong time, so that's why for me it's much easy to train at home. Added, I have a stadium in 2 meters from my house, so I'm running on a fresh air, doing exercises on a fresh air. Or when the weather is bad I'm exercising at home, I have everything what is needed for it. So I don't feel that lockdown had an impact on my training schedule.
Being a woman in the growing fitness sector and what it takes a women to be in this business of fame and glamour?
Being in modeling business forces you to be fit. The market is huge, and you have to fight for it, to show, to proof, why do you worth it? You always have to be seen, you always have to be in style. One always have to be a queen. It is not easy, but whenever you see in your eyes and mind that goal that you are achieving you will do everything worthly to be on top.
A bit about your personal life, usually where can we find Kseniia?
Well! Usually you can find me at my easel if I'm in Ukraine, or in my exhibitions. By the way, I have made some painting here in India while lockdown. Or else, you can find me, in plane, in train, in car, because I'm always travelling (Pun Unintended). I can't stay in one place for a long time, I love to explore new places, cultures, people & nature. Travelling gives me inspiration for my paintings and for modeling also, because despite modeling has to be same everywhere, still it is quite different in every country. So I love learning new things from new people.
Your ahead goals and motivation for the coming months?
Well! My motivation is happiness of my family and moreover my own happiness. I have clear picture of my life, how I want it to be, and no one can break me on a way to my goals. In coming months, I just want to grow, in my work, as a personality, as a model. For that reason I am here in India, and this shall be my every month plan.
How Can Your reach Her: https://instagram.com/red__ foxy?igshid=1ncbgotbk23ex | https://m.facebook.com/ kseniia.markcheva | zhk8993@gmail.com
COVID CHECK – Gyms are Open but are you Keen to go Back?
Ever since COVID-19 pandemic struck most parts of the world, the businesses of health and fitness have taken a severe beating, causing a temporary setback to the revenues of these businesses.
With restrictions being eased across almost all parts of India as part of the Government of India’s new set of guidelines during the stage of Unlock 3.0 since 5 August 2020, the reopening of health and fitness centers such as yoga centers and gyms has been allowed in areas that have not been labeled as containment zones. As COVID-19 infections have touched a new high in India placing it among the top five nations with confirmed cases being reported across the country causing a worrying trend, it has kept many thinking about whether visiting the nearest gym would be ideal, even if gyms do reopen.
It has always been necessary for us to remain physically active, since it is integral to our health and well-being. Individuals have always been encouraged to perform exercises on a daily basis for at least thirty minutes every day by health and medical experts to remain healthy.
Although COVID-19 pandemic had caused disruption to lives of individuals, due to imposition of lockdowns and forcing individuals to sit back at their homes leaving them with the only choice of performing exercises and workouts from home, performing at gyms and fitness centers continue to be favoured by many individuals, as it has provided many individuals with a sense of belonging, apart from receiving personalized instructions and adequate support.
The imposition of lockdown had brought with it a new variety of options to stay fit, as many individuals had jumped onto fitness apps and videos for learning and continuing with their exercise and fitness regimen.
Although, some benefits have accrued for families as a result of individuals shifting to work outs from their homes, thereby helping them bond and share valuable time together, many individuals who have been regularly hitting the gyms on a daily basis for years have felt lost, due to many reasons ranging from motivation and support that these places have always offered to them getting lost.
Moreover, with months passing by without any clear picture as to how things would be shaping up, individuals are feeling the need to visit the gyms and fitness centers as quickly as possible.
Some points are suggested for the benefit of those who are desperate to work out at gyms and fitness centers. Although workouts at home are suggested as the best option available, those who are keen to make it to gyms are recommended to stay alert and follow certain precautionary steps such as communicating and enquiring with each of their gym trainers about the steps taken by such gyms and fitness centers for their maintenance as well as whether necessary precautions have been taken to ensure the safety of consumers visiting their gyms and fitness centers.
It is also important to know whether all the staff and members would be subject to a temperature check at the time of entry, including the methods that will be adopted by these gyms and fitness centers to maintain social distancing among those who attend gyms, availability of disinfection equipment which will have to be used regularly, including steps taken by them to minimize crowds.
This can enable individuals to take informed decisions as to whether they can visit or avoid such places until the situation becomes better. Secondly, there is a necessity to understand if there is enough ventilation provided by such places, since low ventilation levels could attract various forms of bacteria and virus inside these places. Thirdly, it is of utmost importance to maintain social distancing and avoid visiting during rush hours. Fourthly, every person must carry their own masks, towels, sanitizers, etc. at all times in order to minimize their risk of getting contracted. Fifthly, it is important to disinfect all equipment that will be most likely used by all members every time before use. Finally, it is necessary to make sure that no individual is sick, as this could lead to transmission of infections at a faster rate, apart from ensuring that the area where an individual resides is not a containment zone where higher number of individuals are infected, as there is a remote possibility of individuals who are not showing any symptoms could also become a carrier of the virus.
All these measures are required to be followed with utmost care and precaution, till a suitable cure is made available for the disease.
