The retired Pakistani cricketer’s workout is a visual lesson in endurance

A steady increase in heart rate and the ability to prevent it from fluctuations while exercising is — as any doctor will endorse — the sign of a fit body. On Saturday morning at the Radisson MBD gym in Noida,the only person whose heart rate was stable was retired Pakistani cricketer Imran Khan. For female members,it was a case of the quickening heartbeat whereas the men looked stumped. The gym’s performance stakes were raised by Khan,they couldn’t just benignly displace a weight or two while he grunted and growled and worked 130 pounds on the lateral pull-down machine. The 59-year-old all-rounder,the only Pakistani captain to have led his team to victory in the 1992 World Cup,was doing a high intensity workout. He wore a white ganji,a pair of grey shorts,white socks and black trainers. His body is taut and lean. If you looked closer,the muscles on his arms were unmeshed by any fat. It was easy to see the former fast bowler in this fitness maniac,but not the political leader in Pathani suits. “Too much stamina for his age,no ma’am?” whispered a spa therapist.

Mauja hi Mauja screamed the music system,as Khan sweated through his crunches. Hundred repetitions,two sets,confirmed trainer Tej Kishan Pandey,now hand in glove with this correspondent in counting reps and weights to track Khan’s workout. After a steep treadmill walk of 15 minutes on an incline of 12 and a speed of 7.5 kms an hour,Khan has done three sets each of chest and shoulder presses,lateral pulls,dumbbell curls,chest flies and leg raises (for the last,he did three sets of 50 repetitions),with barely half a minute’s rest between each variation. He looked as if he had shut out the surround sound but he is clearly an expressive man and made the right exercise noises,ooh,aah,never,ouc,as he lifted heavy weights. His shoulders glistened,his legs revealed gritty calf muscles,his face grimaced into a snarl but he continued pumping iron. I plan my workouts myself as I know what I need. If I didn’t exercise the way I do,my body would fall apart,it’s used to very high levels of fitness,said Khan later,now bathed,shaved and formally attired.

Khan is in town as a guest commentator for the World Cup series for CNN-IBN. When he isn’t making exercise faces,the bags under his eyes and a web of wrinkles on his face fight for attention. I usually exercise for an hour,sometimes even 50 minutes when I can manage. Since I travel a lot,I don’t have the luxury of working out in a gym everyday,but when I do,yes,it’s very intense,he said in his deep voice,laughing when asked if his was a Cross Fit plan practised by professional athletes worldwide.

For a man who will be 60 this year,such an intense workout can’t be incidental. It isn’t. My body has very high endurance levels. I also feel enormously good after a workout,it’s like coming back from the field after a match,” he says. Incidentally,Khan was the first Pakistani player to start a complete fitness training programme for cricketers in his country.

If he was secretly pleased to hear that women (and those who had come to attend a yoga workshop) were staring at him instead of exercising,he didn’t admit it. Yet he laughed gamely. I am completely focussed when I exercise. In fact I like to do it all by myself,as it is the best way to fight stress,he added.

“Come again Sir,” said the receptionist blushing. He smiled with the sexy restraint of a senior celebrity. Imran Khan isn’t completely unaware that women are easily bowled by his presence.