The secret to reversing aging

Chandru Nayar, who started beefing up at 50, tells Saadia S Dhailey about the secret to ageing backwards. We are ushered into a cozy Bandra home by a help. We've come here to meet a 'muscle man' who, we heard, romances dumbbells when people his age order for a walking stick. There's a picture in the study, where we wait for him — at first glance we think it's Sylvester Stallone. "We get that often,"says Jayavanti Nayar. She and her husband, engineers by qualification, tutor children in Math and Technical Drawing. "Parents of our students often ask me why I have Stallone's picture framed." Well, that actually is her husband Chandru Nayar, and clicked when he was 52. He may not be as beefed up as he was during his Mr India days, but well, the man surely doesn't look 68. Nayar sums up his own story, "Men start looking good in their 30s and 40s, but I started look good in my 50s." For an elaborate account, read on. Journey to the gym Nayar, who has nicknamed himself as the 'naked nutritionist', for posing shirtless for innumerable pictures, says the first time he ever stepped into a gym was when he was 46. "I was an athlete in school, and also was competitive boxer, but once I started working I had no fitness regime at all," he confesses. Overtime, however, Nayar remembered his family's poor medical history. "It's like if your father had a heart attack, you will too," he muses. He said he wanted to fight his bad genes. An informed approach In 1990, when his son went to America to study, he went with him. "There I studied nutrition and biochemistry," he tells us. This armed him with a healthy approach to exercise and nutrition. "As I started eating well and exercising, muscles grew. I saw my first muscle at 50. And that felt good," he says. Watching his progress, Nayar's gym mates suggested that he compete for Mr Bombay in the masters category (for men above 40). And he won it, as well as Mr Maharashtra the same year. And in 1997, he represented Asia in the Asian Masters, and returned as runner-up. Colour-coded diet Nayar says, "My diet thumb rule is to have as many colours on my plate as possible." He prefers to eat three fruits a day, and he chooses each of a different colour. His meals are colourful too. "That's because every colour signifies a different nutrient compound, and like this I can get most of it." He suggests, "Whatever vegetables you have in the kitchen — all the reds, yellow and greens — throw them in together and cook them slightly. Nayar also prefers a mixed bag of beans. "For dinner, every day 10 kinds of beans are soaked, and cooked together." Food quirks The man hardly drinks water. Instead, "I sip on ginger green tea all day," he says. Nayar's also serious about the source of his food. "If I don't know the source of milk, I won't have it. For higher yields, people resort to feeding animals growth hormone, antibiotics...," and Nayar says he wouldn't want all that in his system. "If the chicken is not smiling and running, I won't eat it," says Nayar of his preference of free-range chicken. And for this reason, while Nayar doesn't mind attending parties, he avoids eating there. "I carry fibre snack bars for myself." Fitness routine Nayar says he works out for hour-and-half every day. "Add another half hour to that, the extra time I spend looking in the mirror," he laughs. While Nayar now has a gym area at home too, he stresses that muscles don't grow in the gym. "They grow when you are resting." Muscle magnet "These muscles," he says, get him a lot of attention. "Whenever I am out shopping with my niece, she's pretty girl, I tell you, she often complains, 'All the boys are looking at you and not me.' They get intrigued." So do the school boys who come to learn Math. And what does he do when these teens ask him for tips on body building? "I suggest they run for now, the muscle business can start later."