Being Fit: The Adam Levine Way
Adam Levine is the Grammy winning, lead singer of the popular band -maroon 5. Parallel to his musical talents are his looks that could slay. The main reason behind his stud look is his ardent love for yoga. He also gets the much-needed energy of a Rockstar, from yoga.
“Yoga has given me the ability to be more focused and make better decisions that come from a clear place. It’s made me more successful. I love it and don’t know what I’d do without it.” Says the Rockstar Yogi.
To Adam, yoga is the essence of life which keeps his mind and body relaxed. Two hours of yoga is a compulsory part of his daily routine. He also never fails to indulge in at least an hour on yoga before going on stage. The varied postures of yoga help him relax and to feel energised before a show.
Before falling in love with yoga, Adam used to spend two hours of everyday in strenuous weight-lifting sessions. According to him, weight lifting does more harm than good to your body.
A gym workout principally focuses on bettering the physical condition of our body. Whereas, Yoga benefits the mind, body and spirit. Yoga, while helping tone your body, also helps rejuvenate your spirit with positive energy. By yoga, body physiology is brought under one’s control to a greater extent. Also, there are no withdrawal effects of discontinuing yoga while your body may soon lose its tone once you stop gymming.
Adam enjoys doing movements like Sirsasana, Anusara, Ashtanga, Jivamukti yoga and Vinyasa. Sirsasana requires you to have your head on the ground and legs in the air and so, stimulates blood supply to the brain. Ashtanga is comprised of series of eight postures. Vinyasa is a more intense form of Ashtanga where the movements are more rapid. The fast movements of body release enormous toxins from your body in the form of sweats and fills it with electrifying energy. The various stages of Jivamukti Yoga give an internal massage to the body organs and muscles through stretching. These exercises synchronise breath movements and detoxify the body. They also help in improving stamina and flexibility.
“Yoga is the union of two Sanskrit concepts: abhyasa and vairagya, or focused effort and surrender, you’re searching for that ever-shifting edge between these two counterproductive extremes” says Chad Dennis, New York based Yogi and Adam’s trainer. To put it in layman words, while doing a posture in yoga, a Part of you wants to give up, and part of you wants to push further. But if you give up you won’t make progress, and if you push too hard you’ll hurt yourself. Yoga helps master that much needed balance.
Adam’s sustainable diet is another area of interest for fitness enthusiasts. According to Adam,” Being a vegetarian usually consists of eating a steak and promising that tomorrow I will start being a vegetarian”. So, he is said to be ‘Half-vegan’ that is, he mostly tries to keep his diet free from meat and dairy products.
The reason why fitness freaks usually avoid dairy and meat products is that, they contain significant amounts of cholesterol and saturated fat. Avoiding them and consuming more of veggies, fruits, grains and nuts helps us maintain healthy weight since they contain unsaturated fat. Also, to keep his skin clear, Adam drinks a lot of water which flushes the toxins out of his body.
An hour of twenty-four, a yoga mat and a little space are all that are needed for rejuvenating your soul and body.
“I’m not a great performer; I’m just uncomplicated,” says Adam and this clearly was given to him by yoga and a sustainable diet.
It’s worth giving a shot. Being fit, the Adam Levine way.
Written By: Priyadarshini S. Srinivasan
