You can spend hours in the gym lugging humungous barbells and bench-pressing weights that are the equivalent of a small cow yet you may not get that ripped and cut physique that you may be looking for. When I say ripped and cut, I mean Hollywood's Brad Pitt in Fight Club. Or Hrithik Roshan, who arguably has the most ripped and shredded body in Bollywood.

Adding muscular bulk to your physique is relatively easy: anyone on a regular weight training programme can do that; exercise all your muscles routinely and you'll see them grow. But getting a chiselled body where the musculature is well defined is tougher. It requires a greatly reduced level of body fat so that all the good work in the gym really shows.

As this column has noted often, cutting down your body fat levels is a function of three things: cardiovascular training (like running, cycling, swimming, etc.), which burns calories and, hence, your body fat; a sensible, balanced diet that keeps your fat and carbohydrate intake within limits; and weight training, which provides mass and defines your muscles.

Let's assume you take care of the first two factors-that is, you follow a good cardiovascular routine and eat sensibly. Is there a weight-training programme that can help you get ripped faster? The answer could be yes. It's a speeded up version of what is normally known as circuit training and here's a walk-through that may explain it.

On the first day, focus on your upper body. Here's how it goes. The trick is to do the sets with minimal intervals between them. One set of dumb-bell flyes for the chest (15 repetitions), one set of lat pull downs (15 reps), one set of dumb-bell presses (15 reps), one set of triceps extensions (15 reps), one set of barbell-biceps curls (15 reps), one set of incline dumb-bell flyes (15 reps), one set of lateral raises with dumb-bells (15 reps), one set of bent-over rows (15 reps), one set of hammer biceps curls (15 reps) and a set of barbell French curls for the triceps (15 reps). That's 10 sets of 10 different exercises that have to be done without intervals between each set. All of that comprises one big superset. That's not all. You have to do the same thing thrice over! That is, three of these supersets (you can rest between the supersets but not between the sets). This completes your upper body workout.

It's an intense workout and I'd advise a day's rest after this session. When you come back, you could do a similar line-up for the lower body: squats, leg curls, leg extensions, calf raises and stiff legged deadlifts-again in three supersets with each set comprising 15 reps.

What this routine does is to strengthen and define your muscles without adding too much bulk. The speed of the circuits ensures that you burn a lot of calories too.

Postscript: Don't try these unless you are at least an intermediate or advanced gymmer.
Muscles Mani
write to musclesmani@intoday.com

Caveat: The physical exercises described in Treadmill are not recommendations. Readers should exercise caution and consult a physician before attempting to follow any of these.

RX FOR A HEALTHY HEART
Here are some quick and easy steps to reduce key risk factors and enjoy a healthy lifestyle:

Know your numbers. Cholesterol, body mass index (BMI) and blood pressure are some of the risk factors you should keep track of if you want to avoid many of the diseases associated with the heart. Says Dr Rakesh Sapra, Senior Consultant, Fortis Hospital, Delhi: "Maintain your blood pressure below 130/85, your total cholesterol level below 200 and your BMI between 18.5 and 25."

Take care of your teeth. Lack of flossing can lead to periodontal diseases, and this can reach beyond your mouth and to your heart. "Oral health affects our arterial health-that includes blood flow to the heart and other organs-and can even cause wrinkles on the skin," says Dr Sapra.

Healing balm. Lemon balm tea has a tonic effect on the heart and circulatory system. It is a useful remedy where nervousness or depression affect the heart, and also helps lower blood pressure.

Stash nuts. Says Dr Sapra: "Nuts like walnut and almond, rich in unsaturated fatty acids, improve the health of the lining of the arteries. They also help reduce the cholesterol levels in the body."

Salt strain. Our body needs only 1 teaspoonful or 6 gm of salt daily. High intake of salt can cause retention of excessive water and lead to a rise in blood volume. This will lead to hypertension and heart-related ailments.

Shed weight. "Try to eat 200-300 calories less than you would normally consume, and exercise at least 30 minutes on most or all days of the week," says Dr Sapra.

-Manu Kaushik

PRINTED CIRCUIT
Sound of Silence

Bose and Sennheiser launch new headphones; one's pricey and luxurious, the other's value for money.

First, a disclosure: I'm a headphones freak. I use them at least for four to six hours a day-at the gym, on the commute to work, sometimes at work, at home at night and, of course, on planes. Disclosure 2: I've been a big fan of in-canal earphones-the ones that can be pushed right into your ear canal, blocking out all ambient noise and injecting the sound from the source-a CD player, a laptop or your mp3 player-right into your ears, undiluted like a shot of tequila should be or, if you prefer, a dram of malt.

The more expensive in-canal earphones come with different sized silicon sleeves and foam plugs that create a snug fit, thus keeping environmental noise out while you enjoy your fix of pure sound. Unlike in-canal earphones, which block out noise, literally physically, active noise-cancelling headphones do that by using a noise-cancelling circuitry that negates the frequency of the ambient noise.

So when Bose's QuietComfort 3 and Sennheiser's PXC 300 on-ear, noise-cancelling headphones landed on my desk for testing, I, as an in-canal aficionado, was a bit sceptical. But I gave them a shot nonetheless.

The Bose qc3s are very well designed and smaller than their older siblings, the QC2s. That's because the qc3s sit on top of the ears and don't cover them completely like the earlier versions. The qc3s also have a sleek built-in lithium ion rechargeable battery that slips into one of the earpieces. The noise-cancelling circuitry, too, is built into the headphones. The Sennheiser PXC 300 has smaller earpieces, is a mite lighter too, but it runs on AAA batteries that are housed in a separate tube that also has the noise-cancelling circuitry.

Now, the shoot-out. With the Bose qc3s on, your ears feel like they are in the lap of luxury. The cushy foam sits well on your ears and the soft leather caresses them. I used them in very noisy environments- next to a raucous diesel genset, on an autorickshaw ride and amid sounds of a next-door neighbour's home-improvement efforts-and they cancelled the noise quite effectively. Plugged into my iPod, the sound was crystal clear with an emphasis on the lower frequency. So, if you like your bass nice and articulated, the Bose qc3 will do it for you.

The Sennheisers cancel noise well too-but not as well as the qc3s. And, sound quality, though good, is not a patch on the QCs. My main grouse: bad bass rendition. Plus, they aren't really loud boys-I had to crank the source volume (especially on an iPod) up high before I got my kicks.

My verdict: the QC3 rocks; the PXC 300 isn't bad but, sorry, it doesn't do it for me. That, of course, is before you factor in the price tags: the Bose retails in India for Rs 21,263 and the Sennheisers for Rs 13,790. Reason enough to change that verdict? Perhaps.

-SN