- [Interviewer] Hey Kumail, (door knock)
we're here to see your gym and fridge.
- Hey!
You guys must be here to see my gym and fridge.
Come on, this way.
(upbeat music)
- [Interviewer] Let's start with your fridge
and then head to your gym.
- [Kumail] Hey, so this is my fridge.
It opens like this, and that's where all this stuff goes.
- [Interviewer] What staples you always have in your fridge?
- [Kumail] I always have lot of fruit, a lot of apples,
love peaches, I have pears and bananas.
Feel like I'm the host of a very basic children's talk show.
(children laughing)
- [Camera Man] What'd you eat for breakfast?
- [Kumail] For breakfast, I'll eat eggs,
and I'll eat gluten-free toast.
But, I've also done a lot of intermittent fasting recently.
Not during while I'm shooting, but on days off,
I would do 18-six-fast days.
So I won't eat for 18 hours,
and I'll compress everything into six hours in the day.
And if I'm doing that, then I don't eat breakfast.
What I've also done is,
if I know I have a big meal coming up,
I'll fast for like 24 hours leading up to that meal.
And then the trickiest thing is the breadbasket
'cause that's the first thing you see
after not having eaten for 24 hours.
- [Interviewer] What drinks do you keep in your fridge?
I drink a lot of beet juice,
and I use beet juice as a pre-workout.
I like the taste of it,
and I think it gives me energy for the workout.
I've read that it does.
Even if it's psychosomatic,
it doesn't matter because,
if I think it's happening than it is happening.
- [Interviewer] Do you use protein powder?
- Yes, so I do a lot of protein powder
and a lot of protein bars.
These ones I really like.
A lot of the protein bars sort of tastes chalky and soft.
Like if you bought a candy bar that tasted like that,
you'd be very upset.
These are sorta like rice krispies almost,
so they sort of are closer to something
that you would actually wanna eat.
- [Interviewer] What's the secret
to making your protein drink tastes good?
- [Kumail] I think,
there has to be a little bit of fruit in it
or almond butter or peanut butter.
I think just protein with water,
which I did for a very long time.
It really feels like you're doing it,
just for health reasons.
I'd sort of hard to like trick my brain
into liking all this stuff because I don't think,
like if you went to an ice cream parlor
and asked for a shake and they gave you a protein shake,
there'll be crying kids.
- [Interviewer] What do you do on a cheat day?
- Every now and then I cheat,
and I can eat like cake or something, but very, very rarely.
I might get something with like of Rosewater flavor
or something, which is hard to find.
If I'm gonna treat myself to a piece of cake,
I'll just get one, eat it and then not have it in my fridge.
None of this sounds fun.
Nobody should live like this.
- [Interviewer] Do you cook?
- I cook.
What I'll do is I'll make chicken breast and put like Indian
or Pakistani spices on it
'cause that's a nice way to get some flavor in there.
I also make a lot of Buffalo burgers,
although they did not those in London
because they don't have Buffalo bison there.
- [Interviewer] What are your favorite snacks?
- This is gonna be the lamest answer possible.
Sugar snap peas, after a few months,
I don't think your brain can tell the difference between
potato chips and sugar snap peas.
That's a lie.
You know, every single time.
How did I become this person?
I used to not be like this.
I used to see people talk like this and I will be like,
"Oh, that person's such a douchebag,"
and now I talk like this.
All the douchebags don't know they're douchebags.
- [Interviewer] Do you eat before you work out?
- I don't like to eat before I work out.
Weirdly, I found I had a lot more energy
when I was doing a fasted workout.
I would eat at 7:00 PM,
which would mean that then I wouldn't be able to eat til
1:00 PM the next day.
So then I'd go to the gym around 11:30
workout for an hour and a half,
and I'd suddenly have like so much energy,
and I really, really enjoy working on an empty stomach.
I used to not do that.
- [Interviewer] How has your diet transformed over time?
- [Kumail] I wanted to gain muscle.
So I did a bulk, and then I did a cut.
So really, for five months,
even though I was eating a lot of protein,
I was also eating a lot of everything I wanted.
So I was eating a lot of donuts and cake and all that stuff.
And so then when it was time to cut that out,
it was actually really, really easy
'cause I had kind of overdosed on that stuff a little bit.
So that actually really helped me jump off it.
So I did go cold turkey when I did,
but it was kind of like extremes.
I would eat like French fries at midnight
and then go to bed.
I don't think that's what they mean by, doing a clean bulk.
And I looked, and I felt terrible,
but when it was that time to cut it out,
I was like, "Yeah, that feels right.
"I feel like I've done harm here,"
but now it's been many months,
and I feel like I could do it again.
So that's my fridge and Oh look, it's noon.
It's time to work out.
Let's go to the gym.
♪ Big shot ♪
♪ Run around town got that the big guap ♪
♪ Big guap ♪
♪ Who dem boys with the toys bring the whips out ♪
♪ And when the small clique got your sticks out ♪
And now I'm at the gym,
you could see I'm wearing my gym outfits on.
Ready to warm-up.
- [Interviewer] How often do you work out?
- I try to work out at least four days a week.
But I will be honest,
when I was shooting the movie that I got in shape for,
I was working out every day,
and I'd gotten a little obsessed.
- [Interviewer] Was it hard to get started?
- [Kumail] The beginning was the hardest part.
Honestly, it was hard psychologically
and physically after the first couple of months,
it sort of kept getting easier and easier.
I realized I could like learn to enjoy the workouts
and I do enjoy them now.
- [Interviewer] When did you start your fitness journey?
- I've been basically doing some sort of
weight lifting since I was 16 but never like this.
I realized that really never exercise before
I would do weights, so I had good form and stuff,
but I was never like trying to like lift more weight
or do more reps or anything.
I was just kind of where I had been for, I dunno, 10 years.
- [Interviewer] How does your family take your success?
- [Kumail] They're weirdly very proud of me for it.
I thought that they might have a weird reaction to it,
and I guess them sending me pictures of myself
is a weird reaction, but it's a good weird reaction.
And I'm going to visit my mom soon, and she's like,
"You can eat whatever you want for one day, right?
"I wanna cook for you."
So that's gonna be a big cheat day I think.
- [Interviewer] What keeps you motivated?
- [Kumail] What keeps you motivated?
Well honestly, first of all, I put that picture out,
and it went everywhere, and I was like,
"Oh, now I have to try to look like this
"for the rest of my life."
But I also feel since I've been working out like this
is the most calm I've been.
I've been sleeping better.
I feel less anxious, I have way more energy.
So the motivation is just health,
I just feel healthier than I have in 20 years.
So when I first put those pictures out,
the funniest thing happened.
They went everywhere.
I ended up being the face
of the muscular men category in porn hub.
I'm not anymore, but I'll always have that.
- [Interviewer] What other kinds of training do you do?
- When I was shooting the movie,
when I was training every day,
I would do a day of Pilates,
and I would also do a lot of training on rings,
which I really ended up loving it.
- [Interviewer] What's your favorite part of the workout?
- Honestly, I like training the vanity muscles, shoulders,
chest, those are definitely my favorite exercises.
- [Interviewer] Do you wanna stay fit like this all the time
or relax a bit?
- [Kumail] I don't think I can relax a bit,
I think I have to keep going.
I know what it took to get in shape.
If I'd known what it was gonna take,
I wouldn't ever done it.
It was so much work.
So now if I lose it,
I know exactly what I'll need to do to get it back,
and I know I won't, I can't do it.
It was too much.
So I think I'll keep it as best I can.
And again, I just really enjoy the actual workups,
which I think I really had to do.
It couldn't be something that I would dread,
that's how it was in the beginning,
and I just had to make it so that it wasn't something I did,
it was something that was part of my life.
And I feel like it is now.
- [Interviewer] Do you use any special equipment?
- [Kumail] Special equipment, I mean, I use,
the Eastern machine.
Eastern workouts they're a mind (beep).
First of all, it's weird feeling
'cause if you put her on your bicep,
your arm contract without you wanting it to,
so it's a weird feeling that there's a movement happening
that you're not controlling.
Yeah, it's very surprising.
It's kind of a shocking feeling.
Please don't put that in.
- [Interviewer] What are your fitness goals?
- You know, I'm a big fan of video games.
And in video games it's really about getting a higher score,
getting to the next level.
And so, with working out,
it's the same kinda thing where I do every time I go,
I wanna see if I can lift a little bit heavier
or do one extra rep and just wanna keep sort of pushing it
and seeing, just seeing what happens.
- [Interviewer] Do you think getting fit
will help you get more acting parts?
- I got fit for a specific movie,
to play a superhero certainly helped with that,
but it's very new, so I don't know,
I hope I'm able to get
like different kinds of roles and stuff.
- [Interviewer] How do you keep your mind fit?
- [Kumail] I meditate every day for 10 minutes.
That really, really helps with stress and stuff,
and I think,
and working out helps keep the mind fit too I think.
- [Interviewer] What music do you listen to
when you work out?
- I mostly listen to podcasts when I work out.
- [Interviewer] Do you have any meaningful scars?
- Do I have any meaningful scars?
A framed picture of myself fell on my head
when I was like three years old.
It's on my head right here.
- [Interviewer] How do you interpret that?
- Self-hatred.
- [Interviewer] Do you have any tattoos?
- [Kumail] I do have one tattoo, but it's a secret.
- [Interviewer] What does it mean to be an Asian American
fitness role model at the moment?
- [Kumail] Asian fitness icon role model.
I don't know if I'm that.
But, feels like it's a lot of pressure,
so, I hope someone else shows up and takes over
because it feels like a lot.
- [Interviewer] Time for rapid-fire question.
Workout, 7:00 AM or 7:00 PM?
- 7:00 PM.
- [Interviewer] Squat or deadlift.
- Deadlift.
- [Interviewer] Favorite song on your playlist,
- Jungleland, Bruce Springsteen.
- [Interviewer] CrossFit, yay or nay?
- Nay.
- [Interviewer] Pull-ups or chin-ups?
- Pull-ups.
- [Interviewer] Dumbbells, or Kettlebells?
- Dumbbells.
- [Interviewer] Run on a treadmill or the great outdoors?
- Run outside.
- [Interviewer] Cardio or weights?
- Weights.
- [Interviewer] Big legs were big arms?
- Big arms.
- [Interviewer] Biggest compliment, jacked,
ripped, swole, or cut?
- Ripped.
- [Interviewer] If you could work out
with anyone in the world, dead or alive, who would it be?
- Arnold.
All right, so that was my gym and my fridge.
Now I have to go actually work out, so bye.
(upbeat music)