400 crunches a day keeps Gautam Rode fit

The indefatigable actor, Gautam Rode, 36, doesn't take a break from pumping iron or doing 400 crunches a day

Actor Gautam Rode's ridiculously chiselled abs and sculpted torso are a testament to his 20 years of unremitting hard work. Though most decide to work out in their 20s, the Saraswatichandra actor had diligently taken to the gym when he was in class 10. "My cousin Farhad, who is four years older than me, really inspired me. I hit the gym under his guidance and it has been the greatest high of my life," he says. A staunch vegetarian all his life, the five-feet-eight-inches-tall Punjabi actor says the only time he ate non-veg was when he was a child. "That was until I was five. But I gave it up while growing up, probably because mom never ate non-vegetarian food and hence never cooked it in the house. Being vegetarian makes me feel healthy," he says. Rode, who weighs 68 kilos, works out seven days a week, prefers skipping chapattis, likes gorging on brown rice and belting 400 crunches a day.