From skinny lad to muscular hulk
Umar Rashid’s body transformation is inspiration to aspiring body builders
Post by on Monday, August 16, 2021
Umar Rashid’s bodybuilding Journey is inspiration for many youngsters who aspire to be body builders. His hard work and dedication show his transformation from a skinny lad to the muscular hulk, currently preparing for highest titles in body building.
Hailing from Srinagar’s Qammarwari area, 30-year old, Umar started his journey of building muscular body when he was just 16, weighing only 49 kgs.
People used to bully Umar and mocked him for his body structure. But, some of his well-wisher’s advising him to join gym and build body proved to be the life changing experience for him.
Over the period of time Umar eventually got the title of Musclemania India 2020 overall champion, MrMusclemania India heavyweight champion 2017 and Mr Kashmir in 2017 and is currently aspiring for Mr. Asia and Musclemania Mr. Universe titles.
“Initially, I chose body building for make good body structure and had no intention to go for professional body building,” says Umar.
For him the definition for body building is different from how others define it. He believes bodybuilding is a complete way of disciplined life as it sticks us to a proper schedule.
Initially, his parents appreciated his decision to join gym as they wanted him to take extra calories and gain some extra weight.
“I was encouraged by my parents for body building as soon as I started bodybuilding. I started taking proper diet which gave satisfaction to my parents,” he says.
Umar is not aware about when his regular workout for bodybuilding became his passion as he achieved popularity amongst locals and his contemporaries. Watching movies of Arnold Schwarzenegger and looking at his muscular body took Umar closer to body building.
“This is a very expensive passion as we have to take care of everything including diet,” he says.
To meet the requirements of diet, Umar worked as Gym Instructor at Voluntary Medicare Society J&K, Bemina. “I worked there from October 2011 to October 2015,” he says.
He faced criticism at various stages of his life particularly in the field of body building but, he believes criticism is there in every field and his case is not different.
“Sometimes the criticism discourages you, but you should not give, rather should remain steadfast,” Umar says.
Umar suggests that youngsters pursuing their carrier in sport must not pay heed to criticism, rather they should ignore and move ahead in life and focus on their goal; be it in bodybuilding or some other sport.
About the short cut younger generation choose nowadays to build muscles, Umar suggests them to take natural and healthy diet and refrain from taking supplements without any proper knowhow. “We should take the natural diet which includes eggs, fish, meat and chicken as it helps in building of quality muscles. The new entrants in the field of body building should abstain from taking supplements,” he says.
He adds, the name supplement itself exhibits that it is to be taken as supplementary and that too after proper natural intake of diet.
It was never an easy task for Umar to attain success in bodybuilding, but the proper and regular practice for hours and healthy diet resulted in developing such muscular structure.
He believes that a sedentary lifestyle and intake of fast foods have affected the overall health of youngsters. He says, “sticking to the diet plan which includes more natural and organic products and regular physical activities will result in the better health conditions and fitness among the people.”
Umar has competed for various district, state and national level titles which include MR. Kashmir, Mr. J&K, Mr. North India, Muscle mania 2020.
He remains dedicated towards his workout schedule even when there were lockdowns in the valley due to one or the other reasons. “I used to wake up at 2:45 AM in the midnight and go for workout and would return by 7:00 AM in the morning,” he says.
He says that people think that the most important part of bodybuilding is pumping Iron or routine workouts whereas the story here is entirely different as the most difficult part is proper and constant dieting after spending two to three hours in the gym.
He says that there is lack of professional trainers in bodybuilding. Most of the time people are being misguided by so-called trainers.
“Some of these trainers possess three months trainer course certificates, resulting in an providing improper training which results in imbalanced body structure. Besides, I think this is sheer injustice with those who have experience of decades in bodybuilding,” he says.
“I am eying for Musclemania Asia, and my aim is to win the title of Mr. Universe as I have already qualified for that,” he says.
He says owing to COVID19 he could not participate in any event in 2021.
Umar is currently running his own gym Umar's Fitness Centre (UFC) at national highway HMT Srinagar where he also works as trainer.
