If you have read EL James’ Fifty Shades of Grey, you must remember that scene when the self-effacing Anastasia Steele opens Christian Grey’s somewhat forbidding contract. Amidst its many terms — and there are some rather interesting ones — she is also supposed to meet a personal trainer four times a week. Steele is not kicked about it and tries to negotiate with Grey.
In real life, however, the story was a bit different. Dakota Johnson, who plays Steele in the movie versions of the trilogy, the second part of which (Fifty Shades Darker) was released earlier this year, met her trainer nearly every day without complaining. Celebrity trainer Ramona Braganza, who trained her, testifies to this, “I worked with her for nearly five months while she was filming at Vancouver,” she says.
She trained on set — Braganza owns a fitness truck, Mobile Physique — four to five times a week at least, says Braganza. “She is already very lean, so she didn’t need to lose weight, just stay toned and fit. She is very focussed as well.”
It isn’t just Johnson who has trained with Braganza. Her celebrity client list also includes Jamie Dornan, Amanda Seyfried, Paula Patton, Anne Hathaway, Jessica Alba and Halle Berry.
A peek into her website throws up a number of positive-spirited testimonials, “I’m a little addicted at this point,” says Seyfried, while Hathaway states that, “I work with Ramona whenever I’m in Los Angeles.”
Despite the celebrity tag, however, fame rests easy on her (well-sculpted) shoulders. In person, she is petite and tanned, with a lean, athletic build that belies her age, a walking advertisement for the 3-2-1 Training Method, she has developed and patented.
And now, she is all set to bring that training method to India. MyHomeFitness (www.myhomefitness.in) by Ramona is a doorstep Home Gym concept that was launched in the country earlier this year.
“I am here to share the programme I use for my celebrities with everyone, “ says Braganza, who is travelling across India to promote MyHomeFitness. She says it is well-rounded and shapes your body, helps with weight loss, strengthens your core, offers a meditation factor and improves flexibility.
She adds, “I’ve trained a set of trainers to come to your home or office to coach you,” she says. There is also a special app designed to support those who subscribe to it where, “I talk about sleep, water, nutrition, stress. I need people to understand that wellness is a mind, body and spirit journey.”
The road to fitness
Ramona Braganza was born in Germany, the child of Indian immigrants. “My parents are from Mumbai, but I’ve been in the West my whole life,” says Braganza. Her parents moved to Canada when she was just seven and she lived there until she was 20 years old. A competitive gymnast with a dance background, she moved to California in the early 80s because, “she wanted to be an actress,” and began working with the NFL team as a cheerleader. She began taking part in fitness contests around then, training with weights at Gold’s Gym in Venice, California.
“I had a body image issue back then,” confesses Braganza. However, a few years of lifting made her more comfortable with the way she was made. “Once you accept how you look, you can only get better. I’m fitter now at 55 than I was at 25,” she smiles.
That’s when she got her first celebrity client: Jessica Alba. “A producer saw me and asked if I could train her in gymnastics. She was 17 and had just got her TV role, Dark Angel. No one knew her back then,” says Braganza, who went on to train Alba for nearly 12 years.
Around this time, she developed 3-2-1, her programme that combines three cardio, two circuit and one core segment. “Every move is timed to a music playlist and you have to do it till the music stops. This pushes you past your comfort zone.”
Fitness at home
The programme she offers her MyHomeFitness clients is a version of this. “It is perfect for the layperson who wants to get into fitness,” she says, addressing the need of the nascent fitness industry in India. It is highly customised, and is tweaked by the trainer depending on your fitness levels, and uses basic foundation exercises with a focus on form. “We use body weight, light dumbbells and bands for toning,” says Braganza. “Everyone from marathon runners to senior citizens to IT workers can use it.”
As with any fitness journey, food plays a huge part in the process, and the programme also offers a customised diet plan, depending on your goals. Three meals, two snacks is what she advocates, with plenty of emphasis on fresh produce, good fats and protein. “Natural foods and the right portion size basically,” she says. It’s how she eats.
Braganza says it costs about as much as a gym membership in a decent gym. And that it isn’t just expertise, she offers, but also motivation. “When my celebrities don’t want to work out at 5 am and I show up, they just have to. That is a big factor in sticking to a programme: slowly you get hooked,” she laughs.