NASM Certified Personal Trainer
Precision Nutrition Level 1
08/25/2026
9 days out from HYROX in Washington D.C.
Nursing an Achilles injury, have no idea if I’ll be able to run this race and still showing up every day like I will.
Replaced every 1 km run with the bike erg at 2.5x the distance.
In God’s hands.
“The Horse is prepared for the day of battle, but the victory belongs to the Lord.”
- Proverbs 21:31
Follow Irslan “The Lion” Ali | The South Asian Six-Pack Coach
South Asian Men:
Have you been struggling to lose your belly fat following western diets?
Maybe you lose some weight but it always ping pongs back even if you’re working out.
It’s because those diets were never sustainable to begin with and other trainers just don’t understand your lifestyle and culture.
That’s exactly why I created South Asian Six-Pack.
It’s already helped hundreds of South Asian Men lose the visceral belly fat, build lean metabolic boosting muscle and create a sustainable lifestyle change without giving up our South Asian food like biryani and curry.
Quick Life Update
Stop eating clean!
Today I share the downsides of eating TOO clean!
As Jackie Chan said in the Karate Kid “Wu gi bi fan,” which translates to “Too much of good stuff is bad stuff.”
Your HRV or Heart Rate Variability is the measure of milliseconds between heart beats
In today’s video I breakdown exactly how I raised mine by 50 ms in two months and went straight monk mode 🧘🏽♂️
Two ways of calculating your zone 2 as described in the video:
1.) Talk Test Method
- On a scale from 1-10, how winded are you?
- 1 is like how you’re talking right now
- 5 is you’re winded but you can still carry a full conversation
- 10 is you’re so winded, you can’t talk at all
You want to be around a 5-6 while doing Zone 2 cardio
2.) HRR (Heart Rate Reserve) Method
- Find your estimated heart rate (220-age, 30, for example = 190)
- Then subtract your RHR (resting heart rate) from the above number (190-34 for me = 156 bpm)
- Take 60-70% of that (93-109 bpm)
- And then add back your resting heart rate to find your zone 2 pace (128 - 143 bpm for me)
Hope this helped and if it did, drop a “🔥” below and let me know what you’d like for me to cover next!
What I Eat In A Day As A Hybrid HYROX Athlete Training For A Sub-60 | 3,200 Calories
Watch the full video on YouTube now!
Why I don’t kill bugs
How I broke a 5 minute mile! (1 minute 27s faster than my previous fastest time!)
07/10/2026
Silence.
Last Saturday, I ran a 5k broken up into 300 meter intervals on the 4th of July.
One of the habits I’ve gotten into is training without any caffeine, music or outside stimuli.
Initially, it was really hard because I felt like I needed caffeine or music to get me through my workouts and I realized that not only were they crutches, they were hindrances to me improving my performance.
Once I went dark and killed the noise, I found myself becoming more observant and learning through my training sessions; improving ever so slightly at every turn that’s led to compounded results in a relatively short period of time.
Case in point, I ran my first sub 18 minute 5k a few weeks back as a result of learning how to quiet my inner critic.
The one that says it’s too hot out, there’s an extreme heat wave warning and that you’re going to pass out before you finish your workout.
I’ve learned that this voice is much louder when I have caffeine in my system whereas when I’m able to quiet the mind by omitting caffeine (and music), I’m able to be fully present in the moment and I gotta tell you, it’s pure bliss.
This state of mind has been coined as flow state and it’s actually the antithesis or the exact opposite of self-sabotage.
I’m able to fully express the truest authentic version of myself without any masks and it’s been one of the most freeing experiences that I have even noticed translate into every other aspect of my life such as in my interactions with others.
So I want to encourage you to give it a go; no caffeine, no music, no outside stimuli at all.
Only you and the work at hand.
And when you do this, you may discover what I did and what the Sufi Poet Rumi discovered centuries ago, which is that:
“When you are silent, it speaks.”
- Rumi
HYROX Update: 8 weeks out
This is why you should get shredded at least one time in your life