007: How Mental Strength Drives Physical Gains with Sourav Chowdhary

“It's not just the physical part of it, but you have to be mentally focused on your journey. Keep going and never give up. It may take time, it will suck. But at the end, it’s all worth it.” —Sourav Chowdhary 

It is the marriage of a strong mind with a strong body that sees competitors across the finish line in their best possible shape. Getting one's body into peak condition requires extreme discipline, sacrifice, and perseverance for months on end. But unless the mind is equally conditioned to withstand temptation, push past plateaus, and rise above doubts and difficulties, competitors will not be able to stay fully committed to their training. Developing a strong mental fortitude is key to staying laser-focused on our goals during their most challenging moments. 

In this episode, Sherrie sits with Sourav Chowdhary. Sourav showed dedication and mental strength by continuing his bodybuilding journey despite facing unforeseen circumstances and loss. He motivated himself by dedicating his training and competition to his deceased brother-in-law.

Listen in as Sherrie and Sourav discuss how commitment can help one overcome setbacks, the importance of keeping clear of your purpose, the benefits of resisting the temptation to cheat during prep, how to stay focused and calm during competition, and the one thing that is more important than receiving awards. 

Connect with Sherrie: 

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Email: skapach40@gmail.com 

Episode Highlights:

01:36 A Worthy Journey 

03:19 From Overweight to Confident

06:42 Eat Clean

09:00 Keep Your Purpose at the Forefront

Transcript

Sherrie Kapach: Welcome to Beyond The Prep. I'm your host, Sherrie Kapach. I'd like to welcome Sourav. Is that correct? Thank you for joining me.

Sourav Chowdhary: Thank you for having me.

Sherrie Kapach: So were you on stage this morning? How did it go?

Sourav Chowdhary: It really went pretty well. I did two categories, men's physique masters and classic physique masters. And I won both my shows, both my categories,

Sherrie Kapach: How's that feeling?

Sourav Chowdhary: It feels amazing. It's been a long journey. And at the end, it's all worth it.

Sherrie Kapach: Tell me a little bit about the journey.

Sourav Chowdhary: I was prepping for a show in Winnipeg in Maine. But unfortunately, there were some unforeseen circumstances that happened. My prep didn't go too well. My brother in law passed away pretty close to the show days so things were not looking good for me. There were a lot of down moments at that point of time. But at the same time, I wanted to keep myself motivated. I didn't want to grieve and feel the pain all the time, but I wanted to dedicate this prep to him because of his suffering and the journey that he went through. I obviously miss him, so I kept that in mind. So this was my dedication towards him when I did this. I was thinking about food or cheating, or wanting to cheat on diet, or miss my workouts, I would always think of insulin. You know what? I'm not going to disappoint him. I am doing this for him. I'm gonna keep doing this. So instead of taking the time to grieve, I continued with the prep all the way that I accomplished that I was able to do it.

Sherrie Kapach: Yeah, he's probably so proud of you winning your categories. That's an amazing story. And I'm sorry to hear that. It's really nice to hear that that's what you chose to do. Just do it for him. Do it for him. How long have you been in bodybuilding?

Sourav Chowdhary: Well, I'm 42 now, but I started training at the age of 35. I know I'm still late in the game, but that's how it started. I started about seven years ago.

Sherrie Kapach: Why did you decide to go there?

Sourav Chowdhary: It started with a fat loss journey. I was an obese overweight guy, and I was diagnosed with high cholesterol. So my doctor said, oh, you're gonna have to take crestor or blood thinners for the rest of your life. I said, is there any other solution to that? We'll do something about it on your own by doing some cardio or losing weight. So it all started with the focus of losing weight, getting lean. But then eventually, the thought of bodybuilding somehow got dropped on me. I was obviously training at the gym with so few bodybuilders. I like the journey, I like the struggles that they go through. And I said, you know what? I want to do it. So I started volunteering for bodybuilding shows for long before I started competing. I was backstage watching people compete all the time. And I was just waiting for my moment.

Sherrie Kapach: That's wonderful. So how did it feel like for your first competition? Did you ever think like, oh, why am I doing this? Or what did I get myself into? Or was it a pretty smooth flowing process for you?

Sourav Chowdhary: I would say the expectations were pretty clear for the first show when I got it. I was already made aware, you're not gonna win the show. My pressure wasn't as fuzzy. There was a stat class of 17 (inaudible). I was already kind of cautious. So we're not going to replace the top three, or even not in the top five. And that's fine. I want to have the experience. I want to see what the journey is like, and then we can focus on the improvements over a period of time. And my first show was, as expected, I was (inaudible). So the expectations were clear. So we went there, and we completed the journey. But then we wanted to keep improving every year. I would say it was a smooth journey. Although, yes, it could be gruesome, especially when it comes down to--

Sherrie Kapach: What's your biggest struggle through the prep part of it?

Sourav Chowdhary: I would say, I'm big. I love my cinnamon buns.

Sherrie Kapach: So you have a stack hiding in your room. That's awesome. Nothing better than after the stage. Yeah. Yeah. That's great. So how do you overcome that?

Sourav Chowdhary: Once I'm training, and once I'm focusing, I always reflect back on what the point of spending so much time is if you want to get into the habit of eating. I'm doing an hour of cardio in the morning. And then on top of that, if I'm eating something, I'm obviously defeating the purpose of what I'm doing. So that is a constant reminder. The purpose has to be at the forefront. You want to enjoy life back and forth. But once I commit myself to it, it's like, okay, I'm not gonna spoil the routine. I'm not gonna waste my cardio energy overload.

Sherrie Kapach: That's good. Mind can just say go for it, so that's a great mindset to go into it going what's it worth. And it's not forever.

Sourav Chowdhary: At the end of the day, you also feel good. When you're eating clean, your body responds better, your brain functions and responds better. Everything comes into play. You know the benefits that come out of it.

Sherrie Kapach: Yeah, you feel all around better. Absolutely. For sure. So what do you wish you knew then when you first started?

Sourav Chowdhary: I think now I am better at keeping my composure and calming the first step on the stage. And I'm most familiar with the peak protocols. I know that I need to follow the protocol. So the team, when they say drink water, seven liters and five liters. Just keep doing it. The timing is of the essence. So if you want to do something really good, either I have to type things in and follow the time and the protocols. I think I was also not familiar with muscle loss. As part of it, I was losing a lot of muscle mass when I was doing a lot of cardio. I still do cardio. But now, I have ways to manipulate things and see your body over a period of time. It just takes time.

Sherrie Kapach: And once you learn how your body reacts to everything, it makes it a little bit easier in every competition, because the changes go online, every prep is different. You said you calm your nerves, or you're more relaxed and everything like that. Is there anything you do before going on stage to keep that calmness and just keep focused?

Sourav Chowdhary: Actually, I practice Buddhism. So I'm also an active member of (inaudible), it's definitely teaching, but it focuses on chanting and meditation. It keeps me focused, gives me the vision, it gives me the purpose of life, it helps me develop compassion towards everything in life.

Sherrie Kapach: So if someone came to you and they're considering competing, what's the best piece of advice you could give someone that's considering getting on stage?

Sourav Chowdhary: I would say that he or she should know the purpose of why they're competing. Once they've determined the purpose or the reason for competing, they need to commit themselves to it, both physically and mentally. It's not just the physical part of it where you just died. You have to be mentally focused on your journey. Keep going and never give up.

Sherrie Kapach: And we say that there's ups and downs as long as they realize it's not a walk in the park, that's for sure. So true. That's wonderful. So do you have any more shows planned for this year?

Sourav Chowdhary: I do want to do a show next year. I don't want to step on the bigger stage. So I think from now onwards, I'm just going to focus more on growth, take some feedback and see where my weak points are. And improve on the conditioning. And every year, it gets better so we just want to keep going.

Sherrie Kapach: That's wonderful. Well, on that note, I'm gonna let you go because you're done your show now. And now, you can go and get your stack of goodies and enjoy it. That's the best part. So thank you for coming on, and congratulations.

Sourav Chowdhary: Thank you for having me.

Sherrie Kapach: Absolutely.