City-based bodybuilder Shodhan Rai was bitten by the ‘fitness’ bug at the age of 10. While he attributes his love for bodybuilding ‘the natural way’ to his father, it wasn’t until he was 16 that he was put into a full-fledged workout routine during school breaks. But that was then.
Fast forward to two decades, and Rai is making the city proud and giving us major fitness goals with his accomplishments — he clinched gold in the Open Men’s Bodybuilding Category at the Natural World Cup 2017, Los Angeles and a gold at the Natural Universe in Auckland ’17 on September 30. And now, this Mangaluru boy based in the city is prepping for Mr Karnataka 2018. We get chatty with him.
Despite bodybuilding being a sport often perceived to be an abused one, Shodhan vouches by ‘winning gainfully.’
“Mr Karnataka is a tough contest, and I always like to compete here since the best athletes from Karnataka get on stage every year. It is also a platform for the state team selections. Since I just finished the international contests, I was in pretty good form (best of my career so far I would say), am trying to maintain similar conditioning and hope for the best result,” shares Shodhan.
Natural Mr India 2017 (won gold), Natural Universe 2017 (won gold), Natural World Cup 2017 (won gold), Natural Olympia 2017 (won bronze) (all these in the Open men’s Bodybuilding Category) — 2017 has clearly been his year. “The year 2017 has been the best year of my career so far in natural bodybuilding. These have been my best experiences so far because the standard of athletes was top notch and every year, the standard got even better. Interacting with them, sharing on their contest preparation methods and training routine were some of the biggest take-aways from the event,” he reveals.
Despite bodybuilding being a sport often perceived to be an abused one, Shodhan vouches by ‘winning gainfully.’ “Sadly even till date people and also budding and some senior athletes think bodybuilding cannot be done without the help of steroids/short cuts... It is the BIGGEST MYTH! Also, genetics is not the only thing which will help an individual in sports... how you use genetics and train is important.When you don’t put your body through experimenting with different workouts and diet, when you don’t give enough time for your body to respond, you won’t understand your own body. BE PATIENT,” the celebrity fitness trainer opines. Shodhan is also an avid trekker and regularly gives talks about fitness, health and lifestyle in schools and colleges across the country.
While it is possible to have an alternative career on the side, ensure you make bodybuilding a priority he believes. “Bodybuilding takes a long time to show results. So, planning is key. I do fitness consulting too, but bodybuilding is my priority. You can have an alternate career but not a taxing and time consuming one,” he concludes.
