CHENNAI: After the Paris Games, Manpreet Singh let himself go. There were celebrations every other day. After refusing to go within a mile of anything sugary for years, the two-time Olympic medallist 'lost control'.
Even as he drowned himself in 'kaju katli' and other sweets, he thought 'sab chalta hai (everything is okay)'.
Everything, though, wasn't okay. When he turned up at the Asian Champions Trophy in Hulunbuir in the second week of September, the warm afterglow of the Paris medal was visible in multiple places, including on the weighing machine.
"I had touched 73kgs," he told this daily a week ago. "The heaviest I had ever been." He didn't have a eureka moment but he had felt that heaviness during the ACT in China, like a man carrying a piano while dribbling out of midfield and running down both wings. "When we were playing in the Asian Champions Trophy, I felt heavy," he said. "I realised if I want to play good hockey, I must focus on fitness first."
Considering he harbors ambitions of playing prominent roles at the 2026 World Cup and LA 2028, the penny dropped. "I didn't want people to think that I'm taking it easy or I have become slow," the midfielder said." So, the Cristiano Ronaldo fan read up about Michael Phelps' preparation at the beginning of a new Olympic cycle. He put in place an elaborate diet plan, downloaded an app to keep track of calories and fully embraced it.
"I started with fat burn (last November)," he said. "Monday to Saturday, I worked very hard and stopped junk food. I started counting calories, how much fat I was burning. I got very nerdy about it. Oatmeals and eggs for breakfast, chicken, green and rice for lunch and a chicken salad and milk before sleeping. He had one cheat meal per week."
Diet, though, is just one part. "My workout routines mainly focused on the lower body and stomach because in hockey, you need that part to be strong. You can push yourself more, you get more strength and you can turn easily."
The fruits of his labour was beginning to show at the Hockey India League in January. "I felt it during HIL. I wasn't feeling fatigued and I was quick and the body was recovering well."
By the time he reported for national duties in February, there was a clear physical transformation. Members of the Indian team formed a queue to tell him 'budha hogaya hai, kya karna chahta hai? (you are old now, what are you trying to do?)'.
He had achieved what he had set out do. When he weighed himself on the scale sometime in February, he was 67kg. "It's good to see myself in the mirror," he laughs. "The muscles are showing." Like most athletes, he felt good about the physical transformation and put it up on Insta for the world to see. "Before I put it up, I had to take my wife's permission," he laughed. "She was like 'karna kya chahta hai 'what do you want to do?' But she knows my first preference is hockey."
Mentally also he's at peace because his game is on point. "I feel quick across the turf," he said. "In our speed test, my results are better than last time. I don't know if I can reveal the scores but it was very good. I feel I can push harder than before."
Pretty soon, Manpreet's attention will turn towards the World Cup qualifier. His trophy cabinet has a medal in every global event he has featured in save the World Cup. "It's an extra motivation," he said. "If we want to compete at that level, we have to be fit. If we are fit, we can compete even with 10 players."
Like they did at the Olympics.