He believes fitness is a lifestyle choice and swears by consistency and hard work. Lawyer-turned-celebrity fitness coach, Sohrab Khushrushahi. The founder of SOHFIT, who has trained the likes of Alia Bhatt, Kiara Advani, Karan Johar, and Mira Kapoor, as well as athletes from the Mumbai Indians and Pro Kabaddi League, has come up with a clean-label performance nutrition brand, The Func. Lab, with cricketer Sahil Kukreja and brand strategist Daneesh Davar. A t2 chat.

When did you conceive The Func. Lab, and what is the idea?

The Func. Lab is getting into the product space, which is something that’s new to us. I think the idea was first conceived when my co-founder, Sahil (Kukreja; cricketer), he kind of brought it up to Daneesh (Davar) and me two years back. And at that point, we didn’t take it seriously. Sahil kept coming back, and he kept telling me that this was something that he wanted to do. And he said, you keep talking about giving people a clean protein, about making sure that people hydrate… then, you know, let’s put our money where our mouth is. Let’s actually deliver what we say we want them to have and consume. We said, okay, let’s give this a shot. Let’s see if we can really create something that is quality, something that we can be proud of.

We’ve been going through that process for a year now as co-founders, all three of us. You know, everything from trying every iteration of the product, what it tasted like, how it felt, what ingredients, in what proportion, how much protein, everything has been a year in the making, and we were finally kind of convinced of what we were doing and then we brought it out to the world.

It’s functional input. So, what you put into your body is functional. And, it depends on the product. But when it comes to protein, functional means you deliver the maximum amount of protein in a scoop. Does it settle well with the gut? Does it have things that it really needs to have? Or, does it have a lot of extra fluff in it? So, those were the important things. So, functional is what we kind of went with. And the name was just something all three of us really loved.

We saw a gap in the market when it came to protein. Yes, it’s a saturated market and there are so many protein players, but we still saw a gap. We kind of identified protein, in terms of just protein as part of a protein powder, as being a gap, because I think people were doing blends. There were things that weren’t really required. I didn’t trust half the things that were out there.

And similarly on the hydration front… we see there’s a gap in the market, which we’re any way already testing a bunch of things behind the scenes.

Tell us a bit about the two variants you’ve launched with…

The protein and the electrolytes. When we thought about protein, we said your protein-to-calorie ratio in every scoop has to be high. There is no point in consuming a protein powder if the protein is low. So, if you have a 35g scoop of protein and your protein is only 20 or 22g, then what are you really doing with the 35g? That’s the question that we had to ask each other. And that’s what we wanted to solve.

Our focus wasn’t so much on how it tasted. Yes, we want to get the taste right. Don’t get me wrong, but it’s not the hero of our product. The hero of our product is the protein. We also kind of tried to make sure that we didn’t do any blends. There’s no isolate and concentrate mixed together to make sure that we can cover cost. So, we’ve done isolate, we’ve done a concentrate, we’ve done a plant. Now, even with the plant, in terms of your protein-to-calorie ratio, our plant protein gives you anything between 27 to 28, 29g of protein in a 35g scoop. So do the math. The protein-to-calorie ratio is really high. That was what we wanted.

I think the taste is great. Unfortunately, I’m the guinea pig over the last year who’s kind of had a call on what the taste and what the product feels like. So, if anyone has any issues with it, they have to come to me!

And then the electrolytes, I think it was very simple. Growing up as cricketers, Sahil and I both played cricket together in the under-16s and under-19s, our recovery was what? Nimbu pani with a little bit of sugar? That’s what we used to get in the drinks break. And how do you expect to recover playing in this heat if you’re not hydrating yourself, and when you’re playing professional sport? So, for us, we both saw that as a gap, as something that we want athletes to have, and not only athletes. Every human being deserves a good amount of rehydration. Just plain water doesn’t help. You’ve got to have the right amount of magnesium, potassium, sodium, and the right minerals going into the body without sugar. It’s not about the sugar... for us, that was the goal when it came to the electrolytes.

What would your advice be for a beginner who's starting on a health journey?

When it comes to the training aspect of it or the fitness aspect of it, I’d say start small. Don’t go crazy. You don’t need to train six days a week or seven days a week to kind of get there. I think training consistently over a period of time, three to four times a week or even two to three times a week, is good enough.
And when I say training, I don’t necessarily mean you need to get into weight training. Do things you love doing, right? Go play a sport. Go dance. Go do some yoga. Do Pilates. Move.

For me, it’s about movement. It’s also about managing expectations because people mess up most of the time here (mind).

You’ve got to accept the fact that it’s a lifestyle change. So, start small. Maybe start with 10-15 minutes of work and then build up as you start enjoying it more.

When it comes to food, I don’t think your approach should be supplements first. Even though we’ve started a nutraceutical brand, I don’t think that should be the approach. The approach should be food first. Eat the right food… then start focusing on the macros and then say, okay, how can I supplement my food with the right amount of supplements or the right protein or the right electrolytes?

I think the one thing I’ve learned when it comes to training or fitness or any of this is, it’s an honest reflection of the amount of work you put in. I think the other thing that I’ve kind of learned over 25-plus years of training is that it’s about consistency. There are no shortcuts or a secret formula.

Who is the fittest athlete that you have seen or maybe interacted with, and you’re intrigued by what that person must be doing?

If you go to these athletes, and even if you talk to them and you hear their interviews, they’ve not done anything fancy. They’ve just worked consistently with the right amount of dedication and the right amount of hard work.

For me, I’ve always looked up to one guy and said, you know, I just wonder what he does and that’s Rafa Nadal. His game is based on his fitness, but he’s also an amazing human being from what I have seen of him over the years. I’ve followed him now for 15-16 years, ever since he won his first French Open, and I’ve loved watching him on screen, and I love how athletic he is, how he moves, how he takes care of himself... if there was any athlete that I ever wanted to train, it would be him.