A local resident recently earned the title Mr. Indiana.
Marquest Douglass competed in the 2026 NPC Premier Muscle & Indiana State Champions in Muncie on Aug. 1.
It was there he won the Overall Men’s Physique championship, for which he earned the Mr. Indiana title.
“The Indiana State Championships are limited to Indiana competitors, making this an especially meaningful title for me as a local resident,” he said. “This win is part of a bodybuilding journey that has taken me from training here in our local community to competing at the Arnold Amateur in Columbus and placing 4th at the IFBB NPC USA Championships in Las Vegas. Earlier this summer, I also won the Overall Men’s Physique championship at the Indy Pro Supershow in Muncie along with several wins closing out 2025. “
Douglass and his family live in rural Attica, near the Fountain/Warren counties border.
Bodybuilding isn’t something he thought about doing when he was younger.
“I’m a 43 year old male,” he said, “originally born in the Midwest and I played sports throughout high school, and a little junior college, college basketball. Just like any person, life starts to come at you and you kind of lose some of those routines you used to do. I didn’t play basketball for quite a few years, but then I started trying to get back into shape. It was an on again, off again, experience for, I would at least, I would say, the better part of 15-20 years.
“It just so happens that in the year 2020 I was looking in the mirror and I realized, ‘you know what, for my birthday when I turn 40 I’m going to give myself a present that only I can give myself and that’s going to be the best body that I can have for my age.
“That began the whole transition,” he said. “I started to really focus in and be more consistent in then gym. I spent five days a week walking. Just a light walk to try to cut down on some of the weight. The walking helped. From there, just swimming and committing to the gym consistently. Before you know it, it was about a year and a half in and my body started to take to the stuff. I started to get back to the old form that I had. The cool thing was, because I had bulked up on accident, a lot of that old form had a lot more muscle now, I had more mass to deal with, which actually ended up being a benefit. That’s kind of how I got in to it.”
Douglass said he would have people ask him if he was a “professional”.
His response was “professional what? I didn’t know anything about bodybuilding. I knew Arnold Schwarzenegger, that was about it. It wasn’t a thing for me. After getting that question a few times, I started looking into it.”
In April 2025 he was on vacation in Anaheim, California, and he went to his first bodybuilding show and watched it live.
“After seeing that, I said ‘I think I really can do this’.” He started planning to be onstage. “I didn’t really get serious about it until I would say July. I started to really prep and position myself to be onstage. That took another five or six months. I ended up being on stage in December in Normal, Illinois. I placed decently. I was able to go in as a novice.”
He earned first place in the novice category and second place in the open category. That inspired him. While it was during the holidays, he started preparing more on stage work.
“It was a great first testing,” he said, noting that while he enjoys the holiday food, he stayed away from it. “It dampens the holiday spirit just a bit,” he said. “That was tough, but it was a great first testing. It showed that I was serious about it, that I was willing to put off some of my pleasures in order to get to a goal. In that process I learned a lot about myself.”
He went to Florida and placed first in that competition. “It allowed me then to be eligible for a national competition,” he said.
“In beginning stages of bodybuilding, you can only do a regional until you win a regional, and then once you win a regional in your class, you can step up and do a national stage. Once you win a national stage, that makes you eligible to become a pro. That’s the road to pro. Becoming a pro bodybuilding is the goal for me now. I’m still on that journey.
‘Winning the title of Mr. Indiana is one step towards that. It’s a great representation for a great state, a place I can call home. It’s great for my family, just to show them it’s never too late. My first stage was at (age) 42 and I was able to compete with some 20 year olds and best them. It’s never too late as long as you focus and put all your energy and all your discipline into that particular craft you can make it happen.”
Douglass said bodybuilding helps a person maintain so many things. “It’s your diet, that’s pretty much every day you are eating something, putting something into your body. It’s your physical outputs. You have to make sure you are exerting enough energy to build muscle and tone muscle. Then, that you are not doing too much. You need to sleep. You have to have recovery time under your belt. All of those things take up the time that you don’t necessarily clock in and out for. It’s consistent,
“As far as being in the gym, I’d say about two hours a day I spend in the gym. That’s doing both cardio and weightlifting, then I mix in some sauna, steam room action, too.
“It’s still a 24/7 gig. It becomes a lifestyle.”
Bodybuilding and benefits
“The main thing I would say as far as bodybuilding is concerned is that it ends up taking you on a journey of self realization. I believe that so many of us have more inside that we don’t get to tap in to simply because we’re unaware of how, we’ve got comfortable where we are at currently and we don’t know there’s more out there for us. Bodybuilding has taught me to dig deeper, to push a little bit harder and you a lot of times realize that wherever you are right now could just be the seed of what you could be in the future,
“There’s no dream that I had as a kid that I would be a bodybuilder at this age, but at the same time this particular journey has given me all the feelings of being a kid again. It’s reminded me of what it’s like to experience something new. It’s reminded me of what it’s like to learn something that’s useful. When you’re in school, especially in those elementary days, everything you learned was useful. Learning how to tie your shoes, you still do that to this day. Learning how to spell and write — those are all things that we still use to this day. I feel like bodybuilding brought a lot of that back.
“Right now, I’ve learned how to eat properly. I’ve learned what foods do. Now I understand what a carbohydrate is. I understand what protein actually does and when it’s necessary and why. I understand that none of these things are your enemies. They are all useful, but you just have to know when and where, and that’s what bodybuilding has taught me. I feel like everybody can utilize that information as an advantage and just to be more healthy. I think that part is something I would definitely want people to understand about bodybuilding.
“There is a side to it that once you get deep in people are just way more aggressive towards the way they look versus the way they feel and the health side of it. But I think if you can stay away from the look aspect and just be more understanding of what is changing internally and be focused on that then you will win. The other side of that can get pretty dark and pretty ugly, but that is a choice and that does not represent the bodybuilding that I would want to put out or show people. I’m a completely natural person. If you can go this route and stay natural and understand the body better you win at the end.”
Advice
“I would say, start with your why,” Douglass said. “Once you understand why you want it then you can build from there. My why was to be the best version of myself at the age I was at. That just has continued. I’ve continued to move forward, not just because I want just want to be a bodybuilder but because my why actually supports that goal of bodybuilding. My why is bigger than the bodybuilding and as long as I’m staying healthy and being true to myself and pushing myself to be my best, then I can float through this with no problem. I’m not looking at the results or being so driven I have to do things that are detrimental. I’m only moving according to being my best version of myself. It keeps me grounded. It keeps me focused. You’ll learn everything you need to learn if you just have that mentality and attitude.”
holyquesttv
Douglass has a background in marketing and entertainment. He was in a national commercial for Pepsi Max and in a video with the singer Rihanna. He then became more involved in experience marketing. The companies would have booths at particular events and he would help position what those experiences would look like. He still does consultation work in that field as he now is a fitness influencer.
“My social media is starting to grow a little bit. We just want to make sure we are giving people good information, letting them know the truth out there, not the stuff that looks glamorous all the time, but the reality of it. Behind the scenes, the amount of work it takes and the pitfalls that you’ve got to watch out for.”
His tag name holyquesttv has meaning. “The holyquest comes from just the idea that you have to be set apart. You have to put yourself in a position where you don’t necessarily follow the crowd but you understand the crowd. You want to lead in a place where things will be better. Leave it better than you found it is always my mindset.”
People call him Quest for short because of his name. “The holyquest is something I’ve definitely grown to appreciate and put myself right smack dab in the middle of.”
He can be found on Instagram, Facebook, TikTok and YouTube that he is starting to develop.
“It’s one of my hobbies but it’s turning into something more.”
Douglass works out in a gym in West Lafayette and also at The Grind in Attica.
Pro level
The next step for Douglass is focusing on moving to the professional level.
He invites people to follow that journey. “I’m about halfway through it I would say. I’ve got past the regional point. I’m right at the national point now. Once we win this national show we’ll be eligible to become a professional bodybuilder and from there we just keep it moving.”
There are two national shows in September that Douglass is eyeing but hasn’t finalized where he will compete. He said he’ll know in the coming weeks as he continues to prep.
