Meet the strongest woman of Kenya
Evelyn Owala is shattering stereotypes with her fusion of power and strength in the bodybuilding arena in Kenya. Watch out and learn about the strength of this woman.
Category
🗞
NewsTranscript
00:00 (dramatic music)
00:02 Anyone who believes that bodybuilding is only for macho men
00:05 will be proven wrong by her.
00:07 Evelyn Owalla, the fittest woman in Africa,
00:10 had to prove herself anew every day,
00:13 and her path to the top was littered with misunderstanding.
00:17 - If the question is, if I'm stronger than other women,
00:19 definitely I am.
00:20 But if you ask me if I'm aggressive,
00:22 no, I'm not aggressive.
00:24 Aggression and the strength
00:26 don't necessarily go hand in hand.
00:28 - At the beginning of her career,
00:29 Evelyn had to fight against many prejudices,
00:32 like the one that she would present herself naked on stage.
00:36 Where did she get the strength to push through,
00:40 even if it didn't look good for her at first?
00:43 - The reason I started bodybuilding,
00:45 there are several reasons, to be honest,
00:47 because one, I had gone through surgery.
00:50 One of the recommendations was to exercise
00:54 and also good nutrition, to try as much as possible.
00:59 To work on my, you know, health, hormones and everything.
01:04 I wanted to look like a model, but with muscle.
01:07 And it doesn't take little work,
01:10 especially if you want to get toned.
01:12 After my first surgery on cysts,
01:15 like three weeks in,
01:16 I started feeling the same symptoms that I had.
01:19 So I went back to the doctor and the doctor was like,
01:21 "No, you know what we need to do?
01:23 We need to do another surgery."
01:24 So I was like,
01:25 "There has to be another way to solve this problem."
01:29 So I went into study and I went through like reading a lot,
01:33 whether it's on fibroids, cysts.
01:35 From that, I was able to deduce that working out
01:38 and good nutrition would help.
01:40 - Believe it or not,
01:46 although Evelyn now has fitness titles
01:49 that many normal men or women can only dream of,
01:52 she used to be bullied because she was overweight.
01:55 So how did bodybuilding help her
01:57 in feeling comfortable in her body?
01:59 - Bodybuilding helped me feel comfortable in my own body
02:02 because things that I was insecure about,
02:05 like cellulite or my body looking a particular way,
02:07 I'm no longer insecure about those things.
02:09 As you can see, it is 5 a.m.
02:14 and we are very active and alive.
02:16 And of course, we started the day way earlier.
02:19 My daily routine is I wake up at 2 a.m.
02:23 I have to be in the gym by around quarter to three
02:26 so that I'm able to work out
02:28 before my clients start coming in at quarter to four.
02:32 I need to have done my workouts.
02:34 Between quarter to four, I'm almost end of day,
02:37 like I'm meeting clients in different locations.
02:40 My program actually revolves around my nutrition
02:43 because if I don't give priority to my food,
02:46 I'll pass out, like literally I will.
02:48 To tame muscle, you have to give it food.
02:51 The other health benefits that are underrated
02:53 is especially as you get older,
02:56 you need a lot of muscle
02:58 because that muscle mass will hold your frame together.
03:00 With working out, I can assure you,
03:03 you'll maximize the time that you have in your life.
03:07 Bodybuilding is a process of developing one's muscles
03:10 while using repetitive exercises or reps
03:13 and resistance such as weights.
03:15 But in Kenya, like much of Africa,
03:17 it's mainly a sport done by men.
03:20 Let's find out more about why
03:21 it was so attractive to Evelyn.
03:23 What made me go professional,
03:29 like let's say doing bodybuilding
03:31 and being on a bodybuilding stage,
03:32 it was the first time bodybuilding
03:34 was being rejuvenated back into the country.
03:37 I had gathered quite some muscle.
03:39 Everybody was like, "Oh, bodybuilding is coming.
03:41 "Do you want to participate?"
03:42 Since then, Evelyn is a fitness trainer
03:45 and a professional bodybuilder
03:47 who has represented Kenya
03:48 in several international competitions.
03:51 Up to date, there are very few competitions to begin with.
03:55 Especially in Kenya,
03:56 there are very few competitions as one.
03:57 Prize monies are little.
04:00 People are doing it for the passion of it
04:03 because the prize money is not as big.
04:06 The former banker now runs her own training institute
04:10 where she offers customized training regimens.
04:13 What makes the difference
04:14 to train with Africa's fittest woman?
04:16 I started bodybuilding
04:17 because I wanted to look a certain way.
04:20 Back when I started in 2014 or 2015,
04:24 I just used to see guys with muscles
04:25 and I would think they look really nice.
04:27 While training with my fellow men,
04:29 there's a lot of misinformation that we had
04:31 and a lot of wrong techniques,
04:32 but really you're not doing it the correct way
04:34 and so you don't get results.
04:35 The difference that I found training with Eve
04:37 over the last now four years,
04:39 I have had more significant changes than I had
04:42 in the six years that I'd been training
04:44 with guys earlier than that.
04:46 Working with Eve has really changed my perspective
04:48 on female bodybuilders and female trainers.
04:50 First of all, because of my own practical experience,
04:53 especially if you're a lady,
04:55 it doesn't really mean that you're weaker than the men
04:59 or that you know less than the men.
05:01 In becoming Kenya's leading female fitness guru,
05:06 Eveleen had to be strong and strict.
05:09 But why is it hard to get rid of the bad reputation
05:11 of bodybuilding as a male and a macho sport?
05:14 One of the biggest myths in bodybuilding,
05:17 especially for female athletes,
05:18 is that because we gather a lot of muscle,
05:20 probably we are violent or can beat men.
05:24 People associate the muscle with aggression.
05:26 Bodybuilding itself has not gotten the attention
05:30 that I would really wish for it to get.
05:33 We have a good fan base, we have good athletes.
05:37 I wish it would be looked at the same way.
05:41 With every pump in her muscles,
05:43 Eveleen Owalla keeps impacting people's lives
05:46 through health and fitness while showing
05:48 how much beauty there is in being strong.
05:52 (upbeat music)
05:55 ♪ Hey ♪
05:57 (upbeat music)
06:00 (upbeat music)
06:02 (chiming)