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)