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Innocent Choga Fitness
Strength exercises and displays as a form of fitness and entertainment have existed for a long time. Throughout the centuries the games’ popularity has been fluctuating like a yo-yo, experiencing periods of prominence and slumps. In previous articles we discussed about the strong men who like to perform feats of strength as a way of keeping fit. This week we would like to discuss women of strength and their fitness regimes.

Some individuals with such talents do not want to tone down and train light and they do not aspire to spot lean physiques, but they like to make the most out of their abilities; they enjoy training heavy and spotting their massive rugged looks. The light training, aerobics and lean looks will become important and come about when they get older.

Quite a number of women are now into weight training, they understand that weight training with moderate or heavy weights can build lean physiques. Weights are just tools that we can use to shape ourselves into what we want and at the same time enjoy the benefits associated with the discipline. We have often discussed its unique positive aspects of pumping blood into blood vessels and widening the blood vessels in the process.

There is no other form of exercise that tones the body, tightening the skin to the flesh like weight training.

Just as some men have been bestowed with talents of strength, some women have also been blessed with strength and this has been so for a long time. Since time immemorial there were strong women, who performed acts of strength in various ways. These not only assisted them in keeping fit but they also made a living out of it.

Among some of the documented cases there is the case of Katie Brumbach (1884-1952), a German amazon whose performing name was “Sandwina”. Sandwina was regarded as the strongest and most beautiful woman in the world during her time. She was huge, standing six feet tall and weighing a solid 200 pounds. Some of Sandwina’s feats of strength included the bending iron bars, wrestling and lifting heavy objects. She is reported to have out-wrestled many men whilst her father would make bets challenging any man to beat her.

None beat her. Lifting her 160 pound husband Max Heyman over head with one arm was also part of her acts. Max was one of the victims who dared to challenge her and lost, but he earned himself a wife in the process. Sandwina is also said to have once lifted 286 pounds overhead and a 600 pound cannon over one shoulder.

Then there was the Belgian, Athleta and her three daughters. Athleta was born in 1868 and she started performing acts of strength at the age of 18. Athleta travelled the world displaying acts of strength and she became one of the richest women in the entertainment industry through performing acts of strength.

Part of Athleta’s act was lifting small horses and also lifting four to five grown men on her shoulders hanging on a steel bar. When she and her husband retired to the countryside her three daughters took over the acts. The three daughters who not only inherited her strength, but also her beauty and shapely physique so they were also into flexing.

Then there was beautiful and muscular Luicita Leers (1909 -1997) who attained her unique physique through acrobatic performances as a gymnast for a circus .

There was also Kate Roberts known as Vulcana who could lift 145 pounds over her head with one hand yet she weighed only 125 pounds.

Not many years ago phenomenon, Bev Francis, also created waves as a shot putter and power-lifter. Bev attained a degree in physical education and a diploma in education and she made a record as the first woman to bench press 300 pounds .She also broke approximately forty power-lifting records.

Her powerful physique resulted in people coercing her to compete as a body-builder, which she did successfully spotting a massive physique never seen before at that time. Bev married a fellow former powerlifter and gym owner Steve Weinberger and they have two daughters . She still looks strong not as before but she is still active running her own gym and coaching women.

GUEST

Our guest this week fits into this class of strong women mentioned above: Lurdes Moura AKA Lulu or Iron Angel as she is known in the fitness circles. Lulu is forty one years old but she looks much younger than that.

Lulu once competed as a bodybuilder and won the Ms Zimbabwe in 2013.The most massive woman in Zimbabwean history.

Lulu has a twenty one year old daughter Romana who is in the UK. She says her daughter has energy just like her mother, but the daughter’s energies are directed towards scholarly pursuits. She is studying towards a chartered accounting qualification and expects to graduate next year after which she aspires to study for a degree in psychology.

I also understand Lulu has been in involved in a local movie production which premièred a few weeks ago. She was cast as a warrior in the movie.

After doing a research about talented men and women who stayed fit by doing acts of strength.

I recalled how about seven years ago I used to enjoy two hour leg workouts almost every Saturday morning at Pro Fitness. I enjoyed free weight squats and always coincidentally Lulu would be there next to me squatting with very heavy weights on the Smith machine. Like myself she also enjoyed Saturday leg workouts but her workouts stretched to two and half hours .I recall how I used to think to myself ‘why does this woman want to be like a man’.

This research got me thinking of how I had witnessed rare feats of strength and yet failed to comprehend the situation. I was judgmental of someone I only greeted in passing and never even spoke with. And when I promised to discuss about women of strength in this column I knew exactly who I wanted to interview .

I then looked for Lulu and she asked me to come and talk to her during her usual Saturday workout. It was just like the old times but this time around she is working out and we are talking, and I am happily assisting her to load and unload the machines as she goes through her paces ,and I am in awe of her strength.

I do not know why, but I expected to find Lulu rough and cocky and nasty as her workouts .When I left the gym I was chewing a humble pie, I found Lulu to be very nice, respectful, and after talking to her I vowed never to judge a book by its cover. She showed great love for her daughter whom she spoke of incessantly and she also showed great concern for other individuals so I was taken aback.

Lulu also expressed great respect and joy for fellow massive and strong looking woman Regina Jonga whose star is shining brightly in South Africa at the moment. Regina was a runner up to Lulu in 2013. If Lulu was putting up an act then she is very good at it but why would she pretend.

There she was training even heavier than before and she had maintained her strength and built. When I walked into the gym she was doing leg presses with 200 pounds, I asked if it was her last set as I wanted to capture that moment in photos. She said ‘no’. The next set she upped the weight to 300, I asked the same question and in came the same reply.

On her last set she easily maxed out with around 750 pounds, doing not one but many repetitions of full range movement. I could not believe my eyes; this is something to be seen to believe. It was amazing to see a woman lift so much weight. When I asked how much she was lifting she said she was not so sure so I had to count for myself.

During the workout Lulu was drinking a lot of fluids. She said she cannot handle water whilst training so she sips juice, any kind of juice no particular preference. She also likes to squat on the Smith machine because the machine controls everything rather than free weights where one has to expend energy trying to balance the weight.

Lulu is naturally strong, she was born strong and she likes to exercise using her strength and power. It makes her feel good. At school she participated in strength and power sporting disciplines, that is, javelin, shot-put, hammer throws and sprinting. When she joined the gym at around the age of 18 thereabouts she was lucky to go through the hands of a well known local fitness guru Kays Rushika who noticed her strength and inspired her pushing her to the limits .

During her athletic years her knees took a beating and she developed knee problems that resulted in surgery on both knees. Lulu now takes precautions and does leg work using knee straps which she takes off after every set to allow the blood to flow freely.

Lulu says she strives to be different and she has always wanted to be different in all she does. She likes to be big and muscular and that is what she wishes to be ,but she says she is capable of assisting anyone else to be what they want to be not what she is. Lulu says at one time she increased her weight to 90kg, but she suffered as she became unhealthy and could not carry her weight .

She could hardly run so she had to reduce weight. Now she weighs a comfortable 76 kilogrammes at a height of 165 centimetres but just looking at her training one would think she weighs more than 76 kg. She says she is strong in all lifts and applies her strength evenly throughout her entire physique workouts. Lulu likes to change her training every now and then so that she does not remain stagnant. She says she trains not only for superficial benefits but for health as well.

Talking about weight training she says, “This is what women need, but because of the misconception that weight training automatically builds big muscles, most of them shy away from this activity.

That is not true; I am what I am because I want to be that way. I like looking big and muscular, so I train and eat likewise.

A lot of women tell me they do not like to look like me and I always assure them they will not. It is not easy anyway; not everyone can undergo two and half hour training sessions of rigorous heavy lifting for six days in a week and at the end of every session go home feeling like the whole body has been under the beating of a sledge hammer, this is not everybody’s idea of getting fit. But personally, if I am not extremely tired, I feel like I have done nothing. For my personal sessions, I train alone because no one can keep up with me, even a lot of men cannot. It is not that I like to challenge men. I challenge myself, I like to set standards.’

About training in the hardcore weights section where men mostly workout she says ‘I feel like an equal among the men I do not feel out of place, I am comfortable. I do my session and go. Maybe they feel threatened but not me.’

Her boyfriend Elton Suerga is a DJ. He is not into heavy weights training, but he is into cross fit training . She says ‘He understands me and he does not feel threatened at all and that is why I love him’

Because she likes lifting and looking heavy she is not so much into aerobics, but she likes and does kickboxing which incorporates a lot of skipping. She also runs a bit on the treadmill.

As for her food intake Lulu says she trains ‘on her own steam’. She rarely takes supplements partly because of the expense involved and when she does it is the basic stuff, either amino acids or creatine. Her favourite foods are sweet potatoes, peanut butter, oats, tuna fish, chicken breasts, broccoli, salads and rice.

She eats regularly, roughly after every three hours to keep the metabolism high .She also minimizes on fat intake.

Lulu says she is fit and says ‘when it comes to sprinting I am still up to the game’ and she jokingly challenged me to a sprinting contest .I am thinking of training for it and taking her on, maybe for charity’s sake. Please consult your medical practitioner before embarking on an exercise or diet program.

Innocent Choga is a six time National Bodybuilding Champion with international experience. He is studying for a science degree in Physical Education and Sport.