Bodybuilder, Melikhaya “Mduva” Dyongman, won the under-80kg category in the second Bodybuilding Championship held by Makana Natural and Fitness Club on Sunday 27 April.
Bodybuilder, Melikhaya “Mduva” Dyongman, won the under-80kg category in the second Bodybuilding Championship held by Makana Natural and Fitness Club on Sunday 27 April.
“I got a fright because it’s my first time. I was a bit nervous to begin with, but then I knew that I had to do this so I pulled myself together and did what I registered for,” said Dyongman.
Dyongman (30), who developed a passion for bodybuilding in 2009, when he was worked as a bouncer at a Makhaya’s local tavern, trains as a bodybuilder with others in a bedroom of his friend's RDP house, which has no proper equipment or coaching.
“The other competitors had better legs than me because I don’t have a proper machine to train the legs and thighs and so on. This was a major disadvantage, but I was well-prepared and I enjoyed every moment of it,” he said.
“My friends and I are at a disadvantage, but we don’t let that stop us from what we want to do. There is no training centre close to our village, so we train in a bedroom of an RDP house.
"In fact, we trained for a long time in a backyard shack at my house,” said Dyongman.
There are around 20 people training in the house, but because it’s a small space, with limited equipment, they train at different times, he said.
“We can’t all be there at once. We had to get organised; people who train using similar weights come together at one time. That way we have control of the training programme and everyone can train equally,” he said.
“This is the first award for our Bedroom Training Centre,” he said, “and we hope to keep them coming until someone sponsors us with proper facilities so that we can go from strength to strength,” he said.
