One of Fort Hare’s favourite sons, double South African bodybuilding champion Chris Nguta, has returned to his alma mater to prepare its 13-member team for this year’s USSA tournament.
The 36-year-old former national bantam and welterweight titleholder came on board in April.
He hoped to emulate the heights of 2021 when he voluntarily coached UFH student Marulumba Ayabulela to victory at the SA championships in the under-70kg division.
Now that Nguta was mentoring the team on a more permanent basis, he was confident that bodybuilding could once more be an elite sport at the academic institution.
“Earlier this year I got a call asking whether I would be interested in coaching. I was told the university wanted to focus on bodybuilding because it had produced two national champions in the past.”
Nguta knew that coming back into the fold at this stage would be a huge challenge since the eight men and five women under his wing were still young. However, he has never been one to turn down the chance of beating the odds.
Despite his impressive resume in the sport, the University Sports South Africa championships in Vanderbijlpark on June 30 will be his first. When he was a student, a lack of funds prevented teams from travelling to such events.
One of the issues he has faced since making his return to UFH is finding ways to work around the lack of access to supplements, fat-burners and multivitamins due to financial constraints.
Zolile Valiphatwa, Buhle Nontswabu, Nsikelelo Khatywa, Smilo Mngweba and Alivile Dasha of Fort Hare’s bodybuilding team flex their muscles in preparation for the University Sports South Africa tournament in Vanderbijlpark on June 30.
While this is not really a problem for women, the men do require these products to build muscle quickly and get their bodies competition-ready.
However, thanks to Nguta’s vast experience in the sport, he knew the right diet could be a secret weapon.
To say that the coach’s “menu” came as a shock to the team is an understatement.
The men’s menu, for example, is prescriptive in the types of food to be plated as well as the portion size of each. On specific days, some dishes are repeated.
All meals during the final week of prep consist of chicken breast, cucumber and lettuce.
If the show is on a Saturday, the allotted water intake during the week is 8l (Monday), 6l (Tuesday), 4l (Wednesday), 2l (Thursday) and 1l (Friday).
No fluids are allowed after 5pm on the Friday.
On the morning of the competition, it is black, bitter coffee.
“In the first week they said they were dying,” Nguta, a social worker by profession, recalled with a chuckle.
“But I told them to let the mirror do the talking and they soon started to see the difference in the abdominal section and abs.”
There is a common misconception that bodybuilders spend their days lifting massive weights. The reality is that while moderate weight training is involved, it is repetition rather than mass that counts most.
Nguta calls this “exercise execution”.
Looking ahead to the USSAs, he expected “naturally-shredded” athletes from KwaZulu-Natal and Limpopo institutions to challenge for the top spots.
While the sport was bulking itself up to its former self at Fort Hare, the coach believed that some of his charges had a good chance of making the top six in their respective divisions.