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Sikhumbuzo Moyo, Senior Sports Reporter
A RETIRED army officer and a qualified fitness trainer have set up a fitness club in Queens Park that also offers personalised home visits in the suburb and surrounding areas.

Retired Colonel Bukhosi Hadebe and Thamsanqa Mnkandla, a qualified fitness trainer, opened Revival Fitness Club at the height of the Covid-19 lockdown in May.

Hadebe is the assistant coach at the club, while Mnkandla, son to Highlanders board of directors’ chairman and radio legend Luke Mnkandla, is the head coach.

According Hadebe, the main objective of the Revival Fitness Club is not only fitness, but also wellness of members and to provide a personal touch to its cliental by offering home sessions.

Hadebe said they realised that some people were eager to shed weight, but were introverts unwilling to exercise in public, hence their decision to provide home sessions.

He said whilst keeping fit was paramount, they also go further by providing clients with wellness sessions.

“Wellness involves issues like diet because eating well leads to great fitness. If you just eat anything, what I call a careless eater, one might not achieve the optimum level of fitness. Crucially for ladies that want to keep their bodies in perfect shape; if one doesn’t adhere to a proper diet, all efforts of trying to keep fit and one’s body in perfect shape will come to naught,” said Hadebe.

He felt they opened the club at the most appropriate time during a global pandemic that forced most people to stay at home and businesses closing, with the exception of essential services.

“Look, a fit body defends itself against any invasion well and we believe that as a club we are playing our role in trying to reduce the spread of this invisible enemy,” he said.

For members of Revival Fitness, Tracy Sibanda and Meckline Siziba, the club has had a huge impact on their fitness goals.

“This is our club and some of us always found it difficult to join other clubs in the city centre due to a number of reasons, which include having to travel every day in the morning. Now we have a fitness club right in our neighbourhood offering the same services as those in the city centre. I was big and have lost many kilos since I started following the coaches’ programmes and I feel that I am now keeping fit,” said Sibanda.

Siziba said she was inspired to join the club after observing a number of ladies’ bodies magically changing.

“My hubby also encouraged me to join the club, saying my body was no longer in perfect shape and since then I have shed a lot of weight and am almost back at ‘factory settings’ due to this club,” Siziba said.

Meanwhile, Revival Fitness Club members will this morning embark on a 10km easy walk along Airport Road to raise awareness and create interest in fitness and wellness needs.

“We do this every last Saturday of the month just to create that awareness on wellness,” said Hadebe.

In 2016, the then Ministry of Sport and Recreation launched the National Fitness and Wellness Programme, which had a bias on good health and longevity rather than competition, with former Minister Makhosini Hlongwane pronouncing that the programme was aimed at encouraging an active lifestyle among Zimbabweans of all ages in response to rising cases of non-communicable diseases that come largely as a result of the common sedentary lifestyle.

Hlongwane indicated that the idea behind the programme was to arrest sedentary behaviour and lifestyle, which cause non-communicable diseases accounting for about 30 percent of the disease burden. He said the National Fitness and Wellness Programme was aimed at developing and cultivating a culture of healthy lifestyles enforced by an exercise regime and good eating habits.