By Asiphe Mangumta
Thokozani Thango (36) is a fitness coach who helps women to lose weight through exercise and dance moves. He does not only look into the fitness aspects of women, but also the emotional part of building friendship,family bond among themselves and also to have positive outlook on life through the ladies fitness club.
He established the club in 2017 and it’s called the Germinate fitness ladies club. The fitness star started the group as an assignment for his film & television studies and never imaged it to be something helpful or exciting in the long. He started the club with only three members and grew from strength to strength with number of over a hundred registered members. According to Thokozani the women in his club comes from different backgrounds, but the group has form a part of their daily lives. “The families and partners have shown major support for the club and also praise the extension and success of it”, said Thokozani. The paying back to the community assignment is now really benefitting and helping to improve the lives of our women.
The group members meet every Monday to Friday, then on weekends more especially Saturday women meets for boot camps and to share their problems with solutions to them. He believes that this group has helped more women, as he receive compliments from the women’s partners and family members who are happy to see their loved ones happy and healthy. “there is this one time one , the husbands came to thank me and for saving his wife’s life, I see a lot of improvement and no longer have short breath” said Thokozani.
One of the ladies who started with the group from day one is Zanele Mlala (25). She said,the club has improved a lot, I wish what we gained from this cannot be limited to us only. The group does not only help women with their health, but it also help them spiritually, socially and so forth. She said,i gained a lot of experience from the club, other than falling in love with my fit ,healthy body, confidence, healthy eating plan, also have made friends and family in the ladies in the club.
The inspiration behind the success of the group came from his late grandmother who died of high blood pressure, if she had someone to help her exercise regularly and eat healthy,death might have been prevented. because healthy living promises longer health and also prevents disease like diabetes, stroke etc., “ prevention is better than cure”. Thokozani has made family through this club as his family is in Mpumalanga ,He wants the ladies to use the group as an escape to their troubling lives and take it as taking a break from it all.
The fitness coach have a diet plan that is easy for the members to follow and also help them when they struggle to follow it. He advices them to wake up to a bowl of warm water that will help with killing food appetite and also before eating supper to drink the same warm water. Thokozani advices the ladies to cut a slice of lemon and put to a 5mls of water and drink during the day. According to him alcohol and exercise does not mix. Future plans, the coach requires the government and municipality to help with facilities for women to continue to have the club where ladies can come and get help without being judged
