adminMunyonga and his partners at a local consultancy firm – OneTurn Wellness Consultancy – can now spend just 45 seconds to measure an athlete’s body mass index, analyse the total body water, mineral, body fat mass, do an obesity diagnosis and crucially also recommend the kind of exercises one needs to do in order to manage his or her weight.
The Zimbabwe Olympic Committee medical commissioner is being assisted in the project by the trio of Allan Mapisa, Elvis Gushumbe and prominent fitness trainer Gerald Maguranyanga.
Munyonga’s initiative which will also help ordinary people has already been embraced by Premiership runners-up FC Platinum, arguably the most professionally run club in the top-flight league at the moment.
FC Platinum had all their players tested at the end of the season and are due to have them re-tested for weight, total body water and the body fat mass they may have accumulated during the off-season as well as measure their basal metabolic rate.
The results will in turn help give coach Rahman Gumbo and his technical team the right information they need in designing the miners’ pre-season training programme ahead of FC Platinum’s maiden dance with Champions League football.
Munyonga said he would have wanted the country’s other representatives in the African Safari – league champions Dynamos, Motor Action and Hwange – to also undertake similar tests before they plunge into international competition but their offers to conduct the tests even at half price had not found any takers.
The Warriors’ team doctor, who is also a member of the World Anti-Doping Agency, said the machine they recently acquired was not only open to footballers but all athletes and the ordinary people.
He said it was his wish to have local athletes accessing the services which are critical in gathering data they could use to prepare for local and international competitions.
Munyonga, this week took The Herald through the works of the machine and also spoke passionately about the need for local clubs to take more seriously issues related to the health status of their athletes.
“Athletes that train too much and do not take water will suffer a lack of total body water and within that short space of time all that would have been measured.
“Fat tends to protect muscles from injuries and if they train too much and don’t eat they will suffer a deficiency of fat and are prone to injuries.
“If they do train a lot and have a lot of fat they will have too much weight and that affects endurance while too little fat affects energy levels so after doing the analysis we can be able to recommend the right intake of such things like proteins, water and help them with their weight control,” Munyonga said.
Munyonga has also been on the forefront in leading an anti-doping campaign on behalf of WADA in the Southern African region.
But it is the acquisition of the biospace body analyser that has left the affable doctor an excited man as he relished the opportunity of helping athletes manage their weight and their diet, components, which are critical for one to execute their talents in competitions.
“The main indicators are Body Mass Index where with a naked eye we can see that one is obese and the BMI can confirm that.
“But with this machine we can actually look at the amount of fat in one’s body through the percentage of body fat measurement.
“This also gives you the distribution of that fat and the factor that we use to determine that is the waist-hip ratio which gives us an indication of the risks one has to non-communicable diseases.
“To reduce that there is also need for exercise and wellness,” Munyonga said.
Munyonga also said it was imperative that players were measured at the start of their pre-season training, “so that we know where they are at pre-season”.
“Pre-season training is not less than six weeks and at the end of the six weeks they should be tested, midway through the season, a similar exercise should be done as well at the end of the season.
“We have already tested FC Platinum players at the end of the 2011 season, we are going to test them before they start their pre-season and before the coach embarks on his programme. “Tactically and technically I have always argued that we are not bad players in Africa but our biggest challenge is the size of the athlete and for a professional side, the average weight for your team has to be around 73kg if you are to compete with established international clubs”. Munyonga said although there were not many such machines dotted round the country, they were key even for junior teams whether in rugby or football.
“We also have a lot of people going to the gyms but do they know where they are in terms of their in-body analysis? So far it is only FC Platinum that has heeded our call but I have spoken to a number of clubs either through their coaches, doctors or administrators but the response has been wish wash.
“But my plea is that for teams playing in Africa we could test them at half price and the earlier we test their players the better.
But in terms of other athletes we have not had big response maybe because of lack of awareness but the response from the general populace has been overwhelming and we have been doing at least 10 tests a day.
And they are coming back to check on their progress after we recommend the diets and the training regimes for a 4- six week training programme,” Munyonga said.
Online Reporter