Mr Uganda 2016 shares secrets of being in shape

Mr Uganda 2016 Ben Lukwago

Ben Lukwago having turned into a fitness trainer now wants to be an international trainer.  

To be competitive in this world, Lukwago says, “You have to make yourself more relevant in your field.”   

Lukwago is pursuing a certificate in American Counsel Exercise based in the U.S.A to enable him do his job better.

“It is a six month’s certificate,” says Lukwago. “The course enables you to link your exercises to different kinds of people for instance, the sick and the children,” he adds.

The course helps you to be an international trainer who can work in any gym in the world.

As a fitness trainer, Lukwago says your exercises have to be tailored to suit their health status according to the recommendation from the doctor.

For those who want to  have a body like that of  Lukwago, he advises you to exercise but also have a dietician  who can  advise you on the  foods  to eat. “For instance for me to stay in shape, I have to do away with bad fats, sugar and too much salt,” Lukwago says.

 Family man. Lukwago with his wife and 2 of their children

Lukwago, who started out as an acrobatic and turned into a body builder, had tried since 2005 to become Mr. Uganda but it was not easy.

Luckily when he went to Kenya in 2015 and was able to see how others competed, it made him emulate the contestants.

 “I had to keep my body as lean as possible so that my muscles were visible,” Lukwago recalls.

Even though Lukwago did not win Mr. Uganda, this year he cannot complain.  As soon as I was crowned Mr. Uganda 2016, I got another job of being a gym trainer at Paradise Fitness Centre in Kamwokya in addition to being a trainer.

Lukwago says that his job as a trainer is more rewarding than being acrobatics.

“I have got new friends,” he says. “I have also been able to cater for my family.”

Lukwago is married to Dinah Kimuli since 2006 and together they have four children.

Lukwago who grew up from Kefa Sempagi’s orphanage wanted very much to belong to a family.

“When I was growing up my father died when I was seven years and my mother had left me at two years in Masaka.”

Lukwago was leaving with his paternal grandparents. Later, when he was four years his father, John Baptist Jjumba in 1982   took him to Katwe Primary school. But that too was short lived as Jjumba died in Mulago hospital due to liver failure in 1985.

Lukwago had to return to the village. After four years, his grandparents also died.  Lukwago stayed in the village with no food and clothes. Seeing his situation, an aunt relocated him to Kampala to help her work in the restaurant. But a male customer advised the aunt to take the boy to Kefa Ssempi foundation which he did.   The foundation not only gave Lukwago a home but also an education which ran up senior four.

Besides that, the boys learnt acrobatics from Uganda television now (UBCTV) and were able to carve a living when they left the foundation.

After being in acrobatics for some time in Kampala and getting a little money, Lukwago searched for his mother and through a paternal uncle he was able to see her. “I was very happy to meet her,” Lukwago says. Unfortunately she was sick.

 The gymn keeps him on form

“It was the first and last time I saw my mother in my maturity,” he says. “I had promised to save enough money and make her glad.”  Good enough, having left the acrobatics,   Lukwago was   the machine operator and guard at Didi’s World (Wonder World, Kasanga). At the end of the month, he had planned to see his mother and buy her some clothes and food.

But when he saw his uncle, he told me the worst of news. “Your mother died two weeks ago,” he said. “We failed to tell you because we did not know how to reach you.”

Having had unstable family, Lukwago cherishes his  wife and children. “I am very glad that my children do not have to wear tattered clothes like I did in my childhood,” he says. “They also don’t have to feel the pain of a separation of a mother and father.”

Right now, Lukwago together with other body builders like Andrew Senoga, Lamech Muwanga and Isaac Mubikirwa are seeking for sponsors to enable them participate in the annual International Natural building in Italy in June this year.