EWELINA Hrynkiewicz-Kucybala is currently preparing for the BodyBuilding World Championships, having enjoyed a lot of success already.
“I am in the Republic of Ireland BodyBuilding Federation, I’m an Irish champion, a European champion and I’m competing in the World Championship in eight weeks in Tokyo,” she says.
Ewelina competes in the Masters section of bikini wellness.
“There are two main bikini categories, bikini fitness and bikini wellness,” she said.
“The difference between the two is that in my category you have to have disproportion between the upper body muscles and the lower body muscles.
“The lower body needs to be bigger so I mostly train legs and glutes.”
The sport involves very specific training.
“I follow a specific plan towards my goals, which is building the lower body muscles. I have a training programme that includes four gym sessions a week, one is upper body and three of them are lower body workouts,” she said.
“I have cardio sessions as well, usually on the bike. Closer to the show the intensity of the training goes up a little bit because you need to cut the fat and expose the muscles.”
Not only is the exercise plan very specific, but she has to watch everything she eats also.
“I’m on a plan all year, off season, when I’m not competing, I’m on a building plan, so I’m eating more and training harder. I do less cardio and build muscles,” she said.
“When you are prepping for a show, it needs to be down to the gram. Water intake, salt intake, all the meals have to be repetitive, but it’s only for ten weeks before the show.”
The commitment required is intense, and she says you need to be happy to embrace and enjoy it.
“It’s a lifestyle, you have to love it. There is a lot of sacrifice, but success tastes better when you sacrifice something,” she said.
“ I’m a mum of two, I work part time and you have to make time.
“At the moment I have to find time for an extra hour of cardio, on top of my workout, posing practice, work, kids and meal prep. Normally I start my day around 4.30am and I make sure I have seven hours sleep, so I go to sleep with the kids.”
She came to the sport relatively late, and certainly didn’t intend taking it as seriously as she has.
“I started for my 40th birthday, it was a once off challenge for myself, but I fell in love with it,” she said.
Originally from Poland, she is a long term resident of Shannon town.
“When we came to Ireland first we lived in Ennis for ten months,” she said.
“I got a job in Shannon and I was commuting. We said we’d find a place to live in Shannon, we came here nearly 20 years ago and I fell in love with the community here.”
In the run up to Tokyo, she is sharing all of her training online so that people from around the world can follow her journey .
“If you go to my Instagram you can see what it is like to live a bodybuilder’s life, because I share my meals, my workouts, my everyday life in my stories,” she said.
“I have a lot of people who follow me who are inspired by that.”
Getting ready for the World Championships and travelling to Tokyo isn’t cheap, and she has a GoFundMe page where people can contribute, and she says that fundraising is a huge challenge.
“It is so hard to get sponsorship. The Government won’t give any funds to our federation,” she said.
“It’s hard to get funding from local companies, mostly they say sorry, but we have no funds to go anywhere but GAA.
“It is so hard to get support for other sports.”
Owen Ryan has been a journalist with the Clare Champion since 2007, having previously worked with a number of other publications in Limerick, Cork and Galway. His first book will be published in December 2024.