Maya Nassar

DEARBORN — Athletic trailblazer Maya Nassar seeks to establish a national platform to expand fitness and bodybuilding in Lebanon.

“I’ve been endorsed more than once by the Lebanese government to represent Lebanon in bodybuilding, recognizing what I do as a sport,” Nassar— an entrepreneur, a personal trainer, a wellness educator and a bikini competitor— told The Arab American News.

In 2014, she was officially endorsed by the Lebanese Ministry of Youth and Sports to represent Lebanon— a nation without an officially recognized bodybuilding division— in the World Beauty Fitness and Fashion (WBFF) bodybuilding
competition.

She emphasized that her competitions were in bikini fitness— where aesthetics are evaluated rather than amount of weight lifted— not power lifting or bodybuilding. However, weightlifting is the pinnacle of success for Nassar in her type of competition.

In a country where face lifting is widespread and weight lifting is naught, Nassar recognizes that the lack of fitness and bodybuilding, especially among women, reflects the lack of awareness and education about health and wellness in the country.

“A lot of women are still scared of lifting weights because they’ll think they’ll become bulky and masculine,” Nassar said.

Unfortunately, even doctors and nutritionists in Lebanon are equally misinformed. By regularly prescribing their patients with extremely low calorie diets and discouraging weight training lest their muscles make them “even bigger”, even qualified professionals are adding to the problem of misinformation.

Nassar added that the false belief in diet pills as a viable weight loss strategy is highly salient in Lebanon as an alternative to diet or exercise. She said she regularly gets questions from clients about diet supplements, some of whom complain about having no time to exercise and seek out a quick fix.

“There’s no supplement to consistent hard work, consistent training and a healthy diet,” Nassar tells her clients.

While an exemplary model for health and fitness today, Nassar has come a long way to reach the pinnacle of her success.

With no background in fitness, Nassar, 30, was overweight and consumed a “very poor diet” in her early twenties.

The recent graduate in anthropology and sociology from the American University of Beirut had no formal background in nutrition and wellness. And, like her clients, Nassar admitted she “didn’t know anything about a healthy lifestyle.”

Additionally, her unhealthy lifestyle and weight began to take their toll on her existing health problems.

“I suffer from asthma and I have difficulty breathing,” she said. “And [consequently,] I had a low immune system.”

When she found herself struggling to pull her jeans to waist level, Nassar knew it was time for a change. She began to educate herself on the fundamentals of a healthy diet, taught herself about exercise and gradually integrated her knowledge into her new lifestyle.

In time, she was training five to six days per week and consuming a clean diet. Her habits inspired a passion. In months, she shed around 40 pounds of fat and pursued opportunities to test her limits and expand her fitness abilities.

International Fitness Professionals Association-certified in sports nutrition and training, Nassar is continuing to pursue an additional International Sports Science Association (ISSA) certification. To inspire others to prioritize their health and fitness and to assist them in better informing themselves, she has pioneered a number of resources and tools for others to better understand how to take the initiative over their health and wellness.

Her website, startlivingright.net, features a blog, personalized training information, recipes and even a nutrition calculator.

Her media and education campaigns kicked off with her show, “GetFit”, airing at 10 a.m. every Tuesday and Thursday on MTV. In addition, Nassar has been interviewed on numerous Arab television stations and media such as OTV Lebanon, MBC, Future TV and the Arab Daily News.

Recently, she also developed an app to assist those wanting to implement healthy changes to their lifestyle on-the-go. Her Start Living Right mobile app features similar nutritional and exercise tips, tracking devices and guides as her website. It even has animations showing how people should exercise.

The app also was the first of its kind to be endorsed by the Lebanese minister of sports.

Though Lebanon’s current fitness and sports climate may seem desolate, Nassar remains optimistic, even noting improvement.

“Four or five years ago, barely anyone [in Lebanon] went to the gym,” she said.

And while avid gym-goers remain in the minority, Nassar is happy to see progress.

“A lot of new gyms are opening up,” she said. “And more people are becoming informed.”