There is an unbelievable amount of ‘influencers’ out there in the wild, every niche has them and the fitness community may have the most. If you’re on Instagram and you enjoy fitness, there is no doubt you have your stalwarts that everyone will know; Mattdoesfitness, Grace Beverley, Cbum…and of course there are so many more great fitness influencers out there. One of them is Olima Omega.
His real name is Paul Olima, and he’s in every sense of the word, a beast!
Physique. Follower count. Content quality. A beast.
Before we get into all of this, who is Paul Olima?
Who is Olima Omega?
Paul is an Irish 35-year-old, father of two, now plying his trade as a fitness influencer, but that has not always been the case. He’s had a very interesting career, Olima Omega had varying success as a professional football in England, having trials for West ham, Scunthorpe, Bristol Rovers, and Taunton before playing for Dagenham and Redbridge who eventually decided to loan him out to various semi-pro teams, which is where Paul says he realized, maybe I’m just not that good. This is where he decided to do his coaching badges and took himself to Thurrock, as a semi-pro this left a lot of time on his hands, which led him to the next chapter of his life…
Personal training and sports modelling allowed Olima Omega to diversify his skills and earn good money alongside football. After the modelling work dried up it got really interesting. Acting as a body double and standing in for sports stars in adverts, is cool isn’t it, well Paul was lucky enough to stand in for Mario Balotelli and Yaya Toure, crazy! The money he made from this meant he could stop personal training. At this time though he realised maybe football wasn’t the one, remembering his love for rugby when he was younger made him take his career in its next direction.
His path this time was…Rugby Sevens player for Nigeria, back to the UK to play for Esher and then played for the Harlequins through the reserves…a large contract offer then came his way, big money, and a chance to play in the top league.
As if things hadn’t worked out for Paul yet, he suffered a career-ending injury, ending professional sports, sponsorships, and modelling gigs.
Instead of him drowning in his sorrows, he “started doing stupid sh*t online”.
Well, has anyone else ever posted some sh*t online and accidentally stumbled on over 400K followers? No, didn’t think so, nice one Paul!
What’s Olima Omega’s Content All About?
His content is a mixture of about 20% fitness and 80% comedy, the comedy is genuinely funny stuff. Paul has managed to find the perfect combination of TikTok-style videos where you ‘stitch’ yourself into someone else’s video, these videos tend to be ‘serious’ in the sense that someone has made it and thought, yeah I look great in this, Paul jumps on these, in a humorous and non-aggressive way.
This is the current formula that works on social media, due to the emergence of TikTok, Olima Omega knows that a short, sharp video that starts off odd and ends surprisingly funny can garner millions of views.
The other side of his content is exactly what everyone wants to see, influencers/celebrities/Love Islanders/fitness freaks getting the mickey taken out of them. Paul knows what kind of industry he is in and he hits the nail on the head, there are influencers in the fitness community that sometimes operate in ways that could definitely use a bit of…how should I say…light ribbing! Great choice of words.
It’s funny because all of this mocking of influencers, especially Love Island contestants have strangely led him to some unbelievable opportunities like becoming island favourite, Maura Higgins’ fitness instructor on ‘You’re Joking Me!’.
Paul documents that he has been asked to go on Love Island in the past and was set to appear on, The Circle but scheduling clashes stopped this. Mainstream media are recognising Paul for his winning personality and clearly want him on their shows!
Back to social media though and Olima Omega has built his online persona up to a point where he is collaborating with some huge creators, he and Mattdoesfitness have created various videos and skits, controversial fitness expert James Smith and has even branched out to creators like Diren Kartal who doesn’t operate in the fitness space.
Over his time on social media, Olima has managed to create some fantastic partnerships with brands and has been an ambassador for some huge players in the fitness game. Maximuscle was first and was a relationship lasting 4 years until Grenade swept in and stole Paul up until now.
The Bottom Line on Olima Omega
So that’s a short synopsis of Paul Olima’s life, and you can’t lie, it’s an interesting one! From footballer to Mario Balotelli’s body double to fitness modelling to online giant, ever seen a CV like that? The thing I like about Paul is his honesty, he’s very open about his upbringing, racism and Irish life, football woes, and his strange path in life and now his honesty comes out in his content, he knows the industry he is in and he knows he can take the p*ss out of himself and his peers.
What’s next for Paul? Well, I think it’s obvious to see that he has a future in TV, once you get past his huge frame, good looks and charming Irish accent you can see a presenter and even if he doesn’t go that way in life, there will be plenty more deals with Grenade, Gymshark, and collabs with other huge stars.
Not a bad life he’s built for himself. Follow him on Instagram and YouTube…like…now!
