Photo courtesy of Eva Clarke

Regularly smashing world records to raise money for charity, Eva Clarke has been dubbed the UAE’s Fittest Woman, seemingly unfazed by every and any challenge that comes her way.

Running a marathon? The 36-year-old Australian sped through the London 42.2 km race last April while carrying a 20 kg pack, setting a new world record. Push-ups? Clarke holds the Guinness World Record for the most push-ups in one hour and in 24 hours.

She also has the record for highest number of burpees in one, 12 and 24 hours: a chest-to-floor, push-up, jump, repeat combination. The Wadi Bih 72 km race held in Oman each year is typically raced in teams of five, but Clarke ran it solo and set the record for fastest female runner.

Amid her work schedule and family commitments as a mother of three, Clarke picked up Brazilian jiu jitsu in her spare time. She has won several gold medals at the International Brazilian Jiu Jitsu Federation competitions in 2014 and 2015, as well as winning bronze at the UAE World Pro Championship this past year. The list of records she holds and fitness challenges she has completed or won seems endless.

Clarke teaches a fitness class at NYU Abu Dhabi four times a week, where she has a dedicated crowd of regulars who attend her classes. H.U.A., a fitness class creation incorporating strength, endurance and agility that Clarke has fine-tuned over the years and uses for her own workouts, has become legendary among students and faculty.

Sachi Leith, an NYUAD alumna who now works as a Global Academic Fellow, has been attending the class for more than a year. In the beginning, she said, she had been warned that she would not be able to even move after attending a H.U.A. session.

“A friend convinced me to go, so I tried it and it was great,” said Leith. “Eva was so nice, I think I had built her up in my head — she was really helpful.”

Clarke’s workouts have a reputation for being tough, but that should not put people off.

“She’s much kinder than I think people anticipate and it seems like what she wants most of all is for people to exercise and to enjoy it,” added Leith. “She’s a lot more accommodating in the workouts than you would expect, she’s always pushing you to try harder.”

Senior Lingliang Zhang, who also regularly attends H.U.A. sessions, had similar sentiments.

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Before the Monday evening H.U.A. class, Clarke and I met in a corner of the gym to chat about her upcoming challenges, her training regime and her advice for students.

“Fitness is so ingrained in me,” said Clarke. “I get up in the morning, I need to eat and I need to exercise, I need to move. It’s like my medication … I can’t remember a time when I haven’t exercised or haven’t done something physical, it’s always been a part of my life.”

It was sports and fitness, Clarke explained, that helped her complete her schooling amid a tough childhood.

“I really engrossed myself in it and my teachers made an effort to help me continue at school. I was never going to change the world academically but I had some ability at sport,” she said. “It was the thing that kept me going in life. I don’t think I would have finished high school if I didn’t have sports.”

Clarke joined the military after high school, gained a combat fitness leader certificate and started training soldiers. In 2012, she moved to Abu Dhabi with her husband and their three children. It was at this point when she began training for her Guinness World Record attempts and raising money for charity.

Despite all of her achievements, however, Clarke remains humble.

“I don’t think it’s amazing, I just think it’s commitment. I see people do other physical things – these guys who are jumping around in parkour and scaling things for example, and I think they are amazing,” she said. “It’s not how I perceive myself. I don’t see it as crazy — people see it as crazy but their crazy is my normal.”

Clarke is going to attempt to break the Guinness World Record next February for the greatest amount of pull-ups in six hours, 12 hours and 24 hours in order to raise money for street children in Brazil.

This challenge, she said, will be her toughest one yet. She trains three to five hours each day and, with a rueful laugh, described her regime as tough. She held out her hands, covered in blisters from doing pull-ups, and described how she has to file away calluses, otherwise they split and hinder her workouts.

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One of the most challenging parts, Clarke explained, is finding a balance between work, training and family.

“One of the greatest things in my life are my kids. I love spending time with them. I love waking up with them on the weekends. It’s the best feeling you can have, and I love seeing them do their sports,” she said. “When I’m exhausted at certain points, I just think ‘How am I managing this?’ Some nights, I don’t get home till 10:30 at night and my kids are already tucked up in bed.”

“Other weeks, when I’ve got time off and I’m tucking them into bed, I’m thinking ‘What am I going to do with myself?’ I’m looking for that perfect line between family, work and fitness,” she continued.

It’s all about managing your time and finding a balance, according to Clarke. When her kids are at swimming meets or jiu jitsu practice, for example, she brings a mat and a skipping rope and uses the time to sneak in an extra workout session. The same lessons about balance and time management can be applied to academic life, she said.

“With school work, you need some kind of outlet,” explained Clarke. “I can’t see anyone throwing themselves into 100 percent schoolwork and not taking any time to breathe."

"It’s the same when you doing something physical — you can’t keep beating yourself up against the brick wall, you have to go do other things and you need to learn how to unwind," she added. "You need to find that fine line of balance and time management.”

It’s not always easy though, as Clarke knows, and the challenges can be as much mental as physical.

“You can have a really good week, when you’re on top of the world,” said Clarke. “And you can have a week when you’re doing the same thing, but it feels ten times harder. It’s just how much mental energy and physical energy you’re expounding.”

Before beginning her class, I asked Clarke one last question: if she could give one piece of advice, what would it be?

“If you really want to do something, you have to work hard and you have to commit to it,” she said. “If you don’t commit to it, if you go in half-hearted or half-assed, you’re not going to get the results you want. And never stop, always be looking for the next thing to challenge you.”