Singpaore Fitness Trainer: The Focus Issue

As a Fitness Coach here in Singapore, I know that many clients want it all and they want it now. Thats good! And as a coach and as a fitness professional my staff and I keep up to date on the latest in science and practice so that we can deliver results!

But in fitness, just like in many things, focus is critial. You can'l lose fat really fast and gain muscle really fast at the same time! You can't improve your vertical jump and your 10km run time fast at the same time... and so the list goes on...

I like the saying of Dr George Washington Carver (not the US president). He was a scientist who discovered more than 300 uses of the peanut and these uses made peanut production popular and made his state of Alabama rich.

He was wondering what to research on and realized that he needed to "Decrease the EXTENT and increase the INTENT" thus he ended up focusing on just 1 thing... the peanut! HE got great results.

Part of coaching is helping clients to focus on one thing at a time so that they get consistent results. Too much extent with too little intent = nothing!

Dr. Carver Showing some intense intent with his peanut research

Singapore Sports: Coaching Team Singapore Silat

The Senior Instructor of Genesis Health & Performance, Coach Edwin Chew just wrote his first article! woohoo. This one is about his experiences coaching the National Singapore Silat team as their strength and conditioning coach. Read it here!

Singapore Fitness Coach: The best physique improvement tool ever

• Better than the best training program
• Better than the best nutrition plan
• Certainly better than any slimming center or other "easy way out" fad
• Better than the best coaching (gasp!)

It is a strong and positive community giving each other social support.

You are the average of the 5 people you hang around most with!

That is why Genesis Health & Performance clients train in groups. Social support is critical to success in fitness. It is VERY rare for people to succede alone. That is why I am so proud of our coaches and clients and the community we have.

Singapore Corporate Fitness: Workplace Health Grant

I am giving a talk about fat loss to Texas Instruments tomorrow. They are the first of my corporate clients to take advantage of the health promotion board's workplace fitness grant.

For every dollar the company spends, the government will give them 1 more! So if they spend $10000 on health services, they get $10000 more from the government!

If health really matters when it comes to productivity (and IT DOES) then everybody should be taking up this great offer! Free money to get healthy? Uh... there are no disadvantages.

Singapore Fitness Coach: Is it possible to get a Degree (reach your short term goals) without getting an Education (life long learning)

I was thinking about this recently. Most of us have degrees/diplomas/certifications in many things. But when it comes to the true value of education, I find many people lacking. The love for life long learning is WAY more important than the degrees we hold. Nothing wrong with having degrees! In fact many of my best friends have PhDs to their name. But don't lose sight of the journey that gets us to the degree.

The education where correct habits and character are learnt is more important and ensures more success in life than the degree itself.

Same thing with fitness. Im proud of the clients who lose 17kg a month (he was very overweight or else this would not be safe!), jump 50cm more in their broad jump after training with us for a few months, lose inches in weeks and fix their posture and movement problems quickly with the right corrective exercsises.

But those are "degrees" short term results. Important yes, but not as important as the life and habits that they find.

I'm far more interested in education. The love for learning can be grown with the right coaching and the right environment. So can the love for makign wise and healthy choices in life!

Singapore Fitness Coach: Fat loss- The discouraging moments

One of my clients was recently feeling "down". She has been training with us for a month and has been pretty good sticking to a fat loss kind of diet plan. She lost 2kg in the first 2 weeks but for the next 2 she didn't lose any weight.

Sure some of it was muscle gain, but we also know that muscle gain is not a fast process and you can only gain (if EVERYTHING is correct and you are NOT on drugs) about 0.5kg per week.

My advice was to "stick with it". Because fat loss doesn't seem to be linear.

We measured again this week and she lost another 3kg... yeah!

While we are not overly concerned with weight loss and rather prefer fat loss, this client started quite overweight so weight loss is a good way to gague progress for now.

Singapore Personal Trainer: I eat too much!

If you have heard me talk about my previous (i.e. fat boy) life, you will know that I like eating! My favorite "sinful" food is ice cream and warm chocolate cake - the one with the oozing liquid chocolate in the middle. Yummy.

While I don't eat sinful foods often - 1 or 2 times a month. And I do have healthy habits 90% of the time or more... I have trouble getting REALLY lean, not just visible abs (which for me is now normal because if the good habits) but really really lean.

I simply eat too much!

I eat healthy food but I eat it in unlimited amounts.

Now I'm going to eat them in limited amounts. Even good stuff like fruits and lean meat will be limited. The only unlimited things will be green veggies!

Singapore Personal Trainer: What If I trained, but ate anything I want?

If you are trying to lose fat, exercise without proper nutrition will not work.

You will gain the health benefits, and you will "feel" better than not doing anything at all. BUT if you want the visible changes, you will need to change your diet and nutrition as well.

But a recent study by one of my fellow fitness professionals in the US came to a pretty shocking (but very commonly observed) result. A group of sedentary people with high body fat (which is most people nowdays!) did 12 weeks of hard training - 3 hours/week of weights and 2 hours/week of cardio and did not have any dietary control.

Their average results:
Gain 1kg muscle, lost 1/2kg fat, change in fat percentage -1%... which is VERY discouraging for that amount of exercise which is more than most people do anyway.

I cannot overstate the fact that dietary changes are super important!

Good diet is a big part of the reason our clients get results:

• A very overweight client dropped 17kg in 1 month of training
• Another large client dropped 9kg of weight, lost 12kg of fat and gained 3 kg of muscle in 2 months
• Yet another lost 10cm on his waist in just 5 weeks

This happens when the "switch" goes off and says... wow I better not be eating so much crap!

Singapore Fitness Coach: Mother's Day

Mom and I on the Nile river

Mother day! Yeah... my mom is great and her encouragement and love is a big reason that I feel like I can accomplish anything. Happy mother's day 2008!

Mom showing pretty good form on the single leg dead lift

Singapore Fitness Coach: Research Is a bit behind - Benefits of Jump Training

Jump Training - Men & Women, Boys and Girls, all our training programs have some form of reactive training

Part of any good training program (if you have no pre-existing medical problems) is "reactive" kind of training. That means jumping and bouncing stuff.

Besides being really good for fat-loss (try 25 burpees with a jump and see how your heart rate is!) they have an especially good other benefit, they improve bone density and mineral content. So ladies, say Bye Bye osteoporosis! And the good news is that the benefits last a long time. In the study, the benefits lasted more than 24 weeks after training stopped (and no... you shouldn't stop training).

But the results are clear (altho the study was done initially on rats...) reactive training has so many benefits, that if it is well coached and taught, it's a great addition to any training program.