Singapore Personal Trainer - Fat loss, muscle building, performing better - Who wants to be average?

When first time visitors come to my gym, they often have similar goals. Fat loss, muscle gain, better performance, better health etc.

One of the questions they often ask is "what are the average results that people get".

That is a fair question. But not a very good one.

I'm not looking for people who want to be average! The commitment, time, energy, and money that you would spend on good coaching, should not leave you with an "average" experience, or average results.

Ask me "what is the BEST result you have ever seen" - and aim to be even better!

Signapore Fitness Coach - Sleep & Fat Loss Results

A short video clip as I share about how sleep affects fat loss.

Singapore Fitness Coach: Running - Really you don't need to do much of jogging

One of the best sayings is that "you don't run to get fit", you "get fit to run". Today one of my personal training clients experienced it first hand. Before joining the gym he had been running/jogging recreationally around his home. His usual route took him 25 mins.

After 2 months training with us, he tried the route just for fun and it took - 17 mins. This is a 8 minute improvment! 30% improvement! Outstanding.

He has gotten alot stronger in training and it is carrying over to running. Do you think, that even with 2 months of running training he could improve 8mins? I think not!

Just another example of running not being the best way to improve running...

Read more about why joggers need strength training here!

Singapore Fitness Coaching: Trans Fat - This comes as no suprise...

Trans fat is everywhere and you know its bad for you. Not even a gram is acceptable because your body can't process it.

Scary thought is that the FDA doesn't require food manufacturers to declare trans fat less than 0.5g per serving. So if you eat 10 servings of 0.4g of trans fat foods, you will get 4g of trans fat while "thinking" you get 0.

Another scary thing is that trans fat is VERY close (several molecules away) from PLASTIC. That makes the story above not a surprise at all.

If you eat trans fat foods - you might as well the plastic packaging as well!

cakes, cookies, crackers, pies, bread, potato chips, corn chips, popcorn, margarine, french fries... you get the idea!

Singapore Corporate Fitness: Real Life Lies and Misconceptions

The false stuff is still out there...

I was having lunch with some friends in the finance industry.

These are smart educated people who earn good money. But they still had some sommon misconceptions about fitness and how to get more of it.

But, they were open to learning and thats great news!

Here are some of the issues that came up:

Core stability? How do you train it? - Stability exercises not sit-ups

Nutrition basics - whoa! a calories is NOT a calorie... the Quality of calories matters alot!

Isolations, slow, machine exercises - Oops, those combine the 3 LEAST effective types into one time wasting program!

Jogging - dangerous and unproductive

Eating more often makes me... LEANER?

It's too big of a job to clear up all these misconceptions one by one. Good thing we have the internet and I have a website and newsletter (subscribe at the bottom of the blog page) that can help spread the news!

Coach Jonathan Wong: Father's Day 2008

Dad And I in Doha, Qatar

My father lives 6000km away from me. He works in a bank in the middle east. But that is what success as a parent is right... leaving your kids with the confidence that they are prepared for whatever the world throws at them!

My dad set all of us kids up for success by providing a stable and loving family environment. Thats way more important that any material provision.

My dad really has been "teaching" me to fish rather than giving me the fish and making it too easy.

Even really simple but important stuff like valuing money so that I don't waste it...

Nowdays, lots of kids have fancy shoes and clothes. While I did not really desire those things I did notice that many of my primary school classmates had them while I did not. I know that my dad was not poor so it was not about the cost of the items.

It was about the fact that my feet were growing and I would waste shoes by not using them to their full potential.

Simple stuff like that goes a long way in teaching wisdom... and thats just a small example

Thanks dad! Happy fathers day 2008.

Singapore Fitness Coach: Veggie Omelette

This recipie is probably not going to make waves like the 0 carb bread will... but its still a good way to get veggies into your meals. Veggies are important due to their many nutrients and their alkalinity (explained here).

• Mixed veggies of your liking: Broccoli, peppers, onions, cucumbers, cherry tomattoes... whatever
• Mushrooms
• Cheese
• Eggs

Pan fry or microwave till the chesse melts.

Singapore Fitness Coach: Zero Carb Bread - Thanks to Chef Dawn for the idea

Ingredients can be any amount but keep the ratios about:
1 scoop protein powder : 0.75 egg : 1 tbs water

Mix it up and fry in a non stick/buttered up pan. Flip it over when one side browns. After flipping, leave on a low flame till it rises. Then its done!

It tastes like bread, rises in the pan like bread.

Post workout, add some fruit or jam.

Rest of the day add some natural peanut butter.

This recipe is going to save alot of dieters alot of suffering. At first I couldn't beleive it myself but it really is bread!

Singapore Fitness Coach: Supplement Update

I have just started taking a old fashioned supplement. It used to be sold in Singapore, but its cheap and I think the profit margins are low so the local supplement distributors don't carry it.

I first read about it on Charles Poliquin's site, and how it will help digestion and absorbtion of food. So that the nutritious food and good supplements which I am already eating, can be properly absorbed and not go to waste (literally down the toilet).

It is Hydrochloric acid. Good for dissolving metals...and good for digesting food.

(don't worry, our stomach linings protect us from it while still allowing digestion to go on inside the stomach... yet another brillitantly designed piece of body machinery)

So far from the tests I have done, I think I was quite defficient in this stomach acid.

I suspect many other people are deficient too.

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 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.

Singapore Fitness Coach: This is madness - stop whining!

I heard this story on the radio on my away to work today. It's nonsense. This prisoner in the USA filed a prisoner civil rights lawsuit against the government. Why? because hes losing weight in prison where is is charged with murder!

He lost more than 80kg from 180+ to 140kg... and hes complaining? He should be thankful.

Singapore Personal Trainer: Obesity, Greater girth, shortened life

No shock here. Being obese, tubby or just plain fat not only makes you more likely to be dumber in your later years, it makes your later years lesser as well (i.e. you die younger). While this is no surprise...

It is something to worry about because this is probably the first time in recent history where the life expectancy is dropping!

Yes. The cigarette manufacturers are selling you the sticks of death...

Yes. The food manufacturers are selling you food that has nitrates, trans-fats and environmental toxins that kill ya...

Yes. We live in stressful Singapore where work hours are long and time is short...

But No that doesn't mean that we can forget about taking care of ourselves. We can always make the hard choices that lead to better health. We can't take care of our families or loved ones if we don't.

I don't think of time/money invested training and eating as "spent". I think of it as "saved"... saved on medical bills, and saved on a future low quality life!

Singapore Fitness Coach: Mental Toughness

I like competing and coaching sport. The MOST frustrating thing is mental weakness. Letting emotions determine play, fearing the opponent and the situation, getting affected by poor officiating, negative communication between teamates or between players and coach... all these are signs of mental weakness.

As a fitness professional I see the same things in clients. As coaches at my company Genesis Health & Performance, we help people overcome these mental and attitude difficulties as well as their physical ones!

Stuff like:
"I have to eat what my grandmother cooks" - and it's oily starchy food
"I don't have time to eat regular meals" - because my work is so stressful
"Training is tough!" - but you have to make up for the next 47 hours where you will be sitting at a desk!
AND SO on and on...

But there is nothing wrong with that. All top performers have coaches. Michael Jordan, Tiger Woods, etc. Having coaching is just a means to the correct end. Just like a good pair of running shoes or a better tennis racket.

How's your mental toughness?

Singapore Fitness Coach: Persistance (Green Eggs and Ham)

You know, part of being a coach is helping people push through tough times. Helping them to persevere and to be persistent.

Just like the Dr Seuss Book about green eggs and ham. "Sam I am" tells his friend all about green eggs and ham and how wonderful they are and asks his friend to eat them.

Over

and Over

and Over

and Over again...

16 times to be exact...

and finally his friend gives in!

How persistent are you with your fitness goals? A minor injury set you back? The diet didn't get you as lean as you had hoped? Your co workers are not supportive of your healthy eating?

16 times!

And you can even get somebody to eat green eggs.

Something to think about huh!

Singapore Fitness Coach: Observation - Start Health with younger population

sI am very grateful that my company and I appeared in the March 2008 edition of Pioneer Magazine. The reason I managed to get that publicity is because of my free ippt-website that helps all national servicemen of all ages and fitness levels do well in their IPPT test.

But I was thinking that I could do even better (always trying to do better!) and my next project will be a NAPFA website for youth fitness. I myself had big NAPFA problems in the past. Especially for the 2.4km run as well as the sit and reach. I'm gonna build this site so I can help young people do well in this test.

Learning how to train correctly and effectively at a young age builds confidence and competence. Confidence and competence build compliance. And that leads to long term health.

Singapore Personal Trainer: Individual Needs Met in a group setting

The whole idea of "personal training" means that its... ahem personal. That is why we do assessments, and individual program design. But think about it, do karate instructors train mostly in groups or as individuals? Groups! What about swimming, groups, what about sports teams even at international levels? They do their conditioning in groups!

Groups allow me to keep costs down yet within our groups we meet individual needs to correct imbalances, as well as fix posture and movement problems. This seems to be a win win for everybody.

The best part is the social support. Remember that we are the average of the 5 people we spend the most time with, so spending time consistently with a group of people who are going to do the right thing for their future and their health is going to be good for you.

As opposed to going it alone...

Our group classes are affordable and effective. Click here up for a free consult to see if our groups can meet your fitness and performance needs.

Singapore Personal Trainer: Obesity and Brain Function

Yeah as a personal trainer and fitness coach here in Singapore, its my job to tell people exactly how bad obesity is. It leads to more sick days and costs employers money. So its bad for the country and the economy.

If you don't care about your boss and how much he earns... you should at least care about your brain because nobody's responsible for that except you.

New research shows obesity linked to increased chance of dementia in old age! Ugh. thats SCARY!

Like just about every major illness in developed countries, it goes away with diet and exercise... no surprises there!