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One of my clients texted me this morning. After reading the message, a wide smile appeared on my face. His sms read: "Did my run yesterday. Low: 9.0; High: 12.0 for 20 mins excl warmup n cooldown. Total distance around 4.7km"

This is definitely cause for celebration. I'm happy for him and I'm sure he's happy for himself too. Like what I said, it's always difficult starting something new. But once you get into the groove of things, it becomes second nature. I'm positive he's only going to love his runs even more if he continues to presevere. And of course, watch him lose his kilos effectively. Way to go!

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It's not uncommon for friends to lament that they run because they have to, not because they choose to. Is it really that torturous to run? After much consideration, my answer is I don't think so. It is definitely not.

Running should come as naturally to us as all our other daily activities like eating, talking, walking, sleeping and bathing. 

Remember how most of us started moving on uneven steps towards our parents when we were toddlers? Or even attempting to run away ahead of them when we were brought to the fun fair or playground? Yes, running is an innate ability that all of us possess. For some of us, we have just forgotten how it feels like to run.

You may not run like Asafa Powell setting new Olympic sprint record timings in the 2008 Beijing Olympics. You don't have to run like Powell or any other athlete. You just have to run, be yourself and have fun!

After putting a good pair of running shoes and doing your warm-up stretches, it's time to let your hair down and run!

Despite all the grouses, running is one of the most popular cardiovascular (or cardio for short) exercises as it's free. You can run practically anywhere - on the track, in the park, on the beach, on the treadmill, on the streets or around your neighbourhood.

The timings for your first few runs may be nothing much to shout about. In fact, they will be dismal. Maybe you will only be able to run for 5 minutes before you become breathless. This is perfectly normal. You slowly increase the run time from 5 minutes to 10 minutes and then beyond. Remember Rome wasn't built in a day.

Should you persevere, your stamina will increase gradually and that's when you will really start to enjoy your runs and the joy it brings. The feelings of breathlessness, tiredness and dizziness will dissipate as you continue with your runs on a regular basis. In its place, you will experience the feelings of freedom and exhilaration. Besides helping you to burn fat and expend the extra calories, running is truly therapeutic as you feel fresher and think more clearly after the run.

Heed my advice. Start running and hang in there. You will start loving it more. And when you do, you will run because you choose to.

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A new client told me he felt disappointed with himself after today's training as he had difficulty lifting the weights. "Don't give up on me ok?" he said.

I will never give up on any of my clients. More importantly, you must not give up on yourself. Everyone starts at a different training phase of their life. Some begin as fresh-faced novices with zero knowledge on how to workout while others are semi-professional gym-goers who take personal training to sculpt a better body.

Regardless of who you are, you have to start somewhere. For the fresh-faced novice, it's always a challenge initially getting used to the workout. After all, terms like rep, set, dropset, superset etc were alien to you until recently.  

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This may sound cliche but it works everytime I share it.

"If you think personal training is a stroll in the park, think again”. This is my favourite phrase of late. Besides commitment from both client and trainer, personal training also demands a lot of determination from the client. It is definitely not an hour of chit-chat time where you pour out all your sob stories, latest problems or complaints about colleagues or bosses to me.

Have you ever wondered why there are some people who work out at the gym for years and still remain scrawny or chubby? That’s because they spend too much time chatting up other people in the gym and neglecting the workout.

Sorry, in my personal training sessions, you will never get this. Yes, we will have some small talk but basically that’s about it. And more often than not, the small talk is created to elicit feedback from clients so that they are on the same wavelength as me. 

My role as a trainer or coach is to push you to the limits and be responsible for your improvement session after session. It is to make you do that extra rep that you know makes all the difference.

As your coach, I want to see you perspire as if you have never perspired in years because when you perspire, you flush out the toxins from your body. As your trainer, I want to see you become stronger each session. That's equally important. You must feel you have the gradual ability to lift better and heavier. 

It’s amazing how there are some who look at the weight and even before they start to push or lift, start forming negative thoughts in their minds which go ‘no, no, no way I can lift that’. Such self-defeating beliefs should be thrown out of the window as they impede your progress.

Believe me. I’m here to help you push through the barriers. I want to see you succeed because it is our common goal we are working towards. Let us embark on a meaningful and beautiful partnership :)

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Fitness has and will always be my passion. Nothing makes me happier and more alive than working out in the gym and doing my runs. The feeling is wonderful! I feel so alert after each exercise session.

So when it came to looking for my life direction, I already knew deep down what I wanted. I want to be able to spread the same love and enthusiasm I feel towards fitness to the people around me, hopefully infecting them with my energies.

When you are fit, you look and feel younger. I don’t look my age….thanks to fitness.

When you are fit, you are less prone to falling sick. That’s a lot of money saved!

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It's cool. It's hip. It's the latest happening thing in town. Yes, I'm talking about Zumba Fitness - a fusion of Latin and international music that forms the backbone of yet another new fitness system.

I've heard quite a bit about it from the media. And since it's come to Singapore, I thought I might as well try it out for myself. And so I did this evening.

Check myself in for the Zumba Fitness class I did. And boy was it a dynamic and exciting 45min exercise session from the minute 'go'. I've never had so much fun doing a class before. It was really beyond my wildest imagination.



Before I knew it, I was already swaying to the music and working out a big sweat. Yes, I knew I would perspire but I was astonished at the amount! I was literally wet after the first routine was over. Hmm...maybe this can be a good alternative to my runs.

I must admit I have two left feet. Dancing doesn't come easy to me. Even for the flamingo dance which I had to do as part of the Mister Singapore 2007 pageant, I practised extra hard just to perfect my moves. But this time round, I just flowed with the music. There was no stress of needing to get every move right. What mattered more was to just have fun. Yes, fun was the name of the entire session.

With its hypnotic latin fast slow alternating beats, head bobbing music and ever-changing dance moves gleaned from kickboxing, aerobics, resistance training, plyometrics, ballet and waltz, I was treated to an international fistful of rhythm and rhyme.

I was shaking my bons bons this very moment with much fervour not unlike Ricky Martin....only to transit into a pseudo well-tuxedoed gentleman doing a waltz dance....only to transit yet again into a lean and mean Muay Thai boxer delivering his deadly kicks and punches...only to transit again to professional stage dancer showcasing his sleek dance moves. My body was like a stream flowing gently, forcefully, gracefully, sharply at different intervals.

It really didn't matter if I couldn't get everything perfect. Sometimes my hands and feet were not even coordinated. But gradually, once my body got into the mood of things, the fun more than made up for it!

Zumba Fitness...I'm hooked :)

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