After the very successful partnership with StanChart since last year for some of their corporate lunchtime talks, Citibank has now asked me to partner with them. Today marks the first of such partnerships in the series of ‘Citi at Work – Corporate Grooming Talk’.

With a new working partner and exploring a new building that is the Mapletree Business City, I’m off to Norvatis to share with approximately 60 employees who signed up for this teatime talk.

To me, the numbers are immaterial – whether it is 1 participant or 100 participants, the show will still go on. The only difference is that with more people, you can feel the energy and buzz in the room when the participants discuss and share ideas. It is really infectious as it gets me high always.





After the brief introduction by the recreation club chairman, it was all systems go! In the seminar room where there was a good mix of both males and females, I spoke on how to create a corporate look effortlessly.

More and more companies are realizing the need to organize such talks for their staff on a regular basis. Whether it is for the sales staff who need to run around sharing their latest products with potential clients, or staff doing the backend and frontend, putting up a positive first impression is one of paramount importance as you represent the company. That was precisely also why I was requested to include a special segment on how I could help improve the image of the receptionist.

It is perhaps the worst kept secret that the receptionist is the first person one sees when one walks into any company. Similarly, the sales personnel from the company is the first contact point for many of us. We do not encounter the director nor CEO. But it is often the point of contact that makes or breaks the deal.

Can you imagine a receptionist or sales rep who looks disheveled, tired and uncoordinated? I certainly can. Does this augur well for the transaction that is about to happen next? Very often or not, it does not.

In an increasingly complex world when a premium is paid on what one wears and what one says, the art of presentation, needless to say, is an art in itself. When you dress well and present well, your self-confidence automatically moves up a notch higher.

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If you’ve always thought the public gyms were the poorer cousins of the private gyms, perhaps it’s time to rethink that again.

Situated conveniently around the island, the 15 (and soon more to come I believe) Clubfitt gyms have been slowly, but surely undergoing a renewal of sorts of its own.

Imagine our pleasant surprise today at Toa Payoh Clubfitt Gym when both my client and myself saw gleaming, new weights. Like a kid finding new candy bars in the store, it was indeed a welcome sight.


The new barbell weights on the rack


The new rubberised dumbells

In a world where the old is always discarded when the new is in, we particularly appreciate it that the old weights (which by now have become slightly rusty) have not been removed. Instead, they are still serving their loyal users, alongside the newer batch of barbells and dumbbells. So now you have two racks – one rack housing the old weights made entirely of steel and another rack housing the rubberised new weights.

Then a few days later when I dropped by Delta Clubfitt Gym for another fitness training, I too saw the same new weights there. I guess the upgrading of the gym facilities should be a common sight across all 15 Clubfitt Gyms.

The renewal of weights is a positive sign of even better things to come in the future. After all, fitness is for all and not only for the rich. So for those who are reluctant to sign up for a private club membership, there’s always your good old Clubfitt Gym friend to fall back upon. And if you do see me there conducting personal training, do come up and say hi :)

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Living in a world where we are constantly surrounded by people, it does not matter if we like to give ours a good impression or not. We have to! After knowing how to impress using our clothes, the next step is to impress through giving a solid presentation each and every time. Think of the presentation as our own sales pitch selling our own brand.

So if it’s the Lionel brand, then it’s all about Lionel and what he does, whether it is conducting grooming workshops, teaching fitness trainings or transforming lives of others in one way or another. If it’s your own brand, how would you want to brand yourself?

This in essence summed up what I shared with the 8 participants in the “Effective Speaking Skills” talk today at NXP Semiconductors Singapore. Unknown to many, NXP Semiconductors Singapore is actually a subsidiary of Philips Singapore. Nestled in the Toa Payoh estate, NXP Semiconductors Singapore is like a quiet sanctuary of its own, thanks to the sheltered overhead bridges linking all four buildings together, overseeing the busy roads below.

I teach grooming and fitness as not only are they my passion, but they are also what I excel at. So what do you excel at?

When you excel at something, you are either naturally good at it because it is an innate talent of yours. Otherwise you are good at it because it is something you are schooled through the years – think either through the years in school or work.



I loved it when one female participant shared that one of her natural talents was sleeping. So she could talk on and on, all about the benefits of sleeping. Although many in the audience laughed, but we have to give her credit for sharing. She hit the nail on the head. To deliver an effective presentation, one must always choose something of direct relevance to one’s career or passion. If you ask me to speak on sewing, I would definitely feel like a fish out of water. Worse, I would come across as 100% unauthentic and unconvincing. In her case, because she loves sleeping, the enthusiasm and sheer amount of information that she can share will be voluminous. She will speak with confidence. Excellent!

Secondly, to sustain interest in a presentation, one should not attempt to cram too much information in it. The human brain is not designed to cope with more information. So when information overload kicks in, we automatically switch off. My advice is to keep it to a maximum of three points. Go beyond the magical number of three and watch the interest of the audience wane off and worse, others doze off!



And to put what I preach into practice, my last point would be practise, practise, practise! No respectable speaker or trainer gives a talk without rehearsing and polishing it until the speech shines. Every word chosen, every exercise developed, every pause dramatically designed has been beta-tested finite times. If they do so, all the more you should too!

Wanting to equip yourself with great oratorical skills is not difficult. All you need to do is to truly understand what makes you rock and capitalise on that! If you need help on this, then speak to me :)

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I always believe being able to share my knowledge with others is a blessing. And being able to multiply that many times and share with 320 students is a huge blessing. This was what awaited me at Edgefield Secondary School this morning.

I was invited to the school to talk to the Secondary 1 students on health and fitness.



Walking into the school hall and being introduced on stage in front of a big group felt like a far-fetched dream years ago. After all, wasn’t I the shy, introverted, pock-marked face hermit?

Fast forward to today and I have shed all inhibitions and have turned my life around. Today, I stand among others in my own rights as a trainer who continues to inspire and break new grounds.

Being one of the newest kids on the block, Edgefield Secondary School recently welcomed its first batch of Secondary 1 students in 2011. In the same vein, I’m truly privileged to be a role model for the students who have chosen this school and my programme.



I recall the words of Lao Tzu, the ancient philosopher. He once famously remarked that ‘a journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.’ This is so, so true.

Just like how we often hesitate to do some things because they are often low on our priority list, the same measure goes for some of us when it comes to health and fitness. Unfortunately, health and fitness is not something that we can relegate to the bottom of the list. Numerous studies have shown that the earlier we start working on our health and fitness, the more long-term benefits we will reap. Our body is the temple of our soul, where it all begins.

Twelve year old kids, being kids are so full of energy. And it’s such a waste to see them waste the energy away on worthless pursuits. That was precisely why the school teachers decided to organize a health and fitness talk for them today. Indeed, the aim was to start them early on this lifelong journey so that they would appreciate their bodies better.

And children, being children, will promptly volunteer when asked to. That was what I experience first-hand when I asked them to share what they ate for breakfast this morning, dinner last night and lunch yesterday. And little did I expect that they would be so enthusiastic to want to run to the stage to share.



From her sharing and what I observed the students wrote down in their handouts, it dawned upon me that a large number of them do not have breakfast at all in the morning. This is most unfortunate as breakfast is the most important meal in the entire day. Going without breakfast is like a car running without fuel. You can still move a few steps forward but your response will be slowed down and worse, it might even stall. In the same way, as children are still growing, they definitely need all the nutrients to grow healthy and wise.

Not one to only harp on theoretical stuff, I always make it a point to further engage the participants by incorporating useful, practical exercises that they can use immediately.

First up was my demo before the students got into doing their act.



Here's a bird's eye view of the students doing their leg lifts to help tone their tummy :)

And for students who want to revise what they learnt today, simply login to Edgefield Secondary School's online portal and answer the health and fitness quiz there. The questions and answers are all based on my teachings today. Happy quizzing, everybody!

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I’m back at Raffles Place today, walking among the hustle and bustle of the lunch crowd. And I’m headed for First Gulf Bank, located at UOB Plaza to give a talk on ‘Eliminating Back Pain’.

One of my health and fitness talk topics, companies wanting to help their staff better handle back pain issues have been on the rise lately. This is not surprising as most of our waking hours are spent in the office – think typing away furiously at our desktops or laptops; carrying heavy meeting files or that briefcase; or our tendency to slouch in our chairs when we sit. Whatever the reason is, I was glad to witness the enthusiasm of the small but energetic crowd today.

In life, there will always be people who choose to go for their lunch or shop around town. But there will always also be people who will be more than willing to better invest their time to learn new skills and acquire new knowledge. I truly applaud the second group of people. That’s because when we continue to learn, we continue to grow.



Standing in the boardroom dressed in comfy gym wear and seeing the rest in executive wear (some of the men were in ties as well) brought back memories of the past. I was once like them working in a similar environment.  I can relate to back pain very well as long hours of sitting in front of the computer and rushing tight deadlines were the twin evils that gave me stiff shoulders, aches and pains.

But if you think back pain cannot be cured by yourself, think again. Unless it is a chronic back pain which lasts for more than 12 weeks, normal back pain can be and should be healed naturally.

It is the worst kept secret that our lower backs and necks are often the victims.

I would recommend the right stretching exercises to loosen up the muscles and further prescribe gym exercises to strengthen the weakened back. With a combination of the right methods, one can definitely kiss neck pain goodbye.



To show how easy it was, I got the group to massage their colleagues. Initially, all were hesitant and shy. But once someone got into massage mode and started squeezing the shoulder blades (which are one of the most strained areas of our back), others followed suit. When it came to round two of massage, all I could see were smiling faces and compliments of how comfortable it felt.

Just by giving each other a massage or simply rotating your shoulder blades, one is already on the way to eliminating neck pain.

Have fun practising your new skills, everybody :)

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Almost one month has passed and the local fitness world is still abuzz with much disbelief. How could such a freak incident happen? The odds were like one in a million.

The headlines scream "Fitness Trainer's Jaw Shattered By 200kg Weights".



Naturally, with such a sensational headline, one would be tempted to read on, right?

A seasoned personal trainer with eight years of experience under his belt, Jonathan was doing leg presses in the gym. Fate has it that when he was about to get off the machine, the weights were believed to have slipped off the locks, shattering his jaw completely.

On hindsight, one would immediately point the finger of blame to the gym club management. Why didn’t they conduct routine checks on the machines to ensure they were in good, working condition?

Without learning the truth about what happened and just reading about it from newspaper reports and the daily tabloids, some would certainly draw the conclusion that the gym is a high risk potential area for everyone and one should avoid it.

Yes, granted that in any exercise which we undertake, if we don’t stretch to warm up prior to it or fail to use the machine as it is designed to be used, then the odds of getting injured is increased multifold.

If you ask me, why do I even bother to write this blog entry about this freak incident? It’s because of the erroneous reports that are circulating.

When I learnt the inside story of what exactly happened that led to the injury, I cannot use the same pair of sympathetic glasses which I had been wearing before this on Jonathan.

To a large extent, Jonathan deserved it. He misused the machine. In fact, he abused it.

A smith machine is designed to allow one to train certain body parts, notably the chest and shoulders. Would anybody in the right frame of mind use it to train his legs?

If there’s anyone who would, it would only be Jonathan. 

It is highly ironic that a personal trainer who had taken courses in gym safety lay on the bench of a smith machine, propped his legs onto the bar of it and moved the bar up and down to train his legs, in particular his thighs and butt.

If this is not stupidity, what is? If you want to train your thighs and butt, do squats, leg presses or lunges.

And if you ask me again, I’m not surprised at all he got badly injured. If we stick to using machines or weights as they are designed, we will be much better off, both physique wise and health wise.

Train well, my friends. And most importantly, train safely. If you need a pair of safe hands to spot you or professional help to guide you in your gym routines, speak to my team now :)

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Although we have brand names like Gap, Guess and Fox having a specific clothes line for kids, but these are still foreign brands. Just when I thought there was a dearth of local brands for kids, I was in for a pleasant surprise when I chanced upon this local shop in town selling clothes for kids. Mind you, they were not the normal shirts for boys featuring Disney characters such as Mickey Mouse or Donald Duck. They were also not the normal shirts for boys with robots and other Transformers figurines printed on them.

Instead, what I saw delighted me as the polo T-shirts in front of me were exactly in line with what I teach my male participants in my grooming workshops, especially for slim and slender guys. Because of the horizontal strips, these shirts on skinny men will help them broaden their shoulders and look like inverted triangles. Looking like an inverted triangle should be the goal of all men as that is the most ideal body shape for guys.

More importantly, the colours I saw also excited me. Yes, the classic and safe colours such as white, blue and black were still available. But alongside these colours, I saw other colours such as green and pink. Now that’s definitely a move in the right direction. Like what I always teach, wear only your best colours.

Summing up my fruitful find, I always ponder why parents love to dress up their boys exactly the same way as other boys are dressed. Is it because one needs to blend with the crowd to gain acceptance?

If I have my own boy to dress, I’ll make sure he stands out instead and chooses something that not only looks good on him, but also flatters his body shape.

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