Mobile Personal Trainer in Kuala Lumpur (KL), Cyberjaya and Putrajaya.

Hard but Short or Long but Soft - What's Your Preference?

noreply@blogger.com (Jason Lee Kang Xian) — Sat, 02 Jun 2012 07:41:00 +0000

The question above is only asked in the context of designing a training program with fat loss in mind. Nothing more and nothing less.

When it comes to fat loss, there are a lot of misleading claims such as eating a certain food, eating in a certain way (crash diet) or even doing a certain exercise only. Truth to be told and to keep things simple for every reader - it is energy consumption and energy expenditure that matters. In another word, how much energy is consumed by you through your food intake, and how much energy is used by you through your physical activity, regardless whether it is a conscious effort to exercise or just walking at the shopping mall.

But when it comes to exercise, in order for the body to burn fat more effectively, we'll need to understand how the body works during exercise. This will allow us to engage in exercise in a more efficient manner rather than just running like a headless chicken.

Our body will vary between carbohydrates and fat as energy source during exercise with exercise intensity as the main factor that will decide the use of carbohydrate or fat.Stored carbohydrate in our muscles (glycogen) are being utilized as energy source during exercise. But because stored glycogen is limited, prolonged exercise or high intensity exercise will deplete glycogen levels and our body will rely on fat as energy source.

In order for the body to tap into fat as energy source during exercise, here are some suggestion for you;

Go Hard, but Shorter - Interval Training.

Interval training is where your exercise program is designed for you to engage in a bursts of high intensity level exercises followed by recovery which could either be a complete rest or active recovery by engaging in low intensity level exercise. Here are some example of how an interval training can be designed;

30 Kettlebell Swings followed by 30 bodyweight squat (active recovery) - repeat this for at least 5 rounds.
30 Kettlebell Swings followed by 30 seconds Plank (active recovery) - repeat this for at least 5 rounds.
100 meter sprint followed by walk back to starting line (active recovery) - repeat this for 8 rounds.

Usually these exercises are completed in less than one hour which would be an ideal choice for exercisers who are lacking of time.

Go Soft, but Longer - Steady State Training.

Steady state exercises are performed at a lower intensity level that would allow you to sustain it for a period of time. For instance, Cycling and running for 60minutes or more.

* The above is just a general suggestion and may not be suitable for everyone depending on various factors. For assistance in designing effective, safe workouts, consult with a certified personal trainer.

Personal Note
I personally do not like Steady State type of exercise due to the adaptation that quickly builds up which causes plateau. And usually the only way to break off the plateau in steady state exercises is to increase the duration of exercise, which is time consuming and boring to me. Besides that there are various published studies that reported the better standing of interval training over steady state training.

Fitology - Simple yet Effective Fitness

noreply@blogger.com (Jason Lee Kang Xian) — Fri, 11 May 2012 17:55:00 +0000

Early this year a fellow industry mate decided to setup a new fitness establishment by the name of Fitology, with a Fitlosophy of Effective Fitness, Made Simple, delivered via their signature program called Fitology 360 - Fitness, Detoxify, Sports Therapy, Nourishment, all IN ONE.

Here's how it works;

360° fitness programme covers the key elements of physical wellness under one roof:

Step One: Exercise; for cardiovascular fitness and muscular strength
Step Two: Far Infrared Sauna; for detoxification, boosting metabolism and tissue repair
Step Three: Delicious Smoothies; for nourishment
Step Four: Sports Therapy: for flexibility and restoring balance to your musculo-skeletal system

Source

I was honored a trial session of the Fitology 360. Let me share my experience with you.

Step One: The Fitology 360 program's step one is a 30 minute personal training. My assigned personal trainer was my fellow friend, Bruce whom I know previously know from the old gym I was training at, he's a real nice soft spoken trainer, one of the most down to earth trainers that I know.

Fitology is equipped with 5 machines - Marpo V250 Rope Trainer, Ab Coaster, Jacobs Ladder, Arc Trainer and a water rowing machine. Some of these machines may sound foreign to you, so do drop by Fitology to check them out.

Jacobs Ladder

Started the session with warm up and joint mobility exercises, I was then put on a 3 round circuit that consist of 30 seconds of rope pulling down, 60 seconds of pulling up on the V250 rope trainer, 10 repetitions on the Ab Coaster, 45 seconds on the Jacob's Ladder and 1 minute of rowing. The workout was scaled just nice for me considering I got only 4 hours of sleep the night before and neglecting my cardio training and have only been lifting weights wasn't helpful either.

Marpo V250 Rope Trainer

Step Two: After the workout, I was introduced to the FIR Thermal System. It's the detoxifying session. It is said that any toxin accumulations in our body will be flushed out through sweating while using the FIR Thermal System.

It was also a 30 minutes session, any longer than 30 minutes is not recommended for safety purposes. Towards the last 10 minutes I felt dizzy inside the FIR Thermal System. It's said to be normal as our body is going through physiological changes. During the 30 minutes, I was also advised to keep hydrating myself by drinking water while staying inside the FIR Thermal System. I consumed about 1 litre of water in that 30 minutes.

The FIR Thermal System was placed inside a air-conditioned room. So the best part was when 30 minutes was up, opening the door and stepping out of the machine, into the air-conditioned room. Heaven!

Step Three: I was served a smoothie by Bruce! They have 3 types of smoothie for you to choose for different purposes - detox, re-energizing and fat burn. It was really refreshing to gulp down a icy cold smoothie after a workout and a detox session.

Step Four: I was introduced to Nizam, the masseur from Bali. He's not your usual therapist who will massage you from step A to Z ala standard operation procedure style. He somehow have the 6th sense, knowing which are he needs to work depending on your body. Nizam had a spot on when he said I have stomach problem. He did not even ask me anything. The 1 hour session was focused on my tight shoulders and lower back, and a therapeutic massage to fix my stomach problem. Trust me, I went to Fitology with a bloated feeling on my stomach, after my massage session with Nizam, the bloated feeling was no longer there.

The whole Fitology 360 session takes up about 2 hours - 30 minutes of personal training, 30 minutes of detox and 1 hour of massage. On my humble Beurer PM40 heart rate monitor, it shows that 548 calories was burned from the 30 minutes personal training session and 30 minutes detox session.

Overall the Fitology 360 is a great program for the general population, especially those who hates hardcore workout at the gym, this program is for you. Simple, but effective. If you think 2 hours is too time consuming for you, you may opt for Fitology Express sessions that consist of 30 minutes personal training, 30 minutes detox in the FIR Thermal System and finishing the session with a smoothie. Equally effective as well in my opinion. But of course, don't expect the magic pill for a quick fix.

Besides, what I like about the machines used at Fitology is that they do not restrict natural movement. Those who have worked with me will know I'm a fitness professional who advocate the use of equipments that promotes strong functional movement, you know how much I avoid machine based exercises that doesn't promote functional movement.

If you are around Bangsar area, do drop by to visit Fitology at Jalan Riong off Jalan Maarof. Not to be confused with Jalan Riong near NST though. See the map below.

Fitology on Facebook

Get Fit with Sports, or Get Fit for Sports?

noreply@blogger.com (Jason Lee Kang Xian) — Wed, 18 Apr 2012 19:38:00 +0000

One common advice I always hear people giving to overweight people is You Should Play Some Sports or Go and run. While they are advice given out of good intention for them to lose weight, but if these overweight people were to take up this advice, they are at risk of injury in many ways, due to being physically unconditioned.

The reason I'm pointing particularly at overweight people who are physically deconditioned in this post, is because from my experience it is these people who are more likely to engage in sports or running to lose weight. Whereas people who are skinny and normal weight think that they are healthy and there is no need for physical activity. Bear in mind there are many skinny and normal weight people who are deconditioned too, but we'll talk about them later.

The term physical decondition itself vary from one context to another, but we'll discuss physical decondition in the general fitness aspect. I believe most fitness professionals will cite the 4 fitness components of muscular strength & endurance, cardiovascular endurance, flexibility and body composition as defined by American College of Sports Medicine, but I'll define it as dysfunctional movement patterns due to musculoskeletal dysfunction. In another word, the inability to move your body the way it's supposed to move due to musculoskeletal dysfunction.

First we’ll look at muscle balance which is related to posture. Muscle imbalance will cause postural deviation which leads to movement dysfunction. When moving in a dysfunctional manner over time, it will result in pain or even injury.

I’ll explain this from the kinetic chain concept. The kinetic chain is a system that consists of the nervous system, muscular system and skeletal system. All these components work together to create human movement. If any components from the kinetic chain system is not working properly, other components will be affected which results in movement dysfunction. In this case muscle imbalance (muscular system imbalance) causes postural deviation (skeletal system deviation).

When a physically deconditioned person engages in sports or even running itself, they are at risk of stressing and overloading their joints, tendons and ligaments due to an imbalanced muscular and skeletal system. For example; a person with Lordosis whose hip flexors are tight and abdominal muscles are weak will not have the full ability to raise their leg as high as possible, this person would not be able to execute a kick without stressing the knee joint and ligaments if Taekwondo or Kickboxing was this person’s choice of way to lose weight. Another example would be muscle imbalance on the quadriceps and hamstring which has a direct effect on the knee. Due to the nature that these muscles are required to work together when you are standing, walking, running and even jumping – all these are movements required in sports, there is a high chance for knee injury to occur due to inadequate muscle strength of the physically deconditioned.

Besides the kinetic chain and dysfunctional movement patterns, another concern for the physically deconditioned is their cardiovascular capacity. When cardiovascular is mentioned people will usually think about stamina or how long you can run. But on a detailed level, the heart's health has to be taken into consideration as well. The heart tissue, heart rate and stroke volume are factors to be looked at. A deconditioned heart is usually small and weak and has a high volume of beats per minute, usually 80 beats and above per minute. The weaker your heart means the more your heart requires to beat to push blood out to your body system.

While I started this post talking about overweight people who are physically deconditioned, but this write up is also applied to people who are skinny or normal weight who usually think that they are fine. But in actual fact most of them are not.

Take home message:
Sports are physically demanding task. You should properly condition yourself physically before engaging in sports. Get fit for sports instead of get fit with sports. The latter expose you to a higher risk of injury.

(Guest Post) Fitting In Fitness by David Haas

noreply@blogger.com (Jason Lee Kang Xian) — Mon, 02 Apr 2012 15:19:00 +0000

This post is my blog's first ever guest post entry by David Haas who is member in a cancer support group and awareness program advocate at the Mesothelioma Cancer Alliance.

Just about everyone knows that physical fitness is good for the body. Fewer people know that it is also good for the mind and soul. Even fewer people know that only 150 minutes per week of moderate exercise is enough to keep them physically fit and reduce their risk of certain types of cancer by as much as 40 percent; this is in addition to their lowered risk of other potential diseases such as heart disease and diabetes. People that are already suffering from cancer, even the rare forms of cancer, such as mesothelioma, can benefit from moderate exercise for 150 minutes each week.

In the past, doctors encouraged their cancer patients to rest and reserve their energy. That has changed drastically in the past few years; more and more doctors and encouraging cancer patients to get up and get active to make them feel better as they undergo cancer treatments. The reason for this is that fitness makes people feel better about themselves; it also helps to decrease the side effects that are often associated with cancer treatments. A person that exercises regularly will experience less vomiting, less nausea and less fatigue from the cancer treatments being put into their bodies than someone that does not get regular physical fitness into their daily routine.

Furthermore, fitness can help to improve a cancer patient’s quality of life in other ways. Exercise produces endorphins that eliminate the negative hormones from a person’s body that are hindering their immune system. This helps the immune system to build back up to its healthy level, which makes it respond better to cancer treatments. Fitness also improves mood. A person that exercises is more likely to feel happy and positive than someone that does not exercise. Fitness is an all around great method of making a person feel good; it helps the body look better and become stronger, it helps improve health and it helps a person feel happy and confident. All of these are important in terms of fighting cancer.

Those that don’t like to work out shouldn’t worry; 150 minutes a week of physical fitness can be anything moderate, from walking to jogging to swimming and even biking. Just over 21 minutes per day will have a person reaching their optimum level of health in no time. The best way to get fit is for people to pick something they enjoy doing, such as rollerblading or playing football. The more a person enjoys the activity in which he or she is participating, the more he or she will participate and the healthier that person will become. There is no wrong way to get fit; the only thing wrong is choosing not to get fit.

About David Haas

David Haas is a cancer support group and awareness program advocate at the Mesothelioma Cancer Alliance. In addition to researching the many valuable programs available to our site’s visitors, David often blogs about programs and campaigns underway at the Mesothelioma Cancer Alliance, as well as creative fitness ideas for those dealing with cancer, while creating relationships with similar organizations.

http://www.mesothelioma.com/blog/authors/david/bio.htm

My Personal Experience from Interning in a Non-Fitness Related Company - Part 3/3

noreply@blogger.com (Jason Lee Kang Xian) — Fri, 30 Mar 2012 20:09:00 +0000

This post will be my last post on my internship experience segment.

In case you didn't know, the company that I was attached to emphasized highly that their employees have to be physically fit due to the demands and nature of cooperate trainer's job. They actually hire a fitness instructor to conduct a group exercises for them once a week, on top of that most employees engage on their own running routine, which is not good.

Yes, you are not reading any mistake(s) here, but running or better known as jogging to some, is not going to bring you any good in the long term. While its true running helps you to lose weight, especially for people who made a transition from sedentary lifestyle to active lifestyle, but bear in mind, you lose weight from fat at the same time breaking down muscles tissues which correlates with metabolic rate. Losing fat will be a big challenge after you establish your running routine for sometime. Long-Steady state type of cardio (eg: Jogging/Running) isn't the best thing to do especially if you are looking at fat loss. I'll explain about this in details in a separate post.

Meanwhile, hardcore runners should drop by to read John Kiefer's write up on Women: Running into Trouble and you might want to reconsider about running as your only fitness routine.

My Personal Experience from Interning in a Non-Fitness Related Company - Part 2/3

noreply@blogger.com (Jason Lee Kang Xian) — Sun, 25 Mar 2012 17:46:00 +0000

During my internship attachment period, one of the most common concerns among my colleagues was about putting on weight. Good thing is they don't just talk, complain and worry about it; they actually take precaution steps to prevent unwanted weight gain by exercising and making a certain choices of food to eat.

Unfortunately, without the right knowledge, some of them are living with misconception that might produce counterproductive results instead. Here are the 4 things I observed;

Firstly, no breakfast. The importance of breakfast is so great that the first thing I do when I wake up at 4am is to prepare 4 half boiled eggs, a cup of espresso and a protein shake before I train my first client at 5:30am. Yet some of them in the office skip breakfast thinking it will help in losing weight, but unfortunately that isn't helpful for fat loss due to reduced metabolism rate and the defense mechanism of the body to conserve body fat when starved.

Secondly, those who don't skip breakfast make a mistake by choosing low fat processed foods that are perceived as healthy. Can't blame them for living with the misconception since the media and advertisements portray these foods as healthy foods after all. While it is true that most of these food will have a lower fat content printed on their nutrition facts, but sugar is used to make up for taste when fat is reduced. The amount of sugar in every serving is not going to help in reducing calories intake. Not only it doesn't help in losing weight, but by consuming these foods with high sugar content, their body system will sooner or later suffer the side effects from sugar.

Thirdly, bad choice of snacks. Cookies, chips, sweet chocolates, sugared beverages are the preferred choices for snacks. Whereas I would eat some nuts and a cup of black coffee without sugar. Sometimes I would buy take away snacks like fresh spring rolls or a serving of chicken breast when I go out for my lunch. Well, okay, occasionally I would take 1 or 2 pieces of cookies.

Last but not least, drinking anything but water. Well, what I meant is that some of them will be drinking coffee (caffeinated), carbonated drinks and sweetened drinks (manufactured beverages) but only consuming as much as 1 liter of water or lesser throughout the day I see them in the office. Not only that they are consuming unnecessary calories from these drinks, but they also face a bigger health risk from dehydration. Dehydration takes place from the consumption of caffeinated and manufactured beverages due to the various response by the body when substances from caffeinated and manufactured beverages enters the body. Above that, we were working in an air-conditioned office and facing the computer throughout the day which is another cause for dehydration.

Take home message:
If any of the 4 misconception above sounds like part of your life style, you may want to review your eating habits. Be careful with your eating habit. They play a major role in determining how your body will look and function.

My Personal Experience from Interning in a Non-Fitness Related Company - Part 1/3

noreply@blogger.com (Jason Lee Kang Xian) — Wed, 14 Mar 2012 00:02:00 +0000

Consider the following situation; I get into office by 10am, turn on my laptop that's loaned by the company and start doing whatever is given by my supervisor. At about 12pm or sometimes 1pm, I'll go out for lunch with my colleagues. Usual place to eat is hawker center, sometimes in noodle shops (yuck!).

I'll get back to office after lunch which usually takes less than 60 minutes. Once I get back into office, it's all sitting again, until 6pm, where I will be the first to leave office, rushing through the traffic jam for my next PT session.

Starting from 10am until 6pm, that's about 8 hours of sitting.

End of the day, I'll feel the side effects of it. I felt lethargic, lower back ache, tight hips and stiff shoulders. I get all these side effects even I've done everything I need to from; getting up and walk as often as possible, perform the cobra pose to reduce the stress on my lower back, rotating my arms and retracting my shoulders to counter the effect from using the keyboard. But, all the side effects were still there, could have been worst if I didn't do anything. Honestly, it didn't felt good at all and I wonder how people actually dislike moving their body and prefer sitting, that includes parking their car as close as possible to where they want to go.

Looking at what studies have to say about effects of prolonged sitting, I am glad that it was only a 2 months internship and I'm in a profession that requires me to move a lot! And if your job requires you to be sitting, consider breaking up your prolonged sitting for the sake of your health.

Take Home Message:
Getting your work done is important, but breaking up your prolonged sitting is much more important for a healthier you.

Experience and Observation during Internship in a Non-Fitness Related Company

noreply@blogger.com (Jason Lee Kang Xian) — Fri, 02 Mar 2012 13:07:00 +0000

One of the requirement to complete my long overdue BA (Hons) Psychology, I was interning in a company that specializes in behavioral and mindset change for organizations. It was for 2 months, started on 3rd Jan 2012 and ended on 29th Feb 2012, this explains the lack of update on this blog. I'm thankful that my chapter at University has finally ended and I can now focus on being a full time fitness professional.

Over the 2 months, I rise every morning at 4am; conduct Personal Training sessions from 5:30am to 8:30am, and rush to be in office by 10am. I leave office by 6pm and face the traffic jam for at least 90minutes before I conduct one last Personal Training session at 8pm. By the time I'm home I have to design training session programs for my clients for the following day. If I'm lucky, I get to bed by 11pm. The cycle repeated until 29th Feb 2012, and it's a great relieve the moment I drove out of the office compound on my last day, knowing that I could fully focus on my clients, my own training and recovery without being tied down from a 10am - 5pm office job anymore. And yes, my apologies to all my clients for the reduction of their weekly training sessions as I had make sure every client of mine get their share of sessions weekly, with the tight time I have in hands.

I'll be very honest to tell you that for the past 6 months I've not been training myself in a consistent and structured manner, first it was due to my final year project, followed by the internship. None the less, I make sure I get at least 10 minutes of bodyweight workout daily, despite the lack of sleep and rest.

My colleagues in the office wonder, where do I get all my energy ( they called me hyper ) despite me getting to bed so late and rising so early. Saturday and Sundays were sacred days to get rest, Monday and Tuesday are days where I am most energetic, Wednesday to Friday are days where I can hallucinate that my working desk is a bed. I have to admit I was darn tired every day, but I believe that my choice of food and my physical conditioning definitely helped in keeping me going through the 2 months period.

By the way, I was attached to their research and development department, where I had to sit in front of a laptop to research whatever the company needs to deliver to their clients. Trust me, I really felt that the number of hours sitting down made me felt more tired sitting down. I would take every opportunity to find work that requires me to walk and stand in the office, that way I felt more energetic.

I'll share more about my experience during my 2 months internship in an office setting in 3 separate blog post. Stay tuned :)

A Second Chance ...

noreply@blogger.com (Jason Lee Kang Xian) — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 06:25:00 +0000

For those who are unable to stick to their new year's fitness resolution, fret not as here's your second chance for year 2012. You see, In Malaysia we have new year according to the western calendar, which is on 1st January every year. While we also celebrate the Chinese Lunar New Year for 15 days, which is ending today. So this is your second chance.

Here are the important ingredients needed that could help you stick to your resolution; Desire, Knowledge and Action.

For a matter of fact, you already have the desire to be healthier and fitter when you make your fitness resolution. So the first part is already checked!

Next would be the neccessary right knowledge to achieve your fitness goals. You can't be doing something without knowing about 'that something', isn't it? So be clear about your goal(s) that you want to achieve, and acquire the neccessary knowledge from the right source ( there are too many fitness myths out there ) to steer yourself towards your goal(s).

Last but not least, Action! Notice I said acquire the NECCESSARY knowledge? This is to avoid acquiring too much knowledge and not putting them into action in later stage. Considering that there are so many fitness theories out there, each claiming to be better than another, chances are you read so much that you get confused on where and how to start. Knowledge without applied Action would be useless.

So now, what's the Desire that is driving you to acquire the neccessary Knowledge for you to take Action ?

Eating During The Festive Seasons - What I Think

noreply@blogger.com (Jason Lee Kang Xian) — Tue, 27 Dec 2011 06:25:00 +0000

One thing I notice during any festive seasons on fitness magazines, blogs is that, they have advice on how to eat, what to eat and what not to eat during the festive seasons to avoid weight gain.

For me, to write about eating during the holiday and festive seasons' weight gain is pretty much pointless.

Let me quote an unknown author; People are so worries about what they eat between Christmas and the New Year, but they really should be worries about what they eat between the New Year and Christmas.

Same principle can be applied on other festive seasons, whether it's Chinese New Year, Hari Raya or Deepavali. However one factor that must be accompanying the eating is, keep yourself active during the festive season. Its not necessary that its must be an intense workout at the gym, even a 15 minutes walk would be fine.

Give yourself a break during the festive seasons, Embrace and be in peace with yourself and your surroundings. Happy Holidays !

P/s: The above statement is only applicable to those who are already healthily active. Those who are still sluggish and living a sedentary lifestyle, reading the statement above doesn't give you the justification to continue eat and be unhealthy.

Throw The Weighing Machine Away, Use The Measuring Tape Instead

noreply@blogger.com (Jason Lee Kang Xian) — Mon, 19 Dec 2011 08:20:00 +0000

Remember the take home message from this blog post?

Engage on healthy weight management and not quick fix. The weighing scale numbers don't mean much, choose to reduce the number on your waist and hip instead. Above all, focus on your body composition.

For those who are more visual and need a picture to understand the above statement, look below.

If you're women, the same principle applies to you. Not to worry about the overly muscular man in the picture, you can't be that muscular unless you are injecting male hormones into your body.

In our body, it's either fat or muscles. Lose the fat and gain muscles, or lose the muscles and BE FAT. Look at the photo above and decide what you want. If you don't want to be fat, then gain your muscles, BUT if you don't want muscles, then you'll be fat.

Don't worry about the numbers on the weighing scale, instead be glad when the numbers on the measuring tape is reduced.

No, I Don't Want You to Do Any Sit-up(s) !

noreply@blogger.com (Jason Lee Kang Xian) — Fri, 02 Dec 2011 05:53:00 +0000

Why I don't see any Sit-up(s) on my programme? I want a flat tummy! This is not an unusual question and statement I always get from my new clients. I'll explain why. Let me first explain the myth of spot reduction.

Spot reduction is the worst ever fitness advice given to anyone by anyone, that you can lose fat on a particular body part by just working out on that body part. Example - 1. Your arms are flabby and you want smaller arms? Do bicep curl and tricep extensions. 2. You have a large tummy and you want a flat tummy? Do 500 sit-ups ! These are stupid advice that whoever even mention about them should be shoot.

Fat lost happens as a WHOLE, and not just a particular area. It also depends on other factors like your genetics, gender (hormones) and age. For fat lost to happen, it depends on your lifestyle (choice of food, calories input and output, stress level, sleep time etc). To me, exercise is just 30% of fat lost, the rest comes from your lifestyle.

So if you want a flat tummy, make the changes in your lifestyle and move your ass around more!

And back to sit-ups. Some uneducated trainers thinks that by doing sit-ups you work your CORE muscles. If they even know what is CORE to begin with. Core muscles are NOT just limited to your abdominal muscles (or what you call them as ABS, the 6 packs). The core IS actually a system that allows you to stabilize yourself in any given situation - that includes standing up from the chair, carrying a baby from the floor, picking up a box and even when you slip and fall, how much you can decelerate the impact of falling depends on your core system. The core system is what protects you when you lift something heavy, and balance yourself in situation that you need to like falling when you stepped on the banana skin.

If you are still not convinced about not getting a workout for your abdominal muscles, try exercises like deadlifts, squats, and push ups IN PROPER and CORRECT form and see how much your abdominal muscles are working.

If you are still not convinced. Then keep the good work up, keep doing your sit-ups and you'll have 6 packs like the guy above. Cool?

On a serious note, think about this. If sit-ups are able to give you a flat stomach, why are there still so many people walking with a big bulging tummy despite doing hundreds of sit-ups?

Skinny females ... ?

noreply@blogger.com (Jason Lee Kang Xian) — Tue, 29 Nov 2011 17:13:00 +0000

I can't help but to post the caption and photo below after seeing Scott Sonnon posted on his facebook page.

ATHLETIC VS SKINNY: When trying to lose weight, you mean you want the body to lose fat. There's no reason to lose weight unless you're competing in a weight classed sport. To reduce fat, you MUST re-educate the body's ability to burn fat as the main source of fuel. When you burn fat, you don't get hungry and you don't crave: the KEY to permanent body composition change. Unfortunately, most "weight loss" programs temporarily starve off weight (including muscle) by merely depriving calories. 99% have been proven failures, for the body hasn't converted to a fat burning fuel source, and the "weight" returns when the cravings, and the "diet" ends. Ask, HOW will these dietary changes help my body restore its fat burning natural state? - Scott Sonnon

Why I Choose to Avoid Sugar ?

noreply@blogger.com (Jason Lee Kang Xian) — Thu, 10 Nov 2011 02:54:00 +0000

In my previous post I shared about my experience on how good I feel after starting to avoid sugar in a conscious manner. This post entry will explain the effects of sugar.

According to Dr William Coda Martin, refined sugar is poison because it has been processed to the extend it has been depleted of its vitamins and minerals. There is nothing left in sugar except refined carbohydrates. And because vitamins and minerals are missing from sugar, your body cannot effectively utilize this refined carbohydrates, which then causes problem in your digestion and metabolism system. When your body cannot effectively metabolize this refined carbohydrates, various negative changes will take place in your body.

According to holistic health expert Paul Chek, Pyruvic acid would accumulate in the brain and nervous system causing abnormal sugar level to accumulate in the red blood cells. When this happens, your cells will be affected as they could not get enough oxygen to survive and function the way they should be functioning.

The consumption of sugar also causes over-acidity condition in your body. To neutralize its effect of over-acidity, your body starts breaking down minerals from your bones and teeth in order to neutralize the effect of over-acidity. In another word, calcium is being broken down by your body, FROM your bones and teeth to neutralize the acid level in your body.

Next is your liver which its function is to store excess sugar in form of glucose (glycogen), will expand to compensate for the liver's limited capacity. Excess glycogen will then be released into the blood as fatty acids which then store in every part of the body as fat, especially at the belly, buttocks and thighs. Think about big belly and sagging ass, its damn ugly!

After fatty acids are stored in your belly, buttocks and thighs, they will then be distributed in your organs - heart, liver and kidneys - and these organs begin to slow down on its functions. Your whole body to be affected as your organs' function is no longer normal.

Besides all that are mentioned above, your pancreas will release insulin when you consume processed sugar, a hormone that is responsible to reduce blood sugar levels. When this happens, blood sugar crash or better known as hypoglycemia will take place in our body. This is due to the slow feedback mechanism that signals the brain that blood sugar has returned to normal. At the same time, our body will release cortisol, a stress hormone to trigger the liver to release stored glycogen to raise the blood sugar level. Due to the release of sugar from the liver, plus with the sugar that you've consumed from your junk food and drinks, this process will start all over again, bringing you on a roller coaster ride. Because of your addiction to sweetness, you'll continue riding the roller coaster over and over again, causing your body to be insensitive to insulin overtime. And the first thing you'll start seeing an apple shaped appearance on your stomach, and slowly stepping towards having diabetic with you.

The roller coaster ride do not end with just a ride, but over time your adrenal glands will be overworked, getting exhausted from producing too much cortisol, causing hormonal system unbalance. With that, the chances of developing various diseases such as kidney disease, liver disease, heart disease, osteoporosis, colon cancer and the list goes on, will increase.

Consciously Avoiding Sugar

noreply@blogger.com (Jason Lee Kang Xian) — Sat, 15 Oct 2011 17:02:00 +0000

It started as an experiment for my own body, and I've been avoiding sugar consciously since May this year. Refined sugar to be exact. Basically what I do is not to add a single drop of sugar into my coffee, tea and any other food that I prepare myself. That includes no brown sugar.

And the results has been great, I feel more energetic than I was before.

However 5 days ago, I decided that I wanted to have a cup of teh tarik at the mamak store. The result that took place was feeling sloppy and drowsiness within 45 minutes after I finished my cup of teh tarik. Not convinced, 2 days ago I repeated the same thing, and the same result took place. I did not enjoy my cup of teh tarik either, I find them too sweet to my liking.

I came to a conclusion that there is no need for me to add sugar into my food anymore. And honestly, even now chocolates doesn't taste as good as before. I find them very sweet.

Being said that, there are times where I cannot avoid consuming food with added sugar when I eat outside. For instance, most of the local malay food ( and yes, I love the local malay food more than the chinese food ) such as sambal, masak merah recipe are added with a lot of sugar for some reasons. Other than that, I do not add a single drop of sugar into my food and drinks.

You could give this sugar fasting a try and see how much more energetic you will feel.

Recognition and Accreditation in the Fitness Industry

noreply@blogger.com (Jason Lee Kang Xian) — Sat, 08 Oct 2011 08:56:00 +0000

I randomly posted this photo on my facebook page after realizing that my first fitness qualification as a Certified Fitness Trainer from International Sports Sciences Association (ISSA) was awarded on 30th August 2008, coincidentally, my Certified Personal Trainer from the Athletic Certification & Training Commision (ACT) was awarded on 30th August 2011. Same date, just different years. A few private message came later asking if ACT is recognized?

The main topic that I will be discussing on this post is in regards to the question - recognition and accreditation in the fitness industry. And I will be brutally honest about this topic.

Many are not aware that there is no formal recognition in the fitness industry because there is no regulating body in the fitness industry. This is not only happening in Malaysia, but even in the U.S.A. Because of this, there are over 400 fitness organizations offering fitness certification without us knowing the content quality of education that they are providing.

You might hear phrases like well-recognized in the fitness industry and well respected in the fitness industry. But the question is, recognized by who?

In the USA, most fitness organizations will pursue accreditation from the National Commission of Certifying Agencies (NCCA), a private organization accredited by the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) as a standards developer that accredit courses from various industry, including some fitness courses in the fitness industry ( click here to see the complete list of courses accredited by NCCA. ). That however doesn't really translate into recognition in anyway by any authority of the fitness industry. Take note that I mentioned accredit some fitness courses. The NCCA do not accredit institutions or educational programs, only examinations. Let's take one example. ABC organization offer various fitness courses, they might only get accreditation for one out of the many courses they are offering. That means ABC organization is not accredited by NCCA, just that NCCA accredit one particular course offered by ABC organization.

2 years ago, the organization that I'm currently certified with, the International Sports Sciences Association (ISSA) set a new trend by being accredited by the Distance Education and Training Council (DETC), a federally accredited agency by U.S. Department of Education (USDE) and the Council for Higher Education Accreditation (CHEA). In another word, the ISSA is recognized as an education institution by the U.S. government. I believe since then there are few other fitness organizations pursued DETC's accreditation. Despite being accredited by a government agency, this does not translate into recognition in anyway by any authority in the fitness industry.

If you notice what is written above, the NCCA is accredited by ANSI, while DETC is accredited by the USDE and CHEA. Yes, accrediting bodies itself is governed by another body. In this case, it's like the Malaysian Qualifications Agency (MQA) that was established by the Ministry of Higher Education (MOHE) to monitor and oversee the quality of education provided by higher education institutions in Malaysia.

Although currently there is no governing body in the fitness industry's practice, fret not because there are organizations like the American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM), National Academy of Sports Medicine (NASM), National Strength & Conditioning Association (NSCA), and International Sports Sciences Association (ISSA), all are well known within the fitness industry as organizations that are offering reputable fitness education.

I hope the explanation above gives you a better picture about the recognition and accreditation in the fitness industry.

On a side note, I personally do not need the ACT certification, but since it was free, I took it for fun without reading their textbook thoroughly. ACT has their own professional development and assessment protocol that is slightly different from ISSA, apart from that, they are all the same health, fitness and sports science knowledge that I've learned from ISSA.

Working on Final Year Project - Update II

noreply@blogger.com (Jason Lee Kang Xian) — Tue, 27 Sep 2011 04:51:00 +0000

I'm glad to tell you that my final year project progress has been going very smoothly, credit goes to my supervisor who has been giving all the necessary guidance and pointers to me. My project proposal was given the approval in August, with slight change on research title, with " Health Related Fitness Knowledge and Physical Activity Frequency among Malaysian Undergraduates " as the final title.

Pilot study has been conducted for the past 2 weeks and the data was presented this morning, it shows a good reliability analysis reading at 0.837 .

Thus I was given the green light to collect my data without the need to amend my instrument. The real data collection begins NOW with YOU.

If you meet the 3 criteria below, I really need you to be part of my research. It would take up less than 10 minutes to complete 36 questions related to health and fitness.

a Malaysian undergraduate who is studying for your first bachelor's degree, diploma or certificate.
Aged between 18 to 35 years old.
Have not taken or currently not taking any Sports Science, Exercise or Fitness courses prior to this.

Please write me an email at GetFitWithJasonLee(at)gmail.com if you are interested to be part of this research.

Athletic Certification & Training Commision

noreply@blogger.com (Jason Lee Kang Xian) — Thu, 15 Sep 2011 06:24:00 +0000

I signed up to be a beta tester for Athletic Certification & Training Commision (ACT) when they first launched in September 2009. The ACT is relatively new in the fitness industry as an organization that provide opportunities to fitness enthusiast to be a Certified Personal Trainer. Above all, they provide their Personal Trainer course for free, on a Basic Plan. People have an option to upgrade their Basic Plan to a Pro Plan for a small fee of one time payment $65.

The Pro Plan include pre-recorded lectures, online lectures with live instructors, practice exams and many other benefit that are useful. You may click here to view and compare the Basic Plan and Pro Plan.

In case you are wondering what's the catch behind ACT offering free fitness certification, you may read them all here. You may also think, how good can ACT's course be in terms of education quality? Especially when it's offered for free (unless you upgrade to a Pro Plan), I'm sure you who is currently reading this would be skeptical. I admit, I was skeptical too.

As a beta tester, I was given a Pro Plan account without charges. I have to admit that the resources provided by ACT is as good as other certifying fitness organizations, if not better. I'm only able to say this because I've read textbooks by 3 different fitness organizations - National Academy of Sports Medicine, International Sports Sciences Association, American Council on Exercise. ACT's Personal Trainer textbook was not lacking of all the necessary information despite being a free e-book in PDF form. Same goes to the pre-recorded lectures, which are good additional study material when preparing for the ACT Certified Personal Trainer examination, and even when you are already an active fitness professional.

Above all that, ACT is currently actively pursuing accreditation from the National Commision For Certifying Agencies (NCCA). If ACT is granted the accreditation by NCCA, ACT would be on par with other well known certifying fitness organizations such as American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM), National Academy of Sports Medicine (NASM), National Strength & Conditioning Association (NSCA), National Exercise & Sports Trainers Association (NESTA) and American Council on Exercise (ACE).

On the side line, after ACT announced that they will retire their online examination on 30th September 2011, I decided to sit for my examination with ACT after being an inactive owner of the Pro Plan account for two years. And yes, I hold an additional ACT Certified Personal Trainer certification now although I don't need it as I've been certified by the International Sports Sciences Association (ISSA) since 2008. ISSA hold to its own high standard as being the first fitness organization to be accredited by the U.S Department of Education.

Exercise In Ramadhan: My Little Experience

noreply@blogger.com (Jason Lee Kang Xian) — Tue, 02 Aug 2011 02:58:00 +0000

Today is the second day of Ramadhan that started yesterday. I would like to wish all Muslim readers a blessed Ramadhan Mubarak ahead. In case you are not aware, the Ramadhan month is known as the holiest month for Muslims all over the world, where Muslims observes one of the 5 pillars, fasting or also known as Sawn.

Personally I've not fasted, neither I can stand fasting. I eat every 3-4 hours or else my body goes into Hypoglycemia mood.

Last year, I posted about exercising during Ramadhan, that was just theoretical and not from my personal experience.

Yesterday I decided to try experimenting not eating before training. Usually, I have my pre-workout meal 1 hour before training. What I did was stop eating after lunch at 1pm, and went to train with BootYcamp in the evening at 6:15pm. That is about 5 hours since my last meal.

My experience: The campers started with light jog interval with power walking. Bodyweights conditioning were implemented in between the run and walks. These routine are usually easy for me, and I'll consider them my warm up, however, training without pre-workout meal was different. Within 20 minutes into the training, I started feeling nausea and my body started to shiver. These are all signs of hypoglycemia kicking in. I was able to complete the day's session with the campers, just that in a uncomfortable manner. Not to forget, the fasting campers that went through the same routine. They fasted since their last sahur meal at 7am, did not give up neither they took the offer of lower repetition for fasting campers. They have my highest respect.

Theoretically, we know the science behind the changes in our body during fasting state, we know the science on what to do and not to do during fasting state, however experiencing it is something totally different (although it was just for 5 hours, but that is my personal limit when it comes to fasting).

After my experience yesterday, I will still advice you to read on exercising during Ramadhan that I wrote last year, same advice still applies to all.

Working on Final Year Project - Update

noreply@blogger.com (Jason Lee Kang Xian) — Tue, 07 Jun 2011 06:28:00 +0000

About 3 months ago I was talking about my final year project. The initial title was College Student's Understanding of Physical Activity Recommendation and Its Influence to Physical Activity Pattern. But after submitting my proposal in early April, I was told my research focus is a little haywire. That was after 4 months of work with a LITTLE guidance from my supervisor, I was told I need to come out with something new.

But after looking through my own work, I guess I have to admit that the research focus was not clear. The initial plan for data collection which was supposed to start last month did not materialize. After some discussion with my new supervisor yesterday, the new title will be Health-Related Fitness Knowledge and its Influence to Students' Physical Activity Frequency. It will be based on Icek Azjen's Theory of Planned Behavior as the theoretical framework.

Till then!

We Should Not Exercise !!

noreply@blogger.com (Jason Lee Kang Xian) — Wed, 06 Apr 2011 10:09:00 +0000

.... says the slimming center.

The first time I ever heard that slimming centers were discouraging people from exercising was on a friend's facebook status update, reason given was it will make you put on weight. Not long later, a female friend of mine made a statement that " exercise can make you fat ". Obviously I did not hesitate to ask her where the hell she got that information from? Her reply : the slimming center.

Well, I'm not too surprised by such stupid recommendation by the slimming center. Why?

Because slimming center focuses on losing weight, not fat. Our body weight consist of weight from body fat, lean muscles, internal organs, bones and water. By exercising, especially resistance exercise, you are stimulating your muscles to potentially grow, which will then cause you to put on weight, but from muscle mass and not fat. Increasing your muscle mass, that also literally means melting away those fat more effectively.

You see, from my understanding, measurement taken before and after each treatment at slimming centers is due to lost of weight from water. You will see instant result on the weight scale, but how sustainable can that weight be?

Yes, girls and ladies, forget about losing weight, focus on weight management and losing fat instead. Forget about slimming centers that promotes unhealthy weight lost. Hire a qualified fitness professional to guide you on healthy weight management at the same time benefit from the outcomes of physical fitness training.

Oh ok, wait. Girls don't want to look SO big and TOO muscular from resistance exercise right?

Look how sexy these ladies are :D

Take home message:
Engage on healthy weight management and not quick fix. The weighing scale numbers don't mean much, choose to reduce the number on your waist and hip instead. Above all, focus on your body composition.

Working on Final Year Project

noreply@blogger.com (Jason Lee Kang Xian) — Sun, 20 Mar 2011 11:43:00 +0000

I'm sure many of you noticed the inactivity of my blog since December 2010. Reason is because I'm currently working on my Final Year Project to earn my Psychology degree. My research title is College Student's Understanding of Physical Activity Recommendation and Its Influence to Physical Activity Pattern.

It's so time consuming to search and read up on previous researches, on top of planning Personal Training clients' exercise programs, training clients and other area aspects of my life, getting only 4 hours of sleep daily since January. This doesn't help in my bulking plan, but I'm keeping myself prepared for any upcoming Taekwondo tournaments. You know, somehow most of the time we are not informed about upcoming Tournaments until 2-3 weeks away from the tournament(s).

Viva to present my proposal is on this coming Friday, after that I'll start executing on data collection from May 2010 onwards.

Just got back home!

noreply@blogger.com (Jason Lee Kang Xian) — Thu, 23 Dec 2010 16:22:00 +0000

Hey peeps! Sorry for not updating this blog for 2 months. I was actually loaded with tons of work even during my last post. And on 19th Nov 2010 onwards, i was away for a overseas assignment (no related to fitness, but my interest in photography). India and Nepal to be precise.

I'll be posting regularly starting from January 2011 onwards as I'm already in holiday mood now.

Till then ;)

Fitness Rant | Sits-Ups and Cardio

noreply@blogger.com (Jason Lee Kang Xian) — Wed, 20 Oct 2010 05:16:00 +0000

I decided to start what I call Fitness Rant. And no, I'm not ranting angrily or loudly, but just taking opportunity to blog and reeducate people about exercise science. I get questions that are associated with fitness myth(s) too often, thus I decided I'll rant about it.

Question:
I started going to the gym for the past 2 months. I have a trainer and my trainer told me to do chest press, leg press, bicep curls etc etc (she demonstrated a few other exercises that she did not know what were they called) . But when I told my friend about my exercises that I am doing, my friend laughed at me and said If I want to lose fat, I should be doing Sit-Ups and Cardio, that would be enough. Is my trainer doing the right thing?

My answer:
What your trainer is asking you to do is good. Chest Press and Leg Press, these are compound movements working on your major muscle group, and is very important to be done if you are looking into losing fat. When you lift weights, microscopic tear takes place in our muscle fibers. And our body response to the microscopic tear is by building more muscles, which depends on calories (food you eat) to be built and maintained. When you grow muscles, you will lose fat, provided you eat the right food that helps in building muscle and losing fat.

The person who says that it would be enough for you to be doing sit-ups and cardio certainly do not have any exercise science knowledge at all. Cardio is good, but too much of cardio alone will effect your body's ability to lose body fat due to the body's adaptation. While Sit-up has it's own fitness myth related to what we call spot reduction. Spot reduction is a believe that if we want to lose fat of a particular area in the body, all we need is to work on that area. Sit-up for instance, should be done if you want to lose stomach fat. This is totally untrue. Fat lost takes place only when there is calorie deficit, that means there must be more calorie expenditure to calorie intake. If you want to lose fat, regardless of which area, it has to happen as a whole, rather than just a particular area.

Besides, if sit-ups are enough to lose fat, why are there still so many fat people around despite doing an accumulated thousands of sit-ups?

My recommendations:
Do compound resistance exercises, combined interval cardio such as HIIT or Tabata. According to studies, long-steady cardio such as running on the treadmill for 1 hour straight is said to be less effective compared to interval cardio.

Coming Out of Retirement

noreply@blogger.com (Jason Lee Kang Xian) — Sat, 09 Oct 2010 10:37:00 +0000

I'm trying to make myself sound like some big superstar athlete who came out of retirement. Oh yeah!

Just few hours ago, I landed a silver medal from MAPCU Taekwondo Tournament, contributing to today's 1 Gold and 3 Silvers for UCSI University Taekwondo team.

I never thought I would be competing in Taekwondo anymore since my knee surgery ( ACL reconstruction and meniscus repair ) in 2005 after snapping them during a District Level Taekwondo Tournament, and re-snapped 3 months later for rushing into training ( yes, I had two surgeries on the same knee within 3 months).

Despite not training Taekwondo specifically at all since my knee surgery, I am pretty proud to say I lost in the final 7-8, missing the Gold medal by a point - which I personally think I should have scored at least 10 points for having more than 3 kicks (which lands properly) on the opponent's head.

Would I start competing actively in Taekwondo again? Hell yeah!

Take home message?
Never be too fast to write off anything. With desire, right knowledge and action plan, you can achieve what you want to achieve. In my case, what made it worked was a strong desire from me to compete, combined with right sports and exercise science knowledge, I planned a safe and appropriate physical conditioning training to prepare for this competition.