Personal Trainer in Cyberjaya, Putrajaya, Serdang, Kuala Lumpur and the rest of Klang Valley!

A Second Chance ...

2012-02-06T14:25:00.000+08:00

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

2011-12-27T14:25:00.000+08:00

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

2011-12-19T16:20:00.000+08:00

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) !

2011-12-02T13:53:00.001+08:00

" Why I don't see any Sit-up(s) on my programme? I want a flat tummy!" is not an unusual question and statement I always get from my new clients.

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 ... ?

2011-11-30T01:13:00.001+08:00

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 ?

2011-11-10T10:54:00.000+08:00

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

2011-10-16T01:02:00.001+08:00

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

2011-10-08T16:56:00.000+08:00

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 Exercise & Sports Trainers Association (NESTA), International Sports Sciences Association (ISSA), National Strength & Conditioning Association (NSCA) and American Council on Exercise (ACE), 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 already learned from ISSA.

Working on Final Year Project - Update II

2011-09-27T12:51:00.000+08:00

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

2011-09-15T14:24:00.000+08:00

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

2011-08-02T10:58:00.013+08:00

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

2011-06-07T14:28:00.002+08:00

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 !!

2011-04-06T18:09:00.001+08:00

.... 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

2011-03-20T19:43:00.001+08:00

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!

2010-12-24T00:22:00.000+08:00

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

2010-10-20T13:16:00.003+08:00

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

2010-10-09T18:37:00.041+08:00

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.

Public Talk at WELcafeTurningPoint

2010-10-03T02:24:00.026+08:00

I gave a talk on Fitness Within You ... Anywhere, Anytime at Turning Point Welcafe a few hours ago. The talk basically covers that to be successful in something you do, there must be a desire, knowledge and action plan. That includes fitness.

Then followed by bodyweight exercises that participants could do anywhere and anytime without the need of equipments. The talk ended with Q&A session - where many, and I mean it, many interesting questions were asked. I would try to recall as many questions as possible and share it here.

Meanwhile, I'm sorry that I did not prepare the exercise list and instructions handout for the participants. But would be emailed to them later.

Resistance Training and Cardio

2010-09-22T16:38:00.017+08:00

This post is a continuation from my previous post.

** ** **

Doing too much of cardio is bad if you are looking into losing body fat. Our body works in a unique way. When you are doing long – steady cardio (eg: jogging) your body would break down muscle tissues as energy source when they run out of glycogen source from your muscles. Breaking down of muscle tissues would cause metabolism rate to drop due to lesser muscle mass. This is because muscle mass are built and maintained upon calories which are acquired through the food we eat. Therefore your metabolism rate would be higher if you have higher muscle mass.

Then what about strength and resistance training?
When you do strength and resistance training, 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 to be built and maintained. That again, means higher metabolism rate. Oh yeah, for the ladies, you don’t have to worry about building muscles, you won’t end up having big and bulky arms – because you won’t due to the nature of your muscle building chemical content. Even for the men, it takes us discipline, commitment, proper training and diet to get buffed. The ladies would at the most get sexy toned arms like Jennifer Aniston and Jessica Beil, which looks more attractive to me - personally.

Now, take note that I mentioned too much of cardio is bad if you are looking into losing fat. I did not say doing cardio is bad. There are lots of benefits from cardio training. Another thing is long-steady cardio can be boring to many people. And if you are one of them who find long-steady cardio boring, try doing short and intense cardio training instead of long-steady cardio. And these short and intense cardio training are done with the equipments I mentioned in my previous post. Watch the videos below to get an idea of it.

Take home message?
Cardio is not the only thing you should do if you are looking primarily on shredding body fat.

Home Exercise Equipment(s) That You Should Have

2010-09-13T14:05:00.004+08:00

One common question that I’m being asked is about home exercise equipments, or better known as home fitness equipments (blah, whatever you call it.). And the common question would be asked in a way where it revolves around treadmill, stationary bike and elliptical trainer.

I’m not surprised considering how the media portrays or should I say associate these machines with burning fat. And for some cases, the abs shaper even made its way into the list.

When I give my recommendations, they get surprised that it’s not anything that they shortlisted. Instead I suggest to them buying Kettlebells, Dumbbells EZ Curl Bar or Barbells with Weights. They are all resistance exercise equipments, and none of them falls under the cardio machine category

EZ Curl Bar, Kettlebell and a Dumbbell

I'll explain to you why in the next post

Exercise During Ramadhan?

2010-08-16T06:08:00.003+08:00

It has been 6 days since Ramadhan started on the 11th August, and 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.

And it's not uncommon for Muslim friends to ask me how should they adjust their exercise routine during the Ramadhan month or should they stop exercising during the holy month? Even non-Muslim who don't fast would ask me the same question, out of curiosity to know.

In general, many side effects take place in the body during fasting mode, both physiological and psychological. Nausea, headache, lethargic and the list goes on. All these happens as the body tries to adapt to the change of diet of not having sufficient calories to sustain the demands imposed on the body. There are also other side effects that are invincible to the naked eyes, like slower metabolism rate to conserve energy and breaking down of muscle tissue to be used as energy source in the absence of food.

Back to the question on whether to exercise during Ramadhan?
The answer is simple – Just do whatever that works for you, and most importantly doesn't harm your body. You see, every person's body is unique in their own way. And our body responds differently from one another as well. What work for you, might not work for me and vice versa. I know of people who could still maintain their exercise routine during the fasting month (on a lower intensity of course), while some people's body just could not keep up with the additional stress demand from exercise.

Most fitness professionals I know personally say that it's counter productive to exercise when fasting, especially for those looking for put on muscle mass. But I personally think that it depends on the timing you choose to exercise. We all know that well timed post-exercise meal is important for protein synthesis to happen, so it would be good to choose proper time where you could break fast immediately after your exercise.

Besides, one study done by a Canadian University reported that those who performed resistance exercise when fasting would be able to reduce muscle tissue lost rate compared to those who fasted and did not perform any resistance exercise.

While there are many theories available on exercising when fasting, end of the day you'll have to try out by yourself, make adjustment and make use of whichever that suits you best for optimal results that you desire. But always remember, due to the insufficient calories intake, it's not uncommon to experience drop in performance during fasting.

I wish you happy and safe trainings :)

Knowing Your Sources of Calories and Needs

2010-08-07T10:38:00.003+08:00

In my previous post, I mentioned that it's not what you eat that makes you fat, but eating more calories than the body need is what makes you fat!

But what are calories actually?
A calorie is the quantity of heat required to raise the temperature of 1 gram of water 1 degree Celsius. (Okay, that's according to some science textbook's definition). So basically a calorie is a unit for energy. In this post's context, it's about energy for the sustenance for us, humans.

We need energy for everything that we do, breathing, walking, standing, and even lying down resting. And we acquire energy from no other than food. A gram of carbohydrate contain 4 calories, a gram of protein contain 4 calories, and a gram of fat contain 9 calories. While above all that, next to fat is alcohol with 7 calories from every gram, and the worst part of alcohol is, it has no nutritional value.

And to choose your source of calories, ISSA recommends the 1-2-3 nutritional rule-of-thumb. What it means here is 1 part fat, 2 part proteins and 3 parts carbohydrates. Alternatively, you can also modify it based on higher protein intake, which makes it 1 part fat, 2 part carbohydrates and 3 part proteins.

Next question would be, how does this work?

Let's say you are a Male, 90kg with 15% body fat and a fitness buff range weight lifter who needs 3420 calories per day. What you need to do is divide 3420 with 6 part which makes it 570 calories per part.

570 x 1 part fat = 570
570 x 2 part carbs = 1140
570 x 3 part proteins = 1710
Total = 3420

Followed by;

570 divide 9 ( fat calories ) = 63 gram of fat
1140 divide 4 ( carbs calories ) = 285 gram of carbohydrates
1710 divide 4 ( protein calories ) = 428 gram of protein

The amount of 3420 calories should come from 63 gram of fat, 285 gram of carbohydrates and 428 gram of protein.

I'm sharing the above calculation just for people's knowledge sake. But for real world application, it's actually not easy to count the amount you are eating and calories. But as a general guidelines, I personally adapt 3 part protein, 2 part carbohydrates and 1 part fat for my food intake. And what I do is - the amount of carbohydrates I consume is about the size of my fist only, with one whole skinless chicken breast, and vegetables. The food stall operator would usually ask me how can I be full from eating so little rice, I just smile :)

What Makes You Fat?

2010-07-26T01:18:00.007+08:00

Last semester at University, I was required to do a presentation for the module of Physiological Psychology. Physiological Psychology studies on how the mind affects the body or how the body affects the mind, depending on which school of thought you subcribe to.

So I decided to talk about Fad Diets considering going on a diet is pretty a hot topic among the female students. I covered on various types of fad diets - low carbs, no carbs, high protein, etc. You may ask how is it related to Psychology. Here's an example; the no carbs and all protein diet causes you body to be deprived of glucose which comes from carbohydrates. And glucose is known as your brain's food that helps in brain functioning. When your body could not find any glucose, they would start producing ketones as replacement. However ketones do not work as well as glucose, hence affect your brain's functioning on decision making etc.

The main highlight on this post is on something that made the whole class started clapping and cheering. One of the questions that was asked by the students was;

"Does that mean we have to stop eating McDonalds?"

Which I answered "No, We can eat McDonalds and I love McDonalds too".

That answer made the whole class started to clap and cheered. But of course, I further explained that;
"It's not what we eat that makes us fat, but it's how much we eat, the calories intake versus calories outtake, or should I say how much you eat and what do you do to burn off the calories. Often people just eat too much, and not doing enough physical activity, and things just get worst as we are living in a what I call sedentary society."

And the class went silent for a while before I further added that we should all eat moderately and more importantly engage in regular physical activities.

Coming up in next write up - Knowing your source of Calories.

When Normal Isn't Exactly Normal

2010-07-22T14:44:00.005+08:00

In my previous post, It's Not All About Weight Anymore explains a little about why you should not be concern about your weight, but concern about your body composition instead.

Here's another reason why you should be concern with body composition. According to a study by the Mayo Clinic, the old belief that you should be healthy if your weight fall in the range of Normal according to the Body Mass Index, isn't exactly true.

Two 23 years old male may have similar weight at 70kg, but one has a body fat level of 15%, while another 22%, the latter has a higher risk of developing cardiovascular diseases due to the high level of body fat. The researchers of the study coined it with the term Normal Weight Obesity. While you may look and appear fit, but your body is actually working like an obese person's body - metabolic syndrome.

Click Here for Age Adjusted Body Fat Percentage Charts for Men and Women

So it can be really deceiving to see someone who looks fit, but not exactly fit, thus being a walking time bomb. But then, how do we know if we are really fit? As a general guideline used by fitness professionals, physical fitness consist of 4 components - muscular strength and endurance, cardiovascular capacity, flexibility and body composition.

Lastly, I think the study done by the Mayo Clinic should also suggest people to stay away from slimming centers that makes people look fit and healthy, but actually not.

It's Not All About Weight Anymore!

2010-07-12T15:15:00.004+08:00

Very often I hear from people saying that they need to lose weight. While people who started on regular exercise complaints that their weight remains the same on the weighing machine.

Let's get a better understanding when it comes to body weight. Our body weight include bone, muscle, water, fat and internal organs. As a fitness professional in general, we always look into what we call Lean Body Mass (LBM) and total body fat.

Lean Body Mass consist of muscle, bones, tendons, ligaments and internal organs. While total body fat consist of essential fat and storage fat. Essential fat are required by our human body for body functions. They are stored in the heart, lungs, liver, spleen, kidneys, intestines, muscles, bone marrow and lipid-rich tissues throughout the central nervous system and female has a higher percentage of essential fat due to their child-bearing nature. While storage fat is stored in adipose tissue, which includes subcutaneous (under your skin) fat. And it is the subcutaneous fat that we think about when we mention the word: FAT.

When we engage in consistent and regular physical activities combined with proper nutrition intake, knowingly or unknowingly we would naturally increase muscle mass due to muscular stress from our physical activities. And muscles are heavier compared to fat, which explains why there is no decrease in the reading of your weighing machine or there could even be an increase in weight, due to the additional muscle mass being put on despite losing fat. This is why it's not all about weight anymore, but it's the overall body composition that we should look into. Never mind the readings on the weighing machine scale, never mind the Body Mass Index (BMI), but take the body composition stats into serious consideration. You should be looking for is decrease in body fat and increase in muscle.

You may want to ask, how do we measure our body composition?
There are many methods used to measure body composition namely Dual Energy X-Ray Absorptiometry (DEXA), Underwater Weighing, Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR), Ultrasound, Near Infrared Interactance (NIR). I personally have never tried measuring my body composition using the mentioned methods above due to it's availability in our country. But two of the most commonly used method would be the Bioelectrical Impedance and Skinfold Thickness method, which I personally use them for my clients' assessment.

Once again, forget about weight and start to look into body composition instead. Check with your fitness professional about it.

By the way, Did you know that despite being categorized under normal weight in the BMI chart, you could be actually a walking time bomb? While an overweight person could be healthier than a normal weight person. I'll write about it in my next post.

The "No Time" Post

2010-07-05T21:01:00.004+08:00

Okay, look. I'm filled up with lots of work lately. And I don't have much time to actually blog. However I never say no time to exercise, which is a very common excuse I always hear from people around me.

So what kind of quick exercise I do if I don't have time for my training ?
A very quick and simple one, no equipments needed and won't even take 15 minutes of my time.

5 rounds of :

20 push ups
20 bodyweight squats
20 burpees

Once I complete 5 rounds of those exercises, I end with a plank - holding as long as I can.

While It may not be enough according to ACSM's guidelines for physical activity recommendation, but it's anyhow better than not doing anything.

Have a great week ahead :-)

I am Now a Certified Sports Massuer

2010-06-28T03:32:00.004+08:00

Remember that I was saying I was up for something that I've not done before last month? and I will be out of Malaysia every weekend. Well, that something that I've not done, is done for as I received an email last week from the Singapore Sports Council informing me that I've successfully passed my Sports Massage course. And as mentioned on the title, I'm now a Certified Sports Masseur.

The 6 weekend course was a great one as I learned so much new things from the trainer of the course who is a Sports Rehabilitation Specialist with the Singapore Sports Council, assisted by one Senior Physiotherapist and two senior sports masseur. And of course, a short exposure to the Singapore fitness industry shows how much our country are actually lacking behind in terms of promoting fitness and healthy lifestyle by our government.

Singapore Sports Council Sports Massage Course Batch of May 2010

Out of the 22 students, only 6 of them including me are people working in the fitness industry (PT, GFI and Sports Trainer of a soccer team), 1 national Singapore athlete and the rest are fitness enthusiast who wants to learn something new that are not related to their profession at all. Talk about diversity? Hmm ...

We were also given task to massage Singapore national athletes as part of our training. I was given one Netball player from the national junior team, and one Weightlifter who is training for the next Commonwealth game. Feedback from them? "It's good and relaxing" said the Netballer. While the weightlifter actually added me on Facebook and thanked me for loosening his tight back and managed to improve on his Snatch training the next day. I really hope they are honest with me :-)

Massage therapy anyone?

My Thoughts on The Biggest Loser Reality Show - Updated !

2010-06-25T00:01:00.010+08:00

** Update on 25/6/2010 **
Apparently what we saw as reality show on television wasn't exactly reality. See what was reported by CBSNewsOnline at Youtube on 18th June 2010.

** Original post on 19 April 2010 **
I saw on the official Biggest Loser Asia facebook group that audition for season 2 is coming soon. To be honest, I did have the thought of asking some of my obese friends to join the audition back in the debut season although I've personally not watched more than 10 episodes of Biggest Loser USA. And yes, I did NOT watch a single episode of Biggest Loser Asia, in fact I can't even remember what was their airing time and day on Astro. I only saw the the winner's photo as people were talking about him over the internet. And I personally think that he looked sick.

Before and After - Biggest Loser Asia Season 1 winner

The reason is simple. I'm disgusted with what was and still being portrayed on television about losing weight. It gives a wrong impression of what we as fitness professionals do for our clients. And reality show isn't exactly reality, at all !

In reality, we do not train up to 4-5 hours per day, what more for people who before being in the show, were sedentary. What we see on television is not even half of what actually happened in the training center. If we were looking at American College of Sports Medicine's guidelines of losing weight safely, It is not safe to be losing 10-25 pounds per week. I would say what we see on television is more of a one time quick fix plan to lose weight rather than adapting a healthy lifestyle.

It's also pretty outdated way in my opinion to just track their weight lost progress. The overall of body composition should have been looked into rather than just weight. You see, our body weight are made up of our body organs, bones, muscles and fat mass. In general health and fitness, we usually look into muscle mass and fat mass for measurement purpose. When you start exercising, don't get panic if you see that your weight never drop on the scale, or perhaps it might even increase. Reason is simple, muscle mass are heavier than fat mass. You lose the fat, and put on muscles, which means there might be no changes on the scale or even heavier. Look at the mirror and see changes in your own body instead. Better still if you can buy the bio-electrical impedance machine (not the most accurate, but it's fine for general guidelines and tracking) and check on your body composition.

But again, all those mentioned above is only based on my judgment from watching less than 10 episodes of Biggest Loser USA. None the less, the show serves as a good motivational tool for people, even for a trainer like myself - when I see Bob Harper and Jillian Michael being so fit in the show.

Bob Harper and Jillian Michael - Trainers of Biggest Loser USA.

Questions in regards to Squat - Updated !

2010-06-23T15:05:00.005+08:00

** Update on 23/6/2010 **
I came across this article (8 Stupid Myths about Squatting) by world renowned strength coach, Charles Poliquin. Look what he has to say about Squats are bad for knees on Myths #2 .

Myth #2: Squats are bad for the knees. Not only are squats not bad for the knees, every legitimate research study on this subject has shown that squats improve knee stability and therefore help reduce the risk of injuries. The National Strength and Conditioning Association has published an excellent position paper on this subject with an extensive literature review, and data from the Canadian National Alpine Ski Team suggests that regular squatting reduces not only the rate of injuries but also the time it takes to recuperate from injuries that do occur.

When I was hired to work with the Canadian National Women’s Volleyball Team, I found all of them suffered from varying degrees of an overuse injury called patellar tendinitis, or jumper’s knee. I believed the problem was partially caused by a structural imbalance in the lower quadriceps muscle called the vastus medialis oblique (the teardrop-shaped muscle that inserts at the knee). To correct it, I had these athletes perform Petersen step-ups and then gradually progress into full squats. Only one athlete still had jumper’s knee after less than three months of proper training.

Providing you don’t relax or bounce in the bottom position of the squat, you’ve got nothing to worry about. When you relax, the knee joint opens up slightly, exposing the connective tissue to stress levels higher than their tensile strength. Does that mean you should never pause in the bottom position? No. It simply means that if you pause in the bottom position, you must keep the muscles under tension, holding the static (isometric) contraction. In other words, don’t relax at the bottom of the squat and allow your connective tissue to stretch out like a piece of saltwater taffy.

** Original post on 11 June 2010 **
I was warming up with full range of motion (ROM) body-weight squats, squatting as deep as I can with my knee extending beyond my toes. One trainer came over telling me that it's bad for my knees and it's not safe - I should be doing half squats and knees should be behind the toes instead. Knowing his background, I believe he's speaking from the input of a certain textbook.

So I explained my point to him that I opt for full ROM + knee extending beyond toes as I believe in getting full functional range of motion and with knees extending beyond the toes are part of natural human movements. While I also told him that he was not wrong to say it's bad for my knees.

According to Kreighbaum (1996) deep squats with knees extending beyond toes are absolutely fine. However there are 3 concerns to look into; (1) Speed of descent, (2) size of calves and thighs, (3) Strength of controlling muscles. Let's see what he has to say;

The primary danger to the knee occurs when the tissues of the calf and thigh press together altering the center of rotation back to the contact area creating a dislocation effect. The danger of knee injury in this situation may be prevented if either of the following factor are present:
center of gravity of the body system is kept forward of the altered center of rotation
muscles of the thigh are strong enough to prevent the body from resting or bouncing on the calves.
Kreighbaum concludes the deep squat is of little danger to the knees unless these variables and factors are disregarded

The reason I told the trainer that he was not wrong is because it would be dangerous for me, IF I neglected the mentioned concerns by Kreighbaum. Noticed the IF ?

Questions in regards to Squat

2010-06-11T00:56:00.005+08:00

I was warming up with full range of motion (ROM) body-weight squats, squatting as deep as I can with my knee extending beyond my toes. One trainer came over telling me that it's bad for my knees and it's not safe - I should be doing half squats and knees should be behind the toes instead. Knowing his background, I believe he's speaking from the input of a certain textbook.

The primary danger to the knee occurs when the tissues of the calf and thigh press together altering the center of rotation back to the contact area creating a dislocation effect. The danger of knee injury in this situation may be prevented if either of the following factor are present:
center of gravity of the body system is kept forward of the altered center of rotation
muscles of the thigh are strong enough to prevent the body from resting or bouncing on the calves.
Kreighbaum concludes the deep squat is of little danger to the knees unless these variables and factors are disregarded

The reason I told the trainer that he was not wrong is because it would be dangerous for me, IF I neglected the mentioned concerns by Kreighbaum. Noticed the IF ?

Somewhere out of Malaysia

2010-05-10T15:53:00.006+08:00

A Little Update

2010-05-03T10:38:00.010+08:00

I'll be away from Malaysia every weekend for the next 6 weeks starting from 8th May 2010. I'm up for something exciting, something I've not personally done before.

But I'll only announce what it is once I'm done with it.

And oh yes, I'm sorry I've not been blogging consistently. I've been really really tied down with things which has higher priorities. I promise I'll start blogging actively again on health and fitness :)

Meanwhile, stay tuned !

My Thoughts on The Biggest Loser Reality Show

2010-04-19T17:13:00.004+08:00

I saw on the official Biggest Loser Asia facebook group that audition for season 2 is coming soon. To be honest, I did have the thought of asking some of my obese friends to join the audition back in the debut season although I've personally not watched more than 10 episodes of Biggest Loser USA. And yes, I did NOT watch a single episode of Biggest Loser Asia, in fact I can't even remember what was their airing time and day on Astro. I only saw the the winner's photo as people were talking about him over the internet. And I personally think that he looked sick.

Before and After - Biggest Loser Asia Season 1 winner

Bob Harper and Jillian Michael - Trainers of Biggest Loser USA.

I'm Home, and Shrunked!

2009-12-03T19:35:00.026+08:00

Just to let you all know I am home safe and sound. I've lost most of my muscle mass though from this 3 weeks trip. I might or might not tell you about my trip. I'll think about it. But basically I've personally experienced how we'll lose our muscle mass from skipping meals. I know about it theoretically, seen it happened on others, but now I experienced it first hand. Well yes, since the day I started lifting weights and training, I eat every 2-3 hours and never allow myself to be hungry. Anal retentive you may call me, but that's me afraid of muscles breaking down. But for some reasons from this 3 weeks trip, I was on a total different kind of lifestyle.

Well, I will not hesitate to jack up my food intake and start lifting irons soon to gain what I've lost. Bulking season ;)

I'll be Away

2009-11-09T01:30:00.011+08:00

I'll be away for overseas trip starting from tomorrow. Will be back in Malaysia by 2nd December 2009 if there is no any unpredictable circumstance that arises.

Meanwhile, stay well and healthy :)

Whey Protein - To Shake or not to Shake?

2009-10-03T23:55:00.004+08:00

So the question is, is it necessary to consume protein shake supplement, particularly Whey Protein. This is one of the many commonly asked questions by weight training beginners to me. Protein supplement is often portrayed by the media as the magic powder to grow muscles. Some even believe that by just consuming protein shakes, they can look like Bruce Lee ( How I wish it was that easy anyway ).

Let us try to understand what are protein made up of ?
It is made up of 8 essential and 12 non-essential amino acids linked together by peptide bonds. Essential amino acids cannot be produced by our human body, while the other 12 non-essential amino acids are produced in our human body from dietary nitrogen and fragments of carbohydrates and fat.

Natural sources of high quality protein ?
Meat - Fish, Chicken, Beef etc, Milk, Soya Bean Milk, Tofu and of course Eggs.

And what protein does?
Generally protein builds and repairs body tissues and can also be used as our body's energy source when we are lacking of calories or carbohydrates.

So now back to the original question - Should they consume protein shake? Is it necessary?
Let's look at the various type of shake available in the market; Whey Protein, Cassein Protein, Soy Protein, and Egg Protein. I'll just focus on Whey Protein in this post since that's what most of us are consuming.

Whey Protein comes from milk, and its actually by-product from the process of making cheese to be exact.
According to studies, whey protein has the highest biological value compared to other source of protein. And it is the fastest absorbing protein among all. Thus the body could receive nutrients as fast as possible after a good workout.

Conclusion
I'll leave it to you to decide whether you should or should not consume protein shake. Although I do consume Whey protein shake considering all the benefits mentioned by various studies and convenience sake, but something I do look into is the ingredients used by manufacturers in their products. We do not know for sure if there are any other unprinted on label harmful substances added by the manufacturer that may cause harm to our body in the long run. The reason I'm saying this because there are cases where independent research has been done to check on protein powder's content to find it is not accurate as what was printed on the manufacturer's label. And some even contain anabolic drugs and other harmful substances.

If you are comfortable with the idea of consuming protein shake, go ahead by all means. Else, just stick with natural sources.

Cracking But Painless Knees?

2009-09-26T02:08:00.004+08:00

Among the many questions I'm often being asked by my clients is about cracking but painless knees. I believe you too may have experienced it. But the question is what's the problem? is it harmful if it's left untreated?

As a matter of fact, what's cracking but not causing pain is known as Crepitus. It's said to be air being trapped on the joints space due to cartilage wear. It does not only happens to the knee, it also happens to other joints of the body.

Treatment for it? Not that I am aware of any, but perhaps you might want to check with your family doctor to confirm about it.

Training At Home? But Without Equipment(s)? How!?

2009-09-12T14:57:00.012+08:00

Well, this is the common question people would ask me when I tell them I do home based Personal Training. Most of the time I train my clients without any fancy looking machines that you see in most commercial fitness clubs. Some of my clients might have Cardio Machines, either Treadmills, Elliptical Trainers, Stationary Bikes or a Rowing Machine. Treadmill is the most common machine owned among my clients.

But even that, I don't train my clients using any of their available Cardio Machines - What's the point paying me to watch you running on your treadmill? I ask them to run when they are not training with me instead.

So how do I train my clients without any equipments?

With the understanding of science of human motion, human movement, body structure and body functions, we can workout regardless where you are. The fancy looking machines at the gyms are made by mimicking human movement after all. I train of my clients with bodyweights and plyometrics conditioning instead - structuring and progressing them depending on their fitness level.

Does that mean I don't use any equipment(s) at all?
Well, No. I do use some mobile equipments, depending on my client's fitness level. However, they are only used to add challenges to clients' routine when clients are starting to get too comfortable with their own bodyweight.

Published Write Up - SHAPE Malaysia September 2009 issue

2009-09-04T18:34:00.008+08:00

My write up has been published in SHAPE Malaysia September 2009 issue, under get fit, ask the trainer section.

Grab your September 2009 SHAPE Malaysia copy at the nearest news stand today!

Introduction

2009-08-13T17:25:00.005+08:00

Chances that you are reading this is because you are searching for information about health and fitness. Well, once again, welcome.

The fitness industry is flooded with many misconceptions, or what I call fitness myths. Instead of helping people who are looking for help in improving their health and condition, it frustrates them when they do not see any improvement and some may even endanger their health.

As a fitness professional I just feel the urge to share with people about the right things. I hope this site would be able to serve as a platform to provide good quality and reliable information about health and fitness.

If there is anything in your mind that you would like to know about health and fitness, please do not hesitate (even a little bit) to email me your question(s) at GetFitWithJasonLee[@]gmail.com (kindly remove the bracket before sending email)

You may ask, what’s my credibility? Check it out here - About Jason Lee.