Body fat (everybody wants to know this!): 1-2% drop. 2mm on the 1 site supra illiac. 2mm on the abs. I did not biosig myself (because I can’t self measure 12 sites!) but there is a clear difference.
Waist drop 3cm each down to 78cm (smallest point) and 81cm (around belly button)
Weight down 2kg total.
I did the same food today, and I feel quite drained (did not take an off day the last 7 days to keep the lymph fluid flowing) so I just did some lower weight prowler pushes. Anaerobic capacity was not bad I still managed 8 laps of my gym’s 35m track with only a slight desire to throw up haha.
Bowel movements were good, I am also getting great sleep. At least 7 hours straight at night and a nap in the day. Once again, the topical magnesium + capsule magnesium combination seems to do very well. I highly recommend this combination especially if you KNOW that your digestive system has issues. The topical application (on skin) is wonderful for absorption.
I would probably do shorter cleanses of 1-3 days every month for health. In the future I will rotate the “extra supplements” to detox new things. I have a package for detoxing heavy metals, one for plastics and one for estrogen. All the detoxes will start when my far-infra red sauna comes in.
I am a healthy and quite a “clean” guy and I benefitted. Imagine somebody who has not taken care of themselves in the past or has worked/lived in a more toxic area or has genetic tendencies to store/be affected by toxins. They will benefit even more!
I lost a bit of fat although this is NOT I repeat NOT a fat burning plan. There are ways to burn fat faster. It is just that those ways get “stuck” by poor health or toxicity. That is that this plan is for. Detox removes obstacles to future progress. And that is part of reaching your goals!
Athletes benefit because toxicity can affect tendon and muscle strength. As well as aerobic and anaerobic endurance as it prevents cells from producing energy effectively. So guys and girls wanting to be strong should be on a detox at least twice a year as well.
THE END of detox!
I will slowly reintroduce food to my life! I think I need to put some fat back into my diet ASAP. I miss it even more than protein.
A question came in about carbohydrate levels, yes they are quite high during the detox because the protein used is rice based and will have some carbs. But its only 100+g which is not going to help you strip fat, but its not high enough to make you a tubby either. Also the carbs are always with protein and often with fiber so its not so bad:)
Do you think you would get a better workout in a park? Or at the best gym in Singapore?
Although the quality of the coach who designs your personal training or weight loss fitness program is the top priority, I would admit that the quality of your fitness program design is influenced by the tools available to the coach.
Imagine…If you only gave me a 5 kg dumbbell, I would run out of useful exercises faster than if you gave me a complete gym set up with the right mix of different dumbbells, varieties of barbells, lifting platforms, power racks, machines and accessories like gym balls, bands, lifting pins, grip training equipment, etc (oops that just describes my Gym in Singapore).
In my experience, it is almost impossible for a in home personal trainer or a fitness instructor who trains out of a condo gym or a hotel gym, or a community center gym, to match the results we get at the Genesis Performance Center.
Just think for a moment why this would be so?…They would need to match both my program design ability, knowledge of health, understanding of anatomy, thousands of hours of study and seminars, as well as have the right gym equipment to do the job! This is a problem because these gyms were not designed by a person with 16 years of drug-free training study and experience.
It is also hard for any outdoor boot camp in a park to match the results we get at our indoor fitness boot camp which fully utilizes all the equipment available to us. In fact one bootcamp member recently commented “I’ve tried all the other bootcamps in Singapore and yours is way more value” … well of course:) We only design good programs and will ALWAYS get the equipment needed to support it.
This year 2010 alone, I plan to spend much of our business budget on upgrading our equipment to continue to lead Singapore Gyms as the best equipped (with the most useful stuff!) so that I have the greatest variety of gym equipment, so that I can design the greatest variety of personal training fitness programs, so that I can help the greatest amount of people get the weight loss, mass gaining or sports performance goals they deserve.
When choosing a gym, like in the rest of life, there are three groups of people.
Those who read and make the right choice (check out the remainder of my Singapore fitness blog to read more!)
Those who observe others and make the right choice (check out our success stories on the Singapore fitness homepage, or the success stories page)
And those who “piss on the electric fence to learn for themselves” – unfortunately some people try other methods and places to try and get results but are disappointed, frustrated and upset. In the end, after some pain and unfortunate experiences, they end up at Singapore’s best Gym, The Genesis Performance Center.
Once You See This - It's Probably Not Good For You
Almost everybody knows that sugar is bad for you. And my personal training and fitness boot camp clients certainly know this because we try our best to inform our clients about the negative effects of sugar consumption for their health. But the processed food manufacturers know that customers are becoming aware of this too! Customers are more informed and are getting better at reading food labels.
Here is one trick that you should be aware of…
Manufacturers sometimes “split up” the sugars among the ingredients. It is quite well known that the ingredient with the highest amount has to be listed first, so a food with sugar listed first may be very unpopular. But if a manufacturer seperates sugar into fructose, dextrose, maltodextrin, high fructose corn syrup, different sugar alcohols (malitol, xylitol etc) it becomes easier to hide and none of these individual ingredients ends up high on the list. But add them up and you have sugar-fest that will make you tubby real quick so read labels carefully.
Even more so… don’t even buy many foods that have labels to be read! I mean a vegetable or piece of meat or a fruit has NO LABEL! These tend to be the best foods for you.
Anybody who excels in their profession has somebody to give credit to, somebody to thank, somebody to appreciate for their success. While there is lots of studying that you can do on your own (after all, I have a book and education material collection worth a small car….) it is the moments of inspiration that come from being around the industry leaders who are the best in the world at what they do that truly allow my mind to expand by allowing me to see just how much I DO NOT KNOW! And how much more there is to learn. Just like Stephen Hawking wrote, we really are standing on the shoulders of Giants.
I’m honored to count these guys as my teachers and mentors. After attending their courses and seminars, I can truly say that all our Singapore personal training clients and boot camp members benefit alot in their health, weight loss, fat burning and strength building goals. Unfortunately, in Singapore, these guys are not very well known to the general public, but only to those who are serious about getting the best information in the world!
Coach Charles Poliquin – Olympic strength and conditioning coach. This guy knows a lot about almost any training or health topic out there. And his certifications are the hardest to obtain in the fitness industry. In fact to reach level 5 (the highest level) you need to produce a medalist (verified by the sport council) in either the world championships or the Olympic games. I am currently the only level 3 coach in Asia, that means that we have coached people to national teams. Am going for level 4 later in 2010.
Dr. Mark Houston – Cardiovascular health specialist. This guy literally “wrote the book” about how to use nutrients and lifestyle to combat high blood pressure, cholesterol issues, and all heart/cardiovascular health conditions.
Dr. Robert Rakowski – Functional Medicine Doctor. This guy is a former US marine, but has applied the discipline to study of how the human body works. I saw him treat a person for a shoulder problem… and found out that it was his LIVER that was too toxic and causing the pain…this doctor taught me alot of what I know about detoxification and cancer as well.
Coach Pierre Roy – Pierre has been coaching the Canadian Olympic weightlifting team for 35 years and has the sharpest eye for the details of training. He corrects high speed lifts to the accuracy of 0.5 cm! and the next time the lifter does it, the weight goes up effortlessly. His methods of coaching that I learned save clients HUNDREDS of hours of learning technique. Things that used to take weeks to learn, now take minutes. That’s value for money everyone!
I am constantly looking for great mentors to learn from. It really helps clients get results faster and better! And it helps keep the Genesis Performance Center Singapore best health & fitness center and personal training Gym.
As a Singapore personal trainer, my clients trust me with their health and ask me all kinds of questions. One often asked question by our fitness boot camp and personal training clients is “what about detox? – do I need it? – how should I go about it?”
There are so many people and companies offering detox products. But detox is a complex situation. Your body is actually capable of most of the detox processes. But you need to support it with the right nutrients to the right places for the right tasks.
Here is how I do it. I learned from a mentor who is a brilliant functional medicine doctor and one of the most sought after detox specialists in the world.
Firstly, everybody is different and needs different detoxes. How do you know if you need a detox? Well… we all do! The world is a toxic place, our food is not as nutritious as it should be, and our stress levels are way above what our ancestors are used to dealing with.
One indicator of a need for detox is the inability to lose bodyfat even though you do other things right! Great nutrition, hard training, correct supplements and you get stuck – the primary reason is toxicity!
So when a client like this comes for a consultation, I check their health history, and their Biosignature (a method of determining health conditions from body fat storage patterns devised by Olympic coach Charles Poliquin). I also use a questionaire to determine if there are other issues like problems with neurotrainsmitters (brain signals), liver, adrenal gland (stress) and other organ issues. I also check digestion and mineral levels.
If a detox is needed, I usually use a combination of medicinal food (guaranteed potency, purity, and effectiveness) which is non allergic, as well as an organic greens/fruit supplement, and fiber. In addition, according to the client’s needs, I would use a variety of nutrients to support the liver, gall bladder and digestive tract in detoxification.
Finally I would add supplements according to the clients “main problem” it might be stuff to take out heavy metal poisons, plastics and excess bad estrogen.
This goes on for 1 week. There might be some nausea or headaches because the liver is working hard to get rid of all the bad stuff from your body. That is why it is so important to support the liver!
After this week your fat burning, muscle building and health will be back on the fast track.
Doing this 2x/ year is recommended because Singapore is a crowded and polluted place. We need to keep our bodies clean to maximize our health, productivity and quality of life.
Ok, many of my Singapore personal training and fitness boot camp clients as me if fruit juice is ok for them to drink… I mean, fruits are healthy right? so why not just juice them and get all their goodness… and as an added benefit you can have so many fruits in one glass… my answer (after a short chuckle)…NO, No, NOOOO…unless you want to get fat, diabetic and brain damaged!
Clients come to me to lose weight, burn fat, get healthy and improve their performance and strength… so of course NO is the answer.
Pretty Nice Ads, Pretty Ugly Results
Why?
Firstly fruit juice is high in sugar and low in fiber (even the most organic, healthy ones) – that means that it’s just as bad as any other processed and overly sweetened cola or syrup based drink. Almost nobody can get a healthy and lean physique drinking those… and nobody can get a great physique drinking fruit juice either.
It combines all the “bad parts” of fruit – the high sugar, concentrates it and gives you many servings of this in 1 glass – it takes several apples (4-5) to make 1 glass of apple juice. When was the last time you ate 5 apples in one sitting? Thats the amount of sugar you are taking in!
It takes away the good stuff – the skins and fiber in fruits is gone! These actually slow digestion if you eat the whole fruit. That makes the impact of the sugar less on your body when it is digested slowly and released slowly into the body.
Most fruit juices in coffee shops and hawker centers are “enhanced” with sugar syrup – oops thats not in real fruit!
Finally fruit juice commercial production is EVIL. Fruits are very heavily sprayed with poisons to protect them from bugs (its actually because the soil they are grown in is so bad that artificial fertilizers are used which do not provide the plant the nutrients to be healthy and have its OWN defense against bugs – thus pesticides are needed)…
Do you think fruits are lovingly plucked and gently squeezed one by one to make juice? Of course not. They are crushed by the thousands, skin and rind and all and the juices drained out. Oops some pesticide is left on the skin… oops… its in your juice.
Most pesticides are nervous system and brain toxic. That is BAD.
I prefer to have full nerve function and brain function. I prefer to be lean and healthy. I don’t drink fruit juice! And any Singapore personal trainer who knows his/her nutrition facts won’t tell you to either.
I know that we need about 8-12 servings of fruits and veggies to stay healthy, alkalanize our body, and get a wide spectrum of anti-oxidants. That is why I use a organic veggie and fruit extract that keeps the nutrients but does not give us the high sugar content. I also use a variety of organic fibers to keep the digestive tract healthy. We used to be able to get great nutrition from fruits… but fruit today is not what it used to be – its low in nutrients, genetically modified to be sweet, and covered in pesticides… we should all use a greens/fruit supplement and a fiber to stay healthy. Contact us to see if we have any in stock so you can get the nutrition your body needs to maximize its potential.
I will be away for more than 2 weeks starting tomorrow. I will be another set of 25-30 hour trips to the Rhode Island where the temperature is currently -2 to -8 deg C… I’m not even sure I have the right clothes for this! But its ok:) all for the love of knowledge.
There will be a series of seminars about various topics.
Training of special warfare guys like body guards and commandos (and learning the best methods for handling shift work!)
Special considerations for training females
Special considerations for training kids
Developing power for sports
Healing back injuries FAST (80% of people will have back pain some time in their life)
Training Busy Executives (lots of these in Singapore!)
Anatomy
How to do better nutrition consultations.
Do I think I’m currently BAD at these things… probably not… but these courses are taught by various instructors who are at the top of their field in the world! So I know I have much to learn. Braving the cold will be a small price to pay.
Study, experience and practice.Put them together and you get results!
Unfortunately most personal trainers in Singapore work with only a few clients at a time. But at my center, my staff and I work with over 160 clients at one time. We have their nutrition information, their flexibility and body fat measurements, their health indicators and their training program logs. This means we know with great certainty what works and what does not.
Nutrition and lifestyle for fat loss and maximum performance are what our fitness training clients come to us for and we customize nutrition habits and plans for each personal training client. But there are alot of minefields out there so I will be explaining some of the problem areas and scary marketing tactics we may face in this era of advertising and information overload.
What do you think of when you hear that something is made of “whole grain” – That it has a good fiber content right? … Think again… whole grain is something that means nothing when it is placed on food packaging. Most items that claim to be “whole grain” have about 1g of fiber per serving. That is… unacceptable. A good source of fiber has at least 2-3g/serving AND does not take lots of useless, blood sugar spiking carbs along for the ride. (Many vegetables are good choices) So be careful when you see a cereal of other food labeled as whole grain.
3g fiber per cup GOOD. 22g useless, blood sugar boosting, fatness causing carbs BAD
Remember, if it comes in a nice box, and/or has an advertising campaign, the food must be low enough quality and cheap enough to produce so that there is a profit margin for the fancy packaging and ad campaign. Buyer beware.
It is normal for customers to compare products before buying or signing up. That is totally the right thing to do. And one of the things they as me, is “what makes your Singapore fitness boot camp better than any of the others around?” What they are actually asking is “why should I join this one and not any of the many other options”.
Besides the quality of coaching and the positive environment, the key component of the science based training program itself that makes our weight loss and fat burning program so effective is that we have an emphasis on strength.
Yes we do circuits of various kinds, we do interval training of many varieties and we do teach nutrition and lifestyle habits that boost energy, improve sleep and even get our diabetic or cardiovascular health clients come off the drugs they have been using for years.
But we never neglect the ONLY physical attribute that improves all others.
STRENGTH
Strength improves flexiblity because your body is more comfortable moving to new ranges of motion when it knows it is strong enough to control itself in that extreme range.
Strength improves endurance because it improves efficiency and “ease” even when you are doing stuff like marathons or triathlons.
And strength improves fat burning because fat burning is about doing alot of work in as short a time as possible.
For a simple example, lets say I can lift a maximum of 100kg one time. Perhaps in 10 mins I could lift 50% of that 50kg 50 times. Thats 2500kg of total weight lifted.
But lets say I am strong enough to lift 200kg one time. 50% of that is 100kg! And if I lift that 50 times in 10 mins, that is 5000kg. Twice as much work done, that means more fat burned.
It’s not as “simple” as that of course and there are alot more things going on… but the idea is the same.
Get strong – And your fat burning workouts get more effective – You burn more fat, and lose weight from your fat stores faster.
And strength doesn’t mean “size” when we train for strength, it’s possible to do so without getting too “big”. Our female clients haven’t complained:)
Check out what a strong 48kg woman looks like. Certainly not “huge” or un-feminine by any means. Below is Marilou Dozois-Prevost of Canada, a lifter in the under 48kg category (hey that’s a weight many ladies want to be at!)
This is what a strong 48kg looks like
So everybody, being strong makes you more lean, more fit, more firm, more toned, and more of everything good. It also improves your bone density, and makes you have a stronger immune system… that’s why even though people come to bootcamps for weight loss, we incorporate strength training as well. That’s why I’m happy to say our boot camps for fat loss are held in a fully equipped gym where there is stuff to not only help you burn fat and lose unwanted weight, but also to get strong so that you can maximize your results and your potential.
Part of coaching clients either in our Singapore personal training or fitness boot camp programs, is managing the emotions of fitness. Getting strong, or lean or looking good is incredibly emotional and as a coach we need to handle these emotions.
Every Client in singapore who wants to build muscle, burn fat, lose weight and get strong wants it NOW.
Our fitness coaching, nutritional, health building and performance boosting programs get you there as fast as possible… but there is still this instant gratification factor that kicks in sometimes.
One of my clients was upset and discouraged and wondered why he kept getting “weaker” during this phase of his training. All other signs were good, he was leaner, bigger and visibly improved in all areas! Just that he could not lift the weights he usually could.
Here is where coaching and knowledge comes in. He has been on leave lately and has been training more often and on a harder program than before. I explained that I am intentionally over-training him for these few weeks so that when he rebounds he will be stronger than before. Also, he has to understand that he is a fairly advanced trainee, and these guys will have “great” workouts where they set records more and more infrequently as they progress. And it takes more and more specialized training to progress.
After all, the best in the world, the Olympic champ, has a great workout only once every 4 years!
The same is true for fat burning. Assuming you are training hard and doing the right nutrition and supplementation for your genes and current fitness level, weight loss or fat burning tends to come in “bunches” not 500g/day but rather nothing for a week, then suddenly 1-2kg. Then again, I as a coach have to keep people on track during the “no-progress” times.
I will use myself as an example of not having great workouts often. Here is me… lifting 200kg x3 in the deadlift from a podium at 81kg bodyweight. This was a VERY draining attempt for me and I could not repeat this effort for more than 3 weeks after this set of exercise. I had a “great” workout only once in that MONTH! But its ok because it was a record that I had been training 6 weeks to get.
The key is to stay on track, stay in focus and never give up on your fat burning, muscle building or weight loss goals.
Anybody who excels in their profession has somebody to give credit to, somebody to thank, somebody to appreciate for their success. While there is lots of studying that you can do on your own (after all, I have a book and education material collection worth a small car….) it is the moments of inspiration that come from being around the industry leaders who are the best in the world at what they do that truly allow my mind to expand by allowing me to see just how much I DO NOT KNOW! And how much more there is to learn. Just like Stephen Hawking wrote, we really are standing on the shoulders of Giants.
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