Yesterday our first phase of major gym upgrading was completed. One thing I have learned over the past few years of operating a personal training center in Singapore, is that its always best to buy the top of the range equipment, to learn from the best mentors and to give the best results to our personal training, Singapore fitness bootcamp and health consultation clients.

That is why I choose the “Black Iron Strength” range of dumbbells for our fitness center. Can you get good results with regular dumbbells? Of course! But are the Black Iron ones better? Certainly! Here is why…

1. Fat grips - fat grip training has been shown since the strongmen of old to improve strength faster. In fact we also see that it improves the balance between right and left hand better as well, so for personal training clients with left and right imbalances, fat grips are excellent.

2. Rotating handles – the grips are not only fat, they rotate. This reduces stress on the joints while at the same time forcing them to work harder for better gains. Putting the fat, rotating grip handles together, and training with them for a while, you will find that training with regular dumbbells is “easier” since you will be used to the hard stuff, this increases your poundage with regular weights.

3. Adjustable in small increments. There are a variety of custom made add-on magnets that allow you to adjust the weight in small increments of about 1kg. Often a 2.5kg jump between dumbbells may be too much. We don’t want to be stuck with a weight that is too light, yet not able to lift the next heaviest weight at all.

4. They are solid stainless steel. This means they last just about forever. No joints, no bolts, nothing to break.

5. They look AWESOME. Check out the cool engraving on each dumbbell! Just looking at them inspires me to train. And I hope it does the same thing for our clients.

Some might think that the reason we can get the best equipment is because I am perhaps playing with “mom and dad’s” money or have a wonderful “angel investor” somewhere. While my family is a great source of security and love, massive financial resources were never part of the start-up plan!

Most importantly, one character trait that I have learned from my parents is worth more than millions of dollars of “start-up” capital. After all, it is possible to spend millions of dollars foolishly as we see with celebrities and sports stars every day in the news.

This character trait is called delayed gratification. As an example, I did not even take a salary for more than 2 years when the Genesis Performance Center was starting up. I put almost every cent back into education, equipment and coaching. I worked almost non-stop from 730am to 930pm, and I actually worried a lot about making rent payments just like any other start up business owner.

Looking back…the 2 factors that contribute greatly to the success of the Genesis Performance Center are…

1. Our clients! I thank each client that we have ever coached for their trust in us, and it is the results that we work together for which result in more testimonials, more referrals and more trust in our services.
2. Education! It is never a bad investment to invest in education. Books, videos, and especially seminars and mentor-ship programs. The top mentor ship programs cost thousands of dollars per day especially when overseas accommodation and air-fare are included. But I think of it this way… if I even help are few clients with the knowledge that I learned, the investment would have been recovered AND I would still have kept the knowledge. It’s an excellent choice!

Another key benefit of seminars is that when you meet the top people in the field you choose to study in, you learn from them how to “weed-out” bad information so that your time invested in books and videos is even better spent.

There we have it, no secrets, no magic tales. To the aspiring gym owners and personal trainers out there, if you put in 15 hour days, constant education of an additional 15 hours per week, constant personal character growth, wise spending habits, and a genuine love for your clients – every day till you die, with no short-cuts, then this will be one of the most satisfying jobs on the planet.

If not please stay away from the personal training, nutrition, health and strength and conditioning business, you make those of us who care look really bad.

Part 2 of upgrading happens later in July 2010 when the 2nd container arrives. I can’t wait:)

I rested a day, then used the infra red sauna at my personal training gym for the 2nd time. This time with the full support of antioxidant supplements as well as support for the detox pathways of my liver. If you don’t read to the end of this post, its alright. Just know that there is a HUGE benefit and positive difference in the way the detox sauna makes you feel when you body is nutritionally supported.

• Time of sauna use: 1100am – 1130am
• Temperature 50deg C
• All Infra red lamps to middle heat.
• Activity before sauna – Lower Body Training – Recovery session
• Nutrition before sauna – Full compliment of anti oxidants using both water soluble and fat soluble anti-oxidants, as well as various amino acids to support liver detox pathways.
• Activity after sauna – wait 15 mins, then cool shower
• Nutrition after sauna – More anti oxidants in the form of organic vegetable drinks as well as antioxidant supplements. More amino acids.

No nausea even though I was in there 5 minutes longer than the previous session. The only thing is that sitting inside is kind of boring so if you are planning on using it please bring something to do!… I was listening to some educational Mp3s on my iphone although I’m not sure the heat is good for electronics. Anyway the iphone is supposed to have a heat sensitive cut-off mechanism so I think its ok:)

No light headed feeling, but I was still happy to get out into more “normal” temperatures. After the shower I noticed something nice, my skin feels really smooth and clean! I mean I’m a bit too manly to notice this usually! But there was a huge difference.

The rest of the day was alot better after sauna then the first time I used it. Alot less “traumatic” on the body when we use the full range of supplements. I will certainly include the supplements with the sauna usage for my personal training and boot-camp clients. I feel it would be irresponsible as a health professional, to let people use the sauna without that support.

The sauna will be open for use from this coming Monday onwards. For Genesis Gym members and bootcamp participants the fees are $60/session or $500 for 10 sessions including supplements for before and after the sauna. For the public please make an appointment through our “contact us” page. Fees for the public are $70/session or $600 for 10 sessions inclusive of supplements.

Looking forward to helping Singapore residents get toxin free! No more exhaust fumes, or plastics in our bodies. This speeds metabolism, boosts fat loss and weight loss and increases energy levels.

NOTE: Saunas are NOT for us for ladies who are already pregnant. They are wonderful for those thinking about getting pregnant though! We want as clean an environment as possible for our babies to grow in. But we don’t want to stir up toxins while we are carrying a child.

Well… it works for any kind of workout and no matter if you are trying to lose weight, build muscle or run your opponents into the ground as a competitive athlete training for sports, just doing this one thing will improve your workouts alot.

It is so simple, anybody can do it, and if you are one of my personal training clients you MUST do it.

Write down your workouts and record what weights you used and how many reps, sets you did, as well as what tempo you used and how you felt during the workout.

One of our clients filling in his customized program with today's workout results.

As weightlifting champion Tommy Kono once said “The faintest ink is better than the best of memories”.

Each of our personal training clients has their own file where they record their workouts. These files are some of the UGLIEST files you will ever see! Sweaty, crumpled and often torn. With terribly messy handwriting (you try to write neatly after 25 sets of training). But that is what training records look like if the program is challenging enough, and done with the right level of commitment.

Chains are well known as one of the best ways to improve explosive speed when doing exercises like squats and deadlifts because they force the athlete in training to accelerate the bar to overcome the increasing resistance of the chains. The most common way to attach them to the bar is with small chains and carabiners. And the set up is seen in this older video of me squatting with chains.

While this works for sure, it is annoying, time consuming and troublesome for both our coaches and personal training clients. That is why I got a custom set of collars that makes attaching the chains alot easier and less time consuming. The chain weight can also be adjusted easily by choosing different collars with different size chains attached to them. The setup also doubles as a collar for the plates.

Being the best in the fitness business means constant upgrading. Brain, body and even tools. That is why I budget a huge percentage of all our business revenue into upgrading our personal training gym. In the coming 2 months a big bunch of stuff is going to come in. I no longer try to get the “best value” products. I just try to get the best product full stop.

These are really expensive but will last for generations!

One such product is the “Black Iron Strength” dumbells. I would say they are the best dumbbells in the word. They have rotating handles for minimal stress on the wrist. They also have thick grip handles so that there is maximum stimulus on the grip (thus maximum improvement in upper body strength – thick grips are excellent for this), they also have a very nice rack that takes up as little space as possible, yet is designed so that the heaviest dumbbells can be taken off comfortably. In addition they are made of one solid piece of steel and are “denser” than regular dumbbells so they handle better.

They are the “Prada” of dumbbells but it’s time for our personal training gym to have only the best stuff!

The best dumbbells money can buy - at Genesis Performance Center

I just added a facebook page for our personal training gym, the Genesis Performance Center. We have more than 140 fans in less than 2 days. Along with some really kind reviews from our clients. Catch us on Facebook now!

Some of our Facebook reviews

Many personal trainers and strength and conditioning coaches miss out on the key to grip training. As I mentioned in my previous grip training post, the key is variety, in the tempo, the exercises, the angles, the weights, the isometric holds, the finger positions, WHICH finger is used, and which type of wrist or hand strength you are trying to develop.
At Singapore’s best gym, our personal training and sports performance programs allow for a great variety of grip training and thus grip is not a limiting factor in out athlete and personal training clients. Here are some of our grip tools shown below, these are made by what I consider the best hand strength training company, Ironmind. They sponsor the world’s strongest man contest so their stuff is tough! Not cheap for sure (but hey I’m learning to buy once and never worry again) but it should last many lifetimes, and help our many personal trainers at Genesis get the clients strong! You have, from left to right… A lifting pin (we have a couple of these and they are the best way to load grip training as well as chin-ups and dips), hand opening training, mini grippers for individual finger training, bands to train hand opening as well, finger loops to train finger closing strength, hub cap grip, box grip, grippers, finger loops so you can train finger strength, wrist roller which can attach to a power rack or squat rack so that the wrist gets the training while the shoulders are supported, and a wrist roller to train an often underdeveloped part of grip strength, moving the wrist “sideways” for anatomy nerds like me, this is called radial and ulnar deviation. Strong hands here we come!

All kinds of grip training tools!

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.

Don’t be in the third group. Join our Singapore based personal training or fitness boot camp program today.

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.

There have been several articles lately on fitness coaching and personal trainers in Singapore. They question the knowledge and ability of personal trainers and they question the lack of standardization in the education of trainers.

And so do I!

After all, your personal trainer is going to help you take care of your body just like a medical doctor would. So it makes sense that a personal trainer needs to know enough about your body to help you get the results that you want from your fitness program.

Education is vital to me. I spend an average of 10 hours per week learning better ways to help out fitness bootcamp and personal training clients get great results.

In fact I just came back from 16 continuous days of seminars with the best coaches, doctors and physiotherapists in the world. We discussed the latest improvements in helping back pain, osteoporosis, PMS, kids training, nutrition, detoxification from plastics, heavy metals and excess estrogen, strength and speed training for sports, stress management, and many more things. The pictures on this post are from this trip.

Just the fact that it is a gathering of those who are the tops in the health industry helps because even the informal meals and training sessions are a chance to learn from each other.

The knowledge and information is worth the 30 (36 with delay!!) hour plane rides and the sub zero temperatures.

classroom lessons (this one is about shoulder health)

Canadian National Weightlifting Coach Pierre Roy

Our Demonstrators For Olympic Lifting. At the Left Olympian Marilou and Canadian champion Paul

Advanced Stretching Techniques

36 hours travel... including 6 hours waiting for this plane!

Learning about pain caused by internal organ dysfunction