Just over a month ago I attended a seminar/internship with Canadian National Weightlifting Coach Pierre Roy. His method of teaching the very technical Olympic lifts was the fastest and most effective I have ever seen.
My own technique has improved alot ever since practicing for a few weeks since I’ve been back from this internship.
The way Coach Roy teaches, may be equivalent technically to what is used in other countries Olympic lifting coaching. But the main point is that it can be taught in … 1 hour as opposed to 1 year! (For a fairly coordinated guy).
Just the same for anyone trying to achieve their fitness goals. Both our fitness bootcamp and personal training programs have the same idea – time saving, maximum efficiency and world class results.
Imagine that you are an athlete and your feet were weak. Could you run fast? Or jump high? Now imagine that your hands and grip were weak… would you be able to use those back, chest and arm muscles well? Nope. Grip and forearm training is critical for all athletes. And even for those trying to build mass, the better your grip, the better you will do in all exercises. Even lower body exercises like the deadlift improve with better grip.
All our athletes from rugby, rock climbing, golf and basketball… all improve with better hand and grip strength. And anybody who wants to do well in MMA or a martial art will also improve their ability to control their opponent with better grip strength.
There was once a story about a wold champion Russian wrestler who did not have top ability in traditional weightlifting exercises like the bench press… but could squeeze hard enough to break pliers in one hand. So when he grabbed his opponents, it was game over for them!
The key to grip training is not a magic number of sets and reps, or a magic machine. The key is variety. The grip has so many components that no single piece of equipment can cover it.
That is why I recommend a wide variety of implements. At our Singapore fitness center, I have over 15 different pieces of grip training equipment ranging from wrist rollers, to pinch grip handles, to finger strength tools, to grippers of all varieties… in addition I design grip training programs to suit the individual athlete or personal training client.
If you have not progressed in your training recently perhaps taking your grip training seriouosly will help you. Come join our programs at Singapore’s top Gym and we will help you!
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.
I just read a study published in the medical journal “Archives of Internal Medicine” Jan 25, 2009. Yes it was done on women aged 65-75 and it divided them into 2 groups. One group did strength training with dumbells, and another group did “balance and toning” exercises. These were the results…
“A year later, the women who did strength training had improved their performance on tests of so-called executive function by 10.9 percent to 12.6 percent, while those assigned to balance and toning exercises experienced a slight deterioration — 0.5 percent. The improvements in the strength training group included an enhanced ability to make decisions, resolve conflicts and focus on subjects without being distracted by competing stimuli.”
You know the worst part – those who wasted time on “balance and toning” did not even maintain their full function.
And in these studies, usually, even the strength training is average at best, and the results were still good. Imagine if the strength training was conducted by a well qualified personal trainer… I suspect the results would be even better.
Why? The key indicator in quality of life in senior citizens (actually I think it applies to ALL people!) is muscular size and strength/power.
Size because the more muscle mass you have the more immune system resources you can buffer – i.e. you don’t get sick
Strength/Power because the stronger you are, the less likely you will get injured. This means, no falling down, no broken bones, no trips to the hospital and no long term bed rest i.e. no fast degeneration!
The problem – as mentioned in this study, is that senior females DON’T OFTEN DO STRENGTH TRAINING, the very form of exercise that will help them. But that is why they have many health issues! So it’s not ok to be “average”. Average is sick and dependent. Be normal! It is normal to be energetic, mentally sharp, lean and strong – at any age.
Kahyin, one of our senior clients warms up with some jumps - she DOES look way younger than her peers and is way healthier! This study is right!
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.
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
Just something I learned about the manufacture of fish oil from our lecture on toxicity.
Did you know that the cost of purification (getting rid of toxins, heavy metals that cause cancer and stop enzyme and hormone function) of fish oil is much higher than the cost of obtaining the oil in the first place?
So that is how cheap brands save costs!
With supplements always get the best that you can find. They are the parachute of your health – and you don’t try to save money on parachutes do 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.
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