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:)