As we tell all our personal training and fitness boot camp clients at Genesis Gym Singapore. The idea that only weight and height are important for indicating your level of health is (thankfully) regarded as old fashioned and incomplete now.

Your level of body fat is a far better indicator of overall health, and risk of chronic lifestyle diseases like diabetes, cardiovascular conditions and some forms of cancer. Most notably:

• Esophagus
• Pancreas
• Colon and rectum
• Breast (after menopause)
• Endometrium (lining of the uterus)
• Kidney
• Thyroid
• Gallbladder

And possibly more.

But to track the progress of your training and nutrition program, you need a way to accurately track your body fat.

If it goes down, you are on the right track, and if it does not, or goes up, you need to make some modifications

But not all fat measurement methods are created equal. Here are some common, and not so common ones. From the pros and cons, you will be able to choose a method that suits you best.

BMI – Body mass index

• Pros: Very simple to do and great for big studies with hundreds of people because it can be calculated fast.
• Cons: Incomplete picture. Not so useful to each individual because it assumes quite a fat, and weak person as the norm. For example, even a moderately sized person who weighs 73kg at 170cm height would be overweight. Any male who exercises regularly can achieve that size. And some people are genetically thicker and bigger. BMI does not account for this either.

Circumference Measurements

• Pros: Quite easy to do as long as you get the points right.
• Cons: Does not take bone structure into account, and can vary from time to time. E.g. if you just had a meal, your waist would go up even though your fat level did not.

Fat Measurement Scales & Hand Held Devices

• Pros: Simple to use – hold the handles, press start.
• Cons: Wild fluctuations in measurements. This is because these use electrical methods which rely on your body’s current hydration status in specific areas of the body. This can change if you drink, eat, sit, stand, are in different parts of a menstrual cycle, sweat, etc. Accuracy tends to be plus or minus 7%. That is too much variance to know if you are truly progressing or not. For example if a person was 14%, he may measure at 7% (professional athlete) or 21% (fat!).

Caliper Measurements

• Pros: Very accurate if done right by a good practitioner, with good equipment. For lean people can be almost as accurate as a Dexa scan.
• Cons: Needs lots of constant practice to do properly. It is like playing a musical instrument. Literally thousands of measures before it becomes “2nd nature” and consistently correct.

Hydrostatic Weighing

• Pros: Accurate, and good for general population
• Cons: May not be as accurate for other populations e.g. athletes and elderly. This is because they have different bone and muscle densities that are not taken into account by the standard formulas

DEXA scan

• Pros: Super accurate, can give readings of not only total amount but also where the fat is distributed. E.g. fat around organs is more damaging to health.
• Cons: It is an x-ray so repeated radiation exposure may not be a good idea.

The most practical method if you were alone would probably be circumference measurements. But because that is not as accurate, it may be worth it to get professionally measured once in a while by either:

• A skilled practitioner with calipers.
• Or a DEXA scan.

There are some medical clinics which have DEXA scans for about $200 per scan.

If you choose the calipers route, here are some ways to tell if the person knows what they are doing, which will help you get an accurate result.

• They use good calipers (as seen above). The cheap white plastic ones are not accurate enough for professional use. A good caliper can cost more than 600 Singapore dollars. But good calipers such as Harpenden are accurate to 0.2mm and can even help a skilled practitioner see if you are retaining water.
• They measure fat often, every day if possible.
• They use at least a 7 site formula. A 12 site Bio-Signature formula is even better and more useful for problem spot reduction.
• They pinch your fat HARD and get ALL of it using a wide grip (not 2 fingers). The common mistake I see many practitioners make is they are afraid to cause discomfort to the client/patient. Sorry, if you are overly fat, it may be uncomfortable for a few seconds when your fat is being pinched. But you want an accurate result right?
• They try to measure at the same time of the day
• They don’t measure you after long flights
• They can tell you what to do to improve your results once you get them

There you have it! A short article about all the ways fat can be measured. Even if you choose a less than perfect measure, as long as you try to be as consistent with all the variables, it can still give you a somewhat meaningful result.

There is a saying that “you can’t manage what you can’t measure” and measuring body fat is certainly going to help you manage it with a lifestyle, nutrition and exercise program.

Coach Jonathan Wong is the owner of Genesis Gym Singapore which aims to provide the best personal training and fitness services in Singapore.

I just finished 14 hours of learning at the Trigenics Institute in Toronto, Canada. I did at one to one private internship with Dr Austin, the founder of trigenics, because I wanted to learn in the fastest and most accurate way possible. Every time I made a mistake, I was corrected immediately, and every time I had a question, I got a great answer immediately. I will gladly pay for education, and I would gladly pay more for fast and accurate and personalized education.

I wanted to learn trigenics because it is a way of delivering what I want to see in a treatment system. Fast results with less (but still some) discomfort for the patient. The method works. After our official training sessions, Dr Austin, the founder of trigenics treated my multifidus, and erector muscles in my lower back because I was unable to turn my torso as far left as I could right.

This is probably due to the thousands of swings I did while playing softball as a kid. Always turning right to throw and hit because I am a left hander. It got to the point where I even had a minor tear of the obliques on my left side which has been annoying for a long time.

But with just one treatment, I am able to turn both directions with equal flexibility. And even more important, I know how to get this same result with our personal training or fitness bootcamp clients.

The method combines an excellent assessment system together with a very elegant system of treatment that works fast!

Also taught were instant muscle strengthening and flexibility techniques. In fact as part of the course I need to produce a “mini-study” on the benefits of this treatment. I will be recruiting volunteers from our client base soon:)

So, more ways to get stronger, heal injuries faster, and prevent injuries through accurate assessment. That is what my trigenics knowledge will do for our Genesis Performance Center clients.

Last Saturday Genesis had our year end event. Our personal training and fitness bootcamp clients joined the coaches to celebrate the end of another great year for Genesis.

(The other year end event will be shifting in new equipment and re-arranging the Singapore gym for more efficient space usage).

Here are some pics from the event. Sushi and raw fish for everybody!

And she also won one of our lucky draw Ipods.

In the picture below are 3 of our ladies with their door gifts – gym timers – no extra rest times between sets for anybody!

One of the problems that my personal training, nutrition coaching and fitness bootcamp clients face often is “where to get healthy food!” One suggested solution is protein bars. Unfortunately, I have not found a protein bar in Singapore that meets my standards for low preservatives, low carbohydrate count, great taste and quality ingredients. So I decided to try making some myself. With much help from my sister, we tried several batches of different recipes. And are still tweaking the good ones to make them even better. Will update you all when we find something easy and good for you.

NOTE: So far one of the batches was completely eaten by … me… because they tasted like brownies!

One of my fellow coaches from Texas, Luke Leaman pointed me to this article at consumerreports.org. While I don’t agree full with all the protein recommendations (I see better results with slightly higher protein content in food and less starches for most personal training fat loss or fitness bootcamp clients), this is a non-profit, unbiased lab test of some common protein brands.

Shocking levels of heavy metal toxicity and other toxins.

That is why I started a new website to sell only the best supplements in Singapore. I call it www.singaporesupplementstore.com. Check it out. As an extra service, my staff and I give customer support and QnA help to those who buy from this site through my distributor links.

Saving money is good. But not at the expense of your health. And with supplements, like many other things, cheaper is NOT better!

A recent discussion online asked which type of fat measuring calipers to buy. In my opinion there is only one that you should get. It is the only one I will use in my Singapore personal training private gym.

The brand is “Harpenden” (shown above). It is accurate to 0.1mm and you can actually “see” the measurement change even if the personal training or fitness bootcamp client is already very lean. One of my clients is under 5% bodyfat but he had a break from training for 2 weeks because of exams. I was able to see a 0.5% change in his bodyfat percentage… which works out to about a 0.4mm difference in most of his skin-fold sites.

You will NOT be able to see these changes (good OR bad) with a cheapo, plastic toy style $40 pair of calipers. These can miss by up to 4mm per site because they are simply not accurate or consistent enough. Because I take 12 body-fat measurements per client to get the most possible information to help my client, 4×12=48 and 48mm is a MASSIVE potential error. Might as well use the near-useless electric, hand help methods then!

The principle of “if its good, it isn’t cheap, and if its cheap, it is very unlikely to be good” holds true here just like it does for gym equipment or fitness instructors or nutrition coaches. The Harpenden fat measuring calipers cost more than $700 SGD. But once you get one or use one, you will neever need to “upgrade” and you will never use another fat measurement device again.

A Key Element Of Detoxification

As all my personal training and fitness bootcamp clients know, my staff and I can’t stand NOT getting them results. And the MAIN factor that stops committed clients from getting results is toxicity.

That means that if you eat, sleep, exercise and have good habits and STILL don’t get great results, toxicity is probably what is stopping you.

If you are eating prata and cookies, then no detox, no exercise gadget and no personal trainer can help you.

The reason detox is important is that our environment is not as clean as it should be. We have plastics, heavy metals, allergenic food, pesticides, and it is estimated 80,000+ chemicals that are man made and which our body is not designed to handle.

The only effective way to detox plastics (and it helps all other stuff also) is through far infra red saunas. They are touted as “weight loss tools” because they burn up to 600 calories per hour… but I prefer exercise for that! We are using the saunas to get rid of bad stuff so that our bodies can function fully.

Toxins get in the way of our cells producing energy (they reduce the efficiency of mitochondria) – so we feel sluggish, our metabolism drops, the reactions in our body happen slower, we can’t lose weight, burn fat, or gain muscle mass – all because our cells are not as energetic as they should be.

I got only the best brand! “Heavenly Heat” – why? It got the most recommendations by natural medicine doctors and fellow coaches that I respect. It cost’s up to 10X the price of other brands or sauna options… but I think it’s an investment that my personal training, and fitness boot camp clients will appreciate. Nothing but the best stuff for them!

• These saunas keep a relatively low temperature (40-50 deg C – instead of up to 100 deg C in regular saunas) so you don’t run out screaming after 5 mins…
• It uses NO GLUE and NO LAMINATED WOOD – If you use glue or laminated wood, the toxins from their production will get into you while you sit in the heated enclosure. That is NOT what we want during a detox session.
• It uses focused Far Infra Red (FIR) Heaters not “carbon” synthetic ones which spread the power out too much and dilutes the FIR output. This means you get a better heating, sweating and detox effect.
• It has heaters targeting every part of your body ( there are 7 heaters for just 1 person).
• Proper ventilation so the toxic air gets out properly and you don’t need to use the DOOR as a FAN
• Glass door/windows – plastics are poison!
• VERY IMPORTANT - I will provide each person a set of customized anti-oxidants, liver support and detoxification supplements to maximize their sauna time. Without these your body will not be able to effectively remove all the toxins that the sauna stirs up. (This is one of the key value added benefits of doing your detoxification here rather than anywhere else!)

I look forward to using this health and energy boosting method to get our clients even better results!

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.

Why do you exercise? Of course people tell me that they do it to look good, to stay healthy, to feel better, to fit into their clothes again, to show off to their old schoolmates at a reunion, to look good on their wedding day… true.

But when it comes down to it, each time you do a piece of exercise, it has to have a purpose.

Any exercise is better than watching TV all day… but you and I are both busy and don’t have time for sub-optimal training.

Each weight that you lift, each set of sprints that you do, each time you change workouts MUST HAVE A PURPOSE. I strongly discourage “random or buffet training” because if you train like that, you have NO CLUE if you are on your way to reaching your goals.

• Are olympic lifts like the snatch and the clean good? Yes!
• How about lifts like the squat, deadlift and presses? Yes!
• Chinups? Yes!
• Kettlebells… well sometimes:)
• Sprints? Yes!

Alot of things are “good” but its like food… if you wanted to have a nice dessert you might choose ice cream, cakes, red bean soup, bananna pancakes, pies, or any number of yummy foods.

Each nice on its own… but when mixed together and put into a blender, you get a messy slop that is yucky.

• So each time you choose an exercise – choose it for the muscles it trains.
• Each time you choose a rep range – choose it for its training effect and total time under tension.
• Each time you choose a rest interval – choose it depending if you want to develop power (rest longer) or capacity (rest shorter).
• Each time you plan a series of workouts, they are designed to build on each other for maximum progress, not to be a “surprise” that varies so often that you have no chance to track and assess.
• Each time you perform a rep – do it precisely and correctly, or else you have no idea if you are progressing!

I have had clients who claim to be able to do huge numbers of kipping chinups but their actual max chinup was very unimpressive. That makes them actaully weak… even though their skill at kipping seems to imply that they are good at chinups. They train properly for a few weeks and their max chinup goes through the roof…

Guess what? So does their kipping chinup:) It does not work the other way around.

A Rep is NOT a Rep unless it's done properly and consistently

Don’t worry, all these factors are taken into account in the Singapore’s best personal training programs as well as our fitness bootcamps. Your results are guaranteed because your progress is tracked, assessed and measured. There is no luck involved. Just results. Period.

Here are some of the wonderful ladies who joined our very first bootcamp term. They wanted to try out barbells which are not really part of the boocamp exercise program but they were so enthusiastic so Edwin and I decided to teach them!