Personal Trainer Singapore – Coach Jonathan Wong

Disturbing news from Time magazine last week! In an article called “Exercise does not make you thin”, there is this author who has this “special” idea that exercise makes you fatter.

WHOA!! Maybe I’m in the wrong industry If I want to help people! Seriously, I earn a living helping people lose weight, get lean and strong, get the physique they want, get into the best possible health and perform to the best of their ability! None of these things require “more fat” and if exercise makes us fat, then I should be asking all my clients to do as little exercise as possible.

Now there is scientific basis for this article as I wrote about in my previous article on the topic of fat loss and exercise.

In fact there is another study I just came across from the University of Oklahoma which came to exactly the same conclusion. I.e. 10 weeks of proper exercise had no effect on fat loss (only about 1kg of fat was lost on average!).

So… it seems this article has some merit!

Time to look for another job Coach Jon… you just spent 3 months (10-12 weeks as demonstrated in the studies) of all your client’s time, effort and money for what is in effect the same scam as any slimming center or infomercial product!

We better stop teaching clients to exercise...you know...in case they get fat!

NOT SO FAST!!

Just because the author of the article spends many hours each week exercising (and even getting a personal trainer to help him!) without getting results – doesn’t mean that he is doing it right.

The article mentions nothing about the role of eating correctly for burning fat. In fact it says that exercise makes you hungrier and you end up eating more. For example after exercise that burns 300 calories, you feel like eating a piece of cake that has 500 poor quality, fat storing, no-nutrient calories in it… YES that is true. And if you keep doing something as foolish as that – exercise will make you fat!

But exercise has so many benefits that it would be totally outrageous to stop.

• Maintaining strength, power and muscle at all ages and especially as we get old. This is a key determinant of happiness, independence and quality of life of senior citizens.
• Fitness in both the short and long duration energy systems (aerobic and anerobic) that mean life becomes easier
• It improves brain function, and happiness. My sister can attest to this! She is a therapist in the area of mental health and exercise is the BEST modality that is non invasive, drug free and has no side effects.
• It prevents age related disease like osteoporosis.
• It builds muscle mass which has direct co-relation to the strength of our immune system. (You don’t fall sick)
• It makes us look good! Yes, there I said it. If you just diet yourself till you are thin you will be weak, sickly and unattractive because you will be “skinny-fat”.
• The list really does go on and on…

So we can’t afford to ditch exercise (especially proper exercise that is the stuff we do in our personal training and fitness boot camp programs).

If there is a member of the media in Singapore who is having trouble with their tummy fat like this Time magazine author is, I would invite them to participate in our Singapore fitness boot camp. Along with our nutritional coaching.

If they did that for 12 weeks, irresponsible articles like this would never be published and I would never need to quit my awesome job of helping people in Singapore burn fat and get strong!

There are so many definitions of fitness, and it means different things to different people.

• For a weightlifter it means that you should be able to lift as heavy a weight as possible from the floor, to overhead. For a soccer or basketball player it means that you would be playing at a highly competitive level even late in 2nd half or 4th quarter.
• For a triathlete it would mean improving on your personal time (swimming, running and cycling suddenly become easy if you are undergoing our triathlete training program)
• For a golfer it might be putting 15m on your drive (which should take us just weeks to help you with)
• For a “regular” man or woman who works a “normal” 9-6pm job, fitness may be looking good, having good energy and productivity, and having the ability to do whatever tasks life throws at him or her.

And even for this “regular” person which is, most of us, he or she may have such different goals.

• Lose Fat
• Lose Weight
• Bulk Up/Build Muscle
• Lower Cholesterol and improve other indicators of health
• Prevent osteoporosis
• Have energy to chase their kids around
• Overcome diabetes… and so on…

Different goals need different programs, techniques and planning to achieve.

It is best to go after one goal at a time for best results. (Don’t be fooled by programs that claim to do everything all at once for everybody!)

Even if there are too many “problems” to solve, we go after the most challenging and biggest one first.  E.g. if a person needs to run faster for his sport but is overweight, we target his oversize tummy as a priority because in the big scheme of things, that will give more benefits.

What to go for first, how long before you change “target”, how to best go about each of these goals and what method would work best FOR YOU is how we design our personal training programs for clients.

To get into the Singapore’s best personal training / fitness coaching sg program, just click on the link here.

NOTE: Even things like exactly how long each set should last, must be customized for your body type for maximum results?

If you are trying to lose fat, exercise without proper nutrition will not work.
You will gain the health benefits, and you will “feel” better than not doing anything at all. BUT if you want the visible changes, you will need to change your diet and nutrition as well.

A recent study by the University of Texas came to a pretty shocking (but very commonly observed) result. A group of sedentary people with high body fat (which is most people nowadays!) did 12 weeks of hard training – 3 hours/week of weights and 2 hours/week of cardio and did not have any dietary control.

Their average results:
Gain 1kg muscle, lost 1/2kg fat, change in fat percentage -1%… which is VERY discouraging for that amount of exercise… which is more than most people do anyway.

I cannot overstate the fact that dietary changes are super important!
Good diet is a big part of the reason our clients get results:
•    A very overweight client dropped 17kg in 1 month of training
•    Another large client dropped 9kg of weight, lost 12kg of fat and gained 3 kg of muscle in 2 months
•    Yet another lost 10cm on his waist in just 5 weeks
This happens when the “switch” goes off and says… wow I better not be eating so much crap!

It sounds harsh but for a person who is not genetically able to handle sweets (which is how many of us – including myself in my younger days…) making smart choices with your food is the only way to the physique you desire.

Get with the best personal training programs in Singapore and we will guide you every step of the way! After all, we have a money back guarantee on our services. So if you DO WHAT WE ASK but you think its NONSENSE and is a waste of your time, effort and hard eared cash, ask for your investment back.

As a fitness coach, I know that everybody knows the benefits of proper exercise.

• Improved Blood Profile – nice but I’m busy
• Lower Blood Pressure – nice but I’m tired every day
• Reduced Risk Of Heart Disease – nice but I’m just changed jobs, got to please the boss
• Reduced Chance of Disease (cancer, diabetes, etc) – nice but I’m lazy
• Increase sense of well being – nice but I’m happy being average
• Healthy bones, joints, muscles – nice but I’m ok with a bit of pain after all isn’t it just aging?

Makes you look good! And feel good about yourself!- Ah ha!
Hit the nail on the head.

Different people are motivated by different things, but even high level athletes are motivated at least somewhat by the way exercise makes them look. So enjoy the way your training makes you look and feel! There is nothing wrong with that!

Every training program we have aims to help you lose ugly, unwanted fat, and the Biosignature program even allows you to reduce trouble spots such as a man’s tummy, or a ladies’ buttocks and thighs…

One of the key roles of a strength coach or personal trainer is to teach exercise technique. This is actually not a “difficult” thing to do.

As a personal trainer or coach (fitness coach, sports coach, pretty much any coach at all) we have to believe that there is a correct way to do things.

A correct way to run, jump, land, change direction, turn, squat, lift, press etc.

These have been covered many times in magazines and videos and DVD’s and websites.

The problem occurs when we are forced to adjust to individual differences. This is where a coach earn his/her money when it comes to teaching technique.
people differ in:

• height
• shoulder width,
• hip width
• angles at the knees and ankles
• natural flexibility
• muscle imbalances
• ratios of arm length to height
• ratio of leg length to height
• ratio of upper arm/leg to lower arm/leg

All these things mean minor adjustment in technique and leverage to perform exercises safely and effectively.

With serious imbalances or postural issues, this also means adjustment to loading and finally to exercise selection.

Some general guidelines:
Thickly built people tend to have shorter legs and longer torsos. They are good at squatting and squat with near perfect form with just a bit of careful instruction.

However they need modifications to their dead lift technique to make it more effective.

For the upper body these guys excel as well in pulling and pressing movements because the total distance lifted is less and thus they can handle more weight.

Longer limbed people need more help with squatting sometimes going wider and opening up the hips more. They also will likely not lift as much as the stoutly build thicker people. However these long limbed guys will usually excel at dead lifting because their long arms and short torsos give excellent mechanics for good pulling.

Longer limbed people tend to do better in ball sports because they have more reach and have long limbs that can, with proper training be put in good control.

Even among Singaporeans who are all supposed to be of Asian descent, there is a huge variance in body types. But rest assured with the correct training, anybody can achieve an awesome physique that is aesthetically magnificent, and performs just as well as it looks.

World class physiques come in all shapes and sizes. And they do need modifications in training to help them reach their potential!

That is why the exercises prescribed to you as part of out athletic training and personal training programs help you get results so fast! Not only do we tailor the program to you goals (i.e. a person trying to lose fat is on a different program from one trying to build muscle or trying to jump higher) but we tailor the performance of each exercise to your body type as well.