When it comes to fat burning, and fat loss, there is always this “no man’s land” between “I’m not fat” and “I’m really lean and beautiful!”. For most men this happens at about 12-19% body fat, and for women between 18-25% or so.

No doctor will complain that you are about to die of an obesity related disease, and your friends will still say what a nice figure you have. But you know that muffin top is just a little too big for your liking!

As your training age progresses, assuming you are good with your food choices, and stay lean all the time, your body will get “used” to a lower, more lean body fat percentage. I used to be a really fat boy, but with not too much effort and even eating lots of food, I stay at somewhere around 12% all year.

But the time has come for me to push the limits again. I have been as low as 5-6% before but I lost so much weight. (I was only 71kg then!) But as my own experience, knowledge and skill improves, I am going to try to reach 5% body fat at close to 80kg. This would be my best physique ever. That is the goal over then next 12 weeks or so.

However, goals must come with ACTIONS or else they are pretty much USELESS. It is like the clients who come to me and say they want great results, but they want to eat cereal for breakfast and instant noodles for lunch. It just isn’t going to happen.

Here are the actions that I will take over the next 12 weeks to achieve my goal. I like to write goals in present tense because they have the highest chance of adherence. Your brain lives in the present not the past/future.

• I eat 6 meals per day
• I eat meat and nuts at breakfast
• I eat only foods that are not allergic to me (no tomatoes, carrots or chilli)
• I eat 1.2-1.5kg of meat every day
• I eat these choices even when eating outside of home
• I eat outside of home only once per week
• I train 3 days out of 5 with some days 2x/day
• I do 1/3 fat burning workouts, and 2/3 strength and muscle maintaining workouts
• I use licorice cream on week days and off on weekends
• I use far infra red sauna 3/week for at least 20 mins
• I schedule my own training into my callender and nothing will get in the way of that.
• I use 40g of BCAA during each workout
• I eat whey, glutamine, glycine and greens post workout
• I use carnitine and R-ALA before workouts
• I sleep by 11pm every day

If I do all those things consistently, I don’t see how I can NOT be leaner while maintaining all my muscle mass. If you write down a list like this, I’m sure you can achieve your weight loss, fat loss, or mass building goals as well.

Of course there is room for adjustment along the way, but the fundamental habits shown above will stay the same. Stay tuned for updates!

Part of coaching clients either in our Singapore personal training or fitness boot camp programs, is managing the emotions of fitness. Getting strong, or lean or looking good is incredibly emotional and as a coach we need to handle these emotions.

Every Client in singapore who wants to build muscle, burn fat, lose weight and get strong wants it NOW.

Our fitness coaching, nutritional, health building and performance boosting programs get you there as fast as possible… but there is still this instant gratification factor that kicks in sometimes.

One of my clients was upset and discouraged and wondered why he kept getting “weaker” during this phase of his training. All other signs were good, he was leaner, bigger and visibly improved in all areas! Just that he could not lift the weights he usually could.

Here is where coaching and knowledge comes in. He has been on leave lately and has been training more often and on a harder program than before. I explained that I am intentionally over-training him for these few weeks so that when he rebounds he will be stronger than before. Also, he has to understand that he is a fairly advanced trainee, and these guys will have “great” workouts where they set records more and more infrequently as they progress. And it takes more and more specialized training to progress.

After all, the best in the world, the Olympic champ, has a great workout only once every 4 years!

The same is true for fat burning. Assuming you are training hard and doing the right nutrition and supplementation for your genes and current fitness level, weight loss or fat burning tends to come in “bunches” not 500g/day but rather nothing for a week, then suddenly 1-2kg. Then again, I as a coach have to keep people on track during the “no-progress” times.

I will use myself as an example of not having great workouts often. Here is me… lifting 200kg x3 in the deadlift from a podium at 81kg bodyweight. This was a VERY draining attempt for me and I could not repeat this effort for more than 3 weeks after this set of exercise. I had a “great” workout only once in that MONTH! But its ok because it was a record that I had been training 6 weeks to get.

The key is to stay on track, stay in focus and never give up on your fat burning, muscle building or weight loss goals.

It’s no point knowing. Knowledge is useless till it is applied. And that is where the art of coaching meets the science of training.

There are 4 general types of clients that we see, either as kids, children, youth or adults. And each type requires a slightly different coaching style to get the best possible response from them.

Type 1: Low Motivation + Low Skill
These clients may be shy, quiet, perhaps lacking confidence and ability (probably interrelated). Excitable coaching methods will probably not work with this kind of person. We need to be more quiet, personal and careful so that this person doesn’t feel targeted by our questions or coaching.

While these clients may take more patience to work with, and may not be the most “gifted”, there is great satisfaction is helping them achieve things they might have thought impossible for themselves. I believe the important coaching style for these clients is to “enable” so that they are encouraged that they can do it!

Type 2: Low Motivation + High Skill
These clients are technically or physically gifted, they are just good at all the things we ask of them. Things just come naturally for them. Sometimes they may not focus enough, or pay enough attention. Perhaps they and kids who were forced to come by their parents, perhaps they are just no longer interested in the current exercise.

The problem for many of these children and kids is that things are not hard enough! the coaching style I like to use is “inspire” or “challenge” for these kids.

Type 3 is High Motivation + Low skill
These kinds of clients are a great joy to work with. They have great attitudes, want to get better and try their best. They just need extra guidance on technical skills. We need to be energetic and eager as coaches to help them become technically proficient and boost their skill level. The key word for the coaching of these clients is “Guide”.

Type 4 is High Motivation + High skill
Of course this is the aim of all our programs, to get our clients, both children and adults, into this “high motivation + high skill” category. From a person lacking confidence and motivation, to one that is both intrinsically motivated, and high in skill.

One thing I try to be careful about is to overly shelter these clients. Instead, high motivation high skill clients need to be give more ownership, more discussion, more feedback, and more “empowerment” for their own development. That is not lazy coaching, that is teaching a man to fish!

There we have it, part of my learning as a (still learning) coach and personal trainer/fitness/sports performance professional. This is what works, and this is how we treat our different clients.

For the best coaching in sports performance programs or fat loss personal training programs contact us by filling in a consultation form at my website www.coachjon.com.

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…

As you continue on your thought process to choosing a personal trainer in Singapore, the next thing to think about is the training environment.

This comprises of several things. The trainer (and his staff if he is more established and owns a private gym), the other members of the gym, and you yourself.

When these 3 groups of people come together its truly a beautiful thing. Why? not just because you get results, but because you KEEP the results.

You see, in the process of changing a life (which is what we are doing when a training company like Genesis Health & Performance works with a client) from old ways and habits to new ones, there are 3 stages.

Stage 1 is Awareness: I am aware that I am out of shape, or that I can’t run fast enough, or that my pants no longer fit…That is when I may call in the services of a professional to help me form my situation

Stage 2 is Intervention: This is where My staff and I come in. We teach, motivate, assess, adjust, guide, encourage, whatever it takes to get each of our clients consistently good results. After an adjustment period, they end up doing well. BUT…

Stage 3 is Sustenance: This is where the true quality of the fitness service can be seen. This is where the quality of the coaching as well as the quality of the community is important. A good fitness company can provide the coaching. But what I tried to do to make our place special is the community. Not just the coaches but every single person in the company. From each staff member, to each gym member.

No random cursing, no gossip, no slander. Only positive words and actions. This builds a community that is like a 3rd home (yeah I’m borrowing the Starbucks idea) Work, home, then GYM!
This is the culture that I as the owner do my very best to set.