SWEATGYM

What is the joy of coaching?

If you say the passion for coaching drives coaching, I say it is the joy of coaching and teaching. Passion is too big a word for me. And what is the joy of coaching for me?

Recently, one of my young client went abroad to further her studies and she came back yesterday to the gym. For a workout. A long awaited workout since she left you might think? No no, she has been keeping herself busy with 3 times a week training that include running and self designed circuit training. She said she could do it because of all the exercises she does in our gym.

What she told me was not a compliment. But hearing what she said was a great joy. Seeing clients, or trainees, continuing to keep fit and using the knowledge she acquired from our program to do so is very encouraging.

Seeing people identifying with the joy of training and challenging themselves physically and making it a priority is the best affirmation I can get as a coach. For this I say thank you.

Pushkarasha Day at SWEAT! 13th Jun 2005

This event was an opportunity created for our contestants in our 50 Days SWEAT! Fitness Challenge to come together and of course our clients to mingle with ambassadors from Pushkarasha. They are a society whose goals are to help improve the living conditions of people in the Pushka region in India. This remote place is backward but charming and that is how it captured the hearts of these ambassadors.

So as SWEAT! called for Get Fitter for Charity in this challenge and rally a group of clients to do it, all proceeds from the participation fees went to helping them build two tube wells. We also matched dollar to dollar to help boast the donation amount.

Thankfully a few clients also came on Pushkarasha Day to make more contribution. And some even tried out the fitness challenge items.

It was indeed a fruitful day. While we presented a check to them, we also raised an additional sum. So all in all they have enough money to build one well. They will continue working hard to reach their target of raising enough money to build two wells.

Keep up the good work #pushkarasha. SWEAT! will be rooting for you and we love your spirits.

Less coaching = more enjoyable gym experience?

When I first started this little gym, one of the more common feedback was, "the exercises are good, but I don’t know if i was doing it right or wrong.” And this feedback was usually from people who work and worked with personal trainers. Then I also have a larger group of people who come to SWEAT! and they just dove in and did whatever that is thrown at them. Largely also because I often described our classes as “it is like a box of chocolates, you never know what you gonna get.” (from Forrest Gum the movie). Of course before the exercises actually started, we gave important ques, and we coaches would walk about and make sure everyone was exercising safely.

I also have feedback that there should be mirrors in the gym, but I insisted that clients’ should use their own “sixth sense” to know whether their body is doing the exercises properly and not rely on their reflection in the mirror. What is sixth sense? It is your kinesthetic awareness, or in other words, your own body awareness. Sixth sense was a nickname my class gave it when I was studying Kinesiology in college/uni.

Then fast forward four years to SWEAT!. Nowadays when the class is on-going, I find myself, doing very little coaching. In my defense, I was not lazy. Clients who stuck around for a while were self-sufficient in their movements! And this is a coaching joy that is quite paradoxical to explain and describe. I truly enjoy not doing much physical coaching. I design the class, and my own clients basically run it themselves. And my clients would even coach new comers before I could get to them.

For me, this is the best gym experience I can have. My clients are learned in the way they perform the exercise, they didn’t need someone to constantly giving them feedback. For this, I hope our little gym called SWEAT! is doing something right. And strangely, less coaching is probably a better gym experience after all.

Wai Yee

Head Coach

SWEAT!

Do you have to take exercise seriously?

There is a paramount of scientific evidence that stated that exercise is good for you. But why is it that many people have not taken that first step?

But on the other hand, there is also an overwhelming consensus, scientific or plain common sense, that eating fast food is not good for health. But many people would choose fast food over other food. Some do it once in a while and some do it more often than the others. And some even loved that alarm on their fast food app to get that deal.

So ask yourself, why haven’t you taken that first step yet? Or why you have started and then stopped?

If exercise is a lifestyle, then it will always start and stop. If exercise is something that you want to do, then it will paint a whole different story.

Exercise is hard work, and it is and there is nothing poetic about it. And I always tell my athletes when they dread that run or S&C session, you don’t sit on your ass and become fit. That is reality. And why being fit is important? It gives you clarity of your mind and more importantly, vigor in life.

Wai Yee

Head Coach

SWEAT!

While we changed our logo to give you a new look, we also revamped our loyalty reward program to serve you better. We are sorry if you didn’t like it when we went online with it. We are going back to the good old fashion way, no more online system, and we awards you directly as you spend.

LOYALTY REWARD PROGRAM (effective 9th March 2015)

·       Every 6thYoga/Pilates and Martial Arts package bought you can enjoy 1 free class of the same category.

  ·       Every 5thSuper Deal bought you can enjoy 1 free class.

  ·       Every 4thUnlimited Package bought you can enjoy 6 extra calendar days on your package. 

  ·       10 pack - early completion (3 months from 1st class), you get 1 extra free class when you purchase the next one.

  ·       Bring a friend – you can enjoy a free towel from us

  ·       Enjoy a free class when your friend buys his/her first regular package after trial. 

  ·       First regular package from us you can enjoy a free SWEAT! merchandise.

  ·       In your birthday month, you can either enjoy a free class or a SWEAT! merchandise. 

Happy sweating!

Wai Yee

Head Coach

SWEAT!

Should it? I will say no. Because if fitness is a lifestyle, then an investment of some sort is part of the package. Example, from not owning a car to owning one, monetary investment is needed. Effort and time to get a driving license is needed. So if fitness is a lifestyle then it has to be maintained, and mainteance takes effort.

Fitness should be effortless. A misnomer I know because you need to sweat for it. But hear me out. Fitness should be something that is habitual, a reflex and something that you enjoy. If these words can describe your fitness endeavor then it is effortless. Because it is just something that you would do regularly, almost like brushing your teeth. You may forget sometimes, but it rarely happens because you would undoubtfully always enjoy a fresh breathe in the morning or before you go to bed. If so, why wouldn’t you brush your teeth, and why wouldn’t you workout if you like it?

Of course, you don’t have to workout twice a day, like brushing your teeth! Exercising at least twice a week would be good enough. This is what was recommended by most reputable health and fitness organizations, anyway.

Change the way you look at fitness, and give it a go. Set your password on your computer to say “I enjoy fitness,” and see where it brings you.

I know I enjoy my sweat every week, and hope you too. Happy exercising!

Lol, maybe find your inner child with TKD? (by the way this is side kick)

Top 5 Reasons why you should like Adult TKD in SWEAT!

(1) The picture explained it all - it is FUN!

(2) You learn new skills and self-defense.

(3) You challenge your coordination and gross motor skills.

(4) You may start as a white belt but you can become a black belt!

(5) You didn’t do any sports when you were younger and here is your chance.

Sports Singapore is campaigning for Live better through sports and we would like to reinforce that and say learn a new sport. Contct us for a trial at 81687715 or email [email protected].

5 reasons why you should like Crosscore180 

(1) Whether first timer or old timer, they all can have a great workout with it.

(2) Upper body, lower body, core, single joint, multi joint, stretching, etc, you name it, and it can be done with Crossore180 .

(3) The instability nature of the equipment makes every workout feels like a new workout you never done before.

(4) Crosscore180 is hardcore ;) meaning your core is worked to the max!

(5) It is a great piece of equipment to develop better sense of body awareness.

Do you have more to add?

Oh maybe one more. Steve our resident coach for Crosscore class has many quotable quotes, the top one is, "Stopping is a disease." 😜

What I talk about when I talk about SWEAT!

Part 1:

When I talk about SWEAT! the first thing I always tell people was how my clients would be chatting to each other and then passing sarcastic remarks about me on how they get tortured in my classes. All in a fun manner of course. Coming to SWEAT! to coach puts a smile on my face because I don’t know who and who will be passing recipes to each other or talk about which restaurant or cafe has better food or coffee. Ah yes, we like to talk about food here, not sure if it is apt but we love this topic … Coaches and clients alike and always 😜

Why #outdoorsweat? There are 3 good reasons that you should give it a try.

We have outdoor class because our small studio can’t accommodate all variety of exercise, but with outdoor spaces we can effectively add in running and interval training. Here is the top 3 reasons why you should try it:

(1) With interval training you can expand your lung capacity and strengthen your heart and improve your stroke volume (amount of blood pumped out per heart beat). This way when you are resting and sitting down to work, your cardiovascular system works less hard to maintain your vital functions.

(2) This is a high intensity exercise class and according to the a obesity research journal, this type of training bring about better results in building lean body mass and body composition, as compared to low intensity exercises. It is also indicative that it is more effective in lowering risk for cardiovascular diseases.

(3) Psychologically you may feel completing the class is impossible. But guess what everyone does in this class regardless the level of fitness. When they do, the feeling if accomplishment is incredible and everyone is glowing after the class. This is also why we love teaching this class!

See you in the next class ;)

Mon 730pm and July onwards Thurs 730pm as well!

#circuittraining - 5 reasons why you should like it

In SWEAT! we like circuit training because it is a very flexible training format. We can incorporate any equipment or body weight exercises into it and intensity is easy to tweak as well. But for you, you should like circuit training because

(1) it can improve your anaerobic fitness - your ability to tolerate repeated short burst activity like in soccer or tennis or cutting someone in front of you when you are in a long distance run

(2) it can improve your aerobic fitness - your ability to utilize oxygen to make energy and with this fitness improved, you can find yourself running longer and longer distance with east, for an example

(3) it can improve your trainability - with your anaerobic and aerobic fitness improved, your overall training capability also improved

(4) it is a good form of cross training - during off season training, circuit training can ingest fun and variety into your normal routine

(5) if is a SWEAT! circuit then it will surely be ingested with important training elements like co-ordination, dynamic balance and core exercises.

We love circuit training at SWEAT! and we hope you do too.

22nd Feb 2014 

It has been a while I wrote in this blog. I have always been assigned to talk about warm up/cool down and flexibility in my previous job. Apart from coaching in the gym, I needed host talk and run workshops. This video is very nicely done and covered most of the important points about warm up and flexibility, and some of the points are often covered in my talk.

In SWEAT! our warm-up typically consist of dynamic stretches, and a novelty activity that brings everyone’s heart rate up before we start our main workout. These included resistance running, cone work, running and etc.