New Fitness First Functional workout Area

After Fitness First 1 Mont Kiara refurbished, they have built a dedicated functional workout area on one corner of the gym.

New Functional Workout Area

The workout area is not very big but it's quite sufficient for members to have a good workout. It equipped with lots of functional workout equipment like Monkey bar... etc.

Everyday @ 6pm, a functional workout session is held here and lots of core gym goer participate with energetic workout body... Each session has one facilitator whom setup a few stations for the participants to rotate to workout. The participant can choose which station to start with... If not mistaken the participant has to workout in the particular station for a minute. When the bell rings, they rotate to another station.

Workout session

Workout session

One day i should sign up and workout together with this team...
Anyone try this before?

On going to TRX 45 mins Circuit Class by Jacq Ng

I managed to hit the gym at around 5pm yesterday. I straightaway went to see the class schedule for 5ish class... Any class i could attend, wanted to kick start my week with a light workout especially NO GYM for the past 4 days.

5:15pm was the TRX class by Jacq Ng. I quickly changed to my exercise attire, went to the front desk for registration, walked over to the group exercise main studio. Jacq  was there preparing for the class. He actually saw me looking at the board earlier.

He was surprised that i changed so quickly and headed to his class. BTW, i was surprised as he addressed me by my full name. Wow~ how you know my full name? After some thought, i think he knew my full name is because he is the Personal Training Manager in 1MK and i have signed up for so many PT sessions with his team. So, should not have any surprise he knew me by name eh~ :-)

Back to TRX, it was a circuit class and Jacq being a pleasant and encouraging facilitator. He has made the class very enjoyable, 45 mins passed so quickly and we really have a good workout since options were given to us. In additional,  he encouraged us to listen to our own body... Some of the exercise i just have to forgo since i have lost some momentum/stamina without going to gym for 4 days.You must be thinking how could this happen, but for a core gym person like me... it makes a different kub~

For those people who don't know what is TRX and never see TRX,  here is a video clip...

500 reps exercise

Friend : Hey TZ, why are you working out so hard? Are you insane?
Me: Nope~ Why you say I insane?
Friend : You do hundreds reps of each exercise... Chin up, Push Up, Dip, Shoulder pull, Bicep curl etc...
Me : Hehehe... that's one of the training my PT ask me to do in order to get nice upper body.
Friend : Oh Really?
Me : Yes~
Friend : I will try...
Me : Don't try... Just do it?

That's was Friend A chatting with me via Phone...

Ex-colleagues: Hey TZ, long time didn;t see you in gym... thought you quit
Me: Hahaha... i quit? *inside me --> You quit also i will not quit; LoL
Ex-colleagues: You work out very hard recently. Your upper body getting nicer.
Me: Thank you. Yup~ I kind of work out hard recently. Workout 500 reps program designed by my PT.
Ex-colleagues: what is 500 reps exercise?
Me: It's you do 100 reps for 5 different exercises within 1~1.5hrs.
Ex-colleagues: Interesting, so what you do?
Me: I do chin up, push up, dip... blah blah blah
Ex-colleagues: Wow~ *Jaws dropped*

This was me bumped into Ex-colleague @ Fitness First - Paradigm Mall

Colleague in US: TZ how many push up can you do in 1 mins?
Me: Maybe 40-50... Not sure cause i didn't really count. What's about?
Colleague in US: I challenged the team over in US to start with how many push up can they do in 1 min. And will track the improvement every month.
Me: Oh~ Sound interesting, Can i join in?
Colleague in US: Certainly you can... 
Me: Will let you know the number eh~.
** Next Day
Colleague in US: TZ, what is your baseline number?
Me: 53.
Colleagues in US: Wow~
Me: Not really a good one.. Can be improved... hehehe...

That's my Colleague in US challenged me on how many push up i could do in ONE MINUTE.  How many you can do?

Me: Hey Dude~ Gym today?
Gym Dude: Nope~ Got stuck in the pile of work @ office. Still having meeting in a short while.
Me: Oh no~ poor you.
Gym Dude: Yup... a bit emo now cause cannot go to gym. Body slowly out of shape jor
Me: You must be kidding. Dude like you with a nice body... out of shape a bit it's okay. 
Gym Dude: You haven't seen me for months. My body has out a shape a bit.
Me: Don't belief... you are so conscious yet you say body out of shape, don't think so... 
Gym Dude: How you know my body still in shape since we haven't met for months
Me: Anyway, dude we will gym together when you are free eh~
Gym Dude: Okay~.

That's my once a while gym buddy via whatsapp... 

On visiting MacRitchie Trail, Singapore

A lot of people have the same mindset of myself... when we mentioned Singapore, this is the image that comes up to our mind...

Guess what? Singapore has lots more to offer... The MacRitchie Trail is a very nice natural reserve park which covered a very wide area.

MacRitchie Trails Map

We decided to go with the Orange Color trail which is 7.0km return. This trail is not a difficult trail as mentioned in the map... Interesting enough after 200m, we walked into the jungle like path...

The Trail

Along the trail, we are greeted with a small stream parallel with the trail. No fishes were detected...

The Stream

The Trail

After 3.1km, we finally came to the gate of the HSBC TreeTop Walk. The main attraction of MacRitchie Trail. 

Gate to the HSBC TreeTop Walk

It's a one way to the other sides... Meaning you could not walk back to this end. The exit is over the other end of the TreeTop walk.

TreeTop Walk

From the TreeTop Walk, we managed to see the MacRitchie Reservoir... Due to the hot sun... we took a few shots and left the place and back to the trail...

Can you see the MacRitchie Reservoir?

We managed to finished the whole 7km trail within 2.5-3 hrs. The recommended time to complete this trail is 3-4 hours. Hahaha... we still consider Fit :p 

More pictures @ A picture A day.

Bangkok Bayan Tree Hotel Vertical Run

My friends has just registered us to the 61st Floors Bangkok Bayan Tree Hotel Climb on Oct 6th 2013 yesterday night. So Bangkok here i come again... the vertical run is a team of 4 person. Total steps to achieve is 1093 so each of us have to climb 273 steps. It's equivalent of Batu Cave Steps. So, I found the training ground for my vertical run.

The venue

The Training Ground

Looking forward for the run in Bangkok...

MyFitnessPal

Clam Chowder - 500 calories 
FRIDAYS signature drink Mudslide - 270 calories
Roasted Pork and Char Siew rice - 1050 calories 

Wow~ all those nice food have such a high calories count. I wondered how those people whom has nice 6 packs eats. Are they eating like a tweety birdie?

Let me introduce you to MyFitnessPal, my very best pal that tell me whether I exceeded my daily calories limit. How it tracks?

1. Key into the system your targeted weights in kg/lb in how many weeks (e.g. target 74kg in 5 weeks)
2. Report out your age, heights and weights in the system
3. A limit of allowable calories will be shown in the daily input screen, like mine is 1270 calories per day
4. Every time when you reported what you have eaten, you could either search from the existing database or create your own
5. Exercise have to report out as the output of calories. It is use to contra with the calories inputted
6. At the end of each day, the daily report will show either +ve or -ve calories.

This application has given my friends and I the awareness of how much calories that we have taken. We have a sync up session every day to monitor each other calories input... I have been +ve all the time but once a while -ve. So i should be able to achieve my goal 74.8kg if i continue to have +ve calories for 5 weeks.

So, you can start tracking your calories input... :)

Japanese Meal day with the Minions

No!!!... Nothing special in Japan nor any Japan/Japanese related special day. It's the day i had Japanese Food. My friend and I having Japanese Meals for Lunch and Dinner. So today we declared our day as Japanese Day.

@11:00, Pick up my friend from his place to have lunch @ Paradigm Mall... I was wearing a bumblebee glass imported from Singapore. How's it? Cool?

TZ on Bumblebee Glass... Cool Eh~

@11:45, we walked in to Miraku Paradigm Mall... My friend saw the Sunday Buffet advertisement long time back when we came out from Fitness First Paradigm. Good strategy to attract hungry and tired gym goer after they have their hard workout. The served different type of sashimi and sushi... also those type of non raw japanese food. It's quite authentic... but the price is a bit high for a simple Japanese buffet.

Japanese Buffet @ Miraku, Paradigm Mall

@14:00, meeting another friends to watch Despicable Me 2. Watching those cute little yellowish Minions... but it turns purple in the middle of the movies :p Yellow vs Purple, which one you like? Oops i better stop here otherwise sure got people scold me for being a spoiler. *mouth zip*

Despicable Me 2

@16:00, after the movie... chill in Pacific Coffee @ UG paradigm mall. The outlet was full of people but we were lucky to grab a nice sofa seat by the windows. Catching up with my two fellow buddies. This is a very enjoyable moments to chit chat about work, things outside work etc...

@18:00, decided to have a early dinner before sending my friend to the airport. We had Ramen @ Goku Raku, Paradigm. The Ramen was quite nice, since we had a heavy lunch, we chose to have a small Ramen. Yummy~

@20:30, stopped by McD @ Taman Warisan Salak Tinggi hoping to get the three little minions... guess what? it's a disappointed moment to see the word "SOLD OUT" stick on top of the three minions. Operasi Mencari Minions FAILED again. Sigh~

Totally SOLD OUT on the three minions

Anyway, my day ended when i reached home safely and took a nice shower~ 

Unwanted visitor - HAZE in Singapore and Malaysia

Have you gotten any unwanted visitor who knock at your door and you tried to avoid?

There are some visitor that you could not avoid even how solid is your front door. When they start knocking on your door.... you have no way to hide from them. HAZE is the name of the unwanted visitor that we wanna talk about today...

It is a HAZY time again. Almost every year of this period. Singapore and Malaysia will encounter the haze issue. This is due to Sumatra's open burning. Few days back, Haze situation in KL is quite serious but since Wednesday afternoon the unwanted visitor just walked away from KL, maybe it got to know KL has listed as world no. 6th unsafe city to live in... 

Kuala Lumpur

Kuala Lumpur

Sunset @ Kuala Lumpur

So where is the unwanted visitor?

Picture adapted from http://www.dailymail.co.uk

Hmmm... the unwanted visitor has gone to Singapore now.
Singapore is having the worst hazy day in history. Record high on Psi. Guess what? My friend in Singapore told me as of June 20th 2013 afternoon, the PSI indicator has shot up to 371Psi. So, it was way way over the unhealthy level.

oh no... the unwanted visitor came back to Kuala Lumpur this morning...

Hazy day - captured at 11am June 21st 2013

Dear friends in Singapore and Malaysia, please wear mask, drink more water and take a good rest. Don't fall SICK eh~

Buff, Lean and Flexi

The Personal Trainer (PT) who trained me since March has decided to move on and he has resigned from Fitness First One MK to pursue his new career... Air Steward. 

Anyway, I changed to another PT who has even more years of experience. Last Tuesday was the first session. He was asking me what i would like to achieve. I told him... 

1. Six Packs
2. Strong legs and bigger lower body (someone comment my upper body was too big to match with my lower body. So sad eh~ )
3. Have a nice cut on the arms. Those drooling arm. 

Then my new PT commented ... "Buff, Lean and Flexi"  

He told me he wanna to plan to buff me up a bit by further reducing my current 14% fat... Usually a buff and lean person might not have a good flexibility of his body, so he also plan some exercise to strength my joint and make sure i have flexibility on my body and not walking like a ROBOT.

Before our new training chapter begins, he did two assessments on me... 

• Weight me with the electronic weighing machine that shown the % of fat etc.
• Planned exercises with total body workout to be the benchmark of the first day.

So, i finished the all the exercises within an hour... And we marked down all the reps vs time. Like total push up within 30 sec. etc. Guess how many push up i did for 30sec? Interesting eh~

Anyway, for the whole day today i was dreaming to have RAIN's body :p

Can i achieve?

RPM with Izwan

My PT has restricted me to have only one cardio exercise per week. So i choose my RPM on every Thursday. Today, my ex-colleagues cemek has decided to join me on RPM.

Izwan was our instructor for RPM @ Fitness First Manulife. I registered for his class when the RPM registration just opened. Therefore, i gotten my regular bicycle which is facing Izwan. In short, he could see me and i could see him clearly especially adjusting the resistant.

Class started around 7:05pm... he announced that this was the last week to play the new release i.e. RPM 55. I wasn't sure others RPMer whether they have fed up with the track... But for me this is new as i was not able to attend any RPM class last week. 

Among the track... my favorite is track 2 with this song

I became center of attention as today i cycled energetic and fast... So, Izwan kept challenging me to put on more load aka increase the resistance... now i feel the soreness on my leg. 

But anyhow, it's a nice class with the humorous instructor.

30 PT Session completed

Yesterday marked the completion of my 30 Personal Training (PT) session. Do i got the body as what i wanted? 

Picture adapted from http://www.dramainkorea.com

Unfortunately i still don't have the body like RAIN, the korean celebrity... whom almost everyone admire his nice and defined body... imagine TZ has this body... wow~ *Slap slap TZ*

I'm asking myself on how long more should i have to go on diet, extensive exercise with PT... In the first place, can i get there or not?... 

One of my friend teased me that i will NOT be able to get this body. He asked me to forget on working hard to achieve it... why? According to him, due to my age, it's not easy or impossible to get what RAIN has... Sad right?  

Anyway, i wanted to proof my friend wrong and started to work hard to reach my goal i.e. gain 6 pack @ the abs. I have renew another 30 PT session until end of this year. 

Do you think i could do it?

PT's Advice - No FAST FOOD

This weekend will be a breakaway from PT session weekend. Yup! I'm heading to Malacca for my weekend breakaway... Breakaway from my work, my boss, my parent and of cause my PT.

To tell you the truth... I missed my PT session now. Next PT session is scheduled on Monday early morning.

Let's rollback to Wednesday evening, I have a chat with my PT after my work out session. I was asking him on what he eats everyday... he told me he could eat anything and he will not worry about putting weight as his metabolism is high... I guess he might have Metabolic age = 18 years old :p Not like me 33... Sad sad.

Anyway, one of the food that he prohibited me to eat is FAST FOOD (McD, KFC - Hmmm i also not going to eat KFC, scare of being beaten and become famous in Youtube, Popeye etc.). Errrrr... maybe i was eating too much of FAST FOOD for the past few weeks... Basically we have McD twice a week... Now i regretted... Sigh~ Sigh~ and Sigh~  "I'm loving it... " TZ will sing "I hating it"... Tsk~ Tsk~  i think i have gained so much fat because of all those trans-fat from FAST FOOD... So now i say "Tak NAK" to FAST FOOD...

McD lunch set - Value for Money and FAT :p

Anyway, how many fast food meals you have per week?

Can i be 25 years old again?

Let's continue with my previous post... I'm targeting to be 25 years old again... and my friend commented "Dream On"... of cause I'm not able to get 25 years old again on my chronological age... but i still able to get 25 again on my Metabolic age.

Have you heard about metabolic age? let's Wiki to find out. 

Last Friday, my PT gave me a weighing session before my warm up. I was shocked with my weights and felt sad with my Metabolic age. The report shown my Metabolic age is 33, which is no longer 25 as four years back. Anyway, I should be happy as my Metabolic age is still lower than my Chronological age. 

I told my PT that i wanna to be 25 years old again... My PT said that's NOT impossible. But... 

Okie, I will commit to do more cardio to boost up my burning rate a.k.a Metabolism rate. I can do it and i will be there in one month.

Yesterday, when i was browsing FB status and i came across a report / status update from one of my gym friend. His report is so nice ... Guess what? His Metabolic age is 18. Amazingly good eh~

So what is your metabolic age and Chronological age?

My first PT Session

I had PT few years back, one and half year after i joined the gym, if not mistaken somewhere around year 2007. I have engaged a young PT, Isaiah whom is very enthusiastic to train me up to hit my goal.

Hmmm... my goal is very simple. Get rid of those stubborn FAT, build the stamina and get a lean/tone body... So i started the PT session with this PT of mine in year 2007. Let's cut this short if you wanna to know more, visit my previous years post.

Anyway, I had a trial session with a PT, AJ in FF 1MK last Thursday. And i found that he also have the enthusiastic to help his client to achieve their goal. He has 4 years experience in this industry and he is new to FF. So i decided to sign up for 30 sessions. Anyone wanna to guess what is my goal for this round? (i will leave this question for you to answer eh~)

Today is my 1st PT session. One word... tough~ Why? Coz i have stopped this kind of training for years. Now wanna to pick up the momentum, i need to start somewhere. Today is the day. AJ requested to only kicked started the training session after i did the warmed up with 100 calories burnt. So i was struggling with the warmed up and it took around 30 mins on the threadmill to hit 100 calories. Leg was pain and sore.

You know what? more legs exercise with the back and back roll after the warm up... So now my back was sore especially lower back. I have found out another weaker point of my body after shoulder. Sigh~

After the workout, when i cool myself down. I check my earlier status up date in Facebook. My friends has left some comments

Status update : Time to have my first PT Session
Friend #1: Hope he torture you to get the result.
Friend #2: Dear Trainer, please torture him.

Anyway, after an hour of training i felt good.... :)

Work work and work

All WORK and no play makes Jack a dull boy

All WORK and no gym makes TZ a fat boy

I skipped gym for 5 days straight, i was tied up with all the activities that came out last minutes. I tried to finish all my task on time around 4pm but the moment i wanted to pack and leave the office... something came out and my boss assigned them to me. The task was so short lead time that i need to accomplish within hours. So, I have NO choice but staying back to complete them :(

Anyway, i managed to hit the gym yesterday and have a nice workout. I hope the coming week will not gate me to gym... 

Please please let me go to gym eh~ I need to train for my Penang Bridge run on Nov 20th 2011.

Sharing is Caring

Colleague: Hey i want to share something with you.

Me: What would you want to share with me? Money?

Colleague: Sharing Money is no fun.

Me: But it's fun for me... I get extra money and can buy things that i like.

Colleague: Nope that will not be money... I want to share with you Nuts.

Given that i'm starting to be conscious on my weight and i'm aiming for 6 packs as per my target. This colleagues of mine has started to tempt me using all kinds of nuts. He bought from the Nuts sales @ our office cafeteria.

Me: No thanks i just started on the diet program.

Colleague: Nevermind, after eating these nuts, go do more cardio and exercise.

Me: No thanks. I want to skip this round. Maybe next time.

Colleague: Cannot you must eat... you have no choice...

Me: Why? 

Colleague: Sharing is Caring... so i want to share with you and you must eat in return.

Colleagues walked over with a piece of paper... poured 4 types of snacks including the nuts. 

On that day after eating the Nuts i went Nuts on my workout... Work hard for that 1.5 hours.

Smoker vs Chimney vs Factory

Everyone is talking about pollution each factory will bring to the environment... so the factory has tried their effort to GO GREEN... reduce Carbon footprint. But do you notice we also have chimney @ the kitchen, chimney @ the living room. These chimney will release smoke that harm the environment... So around the world, governments and organization have look into how to GO GREEN in this area too... another Carbon footprint reduction.

Now, let's talk about Smokers whom are surrounding us. If you look into more detail, they are as good as a small factory that pollute the air every day... some even every few hours or few minutes... So Malacca government has introduced the smoke free zone.

smoke free zone... can you NOT to smoke?

This is NOT a bad idea but if without the enforcement... what is the different between you have this Smoke Free tiny in Malacca. No one going to bother about the campaign...

Dear all smokers around the world,

• Do you know you are polluting the world everyday whenever you smoke?
• In order to GO GREEN, you need to stop smoking, otherwise... no need to talk about GO GREEN.
• Your surrounding people whom are non-smokers has the rights to breathe in fresh air. But you have intrude their rights. Can you sue them?
• Please say NO to polluting the world. STOP smoking. can you?

Anyway, Smoking is bad for health. PLEASE STOP SMOKING... 

Health is degrading ...

I was having the healthy lifestyle until recently... My gym time got slash by 50% due to work. My sleep got slash by 50% too. And I have irregular sleep and i always felt tired for the past few months. Sometime i just have to skip the gym because i'm too tired. Why?

After i joining this new company, I have meetings in the morning, and early evening i.e. 8pm. And i need to work with Indian team which is 2.5 hours behind Malaysia timezone. The earliest time i can leave the office is 5pm. With the KL traffic and distance from my workplace to the gym nearest to my home so i could be able to attend the meting on time, it took around an hour to reach the gym. So i left 1 hour to workout, shower and rush back for meetings :( Anyway, not to say i need to work on some Saturday too. I have no choice but gave away almost 50% of my gym time. BTW, sometime i have to work late to accomplish some unplanned task just because some people doesn't plan probably. :(

Recently, i gotten a free blood test sponsored by my company.  The result has become a warning for me as i was categories into the unhealthy group... in fact some test result shown that i'm in the risky group :( So now, how should i go back to my healthy lifestyle... It's a challenge for me to make this happen given the situation right now.

My very First TRX class @ FF-1MK

I attended the TRX class @ FF-1MK this evening. I wanted to attend the class since day one. I always peep from outside the glass wall. And those people were very focus on what were they doing. The instructor on the stage was teaching and motivating the team.

This was my first class to TRX, so what is TRX? It's a type of exercise...

So if you are the member of FF... do try out the TRX exercise. It's nice and you would be able to have a total body workout... 

76 --> 82

what is the difference between 82 and 76? i think everyone know about this, it's a simple calculation... Yup it's 6.

Guess what? I gained 6kg after i joined this new company... Less gym time for me and more food intake. My office is equipped with all you can drink cold and hot beverage (coffee, tea or me, milo etc), the cafeteria is just downstair, so convenient... Every evening, nice crispy fried bananas and lots of snacks too. So, I could not resist on those nice yummy drink and food.

So now, average how many kg per day i gain from Jan 10th until today? Anyone can calculate?

Anyway, the point is not how much i gained, the point is how much could i lose in the following months. Easy to gain but hard to lose... sad sad.

Help! Help! Who has the good method to lose weights?
I don't want to be like

Picture adapted from articles.nydailynews.com