Shoot with ZAN Magazine

Few months back, I had the privilege to do a photoshoot with ZAN Magazine to feature a series of 4 editions of workouts and it was a first time for me, before I was approached to do another video and photoshoot with SAF. 
We headed one afternoon to the photographer's place and I was happily admiring and wow-ing at the industrial theme in his home. Love how raw and earthy everything looked, though its not something I would like for my upcoming home. Still pretty! We started the shoot soon after and it was a breeze, I was very glad!
We started with the different workouts for different editions, targeting different body parts every month for 4 issues. It was just simple bodyweight workouts that you can do at home on your own! Will show you guys the actual workouts at the end of the post so stay tuned!

We ended with a couple of profile shots! Love theses behind the scene shots taken by Christina, I looked so chill! :D

And here, for those who have not seen the magazines..

Have fun working out in preparation for Christmas! Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! :D

Health, Fitness & Fashion Talk – Kickstarting your fitness journey

[Sponsored post]

Everybody (men & women) has different fitness goals and journey and through my years of training, I realized the first few issues that people question is “I don’t know where or how to start”. More than often, they sit on the issue, procrastinate, forget about it after awhile and then ended up becoming very unhealthy and gaining weight. Today, I will be doing a simple guide on how ladies (well, some points may appeal to men too) can kick start your fitness journey.

Before I start, I need everyone to understand that just by reading this won’t help you get started. You need to be able to convince yourself first that you need help, need to get healthier!

1. Set Realistic Goals

Forget about the SMART concept now (I will see if I can cover on this at a later date) and just close your eyes. Think about what kind of a person with what kind of physique do you think you can become. Considering these factors: hereditary bone structure and body frame. Write your goals down somewhere promiment, in your room door, wallet, on your room wall, wherever visible that you like. 

After which, find a photo/image of somebody’s physique that you will like to become. He/She can be anyone or anything. It can be in your phone wallpaper, chat wallpaper, or if you think you have more than one fitness inspiration, do up a fitness ‘moodboard’ and put it up on your bedroom wall!

 "Be POSITIVE, PATIENT and PERSISTENT!"  

2. Start a food log

If you don’t know where to start or how to start altering you diet, start a food log. Record every single food or water you put into your mouth. Be as specific as you can, stating the time and meal. I have provided a link here for you to download the spreadsheet if you want. You may edit and do up your personal one too. Get into a habit of recording and trust me, you will start to find out more about your body and its dietary needs and habits, what and how your body reacts to different food. It’s also a good idea to discover your allergies if you suspect you have any. Keep doing it and you will want to find out more and alter your diet accordingly to maintain health and keeping it lean.

"Failing to plan, is planning to FAIL!"

3. Get a personal trainer for help

You have started planning your goals and recording your diet for a month or so, but you cant seem to kickstart working out because you don’t know when, where or how to start. There you go, get help! It’s pretty trending to get personal trainers nowadays. I see the gym getting more and more crowded day by day, especially during the peak hours, with personal trainers and their clients.

Having train clients for a few years now, I can safely tell you that you do not need to rely on a personal trainer for life. All you need is to get help to set your basics right, after as long or short as you need; you are good to be on your own. This will help to ensure that you are doing everything correctly or as safely as you can to reduce risk of injury in and out of the gym. UNLESS, of course, you need a lifetime of motivation and push from your trainer, or that you have an old/receovered injury and you need a lifetime of guidance through your workouts, OR, unless you have too much money to spend.

"You wanna train smart, not just hard!" 

4. Get comfortable workout gear

Not so much of a guys’ thing but come on, who doesn’t want to look good all the time. Looking and feeling good in what you wear is important because it provides as an additional motivational and confidence boost when somebody tells you that you look good in what you wear. But of course, there is no need for you to get all the expensive workout gear just to prove that you are a ‘legit’ gym goer.

After having spent so much money on workout gear, Vivreactivewear.com approached me to do some advertorials and I subsequently became their model too. I would say the quality of the clothes have improved so much over the last few months and I’m proud to be the model! Even my clients buy from Vivreactivewear!

I’m in workout gear all day everyday because that is my work attire so I get super particular about the quality when it comes to buying them. I get so fussy its annoying sometimes! :P I never like them too tight (not the top), don’t like the material too thin, padding quality is important, need to be able to perspire in them, etc. Sylvia (founder of Vivre) constantly searches for better quality and designs to make sure that us ladies have good quality workout gear to workout/do yoga in!

Here are some of my favourite pieces which I really love very much!

I really love the fact that Vivre offers that more-affordable option for ladies, without compromising on the quality! On top of that, you get a 10% off minimum of $50 spent by quoting ‘Limaran’ at checkout.

"SUCCESS doesn’t happen overnight. Keep our eyes on the prize and don’t EVER look back!"  

Feel free to email me if you have any burning question or require personal training. Happy shopping at www.vivreactivewear.com and I hope this helps to clear some doubts in your head and get you started on your llifelong fitness journey!

Keep searching and learning, and never ever stop!

Beauty and Fitness talk – Facial Fitness PAO

(Sponsored post)

Many times, we talk about keeping fit and working out to keep fit and look good. However, whenever it comes to beauty, the first things that come to my mind is often skincare regime, makeup products and aesthetic enhancements. Never would I have imagined that I would be introduced to gadgets that will promote facial fitness (even with the knowledge that we all have facial muscles). 

Then comes the question: Do you work your facial muscles (like how you work other body parts)? 

Facial Fitness PAO

MTG Pacific Pte Ltd (MTG Singapore) originated in Japan and is committed to bringing out everyone’s maximum potential, through products that complement a healthy lifestyle, and encourage beauty, the natural way. Since its inception in 1996, MTG has been innovative in creating attractive-looking products, bridging the business domains of “Beauty” and “Wellness”. In Japan, the ReFa series (which Jason will be covering in his blog) has sold over 2.5 million units, making it extremely popular!

So what is this gadget all about? Facial Fitness PAO or PAO for short may look funny but a lot of research and work had been done to produce such a gadget to work on the (more than) 40 individual muscles that are responsible for a wide range of emotions that our face make daily. Similar to our bodily muscles, our facial muscles will weaken over time and age, causing us to have wrinkles and droopy expressions.

All you need to do is to put the mouth piece (without the casing, of course) into your mouth and hold it with your lips. After which, bob your head to swing it up and down rhythmically for 30 seconds. All you need is twice a day, or more if you want to. The colourful plates are actually weights (similar concept to progressive overload when you workout) that you can slowly progress with.

3 technologies:
1. Resonance Movement
By just nodding your head up and down, you can swing the weighted ends of the bar extending from the mouthpiece. This resonance movement, generated by the up and down motion of the head produces the a force (load) that exercises facial muscles.

2. Technical Distance The part that you hold between your lips extends 30mm from the center of the bar. Maintaining this slight distance from the exerciser serves to intensify the force applied to the facial muscles.

3. Mouth Hold The “Mouth Hold” refers to the part of the mouthpiece that you clamp between your lips. It is designed to effectively stimulate the muscles with the force delivered to the orbicularis oris muscle.

PAO and us

Jason and I started using PAO for about a month religiously, until we found out that we were using it wrongly. We were biting it with our teeth instead of holding the mouth piece with our lips. We managed to clarify with the partners and corrected the usage and started seeing visible changes and feeling the soreness physically!

After some getting used to, Jason started to increase his sessions up to a min each time. After which Jason managed to feel much more soreness and difference on double chin area. Wheareas for me, I felt a lot of soreness and more difference on the cheeks and jaw. We tried using PAO for a total of 2 months and here are our results! Apologies for the bad photoshop of the background (oops!) but no other editing/photoshop was done besides the background and removal of some pimples!

There was not drastic changes to our face shapes but if you notice, our smile lines were kind of lifted (which makes it easier to smile now)! Well, we were using PAO effectively and correctly only for a month or so then. We shall continue using it and see if there will be more visible differences from when we first started! :)

Jason and I also love how it comes with a pouch and we brought it to Seoul so we could use it while on holiday, like how we would still look for gyms and workout during holidays. We strongly believe that just like having a good physique, maintaining a youthful look requires time and effort as well. Best of all, you can use it anywhere at your convenience!

Feel free to find out more on http://www.mtg-sg.com and quote “JLnetwork” for a discount of 5% on any product!

Fitness Talk: Legs workouts

Apologies for the hiatus! I will be back with more health and fitness tips this year! I have been getting a lot of enquiries about legs workout especially for the ladies, so before I add more workouts in, let me share with you some of the ones I had posted on Instagram, in detail.

P.S: Please pardon the quality of videos since they were taken using my phone and edited using a third-party video editor!

This, is a superset of Sumo Deadlifts aka DL (the first set) followed by Stiff-legged DL (the second set). The sumo DL works primarily on the inner thighs and upper butt (glutes) and it is almost like a squat and conventional DL.

Sumo DL:
Start with your legs spread out wide with toes pointing out. Slowly, push your butt back and bend your knees to a squat. Try to avoid letting your knees move inwards. If you find it a challenge to keep your knees pointing out, try pointing your toes out less and focus on pushing your butt back and knees out. At all times, make sure your back is upright and chest up. A lot of emphasis is placed on the hips and legs for this variation of DL.

Stiff-legged DL/Romanian DL:
Also another variation of the conventional DL, the romanian DL targets the hamstrings. Keeping your back straight and chest up, bend your upper body down slowly while pushing your butt back and knees locked as much as you can (you may bend very slightly to take stress off your tendons). Straighten up again and repeat.

Of course, you don't have to do these as a superset. You may also separate the workouts and do them individually.

Dumbbell Bulgarian split squats/Bulgarian Lunge:
Another of my favourite legs workout would be the Bulgarian Split squats. Well, I heard the name came from a Bulgarian weightlifter in the early 1900s so correct me if I'm wrong though. Start with a split squat/static lunges if you are not comfortable elevating your rear leg. Once you are comfortable, elevate your rear leg on a bench or a step and slowly lower your body down to a squat, focusing on your front leg and bending you rear leg too. Make sure your knees do not go too far out off your toes in an awkward position. Then straighten back up, keeping your back straight and upright, and chest up. Try with a pair of dumbbells of a barbell over your back.

I will be back with more workouts and other body parts too so stay tuned! Meanwhile, stay motivated and feel free to email me if you have any doubt. I'm also taking in more clients for personal training so feel free to enquire too!

xx

Fitness & Fashion Talk - Vivre Activewear

Sylvia, founder of Vivre Activewear has been really kind to pass me some of her pieces to try and I have loved every single piece from Vivre! I know getting workout attire can be really expensive in Singapore and to me, looking good in and out of the gym is important. So, I need to share some of my favorite pieces from Vivre because they are affordable and of great quality! I don't only wear them for yoga but for HIIT sessions, as well as weight training since I workout in the gym everyday.

 Bra: Caged Sports Bra in Dazzled Apple

Top: Cool-off tank in Dazzling blue

Bra: Frolic Sports Bra in Chiffon Yellow

Top: Vivre Basic Tank Top in Persian Rose

Bottom: Full Length Active Tights in Galaxy Pink

Feel free to shop away at www.vivreactivewear.com and on top of the affordable prices, quote 'LA10PCD' at checkout for an additional 10% off storewide till End October! Follow @vivreactivewear too, and get updates on their latest arrivals and happenings! 

Health & Fitness Talk - Something exciting is brewing!

As most of you have known, Jasmine and I started Hapa Fitness late last year. Within months, we had quite a number of publicity (good and bad, of course) and then we decided to put Hapa project to a halt about 3 months ago, to plan for something bigger and more exciting. After planning for 2 months, we finally have something to show!

We had our photoshoot (for our new website) last Saturday and we were very kindly sponsored some pretty outfits (brands will be revealed later). Woke up at 4am and started preparing (which is why you will see a lot of eye bags in the photos below), picked up our photographer, Mave Hsiun and off we went to our first location.

Here are some of our behind-the-scenes shots by Jason, I'll let the photos do the talking!

First scene: Dumbbell and kettle bell work

Second outfit was the chest one we had - the twin acrobatics outfit, we called it. LOL we had fun monkeying around. :P

Changed out to feature our shoes!

Then we proceeded to demonstrate on some cardio machines.

HAHAHA!

Jas looking very gorgeous I have to include this!

Well, I have more but decided not to bore you guys so I shall end off with some of the beach shots we took.

And some group shots with our dear photographer!

Stay tuned for more updates! It's bedtime! Good night! :D