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 Talk - Personal Training at Orchid (SGPT) Gym

As promised, I'm back with photos of the gym that I'm based at! The gym is cosy and exclusive to only personal training and our clients. Apart from the usual personal training sessions, clients are also invited to utilise the gym at your own time, outside of the scheduled personal training sessions. I love to train here myself, because I have the luxury of space and equipments. Enjoy as I bring you through to the different parts of the gym!

View from the entrance. There are more than 4 benches for you to choose from!

First smith machine, nearest to the entrance.

Plenty of mirrors for you to check your form out and well, selfies. :P

Boxing gloves for some action on fun training days.

2nd smith machine, which couples as a rack too.

Hanging knee/leg raises.

Multi-purpose machine which you can use for plenty of exercises (I will share bit by bit along the way).

Array of dumbbells for your use. 

Oh there is also a leg press machine and one of the benches can be used as a leg extension and leg curl for some isolated movements on your legs!

General locker area for your water bottles and miscellaneous.

Simple shower facilities, for clients who rush back to work after a lunchtime workout.

Changing room and exclusive shoe rack for our clients who leave their shoes there for convenience.

Selfietime!

I will slowly introduce some of the workouts I do with my clients and for myself along the way so stay tuned! Meanwhile, if you happen to work around the area and looking for a quick lunch workout, feel free to give me a buzz at 9688 6802 and I will provide a FREE trial session for you! Bring your colleagues and friends down!

Have a fantastic weekend ahead everyone!

Fitness Talk - Training ground

I have officially gotten myself stationed at the gym (level 2) of Orchid Hotel! Will be updating this space with more information on the gym and how it looks like. Most importantly, how this cosy space will be just enough for personal training, and even for my own training so stay tuned!

Fitness & Health Talk - 3 reasons why you should start working out

As much as I know many of my friends are starting to hit the gym, I know that there are many who are not, whatever the reasons may be. There are many ladies out there who only start considering to do something to their bodies when they encounter health problems, which is why I'm writing about this today. Even before we start seeing problems, shouldn't we already begin to prevent these problems from surfacing?

Working out doesn't mean you have to get your butt to the gym. Instead, you can always start something simple by moving around more than usual. For example, the cliche examples like getting household chores done, getting down one stop earlier or parking your car further away from your destination so you can walk to your destination, taking the stairs instead of the lift up. But well, if you can, just get to the gym, get a personal trainer if you can afford, and learn the basics well and after about 20 sessions, you should be good on your own unless you need the additional motivation.

SO, why should you do yourself a favour and start moving that lazy bum?

1. As mentioned, working out makes you look YOUNGER!

Studies have shown that exercise reduces stress and releases endorphins, also known as happy hormones. And by indulging in a workout/exercise, research has been shown to alleviate most mild to moderate cases of anxiety, and can very quickly improve mood. Try it for yourself! It has worked for me, especially when I go for combat classes!

Also, sweating out during a good workout not only reduces bodyside inflammation and helps regulate skin-significant hormones, but also prevents free-radical damage. When you workout, the tiny arteries in your skin open up, allowing more blood to reach the skin’s surface and deliver nutrients that repair damage from the sun and environmental pollutants. How awesome is that!! It's like a facial session! :D

2. Stand taller!

This is where you would hear me nag "Very very important to stretch pre and post workout because it will lengthen your muscles!". My clients would have been sick and tired of hearing me say this but STILL, I have to emphasise and emphasise the importance and sometimes this happens to me, especially when I don't even have enough time for my actual workout.

Well, nobody has proven by research that working out and stretching makes one taller, but activities that stretch and strengthen muscles at the same time, like yoga or Pilates, can correct bad posture and therefore add height! Oh you will be surprised!

3. Less Visceral fats!

You may then ask, what are visceral fats?
Our body contains 2 main types of fats, Subcutaneous and Visceral fats. Subcutaneous fat is the one you can pinch and is relatively benign. Visceral fats are fats that surround your vital abdominal organs and can be a killer.

Then comes the next question, why is less good?

How about, why are more visceral fats bad? Excess visceral fat fuels low-grade inflammation in the body and is tied to a chain of killer-diseases, including type 2 diabetes, heart disease, colon cancer, breast cancer and dementia. It can also upset the balance of important hormones that affect your skin, hair and general appearance.

So when you workout regularly, your body makes more mitochondria, the cellular engines where aerobic metabolism takes place and it also produces more proteins to speed up the transportation of fatty acids into cells to be burned as energy, and then makes more enzymes that break fats down. So the more enzymes you have in your body, the faster visceral fat can be burned, which will ultimately not only make your body look better, but healthier!

Take courage ladies and gentlemen alike, and stop deluding yourself! It's never too late to start a fitness regime and embark on your fitness journey. If you ever need help or personal training, feel free to email me (limaran@gmail.com) or my husband (jasonjuliuslim@gmail.com if you are too shy to approach me). We will try our best to help you!

Good night everyone! 

Travels - Taipei Part 1

I'm back from my hiatus (Taipei trip - for leisure this time!)!

Day 1:
We arrived in Taipei at about 2pm on the first day and shopped around ximen area after our check-in. Stayed in this cosy hotel called W5 Best Hotel. The concierge were very friendly and though this boutique hotel is a 3-star, we had almost a 5-star service so I highly recommend W5 Best Hotel if you are considering a boutique hotel slightly further away from the busy Ximending. The best part, it's near 跨時代健身中心-300壯士俱樂部, the gym that we frequent during our stay at Taipei. It was just a street in front of our hotel. Jay Chou is the major shareholder of the Power Gym and Will Liu (刘畊宏) is the acting boss of the gym. We camped for 2 nights to see if we might get a chance to see any of them, but to no avail. Go check the gym out if you like to work out during your stay in Taipei!

So we walked around ximending, had late lunch before we headed to Shilin Night market to kickstart the street shopping.

大腸包小腸

阿宗麵線

We arrived at Shilin Night market about 7-8pm and check out the crowd on the Monday evening!

THIS, was the BOMB!

There's shaved sugared peanut with ice cream, wrapped in crepe! So yummy!

Day 2:
We went to the gym early on Tuesday morning and boy the gym was super cool.

Had a photo taken with Mr. Hulk, bought by Jay Chou personally!

We just had to do this, after seeing that ridiculous meme on IG LOL.

Our usual first photo in the first gym we go to, all over the world!

Had lunch at DTF at Taipei 101 but no we did not pay to go all the way up.

Guy looking mighty pleased with his photo taken :)

It was SUPER windy out there we almost got blown away (literally). lol

I think this was 五分埔, we briefly walked around here because we were starving!

It was quite a waste, we did not go back to 五分埔 after we had our meal, we headed straight to 饒河街觀光夜市 as Edric had been craving for this famous 胡椒餅 (pepper bun), which tasted rather normal. Apparently, people will all start queuing even before the stall starts operating for business.

胡椒餅 for you?

Day 3:
Started our day in the gym as usual. Then we made our way to 淡水 Tamsui.

The quiet street of 淡水 as it was still earlier in the day.

This was super yummy!

3 balls per bowl, but the mer sua was very nicely made and the texture was perfect!

Jasmine's favourite: Red bean pancake with lots of red bean!

Edric and his tall ice cream

Then we walked to where the river is, and strolled along the riverside.

Trying to pistol squat in the cold!

My LOVE!

葱油餅 (Scallion pancake)

Went into a random cafe and had one of their local delights.

Then we took a bus to Fisherman's Wharf and visited the Lover's bridge too.

Edric and his jump

Back at ximending for Edric's long-awaited hotpot steamboat. It was very reasonably priced considering that we had free-flow of everything, which includes sliced lean beef!

I'll be back with part 2 of my Taipei trip so stay tuned! Hope everyone had a great long weekend break of feasting and rest for those who do not celebrate CNY. 

Happy Lunar New Year everyone! Till the next post..