+ Training | Past Gyms

Started to the gym for weight training when I was in my teens, while I was a student at Tanjong Katong Secondary School during my 3-month Pre-U days before the GCE 'O" results.

I remember my first gym was Health & Fitness Club at Joo Chiat Community Centre.

I went with my Kaki Bukit Secondary School classmate Aziz, who was also my classmate in Pre-U. I was skinny, just bones. And he was plum and wanting to get rid of his baby fat.

Both of us had common interest in sports that was Bodybuilding, and both had common objective - that was to beef-up, be fit and have a muscular physique. A bodybuilder's figure would be awesome, but we kept our goals simple and focused gains in small steps.

The gym was outside, beside the community centre building with aluminum roofing. Quite spacious, but the exercise equipment were quite old and rusting due to the mist when it rained.

Got to know many "seasoned" bodybuilders with big muscles pumping hard and regularly training there. Benefited well with many tips on training, types of food and supplements but most of all the motivation they give.

It is something they share with fellow bodybuilders there to keep training. When one guy progressed with good gain, one would see the others trained even harder to over-take the attention.

It just good, clean competitive training fun. It kept everyone training hard and consistent.

When I left Pre-U to study at JSTI or Japanese-Singapore Technical Institute, which was renamed as Nanyang Technical Institute a few years after I graduated from there.

I had a group of fellow classmates going to the gym. We went to the National Stadium Fitness Club.

An open-air gym that was very spacious and had 3 multi-station gym sets, 4 stations of pulleys, 2 squatting stations and plenty of free barbells and dumbbells to go around.

It was a great place with good showers facilities, etc and spectacular view of the track and green manicured field. The entrance fee was only 80 cents per person per entry.

We were all set to achieve a manly, macho form. We were somehow freaked out by stories of bad experiences - almost torture-like training, one had to go through during National Service.

Initially a group of 6 to 8 when together after school, but after a few months, the enthusiasm faded away for most of my friends. I was left with only Sulaimi who stuck to going to the gym and kept on training together.

Again, I was not as beefed-up as I had hope to before JSTI, he, on the other hand was in good shape naturally. Thanks to his genes. But never hurt to improve even further.

We spot each other, and some times when one could not make it, there were many beginners and intermediate bodybuilder who would gladly assist spot each other during bench presses, etc.
That gym was my longest with the gym and I had the most gains training there with Sulaimi.