Olivia Serna | Hygieia Strength & Conditioning

Olivia Serna

by Shaun Pang, SSC | Nov 5, 2025

We were so lucky to have found Shaun and his strength and conditioning gym when we lived in Singapore; it was a real game changer for us.

After taking up powerlifting for 7 years, I was not progressing in numbers and strength. I had just entered perimenopause, and I had the usual symptoms plus other not-so-well-known symptoms, and my training routine was not helping much.

After Shaun took us under his wing, three things happened in less than six months: my numbers skyrocketed, my strength increased dramatically, my perimenopause symptoms were manageable, and my body composition improved.

Even at 51 years old, I keep getting stronger, agile, and ready to tackle new challenges I love. From an 80Kg squat and 105Kg deadlift PBs to 115kg squat to 150kg deadlift PBs in only 5 years, and hiked hundreds of km in challenging trails across Australia and Japan.

We’d be lost without Shaun’s support and training guide. He is by far the most knowledgeable and experienced coached we worked with in Singapore and that is why even though we are living in Melbourne now we stick with him. If you are thinking of getting stronger whether you are in Singapore or anywhere in the world, get in touch with him or his crew, you will not regret it. Just do it lah!

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Bio

My interest in fitness started when I was around 19 years old. Being overweight for most of my growing up years, I decided to do something about it. After months of not being able to achieve the desired results, I began poring through books and articles about training and nutrition. The more I read, the more interested I became in this field, and got better results when the the newly discovered knowledge was applied. After 1 year of persistence and hard work, I lost 24kg and felt fantastic. The sense of achievement motivated me to pursue a career in working with people to help them achieve their own fitness goals.

After achieving my weight loss goal, I tried a variety of training programs for a few years, looking for a new goal to train towards. After aimlessly moving around from program to program, I chanced upon a book called Starting Strength: Basic Barbell Training, written by renowned strength and conditioning expert, Mark Rippetoe. Little did I know that this book was about to change my life and coaching career.

At that point, I had experience training with barbells and was relatively familiar with it but never have I come across any material that gave such explicitly detailed explanations of how to perform the barbell lifts. I devoured the book and modified my lifting technique and program. In just a few months, I was pleasantly surprised by how much stronger he had become. I now had a new goal to work towards – getting strong.

With full confidence in the efficacy of the Starting Strength methodology, I began coaching my clients using this program and got them stronger than they ever thought was possible. The consistent success my clients achieved through the program cemented my confidence in Mark Rippetoe’s teachings. I then decided to pursue the credential of being a Starting Strength Coach and I’m currently the first and only certified coach in Singapore and South-East Asia

In my 9 years of experience, I have given talks and ran programs at numerous companies and worked with a diverse group clientele of all ages with a variety of goals. Today, I specialise in coaching people in their 40s, 50s and beyond because it brings me a great sense of satisfaction to be part of the process of improving this demographics’ health and quality of life by getting them stronger.