Happy 4th anniversary to Hygieia Strength & Conditioning!
This month marks the 4th year since Hygieia Strength and Conditioning opened its doors. Usually, we’d commemorate every anniversary with a BBQ outside the gym, to thank everyone for their support, to celebrate another year of being in business, and to look forward to the next. While COVID restrictions have prevented our traditional BBQ this year, one of our clients, Patricia, suggested having an article on the history of Hygieia mark the occasion.
In barbell training, clothes don’t matter. But shoes do. Here’s everything you need to know about weightlifting shoes, the essential gear for barbell training. We’ll tell you why you need a pair of weightlifting shoes, what to look out for, and how to buy them.
You’ve probably seen those viral videos: a lifter pulls a heavy deadlift and everything looks awesome. He puts the bar back down on the floor, stands back up, looks around like he’s confused, then suddenly, boom! He’s passed out flat on the floor. Why some lifters pass out after deadlifts, and how to avoid it.
If you’ve strained or torn a muscle, most doctors will tell you to take some painkillers and rest the affected area. But extended rest and waiting for the injured muscle to heal on its own means that its recovery will be slowed down and the muscle fibres don’t heal back properly. Find out what you should do to speed up your recovery and lower the chances of injuring the muscle again.
It seems like there’s never enough time in our busy lives. Do you rush to the gym, then rush to complete your lifts while your mind is constantly thinking about how little time you have left before you’ve got to go back to work or to pick your kids? Within the time you have, how can you be more efficient while still maximising your strength gains? Here are 3 things that you can do to speed up your workout and still continue to make gains.
While barbells are the best way to get strong, the improved physical capabilities isn’t the only benefit.
In Part 1 and Part 2, we saw how Patience and Hard Work can positively influence your life, by encouraging you to forgo short term gratification for long term benefit, and training up your ability to stick with doing hard things.
Now in Part 3, we’ll look at the lesson of Practice and how it helps you get better in just about anything you want to do.
The apparently simple process of barbell training will teach you life lessons that are useful both inside and outside the gym.
In Part 1 of this article series, we learned the lesson of Patience — how you should use it to train consistently and get strong slowly, instead of looking for unrealistic shortcuts.
Now in Part 2, we’ll look at the lesson of Hard Work, and how it helps you become a better version of yourself.
The barbell – it’s simply a piece of machined steel, a useful tool to get you strong when used correctly. But if you immerse yourself and commit to training, you will find that it does more than just get you physically strong.
The barbell and the process of training teaches you many lessons, and develops uncommon character traits that will positively affect your life outside the gym.
If you’ve been training at a commercial gym for a while, pause, take a look around and observe the regulars. You’ll realise that most of them are performing or look exactly the same as they did a few months (or even years) ago.
Now, take a moment and review your own training. Have you been making steady progress or have you been going around in circles?
Exercising to lose weight? Instead, improve your strength to improve your health. Check out other great reasons for going to the gym and bigger goals to train for.
According to the Health Promotion Board, about one-third of elderly Singaporeans aged 60 and above have fallen at least once. We’ll discuss why strength is important in maintaining balance and why “balance training” doesn’t work.
Do you have lower back pain that’s getting in the way of you enjoying your time in the saddle?
If you’re an avid cyclist, this might sound familiar to you. You’re enjoying the ride, feeling the wind in your face and clocking in the miles. About 30 minutes in, you start to feel a little dull ache in your lower back. As you keep going, that little ache gradually gets more pronounced.
Training isn’t meant to be comfortable – it never was, never is and never will be. If you’re serious about your training and want to make progress, you must shed the mindset of ‘working within your comfort zone’ and start getting comfortable with being uncomfortable.
If you’re above the age of 30, it’s certain that you have experienced or are currently experiencing lower back pain.
Martin had to travel extensively as part of running a successful patent law firm and spent at least 30 hours a month on planes. Back then, he flew business class not because he wanted to but because he had to – flying economy would cause him to suffer from excruciating pain for the next few days.
In this article, we’ll dive into the importance of gyms when it comes to training, not exercising, and how your mindset and outlook inevitably impact your view of gym culture…
Strength is an essential component of life and a determining factor of how you spend your golden years – being physically independent and doing the things you love or bring wheelchair-bound.
This simple test that you can do at home will tell you the state of your physical strength.
Progress stalling after your novice phase ended? Constantly getting stuck and not sure which post novice program will work for your situation? Coach Shaun talks about some strategies to move from your novice phase into intermediate.
Patricia talks about her experience of being diagnosed with osteoporosis and beating it with barbell strength training and eventually being able to deadlift double her bodyweight.
Just like there are questionnaires and tests to gauge if you’re on the path to be financially ready for retirement, there are a multitude of simple tests you can…
In the 19th century fairy tale “Goldilocks and the Three Bears”, a little girl named Goldilocks tastes three different bowls of porridge and finds that the perfect bowl…
Remember the New Year’s resolutions you made a few months back? You had big plans to overhaul your life starting the moment the clock struck 12 on the 1st of January 2020…
Giving something that an individual desperately lacks of can make a huge difference to that individual’s life. A thousand dollars can be life changing for someone living…
First of all, we at Hygieia Strength & Conditioning would like to thank you, our clients. Thank you for the opportunity to work with you, thank you for your continued…
Do a quick search for “sports specific training” or “sports performance training” online and you’ll find a plethora of websites marketing programs that…
According to Singapore’s Department of Statistics, 13.7% of the resident population in 2018 are aged 65 years and over (Wong, 2018, pp.14). Thanks to advancements in…
Every once in a while, we get people walking into the gym and asking if strength training can help them if their goal is weight loss. Almost all of the time, they’re…
You’ve finalised your flights, booked your hotel and ready to go on your well-deserved holiday. While researching the location for places to see and things to eat, it…
If you’re new to lifting weights and deadlifts are part of your training (as it should be), you’ll probably notice calluses forming on your palm just below the junction…
Over the past few years that I’ve been a strength coach, I’ve worked with with dozens of lifters and brought most of them through to the end of their Novice Linear Progression…
If you’re able to squat to proper depth (hip crease below the top of your kneecap) with a barbell on your back, this article isn’t for you. If you’re able to do a bodyweight
An increasing number of people are realising the benefits of strength training and as a result, more people than ever are getting under barbells and squatting…
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.
