eric goh

Just want to rant

- Sheylara 7 Comments

I’m stressed out of my wits!

With my California Fitness Bodyage Challenge winding to a close (test next week), I thought I will have more time beginning next week to rest and relax.

Sheylara at the gym

But nooooooooooooo.

My music school, The Music Lab, is putting up a student showcase on July 19. (Will post details soon.)

Rehearsals will start next week, which means I have three weeks to learn and practice playing 2-3 songs with people I’ve never met before.

My drums instructor and band director keep assuring me that it’s more than enough time to prepare but I find it impossible to believe them!!!

Sheylara at the drums

My band director says, “It’s very easy one lah. The trick is to choose popular songs so people will sing along.”

LOL.

Shape Run 2009 falls on the same day as my student showcase.

Faint.

And I’m flying to Kuching for a 10km mountain trekking race in exactly two weeks’ time.

Mountain trekking

And a million other small things that add up.

Gamer Girl Friday will resume next week! I’m going to Video Games Live tonight! And inline skating tomorrow!

And I’m looking forward to finally being able to break my rather strict two-month diet.

I think I’m gonna miss Dr Evil’s nagging, though.

“Drink more water! Sleep more! Eat more!”

Sheylara at the gym

“Keep your back straight. Don’t move around. We’re training your arms, not your legs! Your legs very energetic hor? You want to train your legs also? Okay, noted!”

Photos from previous session, 2.5 weeks ago.

Check this out:

Sheylara at the gym

All the fancy, high-tech equipment in the two-storey gym and he makes me do push ups on the stairway railing. O_o

You just can’t know what he’s thinking.

Dr Evil

- Sheylara 39 Comments

I gave Eric Goh, my personal trainer at California Fitness, a new nickname.

I now call him Dr Evil.

Sheylara and Dr Evil

Of course, he’s not evil evil, because everything he does ultimately benefits his gym charges but, still, sometimes you just want to strangle him.

Like, he bluffed me that my body fat mass was a lot higher than it actually was, and I didn’t find out the truth until our 7th week together.

Sheylara at the gym

He’d make me do really unglam exercises.

Sheylara at the gym

Sheylara at the gym

With wretched aftermaths.

Sheylara at the gym

Earlier today, we were doing crunches.

Now, for the past 15 sessions, we had always been doing three sets of each workout, with the exception of one session, when we only did two.

So, after three sets of 50 crunches each, I waited for him to ask me to get up, as usual.

He didn’t.

Sheylara at the gym

I turned to him and gave him a pitiful look.

I said, “I finished three sets already.”

He looked back at me with a poker face and said, “Yah, I know.”

I said, “So, I’m done, right?”

He said, “Are you?”

I said, “Don’t tell me you’re making me do a fourth set!”

He said, “Why not?”

I said, “Where got do four sets one?!?!?”

He said, “Why not? Did we sign a contract saying you can only do three sets?”

Grrrrrrrrrrrr.

And then he did the “neverending count” trick during my fourth set. The one where he goes back to 30 after counting 39, so I never, ever reach 40.

Sheylara at the gym

Anyway, my BodyAge Challenge is almost at an end. One more session for me, and then the final test to measure my body age.

I can almost smell the durians and the Big Macs! Right now, it’s like, got chair cannot sit.

Sheylara at the gym

I can’t believe I’ve dieted for two months. I’ve never been able to stick to any kind of diet for two days.

I guess having an evil trainer really helps a lot. And I’ve never felt healthier in my life.

I might actually miss allowing myself to be tortured like this when it’s all over.

But I’ll confirm with you again after I’ve feasted on my durians and Big Macs. =)

Sheylara at the gym

The gym workouts I hate most

- Sheylara 20 Comments

The ironic thing about working out at the gym is that it never gets easier as you get stronger. What it gets is exponentially harder.

Sheylara at the gym

I mean, I sort of understand why that is so. You can’t get stronger unless there is enough exertion. There’s no point in working out if it’s going to be a walk in the park.

But where is the motivation if you never get to feel stronger because your weights increase every session even before you can feel your strength difference?

I guess there’s only one way to feel motivated: Looking good at the gym.

Sheylara at the gym

HAH.

Even when I feel like keeling over, I can take comfort in the fact that if I really do keel over, at least I’d look good doing it.

I put a lot of care in selecting my gym outfits. I even have two different pairs of gloves to match different outfits. The gloves, by the way, aren’t purely vanity items.

I realised that I needed gloves after working with hardcore weights that attempted to burn holes through my skin.

Sheylara at the gym

Need to protect the little hands.

So, the workouts that I hate the most, in no particular order:

Lunges

Sheylara at the gym

I’ve mentioned this before. I’m mentioning it again because my trainer enjoys making me do them.

He’d be like, “OKAY~! Now, your favourite exercise! Woohoo!”

And I’d go, “Hey, I just remembered I have a meeting to go to!”

My lunging expressions:

Sheylara at the gym

Lunges are totally evil, I swear. Just like Eric Goh.

Next.

Leg Extensions

Sheylara at the gym

See the evil-looking red padded thing just above my feet? I’m supposed to lift it with my feet (or thereabouts). It weighs about the same as a HDB flat.

Before leg extensions:

Sheylara at the gym

After leg extensions:

Sheylara at the gym

This is like a frozen grimace, an expression I practise a lot while working out. It means “I just died and this is my dying expression frozen for posterity”.

Unfortunately, leg extensions don’t actually make our legs longer.

Fortunately, we’ve only done this twice so far. I hope I won’t be scheduled for it anymore within this millennium.

Ball Crunches

Sheylara at the gym

This is a lot harder than it looks!

It is a billion times harder than it looks. Cos you have to balance yourself on the ball while doing crunches, and the balancing act alone is harder than normal crunches.

This was the first time I did it and I hate it already.

Eric had to hold me in place because I kept rolling off the ball. Haha.

Look of abject misery disguised as false bravado:

Sheylara at the gym

(I meant on my face, not on Eric’s face, of course. Eric looks gleefully wicked, as always.)

To make up for giving me three of my most hated exercises all within a day, Eric offered me some verbal motivation at the end of day.

“You did well today! Very impressed with your handling of weights and your control!” he said.

Well, tell that to my dead muscles!!!

To be honest, though, I think I am getting stronger. I’ll tell you why next time.

Sheylara at the gym

When torturous is funny

- Sheylara 8 Comments

Already ten sessions into the California Fitness BodyAge™ Challenge, I’m still laughing uncontrollably during my workouts.

Sheylara at the gym

I thought I would get tired of laughing, eventually, because there’s only so much humour one can milk out of a particular situation.

But working out is still fun. And funny.

Especially if you’ve got a trainer like Mr Eric Goh, Nightmare Incarnate.

Sheylara at the gym

It’s quite amazing how he can torture you and make you laugh at the same time.

Over the years (six years, I believe), he has accumulated a fine collection of nicknames given by his fitness clients, for example, Evil Eric. I believe my contributions were “Slave driver” and “Sadist”.

And to think that when I first laid eyes on him, I had thought, “Oh, he looks kind and harmless.”

Sheylara at the gym

Station #1

Quadriceps training. It’s damn heavy, by the way.

Sheylara at the gym

Eric: Be careful when you’re working out on this piece of equipment. Don’t ever let go your legs.

Sheylara: Why?

Eric: Because the only things supporting this weight are your legs. If you let go, it was crash down all the way until something stops it. Which is you.

Sheylara: Why so dangerous one!

Eric: Yes, so don’t let go.

Sheylara: But you’re holding on to it, right??

Eric: Who says I am?

Sheylara at the gym

Station #2

Sheylara at the gym

Eric: So, what did you do over the weekend?

Sheylara: Blah blah blah.

Eric: Nice!

Sheylara: Hey! Stop talking to me. You’re not counting when you’re talking to me!

Eric: Of course I am.

Sheylara: How?!

Eric: By how much your muscles are trembling.

Sheylara at the gym

Station #3

Doing ab curls.

Sheylara at the gym

Eric: You’re doing well, keep it up.

Eric: 27… 28… 29… 20!… 21… 22…

Sheylara: ?

Eric: Don’t stop! 26… 27… 28… 29… 20!

Sheylara: WTF?!

Sheylara at the gym

Station #4

Eric: Okay, okay, don’t say I bully you. We play a game now.

Sheylara at the gym

Eric: When I pass the ball to you, swing it to your right, then pass back to me again.

Sheylara: It’s damn hard lah. I can’t move it. Hahahahaha.

Eric: Yes, you can. See I’m doing it, too.

Sheylara at the gym

Sheylara: You didn’t just finish doing 3,493,504 reps on the abs bench!!

Eric: Aiyoh… stop laughing. Later you hurt yourself.

Sheylara: Too late. I’m gone.

Sheylara at the gym

Eric: Very good. Start from one again!

My trainer makes me a narcissist

- Sheylara 11 Comments

Around my third week of training at the gym, Eric made me do push-ups, which went very well until he asked me to look in the mirror.

“Look in the mirror,” he said. “Check out your toned arms.”

I don’t have a photo of me doing push-ups so here’s a photo of me doing lunges, instead.

Sheylara at the gym

I said, “I can’t. I’m channelling all my efforts into not fainting from exhaustion.”

“Hahaha,” he said, “You’re doing good. Just look straight in the mirror and admire your rippling muscles.”

I tried to say something clever but I was at the same time struggling with the push-ups, so I could only manage a weak hiss like a deflating balloon.

Sheylara at the gym

While that was going on, Eric continued to make approving sounds at my muscles, which were, at that point, screaming for mercy.

“Don’t have lah,” I huffed weakly, “My arms look the same as always.”

“Okay, you’re done,” he said, “Stand up and flex in the mirror.”

I did what he said.

“See??!” he exclaimed triumphantly as I flexed into the mirror.

Sheylara at the gym

“Okay, fine,” I conceded. “It’s a little bigger than usual. Stop making me a narcissist.”

But Eric is apparently very pleased with the way my arms are shaping up.

The next time we had a photoshoot, he had our photographer snap lots of photos of my arms.

Sheylara at the gym

Sheylara at the gym

I don’t really see any cause for celebration because I have never been in the habit of scrutinising my arms, so I can’t tell the difference.

But Eric works me very hard every session so I suppose there must be some kind of improvement.

There’s always a lot of laughter during our sessions (mostly from me). I know it’s very bad to laugh when training but I can’t help it. I will laugh involuntarily when my muscles start burning. I think it’s an automatic stress-relieving response.

Sheylara at the gym

Also, Eric is always trying to trick me into doing more reps, which I find very funny, so that makes me laugh doubly hard.

We were doing lunges and he was doing them with me to give me some extra motivation.

I hate lunges with a vengeance.

Sheylara at the gym

For the first set, I can do maybe 20 and then I’m ready to order a wheelchair.

Seeing Eric do them with such inconceivable ease, I asked him, “How many can you do?”

He said, “Ooooh, is that a challenge?”

I rolled my eyes and tried not to collapse.

He continued, “Let’s compete. See who stops first.”

That was when I burst out laughing uncontrollably because it was such a ridiculous competition.

Sheylara at the gym

I demanded that he give me a 500 handicap but he didn’t bite.

In the end, because we’re always bantering, we end up not counting, so I always end up doing more, I’m sure.

Sometimes he will purposely miscount and I will protest and then he will say, “Oh, did I count wrong? I’m sorry, let’s start again.”

And then he would start from one.

Sheylara at the gym

Sometimes I don’t know whether to laugh or cry.

When that happens, I guess the only safe thing to do is to be a narcissist.

Sheylara at the gym