First, just a brief introduction to this section of my blog. ‘My Fitness Journey’, as you’ve probably guessed’ is a tab in which I will be tracking my journey into an exploration of various forms of fitness and my personal relation with the ideas of health and exercise. The hope is that any reader will be able to get a glimpse into my thoughts on these subjects, my experiences (success and failures) and take something away from all this.
Some useful pages to view include my Instagram page (@akkie.lifts), my nutrition planner and tracker as well as my workout log.
I think I’ve always been an individual who’s somewhat obsessed with what other people think of him. There’s this interaction that I had when I was 11 or 12 that comes to mind in particular, where, upon being teased about having no friends (a bit of banter no doubt), I looked towards one of my friends and ask for confirmation about our friendship (in hopes of proving the other kids wrong). He told me that if I had to ask, we weren’t friends at all.
A relatively obscure, non-essential moment of my life, and yet the idea of needing others approval, whether it be respect and admiration from my friends and peers or acknowledgment from mentors/teachers, is something that’s stuck with me throughout. That’s, in fact, the reason that I initially got into fitness – building myself into this particular version that was sure to get others to notice, maybe even feel jealous of me (as horrible of a motivation that may sound). The summer of 2017 was the first time I decided I was going to be serious about fitness. Of course, I had absolutely no clue what I was doing (except getting ‘buff’ of course). I would get on a treadmill and run for a couple of kilometers before getting tired. Try out some of the machines in the gym and try to max out the weight (max out equivalent to 10kg bench).
Looking at fitness videos and channels, I come across the concept of calisthenics one day (shoutout to Thenx by the way!). Looking at individuals such as Chris Heria perform muscle-ups, handstands and pistol squats was beyond cool. “There’s an individual that people for sure must respect. What can I do to become like him?”. Calisthenics became a focal point that direct my efforts towards health and fitness. It helped me create actual plans for the gym, have goals to strive towards. I went from not being able to do a single push up – not a SINGLE one – to be able to do first one, then five, ten and eventually 30 consecutive push-ups in a row. Abhorrent form to creating a coordinated movement to maximize my force (This was taking place during the year of 2018).
They weren’t the only influence though. I soon moved on to weightlifting (powerlifting?). Guys like Brian Shaw and Eddie Hall, as well as Singaporean legends like Clinton Lee and Matthew Yap, soon became gospel, with me watching their videos on almost a daily basis (hello 2019!).
Athleanx (Jeff Cavaliere!) was the one who pushed me to take my weightlifting and fitness journey more seriously, realizing that I was, in fact, an athlete now – dieting turned into nutrition and working out turned into proper training. A sense of strict regiment started to grow, and I started to take myself and the work I was doing more seriously.
A think an important concept to discuss here is grit. This **** is and will continue to be hard. Incredibly hard. Studying and preparing for the IGCSE exams, completing all of the homework that was assigned, staying back in school 4 times a week for MUN, taking charge of and completing a service project and making time to keep working on and fostering my own relationships and personal development. All of this more and would go on every single day. No break, it was relentless. 6:00 am and 10:00 pm gym sessions, constant exhaustion and fatigue with even weekends spent hammering away at my goals and objectives. And now? With IB? Insane. Working and studying away just to keep up with content in class (on top of all the studying for exams). The podcast project I’m working on and so desperate to succeed with? The finance competition and my ‘lofty ambitions for the next two years’ (check out that post as well on the finance section of my blog!). The song ‘Till I Collapse’ by Eminem comes to mind. “Sometimes you just feel tired, you feel weak”. But you can’t quit. “No matter how bad you want to just fall flat on your face and collapse”. Grit is everything.
These next two years before college are going to be the most important yet. Goals? Consistency with training and nutrition is number 1 – trying to train for 2 hours 4-5 times a week and make sure that my macros reach the goals I have in mind. PRs and numbers? Important as well. Dropping to 15% body fat with a weight of 80kg, deadlift, and squat greater than 150kg with a 100kg bench are all targets of mine. Calisthenics is going to play a bigger part to. Being able to do a handstand? A muscle-up. YES
Being able to maintain the blog and Instagram page, documenting my journey is going to be key. I’m not the only one involved either. I’m going to be training with Justin, a peer of mine (who’s never really trained before). His progression, working with him so he can develop himself and reach his goals are critical to me as well. I’m excited as hell.
