men's health urbanathlon 2014

Singapore fitness blogger takes on Men’s Health Urbanathlon 2014

Singapore fitness blogger first ever men’s health urbanathlon 2014

14km run and 9 obstacles.

men's health urbanathlon 2014
men’s health urbanathlon 2014

 

Really excited to see how the route is gonna be like tomorrow. So just a run thru for myself on the 9 obstacle before tomorrow race!

Gotta from Men Health 2014 official page

MYSTERY OBSTACLE For the 1st time ever!

Test your five senses like no other race can.

By keeping you in the dark, we promise this to be a challenge you’ll remember!

This is the tricky one as i dont know what it is gonna be, but i love surprises so it better be a tough one !


OBSTACLE 1: CURVE ANALYSIS [NEW]
Pull yourself over 1.5m high cement pipes.

Your task:

  1. Pick up speed as you approach the first cement pipe (with diameter of 1.2m).
  2. Jump and pull yourself over the top of the pipe.
  3. Hop off the pipe and continue to hoist yourself over the 2nd cement pipe (with diameter of 1.5m), with the help of a low platform.
  4. If you are unsuccessful in your first attempt, you are required to make another attempt at the RETRY queue. If you fail in your re-attempt, 5 minutes will be added to your final timing as a penalty, and you will be allowed to continue with the course.

this should be easy as we always need to clear the low wall in the army!


OBSTACLE 2: BALANCE SHEET [NEW]
Balance yourself across 2-inch wide beams.

Your task:

  1. Steady yourself and step onto the balancing beam. Start off with the sloping 2-inch beam and jump across to the next set of broader beams.
  2. Balance yourself to step up and across to the next set of beams.
  3. Jump off over the cone at the end of the beams to clear this obstacle.
  4. If you are unsuccessful in your first attempt, you are required to make another attempt at the RETRY queue. If you fail in your re-attempt, 5 minutes will be added to your final timing as a penalty, and you will be allowed to continue with the course.

needless to say we are all so familiar with this, we did a even higher one in army SOC!


OBSTACLE 3: WIRE HOUSE [NEW]
Untangle yourself in this 4m long web of bungee cords

Your task:

  1. Put your flexibility to the test by working your way through the maze of bungee cords tied across this 4m long structure.
  2. Bend, dodge and duck through the web. Crawling on all fours on the ground is not allowed.

This can be a little tricky, hopefully the hole between the ropes is bigger, if we trip on this it is not gonna be fun anymore!


OBSTACLE 4: PEAKS & TROUGHS [NEW]
Scale up and descend these 3m high sloping structures

Your task:

  1. Pull yourself up using the rope on this 3m high sloping structure.
  2. After reaching the top, descend using the wooden blocks on the other side of the structure.
  3. Ascend and conquer the next 3m high slope with the rock-climbing grips. Slide down the other side of the structure.
  4. If you are unsuccessful in your first attempt, you are required to make another attempt at the RETRY queue. If you fail in your re-attempt, 5 minutes will be added to your final timing as a penalty, and you will be allowed to continue with the course.

Sliding down to victory always seems like a fun thing!


OBSTACLE 5: WORKLOAD

Carry a 20kg sandbag and run 100m.

Your task:

  1. Pick up a wet 20kg sandbag from the water trough.
  2. Carry it and run a distance of 50m forward and 50m back to your start point.
  3. Place the sandbag back into the water trough.
  4. If you are unsuccessful in your first attempt, you are required to make another attempt at the RETRY queue. If you fail in your re-attempt, 5 minutes will be added to your final timing as a penalty, and you will be allowed to continue with the course.

Wet sandbag could add on additional weight to the 20kg, this might not be as easy as it seems. putting it on one side of the shoulder should make the whole 100m run easier.


OBSTACLE 6: LEAP OF FAITH [NEW]

Take a 2m leap of faith

Your task:

  1. Climb up the 2m high tower.
  2. Approach the end of the platform. Walk with care and do not run!
  3. Aim for the pole that is 1.2m away and leap off. Stretch out to grab it if you can.
  4. Hang on to the pole and lower yourself onto the crash mats.

I think i am gonna jump straight down for this!


OBSTACLE 7: LATERAL MOVE

Power through two sets of parallel bars

Your task:

  1. Make your way across a pair of 6m-long parallel bars using your hands.
  2. Manoeuvre down a second set of parallel bars, with your hands on one bar and feet on the other.
  3. If you are unsuccessful in your first attempt, you are required to make another attempt at the RETRY queue. If you fail in your re-attempt, 5 minutes will be added to your final timing as a penalty, and you will be allowed to continue with the course.

walking with the parallel bar could be a killer for most, but there is a technique to it, try swing your body from left to right as you move and let the momentum carry you over!


OBSTACLE 8: THE NETWORK

Climb up and down a 3.2m high 3-ton truck using a rope web.Your task:

  1. Get on all fours to climb up the rope web.
  2. When you get to the top of the truck, turn around and descend the rope web on the other side feet first.
  3. Avoid getting your limbs trapped in the net as it will slow down your progress.

hopefully i dont get stuck on this! after all the running, for this obstacle. take it slow.

Seems like this year they remove the mud water obstacle which is great in my opinion. Anyway have a good run everyone, take it slow and remember to use your foam roller to warm up your muscles to get more flexibility during the obstacle tomorrow. Proper stretching is a must and remember to stay hydrated by drinking lots of water tonight! See you all tomorrow!

NutriFirst, heechai, nutrifirst.net, singapore online supplement store

How to save more when buying supplements with NutriFirst.

NutriFirst, heechai, nutrifirst.net, singapore online supplement store
NutriFirst

How to get more from NutriFirst.

1. Try to spend at least a $100 each time to receive a $5 credit, free sample and a free delivery to your home!

2. Purchase in bulk together with your friends. Hitting $200 entitled you to a additional free gift and by hitting $500 you get to select a free gym bag!

3. Stay with NutriFirst! Loyalty member discount given to members who hit a certain total amount! $2000 – 2%, $5000 – 5% and $10,000 – 10%

4. Purchase Bundle deals at Nutrifirst.

Why NutriFirst?

1. NutriFirst Staff

NutriFirst Staff are all Fitness enthusiast, they go to the gym, take supplements and take care of their health. We always make sure that we know what we are selling.

Team NutriFirst

2. NutriFirst Showroom

NutriFirst open up a showroom specially to cater for customer who likes to hold and feel the products. Our Friendly staff will also provide free supplement consultation over at our showroom.

Nutrifirst showroom, heechai, wholesale supplement, nutrifirst.net, barnabas huang
NutriFirst Showroom

3. NutriFirst Care

We do reply to customer inquiries on fitness and supplements thru Facebook messages, phone calls (+65 67440600) and emails. Email is only replied by certified fitness instructors, so you can be sure that the answer you get is reliable.

Facebook

4. Shut Up and Train – by NutriFirst

Using Products from NutriFirst like MusclePharm shaker, Tshirt, Universal Tshirt, Animal series apparels and gasp makes us a community. I know when i see people using Better Bodies belt, Gasp Branch Warren Wrist Wraps, Shut up and train singlet and NutriFirst Shaker we are one family.

nutrifirst, shut up and train

5. NutriFirst Largest online supplement store

With the widest range of products, you will be able to get all the help you need to grow at NutriFirst. Always trying to bring in the latest and most popular products. Some New brand that NutriFirst recently gotten is Musclepharm, Universal, BPI, Jay cutler, Gasp and Better Bodies do check them out at www.nutrifirst.net

6. Next day delivery.

Place an order today and your supplement will arrive to you the next day! Order above $100 and get a free delivery. NutriFirst deliver anywhere in singapore, be it your office, your house, even construction site! 3 hour time slot available starting from 930am and ending at 7-10pm.

Cheers

heechai

Wholesales Manager at NutriFirst.net

For that burst, there is NutriFirst.

 

energy one gym

Review On Toa Payoh Safra Gym.

On my way to Toa Payoh Safra (293 Lorong 6, Toa PayohSingapore 319387), heard a lot of good comment about that place! Nowadays Safra is dominated by MacDonald, Yishun Safra also have one! *How to get Cutting like this!*fitness blogger, singapore, toa payoh, gym, review

While walking to the gym, i saw the best musclebuilding restaurant! My Postworkout meal is readily available! Double Up Chicken with garden veggie and mash potato! Don’t even need to think i know what i want already 🙂

toa payoh safra gym, heechai, fitness blogger
Aston! Double up chicken! show your safra card to get discount!

Clean and new gym! Spacious! They have this cross fit corner for those people to do chins, ball throw, TRX! You can even train your IPPT here, with standing broad jump mat and shuttle run track! HUGE mirror everywhere, *which is very necessary for US to Flex*.

2 Power Rack, sited leg press, sited calf raises, 1 smith machine, 1 incline 1 decline and 1 flat bench, dumbbell weight up to 50kg, a few cable cross machine and most importantly they have sited chest press and as you can see below, they have a sited shoulder press as well! This is Heaven!

leg press, bench press, smith machine, power rack, heavy dumbbell, hee chai, fitness blogger, singapore
shuttle run track at toa payoh safra
fitness blogger, singapore heechai
fitness blogger singapore, heechai
you hardly can find a seated press in free weights! this is awesome!
singapore fitness blogger, heechai
leg press!
singapore fitness blogger, heechai
seated chest press, most of your common gym wouldnt have this as well.
To Level 2!
Lots of Cardio machine with a nice view facing the pool and warm sun rays shinning in 🙂
singapore fitness blogger, heechai
lots of cardio machines
singapore fitness blogger, heechai
some more cardio machine!

They have another weights area for people who want to train arms or lighter weight selection! Awesome! Lots of Machines for you to hit all the different muscle group! No more excuses! *oh i cannot train because they dont have this machine*

singapore fitness blogger, heechaisingapore fitness blogger, heechai

Everything is good, only thing is the entry payment!

Per Entry Type Fees Usage Timing
#Off Peak
Hour Usage
SAFRA
Member
$5 Weekdays: 7am to 5pm

Saturdays: 7am to 1pm

Sundays/PH: 1pm to 7pmGuests$8Peak Hour
UsageSAFRA
Member$10#Weekdays: 5pm to 10pm

#Saturdays: 1pm to 8pm

Sundays/PH: 9am to 1pmGuests$15

 http://www.safra.sg/en/Enjoy/EnergyOne-Gyms/Memberships-Fees.aspx#.UeqKXlPBfR0

Walkable distance from Toa Payoh Mrt, about 10-15min walk a good warm up to the gym!

Quite a lot of customer is there but there are so many machines around, so the waiting time is not that bad!

Toilet is clean and neat as well. steam room and jacuzzi is available!

A must try! I will definitely go back again!

Thanks for reading!

subway

Subway eat fresh? Is Subway really fresh?

I always loved the subway chicken breast foot long. Ordering it without the cookies and drinks thinking that it was the healthiest meal ever that will help get me lean and shredded.  What can go wrong with bread, vegetables (cucumber, tomato, and olive) and chicken breast?
Only until one day, where I got the frozen chicken breast that was taken out fresh from freezer. They had to defrost it in the oven and it looks the same white chicken and everything, until I chew on it. Some of the part wasn’t normal, it was chewy, it feels like I just put some eraser into my mouth. I knew that something was not right. So here is my research for the FRESH SUBWAY.
First of all, SUBWAY EAT FRESH according to SUBWAY is define as the sandwich is made fresh on the spot and that doesn’t mean the ingredient is fresh.
In its defence, Subway says by ‘fresh’ it means that the sandwiches are freshly made in front of customer, not that the ingredients are fresh. It also says that, where possible, it sources meat from the UK. Not that its meat is 100 per cent meat: Subway told me its ham contains pork rear-leg meat, water, salt, stabilisers, dextrose (sugar), lactose, smoke flavouring, preservative and antioxidant. What goes into the flavouring, it did not divulge.
I will only be touching on the chicken breast for this post, but subway is still a fastfood chain stall so we cant really expect much. Here it goes …
CHICKEN BREAST PATTY
Chicken breast with rib meat, water, seasoning (corn syrup solids, vinegar
powder [maltodextrin, modified corn starch and tapioca starch, dried vinegar], brown sugar, salt, dextrose, garlic powder, onion powder, chicken type flavor [hydrolyzed corn gluten, autolyzed yeast extract, thiamine hydrochloride, disodium inosinate and disodium guanylate]), sodium phosphates.
Your chicken breast is not really your chicken. It is a mixture of corn syrup, maltodextrin, corn starch, tapioca all the bad carbohydrates. And some corn gluten and your chicken taste comes from chicken type flavor. All I can say is what did I just ate!?
Anyway it’s a fast food chain, don’t be cheated by the eat fresh and thinking that eating subway is healthy.

Rob Riches on Steroid?

Rob Riches Fail a drug test.

http://www.robrichesfitness.com/did-rob-riches-fail-a-drug-test/

Rob riches on food.


Rob Riches state that he is natural and given us a goal, a dream for us to chase. What if the report is true? Our dream of that ripped physique, working to hard thinking that one day if we really work hard it will be achievable becomes impossible.
Will we start binging and give up on fitness?
But to me what really matter is not if they are on roids or on other stuff, hard work is needed still to achieve that physique. It’s a state of mind that we achieve from fitness that really matters. That moment when you finish the workout everyday, your mind becomes stronger. The positive attitude to believe that you can and you will. Every day waking up and look into the mirror telling yourself you earn that every piece of muscle.
Aesthetic mind builds, aesthetic body.

Review – Vibram Five Fingers – Bikila

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My first barefoot shoe, So far this shoe has been with me for quite some time already and i must say the quality of the shoe is really good.
i ran a 42km with it, quite a number of 10km and 20km as well for about 2 years and i am still using it now.
You may find it hard to put on in the beginning, as your toes are not that flexible yet. After a few times it will get better. I used this for Lifting, running even doing strongman training i am using this!

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Overall I must say this shoe is really durable and easy to bring around any one who is interested to try barefoot running. Please give it a try!
I would really like to review more barefoot shoes in the future!

Body Check after different diet

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From left to right 68kg, 72kg, 70kg, 72kg, 71kg
First photo was taken around last year march. I just started working at NutriFirst and I wanted to get a better body.
2 months later I bulk up to 72kg and subsequently i continued bulking to 74kg by eating like 3000 calories everyday with the help of pass gainers and a lot of food. I don’t really watch my diet but i try to avoid deep fried food, high sugar (canned drinks) or processed food (hotdog, MacDonald)
3rd photo was after the standard chartered marathon in 2012. That time i drop my weight all the way to 68 kg for the run. It was pretty easy for me to lose muscle weight, i stop eating high amount of calories and totally stop lifting weights for one month and I drop about 6kg. After the marathon i started doing my usual bulking but this time, i did not use a mass gainer as i am able get my calories from food alone. 4th photo is around MAY.
The last photo is the most recent one for 2 July 2013. Where i started my intermittent fasting.

Intermittent fasting -Week2- Vascularity

Recently i am really addicted to getting more vascular.

How can you get more veins to show?

  1. high protein low carb diet
  • it will help your body to use more fats as energy instead of using carbs. This is especially helpful is you workout fasted in the morning, working fasted in the morning is said to be able to increase fat burn by 20% more than normal workout timing!
  • shred more fats
    • the main reason why your veins is showing is because your fats is thinning out. you hardly see fat people with veins right.
  • take some Nitric Oxide supplement like arginine product
    • Arginine is a vasodilator. it helps to relax the blood vessel and increase blood flow.
    • http://www.nutrifirst.net/view_products.asp?catid=39&categoryname=NO2-NitricOxide
  • Lift heavy ass weight with proper form
    • if you are lifting heavy with proper form you will be putting the muscle under a more stressful environment in turn tearing more muscle fiber. To recover yourself during workout the body will call more blood to flow to that particular muscle group (the pump). therefore it creates more vascularity.

    3rd week intermittent fasting

    Doing intermittent fasting for 16(fasted)/8(feast) hour or sometimes 18/6 hour. I dont have a fix plan it really depends on how hungry i feel each day.

    i really do feel more vascular now and more definition is coming out. weight did increase by a bit.
    but normally we dont only go by how much weight you increased, it is not that accurate become what we want now is only muscle gain.

    muscle gain and fat lost so weight will be hover around the same. if my prediction is right, after dropping a few more percentage of body fat, we weight should start to rise. Shall see how it goes!

    All the best people.

    Gold standard whey

    Optimum Nutrition Gold Standard Whey

    Gold standards whey – Double rich chocolate flavor 10lbs bag

    This is one of the highest rated brand in the supplement industry.
    First of all taste and mix-ability. I taste more like dark chocolate to me. Not that artificial and not so sweet. Mixes well with just a few shake and it is a light blend very easy to drink.
    Protein content.
    This is a high isolate and low concentrate protein powder. Which is a higher grade compare to most other brands. Percentage of protein per scoop is also above 80%.
    If you are just looking for a post workout shake this may be the right one for you. If you want something better, can go for pure isolate protein like optimum nutrition hydrowhey

    Get yours at NutriFirst

    Should you replace your meals with protein shake/mass gainer

    Should you replace your meal with mass gainer or protein shake? The answer is no, you still need to get your vitamins and minerals from the food that you take in. Protein powder and mass gainer is a supplement it is suppose to be an addition to help with your diet and not to replace it! Same as meal replacement powder it will be good to use it on a 2 day on 1 day off basis and only use it to replace your dinner.

    Review – BPI – Pump HD

    BPI – Pump HD blue ice lemonade. 
    So far the best tasting Pre workout I have taken. 
    Very mixable. Sweet taste follow by a sour after taste. 
    Definitely a very strong Pre workout.
    This one is slightly different from the rest of the BPI Pre Workout as it contains some Leucine some electrolyte something different from rush and 1mr. 

    I tried sipping thru the workout, the focus was great but I think the caffeine content is a little too strong. 
    For those who never try Pre workout before might want to consider using half a scoop. Per serving contains 11g of powder. Overall awesome Pre must try! 

    Bring your container to NutriFirst and ask me for a free serving if you want!

    universal – animal pak

    a multi vitamin supplement amino acid,vitamins, digestive support and body detoxing

    a total of 11 pills to swallow.
    the pill are actually pretty huge, if you cannot swallow normal pills do not try this.

    question : is it normal to get yellow piss from animal pak
    yes, its because of the excessive amount of Vitamin B2 (riboflavin)

    is it harmful?

    no, unless you really overdose it too much if not it will just excrete through the unrine.