WALA International Athletics Championship 2012

This is the first time I’m involved in the WALA International Athletics Championship. I was lucky enough to have 2 athletes represent Singapore and both of them were from ACSi. There were 3 ACSi representatives altogether and they were Timothy Ong (Under 15 – 100m, 200m, 4 x 100m), Brian Foong (Under 14 – 4 x 400m) and Paul Simmy (Under 14 – 800m). Paul trains under Mr Lawrence Ang and Coach Kien Mau.

ACSi started proper off season training after the school holidays, so we had only about 2 months of preparation before the WALA. We already had a long season due to the March-April National Schools, so I thought it would be good for the boys to rest and be ready for the next season. 

I didn’t really prepare Timothy and Brian to compete, and we focused on conditioning instead. Most of the time Timothy was busy with his other commitments like Boy's Brigade and Debate Team, which he excelled in, and topped his cohort in all aspects.

Brian trained with Coach Jack during the Holidays and I believe he did conditioning work as well. Coach Jack has been helping Brian since his primary school days when he started in Athletics as a high jumper. It was in ACSi that he decided to switch to Sprints. I think I did the right choice by putting him in the 400m. He handled it well although he needs more exposure and competition to this new track event.

Brian Foong - right most. receiving medals for 4 x 400m Under 14

1st Malaysia, 2nd Singapore and 3rd Australia

Timothy Ong 3rd place for 200m Under 15

Timothy came in 4^th for the 100m Under 15 category and ahead of him was 2 Malaysians and 1 Australian. He clocked a hand time of 11.40s despite his current performance level, and I think that is quite a decent timing. He made a comeback when he dipped for his 200m on the 2^nd day and managed to bring home a Bronze medal. Not forgetting the 4 x 100m boys under 15 winning a Silver!

Brian worked hard for the 4 x 400m as the first leg for the team. He gave his all for his first 100m and was ahead of the 2 Australian teams, following closely behind the Malaysians. His lack of race fitness took him at the last 150m and the Australians overtook him at the last bend. I caught Brian at 56s split time. The rest of the runners ran their hearts out and managed to finish 2^nd behind the Malaysians.

For more information on the results, you can visit http://sssc.schoolsports.sg/.

 100m Boys under 15 - Singapore lane 3(Timothy Ong) and 5.

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Personal Training Blog | Featured client: Rabbani (Week 7)

Today's workout is all about continuous movement and intensity, with a target to complete it within 30 mins. Today's keywords: fast, explosive and continuous. Combination workouts of push-ups + dumbbell pulls, squats + shoulder presses and jumping jacks was perfomed without rest in between sets.

Rabbani completed 5 continuous sets of:

Push-ups + dumbbell pulls

Squats + shoulder presses

Jumping Jacks

Tuck ins 

With that, we have come to the end of week 7. Week 8 starts on Tuesday and this will also be the week  when Rabbani will be having a fitness test on week's end. Let's see how far he has progressed! Do continue to follow his progression. ;)

Keep fit and stay fit!

-fuad

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Personal Training Blog | Featured client: Rabbani (Week 7)

Run Forrest, RUN! ... err, wait. It should be - Run Rabbani, RUN!

CARDIO BOOM TIME!


Week 7 consists of running, running and more running! Not to mention fartlek too! For this week, gym sessions was reduced to 2 as most of the workouts were done outdoors. And as always, High intensity is the way to go! ;)




Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday


Rabbani has been doing running on his own, averaging 2.5km each day. He also did sets of bodyweight squats and has been trying his best to improve on his running form. I've noticed that he is a heel striker and that is not the right running form! I'll explain about it further in another article.


Thursday


Heavy full body weights training.
Weights were increased by 1.5kg for all exercises and it seems like Rabbani is getting stronger each time! Excellent!


He completed 3x10 sets of:

Squats (Smith machine), Leg extensions, Calf raises (Smith machine + step box)

Lat pulldowns (Wide, narrow, narrowest)

Dumbbell bench pulls, Dumbbell chest flys, Dumbbell bench presses.

Shoulder presses (Machine), Dumbbell lateral raises, Dumbbell shrugs.

Weighted back arches, Tricep pulldowns (Machine), Tricep dips.

Bicep curls (Olympic bar), Concentric bicep curls (Machine)

Of course, ended off the session with abs, 3x 20reps of Tuck ins.

Friday

High Intensity Interval Training + Drills

Earlier in the morning while office goers are busy heading to work, Rabbani and myself were busy too; busy training! We did a warm up 2km run and settled at the Marina Bay Financial District. Today's programme was intense! (Scroll down to see the last picture)

Dynamic stretches

Drills: High knees, ankling and buttkicks

Speed ladder workouts
3 sets of forward+backwards workouts back to back.


Lower body:


In out leg hops
Kareokas
Alternate leg lunges
In out hops with squats

Upper body + core:

Bear walk

Side to side bear walk

The killer!

Alternating drills + 30m sprint + 30m backpedalling x 3sets!

Knocked out!

Keep fit and stay fit!

-fuad

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Personal Training Blog | Featured client: Rabbani (Week 6)

For the whole of week 6, Rabbani hasn't had any leg workout exercises planned for him due to his strained quadriceps but on Thursday, he told me that that the pain on his quads has subsided and he felt good when he went for a jog. Great! :)




Friday


Shoulders + Triceps + Chest


On Friday, we target the muscle groups that we didn't touch on earlier in the week. Rabbani completed sets of:


Shoulders
Lateral Raises (Dumbbells) - 3x 12reps
Upward Rows (Ez Curl Bar) - 3x 12reps

Triceps
Triceps Extensions (Machine) - 3x 12reps
Overhead triceps extensions (Dumbbell) - 3x 12reps

Chest
Bench Press (Olympic Bar) - 3x 12reps
Chest flys (Dumbbells) - 3x 12reps

Each exercise was performed with minimal rest in between sets. (min 30s rest)


Completed the workout with 10x 30s Elbow planks (Core stabilizer).




So far we have completed 6 weeks of training, mainly in the gym. For week 7, I will include more aerobic workouts and outdoor workouts e.g. (Running, bodyweight circuit training, Fartlek sessions etc.)




Keep fit and stay fit!,
-fuad

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