Gym buddy

Currently I have a gym buddy.. who is actually my boss and my competitor. Kindda ironic? Anyway, he is cool and I find that having a buddy in the gym does help alot. How?

• You are able to share knowledge on exercises and tips
• Someone to push you further
• Someone to correct your mistakes
• Create a close rapport among your friends/colleague
• The guilty feeling you will have if you don't show up, so you are committed to the training day

However there is also some bad points :-

• You are unable to follow your training plan
• Changing weights, especially if the other is stronger / weaker than you
• You spend quite a bit of time chatting

So in order to get the best of both worlds, I train with my gym buddy 1 day a week, and the rest of the days I work out alone.

Currently I am learning how to swim, so far only 4 classes. The instructor keeps on postponing the classes. Hopefully I can learn to swim fast in order to burn my fat and get some solid back muscle.

Ain't growing anymore

For the first time in my life, I have been religiously going to the gym for the 3 months straight. Now there is a record for me. I have never been to gym so often in my life. At least its an improvement on my commitment.

Result for 3 months? There is growth. I can see some muscular shape here and there, however so sadly, I believe I have stopped growing. Whenever I am in the gym, it just makes me wonder, how the heck all this guys got big? Damn look at those biceps, how they hell he got such a big chest? Wow, huge forearm... I am like the tiny twig in the gym, trying to grow into a tree...

Anthony Ellis transformation - Body for Life

Anthony Ellis has been kindda my role model, however I still can't believe he did this in 6 months.

I am pretty much in the same size and still got my tummy. Man all this workout is not easy. Not to sure, whether I am not pushing hard enough or not eating right?

Right now I am trying to compete with my boss in terms of fitness and shape, however it seems like he is ahead of me by light years. HELP!

Fitness First Review - Menara Axis

Located across Asia Jaya LRT station. You can actually see the gym and the people inside if you pass by thru Federal Highway. The review :-

• The best parking facility - Before 8 AM and after 6 PM, the parking is free.
• Yeah, the dreaded 2 floor concept. Men locker room are upstairs and the ladies are same floor with the entrance.
• Only few cute receptionist.
• This place is quite huge. Ample of cardio equipment and most are new equipments.
• 1 studio and 1 yoga room.
• I love the free weight area here, its huge and all the machines are double here. 2 bench press, 2 smith machine, 7 work bench, tons of new equipments. Need to do tricep pulldowns? We have 10 machines... cool.
• Ample space for abs workout.
• People - hmm.... Recently the crowd has grown bigger. Chicks, OK lah, since I only workout at night, I miss out the working crowd.
• Men locker room is big. No worries there.
• Here, the instructors leave you alone, they don't try to pester you into PT.
• This is my favourite gym!

Ratings?

Check out for more reviews below
FF The Curve
FF DU
FF Consplant

Birthday celebration in the gym

Thats it... thats the last straw. It has happen.... I couldn't believe it. A bunch of fags gathered around and celebrated birthday... not just any place but in the GYM! Can you imagine that!? In a gym!

Sigh, its official now, the fags have conquered the gym. I can't believe it when I was working out, suddenly out of the blue - "HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU, HAPPY BIRTHDAY.... " I was like WTF?

This is a gym! A place to workout. Where testosterone get pumped and stinking sweat get splashed around, not a sissy birthday place. After that, I practically lost my mood and went home. Sigh....

If you notice, more and more newer gym are catered for women. Celebrity Fitness in SJ, has a vanity corner for women, and their locker room is 3 times bigger than the men's. Looks like we have to go back to the old days, like rusty metal plate get thrown around with the sound of "klang, klang", big huge men huff and puff. Nay.....

Gym Etiquette

Its been 5 weeks since I have been hitting the gym. There is some growth here and there, but nothing noticeable yet. Gotta try more harder and eat well.

I would like to share with you guys about gym etiquette. I have been in and out of gyms for about 3 years now and I have seen a fair share of behaviours. What is even more suprising is, its becoming worse over the years. The gym should be more proactive instead of signing on ppl to join, educate them!

Below are the unwritten laws of gym etiquette. Learn it and do it! Its just sickens me whenever I see this selfish, self-centered, clueless, arrogant ppl. You are paying for the gym fees, so am I. We are all sharing the facility so lets just do that! SHARE!

• Put the weights back where it belongs! It isn't that difficult. Put the dumbbell back to the rack. Its makes everyone's life easier to work and look for weights.
• Do not hog the machines! If you are using it, use it fast. Then move on. Don't leave your bloody stinky towel on a machine and chat away in the juice bar.
• If you come in a group, do remember that others too need the same machine. The machine doesn't alone belong to you and your friends. Another note, don't waste time and joke around. Get to work and leave. Sigh....
• Stop dropping the weights! Can't you read the sign on the wall. You think this is your father's gym ah? It doesn't make you stronger or macho by dropping the weights, it just create more attention that you are weak.
• Hair dryer... to dry your hair not your body!
• I am pretty uncomfortable looking at naked man in the locker room. Do not assume everyone is a gay like you.
• Shower place is to take a shower, not to pee or cough out out your lungs..

There is few other things, you can read it at http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/betteru20.htm

Fitness First Review - The Curve

Located within The Curve shopping complex in Mutiara Damansara. The review:-

• Parking is plenty. In the parking area, they have marked which place you should park for easy accessibility to FF. Good idea!
• 2 floor concept again.. sigh, but they have cute receptionists.
• The place looks slightly bigger and newer than Consplant.
• Ample of cardio equipment. Machines OK lah. They have most of all the machines and some new additions.
• Free weight area is quite big. However if there is a crowd, it could pose abit problem in finding a bench.
• The rest is pretty standard. Classes, shower room and etc.
• The juice area is quite strategically located, just behind the cardio area. You get to sip a your drink while looking at ppl's butt. Not a bad thing....
• The crowd... hmm... looks like a good mix of working ppl and students as well. Chicks, not bad either.

Ratings?

Check out for more reviews below
FF DU
FF Consplant

Fitness First Review - Consplant

Located just beside Subang Parade, this branch is the nearest to my home. Now the review :-

• Parking is terrible. You can either park at the basement, per entry is RM 2 after 5 PM, or park around BCB or in front of Wisma Tractor. However don't be surprised if you get a ticket.
• 2 floors. I hate 2 floor concept. However the place is more or less the same size as DU. Lighting wise is good. There is also a glass window around the gym, so you can get a view of Subang while working out.
• Stretching area is so small. But they have 2 TV hooked up to ASTRO. So while you are crunching your abs and knocking into someone's butt, you get to watch silence movie of animals jumping around.
• Free weight area, much better than DU. Machine wise... OK lah.
• Shower room, not bad. Clean and OK.
• Crowd - mix crowd of professionals and students. Beautiful people and huge muscle heads. Look out for a certain crowd of machine hoggers. But this place has abit too much crowd to my liking.

Ratings?

Review on FF DU .

Fitness First Review - DU

Now armed with my FF Passport membership, I am making full use of it by visiting as many FF branches of as possible. Following are the few reviews I have on some of the FF branches I have visited.

FF Damansara Utama

For years I have worshipped this place thinking WOW! Can't blame me who has only HOME membership and the last gym I visited was no bigger than my living room with rusty weights.

After comparing, this gotta be the worst gym within the FF branches. You will immediately doze off after stepping in. Such poor lighthing. The receptionists..... don't bother.

The gym is terribly small. Only 1 bench press machine and only 3 benches to share among the crowd. The cardio machines are getting old. Used to be 2 studio for classes, but they torn one down to make more space for machines and streching area. Machines is limited.

Plus point is the shower room is slight bigger than other branches.

However eventhough the size is small, it serves as a small knit community where you general will know one another.

Ratings?

The hunt for a Fitness Center - The End

Last Stop : Fitness First
In short:-

• I reviewed The Curve and Uptown 5.
• 10 clubs in Malaysia
• Operation hours - 6.30 AM - 10 PM. I heard from the lady starting January extending to 11 PM.
• Parking: Varies according to location. Uptown - MPPJ parking and private car park. The curve its about RM 1 per entry i think.

Reviews:-

• I do agree with some of you that FF has the worst customer service. Celebrity Fitness had much more better tour guide and explanation given. Well, they can afford to be snobbish since they have 10 clubs around Malaysia.
• Facility wise, Uptown 5 is in an aging state. The other branches have better, newer equipments and bigger space area. I like the The Curve free weight area, alot of benches to use. After looking at the rest of the spanking new gyms - Uptown is such a sad place to work out.
• Free flow of drinks and VCD rentals.
• Tissue and plastic bag provided - very useful for me!
• Exercise machines, OK lah.... I am more to free weights anyway.
• The shower room in The Curve is smaller than Uptown 5. But no curtain! Glass doors - hooray!
• Locker room -don't need to bring your own padlock.
• Standard classes - body pump, body combat, yadda yadda.... no Capoeira though. :(

Price:-

Home
Joining Fee - RM 500 (Can bargain)
Admin Fee - RM 95
Monthly - RM 147 per month

Passport
Joining Fee - RM 500 (Can bargain)
Admin Fee - RM 95
Monthly - RM 175

FF fees are pretty standard. I checked out about 3 different location. Just a note, don't expect the sales ppl to negotiate terms/bargain with you or throw is further discounts to intice, if you don't like it, you can "belah"! Ohh well.........

Final Review:-
I decided to signup with FF because

1. Its the nearest to my office. Much practical for a lazy me. No parking hassle.
2. It has about 10 branches I can hop around. Somehow I kindda regret taking passport... sigh.
3. Free flow of drinks.
4. Most of my friends are in FF.

So thats it folks. I have decided to contract myself to FF for the next 12 months. Yes, I can hear you ppl crying aloud - "NOOOOOOOO!!", but I kindda used to FF and I don't really have much of a choice in terms of location. So wish me luck!

For those folks who ain't as lazy as me, you should really give Celebrity Fitness a try. Looks cool.

The hunt for a Fitness Center

As for every new year, there is a new new year resolution to be made. This year, for me, there is one

START LOSING WEIGHT AND BULK UP YOU FAT MORON!

I have been a Fitness First member for few years now and my shape has stayed pretty much the same. In fact I am about 3 months pregnant now... and I ain't no female. To cut the long story short, I am in a freaking bad shape and I have terminated my FF account.

So, the quest for a Fitness Centre begins! For full comparison of fitness center, please click to http://xfile007.blogspot.com. He has done a fantastic job on trying out all the gyms in Malaysia and I do not want to recreate the wheel. I just wish to complement his reviews.

The reviews on the gyms in my blog are purely for my own record keeping and I guess it might help a few of you to decide.

First Stop : Celebrity Fitness (24th December 2005)

In Short:-

• Location : 1-Utama (Petaling Jaya)
• Parking : RM 1 for first 6 hours, subsequent hours is RM 2. It kindda difficult to get parking during weekends and public holidays.
• Operation hours : 6 AM - 12 AM.
• Other branches : Indonesia, Subang Parade and Gurney Plaza (Penang).
  

Reviews:-

• Upon filling up a survey form, a sales lady brought my wife and me around for a tour.
• The place is huge, kindda have a disco feel to it. Pictures? please refer to http://xfile007.blogspot.com/2005/09/free-trial-at-celebrity-fitness.html .
• Changing room is spacious but the shower room is small than the one I was used to. Bring your own padlock.
• Upon coming in you get 2 towels! I think it was the gym and shower towels.
• Plenty of cardio equipments.
• Can't remember whether there is free flow of drinks.
• No VCD rental, who uses it anyway?
• A huge place for classes. They have one interesting classes - Capoeira!
• Free weight area - Kindda disappointing - the lowest dumbbell they had is 17.5 kg. Arghh..! They have about 5 benches, 2 Smith machines, I think 1 bench press and few other stuffs. I felt the area could use a bigger space.
• Alots of exercise machine, the lady claims that all machine are customed for Asian.

PRICE:-

Home
RM 199 - Joining Fee
RM 99 - Processing Fee
RM 149 - Monthly Fee
3 years contract - RM 26XX. This translate to no joining fee and processing fee, and the monthly comes up to RM 70-75 per month.

Passport
RM 199 - Joining Fee
RM 99 - Processing Fee
RM 188 - Monthly Fee
3 years contract - RM 3141. This translate to no joining fee and processing fee, and the monthly comes up to RM 80-90 per month.

The promotion ends 31th December 2005. I guess you can cut the fees here and there, depends on your negotiation skills.

Final Review
The place looks good, clean and nice. The only thing troubling me is the location from my work and home, the parking and also the pricing. The free weight area looks abit off and there is where I will be most of the time. Kindda worried about the shower since your door is an unlock curtain. I like the operation hours and classes.

Next review - Fitness First. (Since Mun almost got sued, I guess I have to keep it either very positive or used the word "Censored").