Holistic approach to high-intensity interval training at GRITYARD gym, opened by ex-national athletes
SINGAPORE – After retiring from their sports careers, former national water polo players Lim Yao Xiang and Teh Chong Nyen, along with former national sprinter Lim Yao Peng, felt that they could put their knowledge to good use for the community.
Putting all those years of elite athlete training they had, the trio recently opened GRITYARD, a new high-intensity interval training (HIIT) gym located at College Road, to help people achieve their fitness goals.
“We noticed that a lot of mainstream HIIT programmes go by body parts – for example, the workouts are targeted only at specific area, such as legs, arms or butt. But we feel that there could be a more holistic approach to that,” said Lim Yao Xiang, 37, who formulated the training programmes at GRITYARD with his younger brother Yao Peng, 30.
He added, “Coming from an athlete background and what we experienced in our training in the past, our programme is based on five pillars of fitness – strength, power, agility, core and endurance. Hence, each day of the week, we’ll focus on one pillar.”
The older Lim started competing in swimming at 10, but picked up water polo in university. During his time with the national water polo team, they picked up gold medals at three South-east Asia (SEA) Games.
At one point, he was juggling his career as a physical education teacher with national team training.
“We trained till 10pm and I had to get up at 6am to go to work the next day, so that was tough. It really took sheer grit to get us through, which is why we named our gym GRITYARD,” he said.
“We understand the challenges of balancing a full-time career with a fitness regime. During our time as national athletes, we had to be efficient with our time and get the most out of our training.
“Hence, the 30- or 45-minute sessions at GRITYARD will be designed for time- efficiency, whilst at the same time focused on developing your overall fitness – whether you are training for a run, a triathlon or just have certain health goals you want to achieve.”
After retiring from the national team and also resigning as a teacher, Yao Xiang and Teh started The Fitness Project in 2017.
Their first business venture was bringing in HydroFit, which is essentially doing HIIT on floating mats in a pool.
“Building on that, we’ve always wanted our own space for fitness and this opportunity opened up for us,” Teh said.
“We hold our HydroFit classes at the pool of the Medical Alumni Association clubhouse and they shared with us about their intentions to revamp so we thought this is a perfect time for us to start the gym we have always wanted.”
Yao Peng, on the other hand, already has his own athletics coaching outfit Max Form, and this will now go under The Fitness Project management.
“Ultimately, every person’s ability ratio is split across the five pillars of fitness that we are focusing on,” he said. “Certain body types respond more keenly toward specific pillars than others, thus our workouts are designed around these pillars to help with your weaknesses and also continue to build on your strengths.”
Classes at GRITYARD officially start from Monday (15 July).
The writer is a trainer at the GRITYARD gym.
