Singapore #Fitspo of the Week: Ng Wei Li

Life goes beyond the digits on the scale and your body is capable of so much more. Yahoo’s #Fitspo of the Week series is dedicated to inspirational men and women in Singapore leading healthy and active lifestyles. Have someone to recommend? Hit Cheryl up on Instagram or Facebook.

Name: Wyl Ng Wei Li (@wyllus)

Age: 28

Height: 1.74m

Weight: 76kg

Occupation: Head coach of MVRCK™

Status: Single

Diet: I’ve been eating pretty much the same stuff for six years now: four pieces of bread with four eggs and three strips of back bacon for breakfast. I usually eat out for lunch, so I always opt for steamed/grilled/soup dishes. 90 per cent of the time, I just make do with an upsized chicken rice with plain rice. For dinner, I have a stalk of broccoli, 3/4 whole chicken, bunch of corns and carrots mixed. I don’t snack throughout the day and I take two cups of white coffee daily.

Training: I do a mixture of bodybuilding and CrossFit. I train six days a week, unless my body tells me otherwise. Usually I have about eight to 10 training sessions that I must complete in a single week, so on certain days I will have to train twice.

Q: What kind of sports did you do as a kid?

A: I played table tennis for about 13 years and tons of void deck soccer.

You were working as a personal trainer when you discovered CrossFit. How and when did you discover CrossFit?

Around mid-2014, a thought came to me one day on the difference between looking fit and actually being really fit. I started researching and CrossFit came up.

You started doing CrossFit regularly on your own at first before joining a box. What was it about CrossFit that you like so much?

Well, I guess everyone has already heard why CrossFit is addictive. For me personally, it was the thing that everyone dissed about in 2014. That made me want to do it even more. It was something different, and I was in awe with their bodies, at least from what I see on YouTube. I thought, “So are you saying, I can look that good, do a bunch of cool stunts and irritate my friends by proving them wrong (that this fast exercise thing actually works)? I’m so up for it.” Some guys from my previous gym thought I was a clown.

And then you started coaching CrossFit.

I tried to learn as much as I could by going for the specialty courses that are happening around Singapore. I kept on practising and got better. I started putting certain methodologies and movements into my clients’ programmes and they absolutely loved it. I usually coach my PT clients at small privately-owned gyms, they weren’t affiliated with CrossFit or anything.

The first CrossFit class I coached was at CrossFit Red Dot. I was looking for a place to work out and it was near where I stay. After some time, U-Jin, the head coach there, thought I’d be a pretty good fit and offered me a coaching position. I learnt a bunch from the good folks over at CrossFit Red Dot.

How did the opportunity come about to open your own gym?

The first time, a few of us came together and were purely talking nonsense. Ideas came about, and the more we spoke, the more probable it got. We all got this vision of how we wanted the gym to be. However, it didn’t go through since all of us had different priorities.

Then, life being as random as it is, I met up with one of my ex-schoolmates and we were just catching up on each other’s lives. I shared mine, and it wasn’t even a business or sales speech, but I got myself an offer from him to start a gym. That got me thinking, I could probably raise enough funding. I worked it out, put in every single cent that I ever had, together with a few people who put their faith and trust in me, and this miracle happened.

What is MVRCK™ and how is it different from a typical strength and conditioning gym?

Maverick is too long a word, so we decided to take the vowels out, which still resembles the word. We wanted to build more than just a name for a gym, we wanted to build a brand – something that could resonate with people who are non-conformists or individualists, that everyone is special in their own way, no matter what kind of person you are or what genre of fitness you do.

We wanted to build the best training facility that could cater to everybody at any given point of time – weightlifters, powerlifters, stay-home mums, obstacle-race dads, CrossFitters. Well, you get the idea. It is a training ground that would come up to your mind when someone needs a place to train. And we hope it’s pretty enough.

You came in second for the CrossFit Opens in Singapore this year and missed the chance to represent Singapore in the CrossFit Games. What did you learn from that experience anyway?

Same as the Opens every year, I had so much fun doing it. I had set some goals for myself and I was really happy about how things turned out. I’m excited that Ian Wee and Landy Eng got to represent this year. I’d definitely want the best Singaporeans to be on the world stage.

When did you feel the least confident about yourself?

This is a tough question. Growing up, I have never been bothered by name-calling or bullying. I would just ignore them. For some reason, I’ve never been affected by it. I’ve always done things the way I want; even if people disagree, I’ll still be really happy and proud of it. I think confidence has got something to do with positive and negative self-esteem, and it can only affect you as much as you let it.

What are your fitness goals now?

Probably grow some calves.

Do you get any comments about your body?

I get this from a lot of people, “You are lucky to have your body, or you’d be pretty damn worthless.” I guess that’s kind of a compliment?