Singapore #Fitspo of the Week: Sherwin Goh

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: Sherwin Goh (@sherwin.goh)

Age: 27

Height: 1.73m

Weight: 70kg

Occupation: Physical Education teacher

Status: Single

Diet: Standard breakfast: Eggs, wholemeal bread/cereal and milk. Usual lunch: Economical rice or minced meat noodles. Usual dinner: Mum’s cooking which is generally very healthy with rarely any fried stuff, little oil and salt. Usual snacks: Fruit and wholemeal bread that I spread every morning to bring to work. Usually do not buy any unhealthy snacks or drinks, so the only time that I consume those products is when someone gives them to me.

Training: Varies from month to month, but I play soccer, badminton, table tennis, and I also run, swim and do acro yoga and rock climbing.

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

A: As a kid, my dad thought that it was important to learn how to swim, cycle and skate, so he taught me those – as well as skiing – when I was four years old. I fell in love with soccer when I started playing it in Primary 4 and continued playing it through the years. Then I joined the track team at the end of Primary 5 and represented my school in the 400m event in Primary 6.

I was on the cross-country team in secondary school, and played loads of badminton and table tennis in the last few months leading up to the O Levels. I also canoed competitively during my junior college days and also took part in a dragonboat competition.

Wow, you were so active! And you still are!

Yes, I continued to be active. I really fell in love with badminton towards the end of my army days and played nearly every day before my undergrad days. Till today, I still continue to play badminton weekly.

In university, I decided to just participate in inter-hall competitions and represented my hall for running and soccer. That’s also when I started participating in random small competitions that involve running, like adventure and amazing races because it is fun to win them. I also represented my faculty for ultimate frisbee and floorball in my fourth year, when we won both titles.

In my third year at university, I learnt how to use the gym properly and realised the importance of it for health, so I try to hit the gym now and then. I also took some parkour lessons with Move Academy during the time between my undergrad and Masters studies.

I was away at University of Nottingham for my Masters and I spent most of my time hitting the gym until my thighs couldn’t fit into my jeans, and I had to go around in my running shorts even in winter. That was when I tried bouldering for the first time and fell in love with it. I really enjoy outdoor adventures whenever I get the chance to do them, like canyoning, ice climbing, via ferrata (protected climbing), mountain biking, snow dog sledding and skydiving. I also try to have a ski trip every year since I was four and I picked up snowboarding around 2014 when double black diamond (expert) slopes became easy for me to ski down.

I graduated a few months ago and came back to Singapore, and started dabbling in obstacle course racing, calisthenics and acro yoga. I also taught myself how to swim from YouTube, so I could do a lifeguard course.

You are involved in quite a lot of different activities, are there any intentions to specialise in one?

Currently I do about 10 different activities on a regular basis. The various activities bring about different forms of enjoyment, but also similarities such as socialisation, and the intrinsic joy from just doing them.

Movement-type activities which I have less experience in – like bouldering, parkour, calisthenics and acro yoga – give me enjoyment from learning new things, overcoming challenges, and then being able to teach others what I have learnt.

Team sports such as badminton and soccer give me the greatest joy when I am able to develop the confidence of my weaker team members and give them the chance to prove to themselves that they can do it.

Lastly, individual sports like hitting the gym and running give me enjoyment from the fact that I am disciplined enough to take care of my health, and how I feel and look after doing a workout. I also enjoy being good at the activity itself, and winning competitions.

Having been selected for the Southeast Asia (SEA) Games training squad for laser shoot and run, I will specialise in that for the time being.

What are your fitness goals now?

My long-term fitness goal is to extend the longevity of my healthy body. In order to do so, I try to prevent injuries and understand my body more, through movement activities like parkour, calisthenics and acro yoga. However, in the shorter term, it would be to improve in all the sports that I am doing, from running faster (since I just got into the SEA games training squad for laser shoot and run), to climbing more difficult grades when bouldering.

When did you feel the least confident about yourself?

When I was depressed, life goes into whack. This happened a couple of times over the last 10 years and I believe it stemmed from being a perfectionist in my school work.

How did you overcome it?

Returning back to my regular sporting activities was a major factor in coming out of depression, and my confidence naturally returned too.

Are you contented with your body now?

I am contented, but not satisfied. I believe that I can always improve my strength, speed, stamina, flexibility and more.

Why did you choose to study sports science?

I guess by now you can tell that my life revolves around sports, so I wanted to get a job related to it and one that allowed me to keep active on the job. It was also a plus point to be studying something that I was interested in.

You just completed your masters in applied sports and exercise medicine. How do you hope to contribute to the local sports scene?

I hope to reduce the number of sporting injuries in Singapore through education on sports injury prevention. This is especially vital with more Singaporeans getting involved in sport as we move towards realising a sporting nation. Minimising injuries will not only reduce acute pain, but will also prevent chronic pain and increase sport participation, and in turn decrease the associated healthcare and socioeconomic costs of injuries. I aim to realise this vision through my career as a Physical Education teacher and also via outreach in the sporting community.

Some of current contributions include conducting an injury prevention workshop for runners, volunteering as a pacer for running events, freely dispensing my knowledge and advice regarding sports injuries and writing articles on sports injury prevention.

What are some misconceptions of fitness in today’s society?

I would say that believing in any claim that a single solution is the best for a target would be a misconception. For example, just doing crunches will give you six-pack abs would be a misconception. A target such as getting six-pack abs would probably require a combination of several factors such as a proper diet, doing resistance and cardio exercises, and having adequate recovery. If you want to try something new, think whether it will have a negative impact on your body in the long run. More is not always better, progressive training is the key to the prevention of overuse injuries.