Singapore #Fitspo of the Week: Terence Chua

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: Terence Chua (@itrnce)

Age: 27

Height: 1.68m

Weight: 68kg

Occupation: Strength and Conditioning (S&C) Coach

Status: Single

Diet: I don't follow any particular diet but I have five feeding windows a day. I try to eat unprocessed and whole food as much as possible with 1.5 servings of rice a day. The rest will be protein-based and fruits/vegetables.

Breakfast consists of: one raw tomato, one hardboiled egg, one serving of low-fat milk and/or coffee, one slice of bread with peanut butter spread and a handful of nuts. Lunch will be a plate of economical rice with one to two meat servings, one serving of vegetable and one serving of egg. I will go home for dinner as my mum regularly cooks. I limit my intake of carbohydrates at night.

Apart from a mid-day snack of an egg, a slice of bread and a packet of biscuits, I have a serving of milk, instant oats, nuts, blueberries and peanut butter before I turn in for the day. I do not drink sweetened drinks.

Training: I strength-train four to five times a week with two main muscle groups each day and run mid-distances in the weekends. I believe cardiovascular health should not be neglected and believe we should lean away from the notion that “cardio loses gains”. Training also enables me to be current in the training exercises that I prescribe to athletes.

Q: What were your backgrounds in sports growing up?

A: I was decently active in primary and secondary school. However, I was just in a uniformed group and generally not involved in any particular sport. I only got more involved in sports when I enrolled into the Diploma in Sport and Exercise Science at Republic Polytechnic.

I joined the ALPS IG (interest group) back then. IGs were like CCAs and ALPS was all about trekking alpine mountains so our training was geared towards outdoor skills and lower body strength and endurance.

Apart from ALPS, I started running and swimming regularly and took part in recreational competitions with some of my classmates.

How did sports become more serious for you?

As I started my internship with a physiotherapy clinic that offered Sports Trainer coverage for professional, amateur and school sports mainly in rugby and football, I started learning more about sports as I went about my internship.

Later, when I was studying at the University of Western Australia (UWA), I played touch rugby and ultimate frisbee as my Singaporean friends there were active in these sports too. We trained for weekly games in the semester-long social league. I got the chance to try out Australian Rules Football (AFL) while I did my attachment at a footy club there. As the saying goes 'Sports bring people together', learning the national sport on a foreign land made me friends that I still keep in close contact with.

How have sports changed your life?

I'd like to think sport enables me to be someone that encourage positive change in another person's life. For the individual to appreciate health and use sport and fitness as a direction in life. It has also taught me the importance of perseverance, hard work and team work. Rather, these traits are what you need anywhere in the world.

Why did you decide to pursue sports science?

Back then it was sheer interest and it was something different from courses like business and engineering. I could understand why family and friends weren't encouraging of the idea to pursue sport as a career especially since the sporting industry is still growing and parents were generally not as informed of career choices in sport back then. I didn't really think of switching industries so while in national service, I read up and enrolled in overseas universities.

I furthered my studies in Sport Science, Exercise and Health in UWA, Perth knowing that I want to practise in a higher capacity one day, though I didn't know which aspect of sport science I could land a job in as opportunities in the high-performance sport industry in Singapore is limited.

You now work as an S&C coach with national athletes. How did this opportunity come about?

My first work assignment after graduating was as a Fitness and Conditioning Coach for a professional football club in Singapore. The job opened my eyes to a professional set up, specific training and people management.

I then took steps to expand my network and got into contact with my current boss which offered me an opportunity to work as a part-time S&C coach. He then encouraged me to apply for a full-time position.

What are your fitness goals now?

Currently I aim to work on and maintain certain fitness parameters which can be transferable to different sports that I engage in recreationally. In the mid-term, I hope to complete a half-Ironman event before I turn 30.

When did you feel the least confident about yourself?

When I was younger, I was always that fat kid in school that got bullied often.

I was during my Secondary 1 or 2 years, where I was the short and fat kid in class. It was mostly physical bullying like what you'd imagine, for example, sometimes my belongings would go missing and it was with another classmate.

The bullying gradually stopped when I entered Secondary 3 and became friends with my bullies LOL. We hung out, chilled after school and talked a lot more. Through that. there was greater understanding between each other and till today we remain close.

As the years went by, I grew to understand that everybody has their own strengths and flaws. While some flaws can be changed, some cannot. We have to accept that some flaws are just beyond our control and instead work on being a better version of our strengths and ourself.

Are you satisfied with your body now?

For me, health and physical fitness weighs more than how my body looks. How your body looks will come as a result of informed training, nutrition and consistency. There will be not limit to fitness and I would like to see how far I can push myself. The annual IPPT is one indicator hahaha.

Did you work to get your body or is your body a result of your training?

It boils down to the type of body you genetically inherit. Some people tend to gain muscle easily while some people take ages to gain muscle mass. I kind of sit in-between. A large portion goes into what you consume and how you train on a daily basis. I try to make time to train at least 30 minutes a day and consistency is the real key.