Singapore #Fitspo of the Week: Zenn Huang

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: Zenn Huang (@zihuizenn)

Age: 37

Height: 1.68m

Weight: 58kg

Occupation: Director with a sports media company

Status: Single

Food: I don't follow any specific diet, but I generally focus on having a balanced and healthy diet on most days. Occasionally I'll do a quick juice cleanse for three to five days, when I feel like my system needs a quick detox, but I love food too much to do this often.

When work gets busy and my meal timings get irregular, I make mindful choices when it comes to food and mainly focus on vegetables or vegetarian food, so I feel less bloated and lethargic.

I love my beers though, so you can imagine how it contradicts my healthy diet focus on most days. It's fortunate that I don't crave for fast food much, so I guess that helps.

Exercise: I try to work out at least four times a week and it could be any workout like volleyball/beach Volleyball, yoga or muay thai. Sometimes when work is busy, I do those quick 20- to 25-minute HIIT (high-intensity interval training) workouts.

Q: Were you always involved in sports?

A: When I was much younger, I was into netball and Chinese dance, but that all stopped when I discovered volleyball. There wasn't a huge variety of sports choices back in my secondary days actually.

Now that I am more exposed to the different types of sports, I love trying them out and have new found interests in them. I've tried surf skating, surfing, rock climbing and muay thai so far. I also dabble in yoga and reformer Pilates for recovery and better exercise form, would love to try more.

How did you get into volleyball?

I got into volleyball when I was 13 years old. It was through the old-school method. I was scouted for the sport because I was considered pretty tall in my school. I went for the trials and got accepted, and that's how the journey started.

I only ventured into beach volleyball when I was 21 years old when my then-school team coach was the national team coach and he was scouting for players to build the team.

When did you start competing in volleyball?

I started competing when I was 16 years old. That was my very first competition and we won the National B Division Championships. The journey was tough and we fought really hard against all the other better known schools to get to where we were. We were a team of six (with no reserves and this is rare) and had barely enough to form a proper team but we made it through all odds.

I made some really good teammates along the way and we were a mix of 15- to 17-year-olds at that point of time and we somehow bonded really well on court and there was no animosity towards anyone even when we did not perform well to our standards. Everyone was just encouraging everyone to do better. I guess it's true when they say teamwork makes the dream work. This victory got my heart and I was just looking for more plays and training even harder for the next competition.

Were you in volleyball full-time?

Yes, I was doing full-time volleyball when I was 22 after I graduated from university. I did this with my then-partner Faye till I was 27. It was a natural thing to do because there was still so much to learn about the sport. Most people would think that indoor volleyball and beach volleyball are the same sport, but hell no!

Although they do have the same fundamental skills but due to the outdoor elements of beach volleyball, it requires adjustment to footwork and techniques to compensate for the sand and its impact on the movements. Players who are proficient in one version can always transfer their skills and adapt to the other with practice and adjustments. It's fun because behind the plays, there's actually quite a bit of strategy planning that most people don't see.

What are some of the highlights of your volleyball journey?

The first one was back in 2007 during my junior college days where we were the champions for the National A Division Championships. My school, Jurong Junior College, was considered very much an underdog as our team was mostly made up of players from the less known secondary schools, and individually, skills wise, we were very mediocre compared to the better known players in the other schools.

But as a team, we gelled perfectly together and covered each other in ways that other teams couldn't. We trained really hard as well and our teacher-in-charge also sent us on overseas trips for friendly games and training under international coaches. Maybe that's the reason why my studies suffered much after (hahaha), but every bit's well worth the blood, sweat and tears when we got the gold medal.

I still remember in our semi-finals we played for a good 2.5 hours. The usual duration for a full indoor volleyball game is usually within 90 minutes, sometimes to 120 minutes. Can you imagine how close the scores were and how tight the competition was? Amazing teamwork and effort we had there to be able to push this through! We would have never gotten that without the entire team, both on and off bench players. That's what I love about team sports.

The other highlight would be in 2017, when I was already way past my stint with the national team. My former partner, Kelly, and I one day decided that we wanted to join a competition (Singapore National Beach Series) to fuel our sudden competitive needs. What we didn't know when we registered, was that the top three teams would represent Singapore in the 29th South East Asian Beach Volleyball Championships held in Sentosa. This was one of the major international events under the Asian Volleyball Confederation.

Once we knew, we started training weekly with our other friends and got the male players who frequent Sentosa on weekends to play games with us to help train us for this competition. It was a few tough months leading to this competition because we wanted to prepare ourselves to be able to withstand the unforgiving weather with two full days of competition and we knew we had to face many other stronger teams.

Eventually, we won that competition and got a chance to represent Singapore in the 29th South East Asian Beach Volleyball Championships together with two other teams who were training under the national squad then.

At the championship, we won against Malaysia and Vietnam and earned a spot in the quarterfinals, but didn't make it through to semi-finals. It was a memorable moment for us both because we were not expecting to go this far, much less to be able to win against some of the stronger teams in the international competition.

When you were younger, did you experience any incidents that made you feel insecure about yourself?

There was a period of time during my teenage years when I was subjected to flat-chested jokes from male classmates. It made me doubt myself for a bit, but I grew out of that quickly and it did not impact me in any ways. All I remember thinking was – anything more than a handful is a waste, right?

Another period was when I lost my mum to cancer when I was 17. She was perfectly fine and then one day she was gone, all in the span of two weeks. That hit me hard and it still does. So, laugh loads with people who matter in your life, go outdoors, breathe fresh air and be thankful for every day.

Did you ever struggle with your body?

I've been pretty fortunate not to have gone through this. Also because I have always been a pretty outdoors person. Whenever I get too busy with my work and have not exercised for more than a week however, I get fidgety and restless, so it's like a sign from my body that it's time to go out and get some fresh air, even if it is just walking.

I'm also blessed with many friends who are mostly active in their lifestyles, thus it is not difficult to ask someone to work out together when I have less motivation to do so. They always say it's fun to work out together – it is 100 per cent true.

Are you satisfied with your body now?

Not 100 per cent - I want to get a wee bit fitter than I am right now, and that will mainly be because it'll help in my performance for competitions, and also to ease the pains in the old joints and past injuries over the years. Working on them slower bit by bit, but will get there.

Have you ever received any comments about your body?

Of course. Mostly remarks like, "Your legs too muscular", "Your chest too flat", "Your ass is getting bigger", "Your arms getting flabby." But I wouldn't change anything just because of these remarks. I would, however, if at some point of time, find myself getting unhealthy and unfit, but definitely not because of insensitive remarks like that. Everyone's body shape is different and beautiful.