I’ve blogged many times on mental toughness (here, here, here, here, here, and here). And now, one of my favourite bloggers, Eric Barker just wrote another blog on it! In his blog, he provides 3 tips to improve your mental strength. Read here to become a stronger you, mentally and
Read more2
There’s been a lot of emphasis on new exercise routines and functional training in the fitness industry - and there will always be some new shiny object that comes along. The objective of this blog is to make a case for why the basics are, in my opinion, still supreme. The primary goal for any exercise program is to improve one’s health. Although, there may be other positive side effects of exercise, such as enjoyment,
Read more0
You hear it all the time: “I need to lose weight!” And the instrument you use the most to track your progress - the scale. But do you just want to lose weight indiscriminately? The answer, if you haven’t already guessed, is a emphatic NO! That’s because when a person decides to lose weight, they will usually go on a ‘diet’ and eat less so they weigh less. However, your loss of weight can come
Read more0
I’ve blogged a lot about mental toughness (you can read about them here, here, here, here, here, and here), but I’m going to start the new year with a Member Spotlight blog on a Olive Branch member, a mentor and a friend, Cary Cheung. A story on real mental toughness put into practice. Although Cary doesn’t regularly attend ACT class here in the Shanghai Olive Branch studio, he does train ACT regularly at his home
Read more0
Are you’re feeling just a bit slow and sluggish these days? Do you find that you crave sugar and refined carbohydrates a lot more than before? Has your workout schedule fallen by the wayside? Perhaps, even your waistline has increased a bit. Inevitably, you feel a bit guilty for letting yourself go - maybe even a bit self-loathing at the extreme. While it’s not ideal that you gained fat and lost a bit of muscle,
Read more0
If you’ve come to one of our classes before, then you would have probably heard me say “PUSH TO FAILURE”. This is ingrained in our training philosophy because of one main ideology - stimulus equals adaptation. If you’re trying to make your body stronger (ie. adapt), then you need to apply a stimulus (ie. training) that is strong enough so that the body can hear it and then make the necessary improvements to build up.
Read more0
It’s everyone’s favourite time of the year when people finally have an excuse to role-play their superheroes and dress as revealing as their heart’s content! Halloween has always been a season of festivities and parties as autumn comes to an end and we have much bounty to celebrate for from the late harvests. Now, I’m not here to tell you not to go out and enjoy yourselves on this most debauchery time of the year,
Read more0
We all know how traveling can wreak havoc on your health routine, but the havoc it wreaks on your back is probably the worst; especially, the long-haul flights where you’re confined to a cabin seat that is poorly designed for lumbar support and for long durations at a time. Even for me, someone who has a fairly active daytime job, one long-haul return-trip is enough to make my back seize up; enough to make me
Read more0
Entering China, lululemon style You may be surprised to hear that lululemon’s Unroll China event is their main event to showcase to the world that they’ve officially entered the China market. That’s because they’ve been very slowly, but deliberately planting the seeds of their core values in Shanghai and Beijing for the last four years! I remember that early beginning very distinctly because they reached out to me before they even had a store, a
Read more1
In a previous blog, I wrote about how to motivate yourself to train during the winter months. This time, I’d like to share a few points why I actually prefer to train in the winter! 1. There are less distractions during the winter! Because it’s so cold outside, there are less events held outdoors - less barbecues, less, outdoor concerts, less beach volleyball days! People organize less social outings so that gives you more
Read more0