About my fitness transformation: “I’ve been the lightest I’ve ever been in over 10 years and significantly stronger than before too.
Not only that, I feel that my overall mindset has changed. I’m now more positive, energetic and less stressed out. To me, Genesis Gym is like a father: tough on you, but coming from a deep-rooted desire to make you the best you can be.”
(Coach Pern Chua, 33, Genesis Gym Raffles Place coach)
Hi, I’m Pern, and I’m a coach with Genesis Gym Raffles Place since February 2017.
I’ve always been interested in strength training. I made the decision to make a career switch to become a personal trainer a while ago because of that motivation to help people to reach their fitness goals, especially when they have been struggling to get there on their own.
In July 2011, I had to undergo a hip reconstruction on my right hip. After the surgery, I became rather inactive and my weight 
shot up to over 80kilos. I’ve never been over 75kilos before that! I was really unfit at that time and could barely lift my own bodyweight doing chin-ups.
I’ve trained with various commercial gyms but find that they hardly produce the results I wanted and didn’t have a comprehensive approach to my health and fitness goals.
I’ve grown sick of being fat and feeling weak. I felt ready to make some changes in my life, not just to improve my overall strength and fitness levels but to embark on a completely different direction in my career too.
I moved to Singapore in September 2016 with my wife. Settling into a new country definitely has its ups and downs. But I’m really happy to be part of the Genesis family. It has a very energetic environment, with passionate coaches who really want to help clients achieve results. I was not intimidated by other members, as I may have been at a commercial gym. Even as a coach myself, I feel that I’m also pushed by my senior coaches to reach my potential. There is never a dull moment and never a moment of slacking off, so to speak.
Like many of our clients, I also started seeing the changes within the first couple of weeks. The weight was dropping and my strength was increasing. There were some noticeable increases in muscle size, and my abs started showing through more.
I feel really great with my own transformation journey with Genesis Gym so far. I’ve been the lightest I’ve ever been in over 10 years and significantly stronger than before too.
Not only that, I feel that my overall mindset has changed. I’m now more positive, energetic and less stressed out. To me, Genesis Gym is like a father: tough on you, but coming from a deep-rooted desire to make you the best you can be.
Speaking of fatherhood, my wife and I are expecting our first child too. Family is the most important thing in the world to me. I want to make sure that I’m constantly improving and maintaining good health so that I can watch my child grow up and be at all important events in their life.
There is so much I’ve learned at Genesis Gym that goes beyond technical knowledge, but values and positive mindsets that I would like to pass on to my children in time to come.
As I always advise our clients, be patient and just get started. The only workout you regret is the one you didn’t do. Also, know that there is so much more to being healthy than just showing up for your training sessions. Rest and recovery and proper stress management will definitely help you become healthier and feel much better as a person on a whole.
To find out more about the transformation journeys of Coach Pern and others, visit: bit.ly/transformations2017.
Sign up for your own fitness transformation journey with Genesis Gym here.