Biography

Name: Mai Tomida
Occupation: Project Manager
Age: 30
Height: 1.70cm
Weight: 70kg
Trainer: John Cheah

When Mai first started on her fitness journey, she took advantage of the myriad of fitness classes Classpass had to offer and tried barre, pilates, cycling, boxing, Muay Thai and HIIT. In particular, she got hooked on HIIT as she found it intense, challenging and satisfying. At that point, fitness had become one of the most important aspects of her life.

However, Mai stopped making progress in her HIIT classes. While it still felt good to sweat and move, she began to wonder why she could not do a proper push-up without her knees on the floor, despite working out consistently for months.

“I used to enjoy going for different HIIT classes at different studios on ClassPass until I reached a point where I was not making any progress. I was looking to change my fitness routine and wanted to focus more on learning proper movements and form.”

She then decided to try a Skill class at Level with John Cheah as she had heard that John’s classes focus on barbell movements. While she had never touched a barbell in her life, she wanted to try something new.

Level’s Skill classes introduced Mai to more advanced full-body movements like barbell deadlift and squats. She loved learning these technical movements that forced her to engage different parts of her body. She also found that she also enjoyed the small group setting where she got to ask the trainers questions to make sure her movement was done correctly.

After two classes with John, she knew she had found someone she could rely on to help her achieve her fitness goals. Mai decided to sign up for personal training sessions with John to work towards her dream of doing proper pull-ups and push-ups.

“John was extremely knowledgeable and good at translating how the body should be feeling in easy to understand analogies.He has set a pretty high standard of personal trainer that will be very hard to compete!”

Mai trains twice a week with a typical session starting with barbell deadlifts or squats as the main focus, followed by some push-up / pull-up variation and accessory work. She aims to increase the weight, reps or improve her form at each session.

“I was surprised to see that I was making more progress (lifting heavier weights with more repetitions) from one session of personal training compared to five HIIT classes a week. I was not as tired as the previous session doing similar movements.

I realised that quality training with clearly defined goals is far superior to attending random classes without any goals or directions.”

Not only has she achieved her goal of being able to do a proper push-up and pull-up, she has since set new fitness goals for herself.

“It’s extremely motivating to be able to achieve goals and also very exciting to reset goals for something more challenging! I look forward to every session thinking what I have improved that week! It’s amazing to be able to feel the progress physically.”

Besides elevating her fitness levels, Mai has also seen an improvement in her confidence.

“It is empowering to achieve goals and to prove to myself that I can do things that I used to think are impossible to do, like push-ups and pull-ups. This “can do” mindset has helped me a lot on my low days. I feel so much stronger, physically and mentally, and I am much more comfortable with and proud of my own body.”

When asked about her experience training at Level, Mai said,

“I love training at Level because everyone is genuine. There is no dark room, flashy lights and club music. It’s you, your trainer and weights. I have also made great friends who I hang out with outside of the gym!

I recommend Level to my friends because I’ve only had a positive experience becoming so strong physically and mentally. Everyone is very welcoming and friendly, there is no toxic fitness culture here.”

Mai trains weekly in a small group with Audrey, Cammie and Harshmeet. If you’re interested in small group personal training, send us an email at trial@level.com.sg or drop us a DM on Instagram to arrange a free trial.

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