The Challenge
Being active is not the same as training. Vilvum was on his feet most days but despite all of this activity his body didn’t show it. At the start of this year he felt out of shape, and his health was beginning to suffer.
Daily movement maintains what you already have. It doesn’t progressively load a muscle or decide what you eat, so the body settles at whatever the routine asks of it and stops changing. Years of classes and performances had done exactly that.
I went to multiple gyms. I actually did a lot of research, but I really don’t feel any differences.Vilvum
The Plan
When we assessed Vilvum, we put him through his paces on the gym floor, but perhaps more importantly, we did a full audit of his lifestyle and daily routine.
A programme only works if it fits the life around it. His days were full of lectures, classes and performances, so the plan had to be built around when he could train, eat and recover, not dropped on top of a schedule that was already full.
When I came, they actually listened to my entire lifestyle. I think that is very important, and it made me feel more comfortable when I come day to day for the training.Vilvum
The first two weeks felt intense. His coach managed the intensity to ensure Vilvum could adapt and recover, then pushed him further from there.
Push a beginner harder than they can recover from and they get injured, or they quit. The skill isn’t making a session hard. It’s making it exactly as hard as the person in front of you can absorb, then adding a little each week.
As the work became manageable, he added weight to nearly every lift. In his first nine weeks his lat pulldown went from 27kg to 55kg for sets of ten, and his split squats from bodyweight to an extra 15kg.
Vilvum’s coach didn’t wait for the next session to find out how the week had gone. He checked in every day: what Vilvum had eaten, his weight, how he’d slept, where his stress was.
The bigger job was logistics. When his week filled up with lectures, classes and performances, we bent the plan around it rather than letting it break. His dedication was already spoken for, so the coaching was mostly about making his food and recovery fit around that, and keeping the days in between from undoing the training.
Whenever I come in training, he will also check in my mental health. It’s not about just training itself.Vilvum
The Result
From the day he joined to the morning of his photoshoot, he lost around 0.7kg a week and kept that up for 29 weeks. The rate was fast enough to replenish his motivation levels but never felt unsustainable.
- Weight: 80kg to 59kg, down 21kg
- Body fat: 32% to 18.6%, measured by skinfold calipers
I joined ATP weighing 80kg with approximately 32% body fat. Today, I weigh around 59kg, and my body fat has dropped to 18.6%. Losing over 20kg and reducing my body fat by 13.4 percentage points is an achievement I am incredibly proud of.Vilvum, from his Google review
The goal we set at the start was to reach 65kg. He flew past that initial goal, reaching 59kg.
This journey had many ups and downs, but my coach always knew when to push me, encourage me or simply listen and reassure me. Even when I doubted myself, he remained patient and continued to believe in me.Vilvum, from his Google review
If you feel like you’re already active and doing everything you can, but your body still isn’t changing, the missing piece isn’t more effort. It’s a programme that gets harder over time and a coach accountable for whether it’s working.
Coached at ATP Personal Training Singapore
