Basic Exercise Course (BEC) - Day 1

Today is the first day of my Basic Exercise Course (BEC) held at Fitness Plus (Changi Business Park) by trainers from the Singapore Sports Council (SSC). This course means a lot to me because I have invested all my birthday red packet money into it. Furthermore, this is my first certified exercise course which would give me an insight into the possibility of pursuing a career in the sports industry.

Of course, this included having to pass the prerequisite Cardio Pulmonary Resuscitation (CPR) course which I thankfully managed to clear last month. So, all in all... it is my personal investment which I believe would go a long way in helping me make a wiser decision, as to whether or not to enter into this field.

In total, there were about 68 participants for this 5th BEC intake in 2005. Looking around, I noticed that females make up the slight majority, with a small handful being older adults which I perceived being in their late 40s or 50s. Its interesting to note that people of this age are still interested in taking such a course. Whether out of pure interest or a late career switch, I have to commend them for their choice & effort... for it is really going to be an uphill task attempting to pick up so many new things from scratch, in a matter of weeks, at such an age.

The trainer who taught us today was Shirley Cheah. Sitting in the front row (as usual), I noticed this lady dressed in pink Nike sweat shirt & pants coming in, asking for help from the Fitness Plus staff in setting up their screen projector, asking for a laptop coz they didn't have a power point to charge her own laptop... before she finally raised her voice to introduce herself to us.

Seriously, I never expected her to the course trainer. I thought she looked like one of the staff trying to set up the projector & laptop for use. When she suddenly started to introduce herself, I was stunned. Oh boy, this lady had a loud commanding voice. If she put on an army uniform, you'll probably think of her as an army officer or something. She has a very strong voice that projected very well, without the use of a portable microphone & she managed to capture the attention of all of us. The next she did was order us to turn off our mobile phones. It kind of made an impression to me, coz normally speakers ASK the audience to turn off their handphones. This lady TOLD us in a loud & serious voice to do that. Wow... scary... for first impressions...

As if this didn't shock me enough, this approximately 1.6m tall lady started to tell us that she used to represent Singapore in ASEAN competitions, hold over 30 types of certifications & have more than 20 years of experience in this field of sports science & medicine. I was utterly stunned just looking at her & hearing all these. And she's only 36 years old! And it didn't make me any less shocked when she told me that she's only a gymnast, aerobics instructor, personal trainer & trained in karate. Truly shocked me to the core... & the best part, she didn't even twitch or blink an eye, telling us about all these. Wow...

In the beginning of the course, I was all keyed-up & waiting eagerly to learn more about this course which captured my utmost interest. I remembered telling Rebecca that this course should be easier, since I took Biology before at secondary school level. I mean, I have been reading up on these since that age & I also trained my scout troop as their physical training instructor... so learning about muscles & exercises should be easier, than without this knowledge. Well, at least that was what I assumed.

And I was WRONG. Deeply wrong. This goes beyond those Biology stuff which I somehow, through the grace of God, managed to score an A2 in my GCE 'O' Levels. This is totally different... striking me deep into the core of my heart & mind. In fact, I kind of felt mentally paralysed when Shirley began going into the core syllabus on muscle groups. It was then that I become as lost as Alice in Wonderland... wondering if I ever knew about muscles in the first place.

Well, I do know about muscles & gym training, but it was at surface level, i.e. lay-man context. This is deep stuff... really DEEP stuff. The best part, when we were individually asked questions, we were not allowed to use lay-man terms like "bicep", "tricep", "chest", etc. Sorry... this is not the way that we will be tested in our coming exam in December. That was when we were introduced to floods & floods of latin terms to describe muscle groups, going further into major muscles, minor muscles, etc.

That was when I realised that I cannot call my arm muscle "bicep" because we also have another muscle at our legs also termed as "bicep femoris"... & what I normally referred to as "bicep" became "bicep brachii". I tell you, it was like studying to become a medical doctor... learning about tendons, ligaments, fiber runs, insertions, origins, etc (yes, believe it or not, these are different references to our muscles). We even learnt how to reference our bones & muscles, based on their positioning & depending on which of the 3 planes of our body. Anterior... Posterior... Inferior... Superior... Lateral... Medial... Proximal... Distal... Supine... Prone... Ventral... Dorsal... & Plantar.

So please! Someone tell me that a pectoral (i.e. chest) muscle is just ONE muscle by itself... & I'll probably just smile sarcasticatically at you & let someone else more knowledgeable fling you across to the other side of the room. *Laugh*... just kidding... =)

Note - these terms are just references. These are not the actual name of the muscles. A typical word to describe a muscle would look like something like this - "Plantar Ankle Flexion", "Shoulder Circumduction". And that's not all... there are more references - Extension... Abduction... Adduction... Inversion... Eversion... Rotation... Dorsiflexion...

Note ah... still references. We have approximately 206 bones & 700 over muscles in our bodies, so I really don't wish to guess how difficult it would be to pass the Fitness Instructor Course (FIC) that I will apply after I have passed this BEC & saved up enough money for this next course. I was told that the failure percentage for first time takers for the FIC is close to 70%. That's almost or just as bad as trying to pass our driving practical test at the first time round. Urgh!

Seriously, the first hour of the lecture really gave me the gitters, as to whether I'm up to it, to pursue further certifications & a possible career in this industry. But as Shirley continued explaining the logic to which muscles & bones are termed (although these are latin words), it slowly began to make sense to me. Then we were taught why exercises are designed in such a way, so as to contract or shorten a certain muscle & so strengthen it. Eh, gym machines are not designed in all sorts of ways, just for the fun of it, okay?

Gradually, as I set my mind to understand & relate it to my body, my fears began to subside & my interest renewed. In fact, it became both a challenge & interest to find out more! Sitting in the front row, I was probably one of the more attentive ones. Of course, this is not to say that I totally understand all that was being taught & explained... but the most important part was that it made me want to learn more.

After a crazy mind boggling 2 over hours of intense latin references & descriptions, along with tons of powerpoint slides of bone, muscle & tissue labelled pictures... that concluded the first chapter of our syllabus. Yup, FIRST chapter. Oh dear... I didn't get a headache, but all these stuff would sufficient enough to shake my brain up a lot. And I'm not kidding...

The next few chapters were slightly shorter chapters comprising of fitness components & principles where once again, much were being drilled into our brain cells. And trust me, fitness is not as simply defined or assumed as what most people would think. To give a small insight - think about this - what is the difference between agility, speed & coordination? It's not just a simple definition that you can look up in a simple dictionary. After you have done that, tell me how these are related in practical examples to fitness to the general population, athletes & a few different forms of sports. Don't know how... sign up for the BEC... Hahahaha...

And this is the best part. Shirley asked one of the strongest looking person to lie down on the floor. Then she began telling us, just by looking at certain parts of his body, that a strong, muscle bulging person may not be fit. Why? Coz fitness comprises of flexibility & proper body conditioning as well.

This fella here looks like an asian version of Arnold... but in a matter of seconds, the trainer could tell which parts of his body was underdeveloped & how this imbalance could affect other parts of his body. A simple stretching of his shoulders can reveal its tightness & how it would cause injury if he trained improperly. Then a quick check on his legs revealed how inflexible his hamstrings were, which could possibly cause injury when doing cardio exercises. Note - cardio, not weight training. This means that if we don't train & watch our body properly, a simple cardio exercise like running or jumping can injure ourselves very quickly.

Shirley then demonstrated a rehabilitation recovery technique which she learnt & showed how the proper rehabilitation stretch can improve joint flexibility in a very obvious angle & amount, in just a matter of seconds of partner assisted stretch. Wah, I tell you... half the class "Wah..." when she showed the result of her short few seconds of rehab stretch. Even that guy was stunned. And I knew the flame began burning even brighter in my heart.

Yup, so this is a short summary of what happened today. Just too much to type in this Blog. An impressive course, by an impressive course instructor, which I heard was the best trainer hired by SSC.

I spoke to her personally at the end of today's class. I told her that I'm considering a career switch at this point of time & wondered what are the prospects of this sports industry. She shared that there are many prospects, even in terms of lecturing & personal training. She also told me that Republic Polytechnic is currently working with SSC on new courses in this area of sports sciences & encouraged me to take these courses, if I'm interested.

She also worked as an aerobics instructor & personal trainer at several fitness clubs here, e.g. California Fitness, Planet Fitness, Amore, etc. Off-hand, she can tell you what is the heaviest bar-bell weight in each of these gyms. Wow! And guess what? She even taught ABT at California Fitness for over 4 years! Now she's a counsultant at SSC, as well as holding another position in another company that also works with SSC, as well as Australia & the US. If that wasn't enough, she's still coaching as a personal trainer for over 12 individuals, with the oldest client being an elderly 60 year old woman! Wow... remarkable... & once again, its only 36... Stunning!

Oh boy, I'm sure looking forward to her next class tomorrow! And of course, all the remaining sessions. Guaranteed sure learn a lot! Yeehaa! Here I come! =)