Jonathan Tan has more than a decade of experience in the fitness industry, starting out working for a large chain of fitness centres. He is currently the Club Manager for Berjaya’s fitness centre – Sports Toto Fitness – located on the 6th floor of Berjaya Times Square in Kuala Lumpur. Aside from that, he also writes a fortnightly fitness colum for The Sun, runs a bootcamp business and teaches an indoor cycling class. What does he do in his spare time apart from hanging upside down in his gym ? 🙂 Read on …
Hi Jon. Tell us a bit about what you do in your role as Club Manager for Berjaya Sports Toto Fitness
I manage Sports Toto Fitness Centre – a Corporate CSR facility for Berjaya’s staff. Apart from Berjaya’s staff, we do open our doors to outside membership mainly targeting Times Square and its surrounding offices for membership.
Managing the gym involves having a foot into overlooking all aspects of any gym business from customer service, PTs, maintenance, sales, admin and HR.
We are a small facility and singular outlet.
You wear other hats as well – can you share with us ?
I have a bootcamp business that I run as well – Rebel Bootcamp in KL Sentral (Brickfields). I am also actively since 2001 a current Les Mills RPM Instructor in a major gym in the Klang Valley. This December , Tracy Minnoch ( Head of Les Mills Asia Pacific ) and some of us rag tag remaining RPM pioneer instructors will be celebrating the 40th release in Malaysia. I also teach spinning classes in my gym. I don’t do PT anymore these days, but have moved on to being a fitness consultant. I am also fitness columnist with The Sun newspaper on a fortnightly basis.
The Iphone calendar ! But seriously, the biggest challenge for anybody as busy as me would be to manage travelling time. For that, I’ve taken to riding a motorbike since 3 years ago. Saves time and go green !
And how do you recharge your batteries ?
With beer, whisky, weekend couch potatoing with movies and foot reflexology
The fitness industry is always evolving. Is it important for you to stay current ?
Yes it does. To be a PT and fitness consultant, you are the GO TO person for anything fitness related. I read a lot especially periodicals ACE and IDEA sends me monthly. I also read fitness magazines just to know what the general population is reading. Being a corporate GO TO person for fitness related matters, I am often hauled up (literally) to answer any fitness related queries by the bosses.
So what’s the weirdest question you’ve been asked ?
Several – I want to lose weight, but don’t want my boobs ( cupping them ) to shrink. Can ah?
– ‘I want to engage you for pt. I want you to just concentrate on my abs , butt and thighs’. I did 22 30minute ab , butt and thigh sessions with this lady. She signed up again 3 months later for another 10 1 hour session package. The thing is, she was already stick thin skinny. That’s not the problem. The real problem is that us Pts need to eat. Reality check!
You did the ACE Personal Trainer certification and also the Advanced Health & Fitness Specialist. Does that help you in what you do ?
ACE is the premier fitness certification that the whole world recognizes. If Malaysia explodes today and I’m on the last flight out to parts nowhere, I’m confident in securing a job anywhere because of ACE. ACE’s continuing educational support with its updated knowledge also puts me out there ahead of the competition.
What’s in store for you in the future ? Any goals for 2012 that you want to share with us ?
I am hoping to reignite my triathlon calendar to at least 2 competitions next year. Making the world fitter, one day at a time.
Related Course Information
Personal Trainer Development Programme (PTDP)
This is the perfect blend of all that are essential to make you a competent personal trainer. Leave this 54-hour course feeling confident and ready to bring the best out of your client(s)
Upcoming: Price:
