Life is more than the scale, and your body is capable of so much more. Yahoo’s #Fitspo of the Week series is dedicated to inspiring men and women in Singapore who live healthy and active lifestyles. Is there anyone you can recommend?strike Cheryl On top of that Instagram or Facebook!
name: Jeremy Tan (@funksoulbutter)
Year: 39
height: 1.83m
weight: 85kg
Profession: Owner of The Pulse Lab and The Row Space
situation: married
food: During the off-season, I eat so much that I have extra calories. I currently subscribe to a meal plan that meets my dietary needs during the cutting phase.
exercise: I weight train six times a week and do cardio by rowing indoors, cycling, and running.
Q: Were you an active child?
A: As a kid, I was exposed to a lot of sports, but nothing competitive. Fun fact – I was in a Trim and Fit (TAF) club in elementary school, so that’s probably where my love of exercise comes from.
As you got older, you got into different sports.
Yes, bodybuilding was the first competitive sport I took up. He then took a seven-year hiatus before switching to competitive indoor rowing, which led to road cycling. I was never competitive in cycling, but I had toyed with the idea of pursuing it.
What made you start bodybuilding?
After finishing my National Service (NS) in 2006, I felt that I was too thin, so I wanted to add volume to make my clothes look more beautiful. Then I went to a local gym and started training every day at 7am. I made some friends there, some older people, who treated me kindly. After a year, my muscle mass increased and he planted the seed in me that I might become a decent bodybuilder in the future.
It wasn’t until 2010 that I really got into bodybuilding. I worked as a personal trainer (PT) at a commercial gym, and all the famous local bodybuilders were training at my workplace. It was a very blessed environment for me to realize my dream as a bodybuilder.
Some of the highlights of my bodybuilding journey include:
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2012 HomeTeamNS Bodybuilding Championship (Open Category): 5th place
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2013 National Bodybuilding & Physique Championships (over 85kg): 3rd place
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2015 Muscle War (Open Category): 6th place
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2016 Muscle War (Open Category): 5th place
I plan to participate again this year. I took a break from competitive bodybuilding for a few years, but I don’t think this is a comeback because I never really left bodybuilding. I live and breathe bodybuilding.
So how did you get into indoor rowing?
The first thing I did when I took a break from bodybuilding was to review my training regime and protocols. I stuck to focusing on building stronger aerobic capacity to prolong my fitness career.
In 2016, I came across an article in a magazine that said one of the world’s fitness tests is rowing 2,000 meters in under 7 minutes. I thought, “How difficult can it be?” Next thing I knew, I jumped on the indoor rowing machine and gave it a crack. guess what? I couldn’t even reach the halfway point.
From that day on, I kept working hard and it took me a year to row 2,000m in less than 7 minutes. After doing some research, I discovered online indoor rowing competitions and was shocked to discover that there is a huge global online rowing community. I wanted to be a part of that world too.
How did you start The Pulse Lab and The Row Space?
Pulse Lab is a PT gym that started in 2017. I have been a PT for his 6 years and was approached by a client who wanted to franchise Anytime Fitness, but I preferred to start something on my own. I managed to convince him that I need to create my own brand because I don’t like replicating things. I wanted to create something from scratch and see it through to the end.
At the time, I was starting to get interested in indoor rowing and realized it was one of the most underrated conditioning tools. I saw potential there and wanted to share it with the community. Therefore, we held an indoor rowing class in parallel with the PT session.
But we soon felt the need to start a boat brand and give it our own identity. So in 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic, we took a leap of faith and opened Singapore’s first dedicated indoor rowing studio, The Row Space, next to Pulse Lab. We wanted to provide proper education to those who are keen to explore this sport.
Have you ever experienced something that made you feel insecure about yourself?
I think being a member of the TAF club and being bullied on the school bus while growing up made me not have confidence in my appearance or myself. The pandemic has definitely made me, and probably all of us, look at life differently. I have become more conscious of taking care of my health for the sake of my family.
When was the last time you felt least confident?
When the pandemic first hit in 2020, I went into shutdown mode. I didn’t want to touch the barbell or dumbbells. Believe it or not, I started drinking alcohol for the first time in my life. As a business owner, I think I was faced with the reality that I could lose everything due to the pandemic. I didn’t have the resilience to tell myself I would weather the storm.
Thankfully, I have good people in my life (my business partner and wife) who are on my side and they pulled me out of that depressive state so I could get out of it. I’m glad I was able to do it.
Are you happy with your body?
I’m very happy with my body now. Because this is the first time I’ve publicly embraced this weight loss journey, and the first time I’ve prepared for a competition in a non-traditional bodybuilding method.
Do you have any comments about your body?
Yes, mostly from new friends I’ve met over the last three years. I stopped bodybuilding during the pandemic, so this is the first time they’ve seen me in bodybuilding mode. Common comments include, “Why are you doing this?”, “Please take it easy,” “You’re already too skinny,” and “You look disgusting.”
I always laugh it off and tell them they didn’t know what I looked like before 2020. In a way, I’m doing this to remind you all.
