There’s this group of personal trainers and fitness instructors out there who truly live their lives according to the fitness principal that they believe in. At getactive ,three young personal trainers headed by the torpedo fit Chloe Lai, 32 years old, do just that. They are health enthusiasts who believe in daily work outs (they have a strict fitness regime for themselves) , they are into triathlons and capoiera. Chloe is also a Les Mills RPM instructor and all personal trainers at getactive are ACE (American Council of Exercise) accredited.

getactive was started by Chloe some time last year , a trained and certified personal trainer with the American Council of Exercise, she used to train at commercial gyms and had always entertained the idea of someday being a mobile gym instructor. But the idea somehow evolved and she started a small gym of her own in Damansara Perdana for a few months and early this year moved to Solaris in Mont Kiara. Situated just across from Cold Storage in a three storey shoplot which they occupy two , it is lean and efficient. GetActive only has two classes for pilates and yoga on thursdays and saturdays, the rest of the time it is strictly focused on personal training.

So , Chloe what is the difference between training at commercial gym and at GetActive?
Well, some women and men ,want the privacy of private gym for personal training for whatever reasons and they get that here. At max, it would be five other people training at the same time.
We also sometimes go to the park or their condos for a change of environment and different types of exercises, something which a commercial gym trainer cannot do.
As our fees are for a course of 25 sessions and costs RM3000 , it is only a slight premium from commercial gyms, so a lot of women think it is very affordable.

How did you get started?
Well , I did some market research and found out that it was very viable because I was training at a commercial gym before so I learnt that there was a demand for a personal training focused gym.

What is GetActive’s vision?
Our vision is to encourage and change people’s way of living to one of a healthy lifestyle,which means we change their whole idea of “healthy” living, hence our name. We have a trained dietitician on board who is really committed to the “eat well and eat right” concept which we incorporate in as part of the session. And she doesn’t believe in drastic changes but improving a person’s current lifestyle by injecting modifications into it so that the change can be sustained because it is rather hard to tell a person who loves nasi lemak to not eat nasi lemak ever again.
Ultimately we want people to see results and be motivated when they see the changes in their body shapes because loads of people who don’t get results ,get discouraged and they blame the training.
We write a program for each person and keep adapting it until we get the right combination. We usually do a questionnaire to understand their lifestyle , do stress assessment and strength test to gauge their fitness level prior to writing the program.

With so many big boys out there like Fitness First and True Fitness , it’s pretty gutsy to start your own gym. What made you decide to do it?Well, as you know I started my career in the corporate world after getting a degree in America. I worked for people and fulfilled their dreams. At one point in my life after the fourth year , I started to question myself about what is it that I really wanted to do? And I realised that I hadn’t achieved much and wasn’t really skilled at anything. The only thing I have ever succeeded in was losing weight. I had put myself on a regime and went regularly to RPM classes, joined biking races and managed to lose a lot of weight. An instructor saw me in class and asked me if I wanted to be an instructor , I got certified and I have also been doing PT (Personal Training) for the last 3 years.

Yes, it is scary but I had existing clientele who supported my idea so it wasn’t so bad. My family and friends have also been really suppportive too, in so many ways.
But in business sometimes I do feel rather alone and its good just to join a network club where a group of people come together and thrash out ideas and you know you have a place to turn to for like minded ideas.

What’s your long term plan for GetActive?
I hope to also make getactive into a personal training center for specialised people like the old, the injured , pregnant and even prenatal. We will not just focused on weight loss but to make fitness available even to the physically challenged like the blind and deaf people. So we are all getting training so that we can start moving in this direction.

As part of my GetActive giveback project, I recruit interns (we currently have one guy, who has been with us for three months) and provide internship for the sports science students from University Malaya for instance. We are conducting interviews now.

The good ones we will pay for their ACE exam fees and during the internship they get to work with us as they need to clock in 100 hour of practical work on top of their theoretical exams in their 3 months of study. They will also get paid as normal.

It’s something that I feel will help the students as a lot of sports science students don’t really have a clear vision of the future, so with the internship, hopefully it lights a path.

Where can someone interested to be a personal trainer get their ACE from in Malaysia?
FIT conducts classes and certification for the ACE in Malaysia. I am working closely with FIT and we are thinking of setting up an independent committee so that there are more regulations about the personal training industry, and ensure that ACE qualified instructors go for regular refresher courses or exams to maintain their standards so that they keep the good name of the industry that is constantly challenged.

Well , I think this one gym that will definitely change lives, so get active people!

Latest info, GetActive also has classes on demand with minimum of four people. And for emmagem.com readers, give Chloe a call and she might just give you a FREE trial session!

getactive is located at :
+603-6203 7671
Location: 10-1&2 Jalan Solaris 5, Solaris Mont Kiara, Mont Kiara 50480
Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

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