Formosa Fitness

Glad to see you here!

Everyone says they're innovative but few gyms will tell you how they're different.

Why should you choose Formosa Fitness?

1. Getting fit is hard work and doing it alone is no fun plus it's hard to stay motivated. Our main fitness offering is semi-private personal training. You meet in a small group of 4-5 people who train together, get to know each other, and support each other. Working out in a small group is fun!

2. I train each and every person that comes into the gym. Whether it's our semi-private or fully private training, I guide you every step of the way. You don't have to be confused any more about how to get results. I'll take care of that for you.

3. 30 minutes! That's it! We get you warmed up, worked out, and cooled down in 30 minutes so you can go back to your life.

4. You won't just look good, you'll FEEL good. And isn't that what you really want? Our methods use basic human motions to get you fit instead of wasting boring hours on a treadmill. You'll move better throughout the day and feel better than you have in years.

These are the kind of results our students get:

Still not convinced? Work out for free for the month of September!

Try us out risk free for the rest of the month. No catches, no gimmicks. If at the end of the month you decide we aren't for you, then no hard feelings.

Give us a call at 0912287898 and get started today!

Like this:

We just got our new shipment in! We ordered over 200 kettlebells and 60 powerclubs. Everything is back in stock so if you were waiting to buy something, now is the time.

I also want to say that I'm proud of the fact that we as a mom-and-pop gym brought this to you. We aren't Wal-Mart and we don't buy our products by the millions. We self-finance everything (no loans, no grants) and we try our best to bring you the best products and services that we can possibly provide. We thank all of you for your patronage!

Now we're off for a couple hours of well-deserved break. :)

Have good weekend!

We're up and running at the new location. Keeping the current location open while starting a new one was quite a challenge but we pulled it off. Thanks to the people that helped us out. Here's the process with comments.

Painting the gym was a major decision. White walls aren't conducive to working out IMO. We went with two shades of green after a client suggested a similar gray color (thanks Meredith!) and we saw another gym we admire using a similar color scheme. Other gyms in our niche are using red and black but that color scheme looked like hell to me. Not what i wanted. :)

Yes, we have plants. We're tough but sensitive. :) I wanted something to spruce up the outside. 

First piece of equipment comes in. This back extension went for US$650. I kid you not. I managed to fid one little place that only wanted US$120. Guess which one I bought? The gym business is crazy here.

Suspension trainer here, rings there. Rope over there.

The floor was a major issue. These tiles were US$100 each from a fitness manufacturer. Yes -- each piece. I got the ones they use outside in the parks for one-third the price. That helps a bunch when you're buying 30 of them.

Floor done and it's starting to come together.

Tired but happy. :)

The finished product. Everything installed and ready for business.

Barbell training is our next big challenge. We're getting excellent results for both strength training and fat loss by using barbells. Yes, you can use barbell training to lose fat.

So there you have it. Formosa Fitness 2.0 is ready and open for business. We'll be starting in the new place Sept. 1. More info on new classes to come soon. Stay tuned!

Our next kettlebell shipment ships out tomorrow. We're very excited! It's our biggest one yet. We want to have in stock whatever size you need. Take a look!

Those are powerclubs on top BTW.

So this is what's in store next. We're always expanding and growiing because I'm always learning something new. I'll be taking the TACFIT and CST clubbell cert in December. I'm very excited to be offering this in Taiwan. so expect to be challenged with these movements in the near future!

This was our first TV interview and it aired on yesterdays' news. I run a class for the hearing impaired on Tuesday/Thursday and a local news crew came to interview us about it. Luckily my part of the interview got cut a bit short since they asked questions I hadn't prepared for, especially in Chinese. LOL. 

We did it: I signed a lease on our new location yesterday. We went in to negotiate only but (surprise, surprise) our new landlord agreed to everything. This kind of threw me off a bit since it was so unexpected. So we signed the lease and I have the keys. It all happened so very, very fast.

So what's in store for Formosa Fitness 2.0? Take a look at this:

This is where we're headed. We've been using kettlebells exclusively with a little TRX thrown in but it's time for us to expand the options a bit. Kettlebells will always be a big part of what we do but we no longer want to be focused on a single tool. We want to use whatever tool gets the client the best results. So barbells, climbing ropes, dumbbells, sandbags, etc. will alll be added to the mix.You'll appreciate the variety, I'm sure.

This has never been tried in Taiwan before. We're going to be breaking new ground here again because ....well....that's what we do. :)

(Edit: for reasons I don't understand related to Youtube, if you watch the video here there is no sound. Double click and you can watch it on youtube with sound. Hey, who knows why?)

These are our new coaches and this is what I put them through. I want the kettlebell certification that we offer to be something different in Taiwan. This certification is something that you earn by doing -- just showing good form on a few reps isn't enough. I want coaches that can actually do the work. They need to experience first hand why the kettlebell is special. And I believe this first group got it.

I'm so proud of this group. They prepared very well and worked hard. I saw some serious improvement in just a few weeks. That took guts -- just what I was looking for in new coaches.

If you think you have what it takes, then start preparing for our second certification now scheduled for September 18, 2010.

It's a whirlwind week here. We had our first kettlebell certification ever in Taiwan yesterday. We were honored to hold this event and want to say thanks to all the trainers that worked so hard for their certification. Here are some pics from the event:

Thanks again to everyone for a successful cert. Hope to see you at the next one!

Lots of work lately so sorry for the lack of updates. This is our completed logo for Kettlebell Taiwan. This organization is devoted to spreading kettlebell training throughout our island nation. We changed the name too since our Facebook page is Kettlebell Taiwan, as is our website: kettlebell.com.tw

These are just a few of the guys that will be going through our first kettlebell certification in August. Jiayou! (That means "go for it!" in Chinese).

We had a great time yesterday introducing the kettlebell to a group of trainers in a local gym. They were a great bunch of guys and gals and seemed to enjoy the challenge very much. Here are some of the pics we took:

The very first kettlebell certification course will be held in Taipei on August 7th, 2010. We will run the course from 10am-12pm and 1-5pm. The course is NT$8000 and limited to the first ten people that want to join.

We will be teaching and testing participants on the following kettlebell moves: swing, clean, press, clean and press, push press, squat, lunge, snatch and several other supplemental movements.

The course will be hard and the day will be long. I can't stress this enough. Participants will be expected to leave the course with a high level of kettlebell competency and prior use of the kettlebell before the certification is highly recommended! If 10am on August 7th is the first time you've seen a kettlebell, you're in for a very rough ride. Male coaches will be expected to use the 16kg kettlebell for ALL movements and females will use the 12kg (with the possible exception of the 8kg on press and snatch for females). Certification is NOT guaranteed. If I see poor kettlebell movements and a lousy work ethic, that coach will not be certified!

Attendance is limited to the first ten people that sign up and most of those spots are filled already. If you want to be among the first to get certified and you feel that you can help us set the standard for kettlebell training in Taiwan then we welcome you.

Announcing the official founding of Kettlebell Taiwan. This organization works with the IKFF -- the International Kettlebell and Fitness Federation. This organization is dedicated to spreading kettlebell and fitness throughout Taiwan and will carry on the high standards set by Steve Cotter -- founder and president of the IKFF.

We have lots of things in the works that the federation will be doing. First and foremost is a kettlebell certification run by the TKFA. The certification will last one day and be apporximately six hours long. Those wishing to take the certification are strongly encouraged to learn proper kettlebell technique first through me or one of our instructors before taking the certification. The cert will be difficult and it will be long. Proper physical performance of the technique is of the utmost importance and not everyone will pass. If I see that someone doesn't uphold the standard set by Steve Cotter and myself, then that coach will not pass.

Second, we have a kettlebell competition in the planning stages, sometime after our first certificaion. For those interested, the events will be clean and push press, and snatch. Each participant will have 3:00 total (1:30 left hand, 1:30 right hand) in each event. The total of left and right hands will be the score. The weight for men is 16kg and for women it will be either 8 or 12kg (to be decided).

Stay tuned for much more information!

Short answer: many things. But here's a quick sneek peak of just one:

I'm putting in a special order soon and I'm offering you a chance to get a set of powerclubs at a super deal. I'm ordering clubs by the set with two each of the following weights: 2, 4, 6, 8, 10kgs. That's 10 clubs in all for the low price of NT$9000. That's much lower than you'll get them anywhere else with no shipping fee if you pick them up. This is a great deal but I will NOT be carrying these in stock. If you want them, you have to let me know quickly and I can order them for you. Hope to hear from you!

Here's our happy group. Congrats to everyone that passed, and to those that didn't -- keep pluggin away!

We have a new website up to service Taiwanese interested in kettlebells: kettlebell.com.tw

It's a Chinese-only site and good grief was it a pain to get set up. It took me almost a week to get this going. This is still a very early stage of it.

We also have a Facebook page in Chinese now: Kettlebell Taiwan

I've also added Goggle Translate to the site at the right ------>

Last but certainly no least, I've been updating the Formosa Fitness home page. It's still a work in progress (gee, no kidding?) but you can take a look and let me know what you think: formosafitness.com

And that's what I've been working on all this week. Frankly, I need a vacation after trying to figure out all this unicode, DNS, etc. stuff. My head is swimming from it all.

Sorry to not have any new posts up for a few days. we're cooking up something big. Stay tuned. :)

Trying to run a serious fitness business can be difficult, especially in Taiwan. One of the most persistent problems I run into is equipment. I'm so jealous of trainers in the States bragging that they found Concept 2 rowers and power racks on Craigslist for next to nothing. If I wanted Concept 2 rowers (and I do BTW) then I'd probably have to import them.

So let me give you some recent examples of problems with equipment.

Yesterday I went into a branch store of one of the largest Taiwan equipment manufacturers to source some Olympic weights. Now I'm no fool; I had already done my homework and knew that this company has Olympic weights available and a guy in an expat forum said he bought a set in another branch store. So they have them.

The branch i went to was in one of the most expensive parts of town BTW.

I walk in and ask for the weights and the guy tells me they don't have them, which i knew they wouldn't likely have them right there. But now get this: he doesn't want to order them for me. I was wearing my gym's t-shirt so I show him the back with our name in English and Chinese and inform him that I own a gym (okay, a small one, but he doesn't know that) and inform him that I'm not looking to buy a single weight plate, but many. He then tells me that the Olympic weights are TOO EXPENSIVE and I should use the crappy standard weight bars that hold about a hundred pounds. You know -- the ones with the screw ends.

We are two minutes into the conversation and I'm already getting pissed. I bluntly tell him in Chinese those weights are worthless and remind him I OWN A GYM. He then opens their catalog and shows me a US$2000 weight bench and there's a barbell with weights on it in the picture. The weights plates are Olympic and the bar? It's a standard size bar! Now what kind of an idiot is going to buy a US$2000 Olympic bench press bench and use pathetic US$25 standard size barbells with the annoying screw end? But hey, it's in their catalog.

I'm obviously pissed at this point so he starts talking to my wife and trying to tell her we should use these stupid weights when it's obvious he doesn't want to go through the trouble of simply ordering the Olympic weights for us. I say thanks and walk out.

Another example: a few weeks ago we went to the Taiwan sporting goods expo to source equipement again. Anyone in Taiwan who makes a fitness product was there.

One of the largest manufacturers in Taiwan now makes kettlebells and I was showing my wife the various weaknesses of their products by snatching and swinging them. They make the "TRON" kettlebell BTW

which as you can see, is completely covered in vinyl. Now that's a great idea if you want your kettlebell to go sailing through your nearest window. They also make a kettlebell with a convenient grooved grip to .....ahem.....help your fingers find the best grip on the handle because that's obviously so hard to do -- gripping the handle, that is. Of course when you swing it or anything else, the grip will rip your hand, but hey -- who needs to SWING the kettlebell? We all know you're just supposed to curl it, right?

Anyway, the company rep comes over and she's pissed. She asks who we are and then sees our gym logo with the kettlebell on it. I inform her that I'm a certified kettlebell trainer and she doesn't know what to say, so she just walks away like she just swallowed something vile.

We walk around the expo looking at the adjustable kettlebells with the PLASTIC handles and everything else and realize something very important: this equipment was designed, produced, marketed and sold by people who don't work out themselves and have NO CLUE how to use it.

Then I realized something else: people who do know how to use it aren't welcome there because these products aren't aimed at them or other people who know what they're doing. They are aimed at the masses. That's why this large company wouldn't bother to call me to get my input on their designs or bother to have me show them the right way to use the kettlebell so they could produce a quality product. They don't care about any of that. You should have seen their "kettlebell exercise" sheet. Total garbage.

Now as problems go this isn't exactly on the par with achieveing world peace or anything but it's a problem with bringing serious fitness to Taiwan. The longer we're in business the more I learn that being a fitness alternative really means being an alternative in every way. Almost everything we do has to be built from the ground up and sourced from the outside. 

So if I'm not blogging for a few days, it's probably because I'm trying to get some manufacturer or supplier to work with me and banging my head against the wall while doing it. 

Enjoy the weekend. :)