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May Phua’s Family Thought She Wanted To Be A Weightlifter When She Told Them She Was Studying To Be A Fitness Trainer

The actress is now a certified personal trainer with F45.

The actress is now a certified personal trainer with F45.

The actress is now a certified personal trainer with F45.

Former Mediacorp actress May Phua, 44, is now a certified trainer with fitness gym F45. For the uninitiated, the ‘F’ in F45 stands for ‘functional training’, which is a mix of circuit and HIIT style workouts, while ‘45’ stands for the amount of minutes each workout lasts.

1 of 4 No cheat day

May got her ACE (American Council on Exercise) private trainer certification in August after four months of intense studying. However, it wasn’t only until recently did she announce the news.

“A personal milestone, officially a trainer with @f45_training_sunset_singapore,” she wrote on IG, thanking her fellow trainers for motivating her.

If you’re following May on Instagram, her achievement may come as no surprise, considering she has been a fitness junkie since… forever. A quick scroll through the mother-of-two's IG and you’ll notice that she has posted a number of photos where she shows off her impressive abs, as well as her weight loss progress.

2 of 4 Check out those abs

When 8days.sg spoke to May, she shared that she became a trainer because she has “a lot of passion for helping people regain their ability to handle their body”, especially if it’s someone suffering from health conditions, which is something she can relate to.

“I suffered from a slipped disc and for years, I couldn't run and do many activities without pain and aches, said May. With proper education and experience, I can now understand why and how to design programs not only for people looking at general weight loss but most importantly, I can work out a program for people with similar [health] backgrounds and help them get back on their fitness journey.

3 of 4 Don't forget to stretch!

Even though she's only been a PT for two months, May, who recently finished filming upcoming Mediacorp drama CTRL, already has “a handful of lady clients” and is teaching F45 group classes.

According to May, it's now is the perfect time to pursue her dreams as her sons, Ong Ix Shang, 15, and Keyon, 11, are grown up already.

“The ACE course needed a lot of studying. Going back to school was not an easy decision for me because of time and fear of getting out of my comfort zone. With the Circuit Breaker period, a lot of my perspectives changed,” she said. “My sons are getting older. They understand their mummy has her passions too. And I'm pursuing it after dedicating so many years of my life to them.”

4 of 4 Strike a pose

So what do May's sons and husband, who works in sales, think of her career change?

“Honestly, when I first told my family about [wanting to be a PT], they all thought I wanted to be a weightlifter. But after seeing me go through the process of studying for it and [realising] my ability to identify problems with their body and find solutions for them, they now see personal trainers from a different angle,” laughed May. “[Being a PT] is not about lifting heavy objects or getting all buff. It's about knowing the body's anatomy, reading into a person's medical records and identifying the body's muscle imbalance.”

Photos: May Phua/Instagram

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