Meet Ayumi Hamasaki’s yoga ‘sensei’

SINGAPORE – Here is a little-known fact: Japanese pop queen Ayumi Hamasaki’s yoga ‘sensei’ hails from Singapore.

Yoga instructor Maria Lourdes Chan, a private yoga trainer, met Hamasaki in 2014.

The 36-year-old recalls how she got an out-of-the-blue call from an acquaintance.

“They said, ‘Hey, Maria, I’m sending someone over to you. She’s a Japanese superstar — Ayumi Hamasaki. She’s on her way over right now’,” Chan recounted.

(Above: Maria Lourdes Chan in Triangle pose. Photo: Maria Lourdes Chan)  

Turns out, the “Empress of J-pop” was in Singapore and looking for a “crazy, hardcore” trainer. “She wanted someone who would push her to her limits. She didn’t want someone to baby her,” Chan said.

“I knew she was a big star in the 1990s, but I couldn’t really remember her — I didn’t even have enough time to Google her! She came with bodyguards. The first thing I said to her was, ‘Hi. Do you have any injuries?’ Before I could push her, I needed to know her capabilities. I didn’t ask her to do anything more than she was able to. I wanted to see her potential.”

She added: “For me, it doesn’t matter if you’re a star or not. When training with me, I try to ‘kill off’ the worst things you think about yourself and bring out the best in you.”

Hamasaki told TODAY in an interview that the “timing was right” to meet a trainer like Chan.

The two became close quickly. In 2014, Hamasaki even attended Chan’s birthday party. And in 2015, she flew Chan to Japan to train her and her dancers on her nation-wide Japan tour.

“Having worked with Maria intensively in Singapore, I felt that I wanted to carry (the training on) through to my tour,” Hamasaki said. Her performances can be very physical and gruelling, and yoga, she felt, would be a good complement since it stretches you out, but still helps maintain strength and flexibility.

For the tour, Chan flew in and out of Singapore weekly for three months, training Hamasaki, but also warming up her dancers and performers before each show, and cooling them down after.

Hamasaki has invited Chan to join a more extensive tour this year, spanning eight months.

Chan founded the now-defunct Bikram Yoga Katong studio and has built a name for herself thanks to her high-energy, intense classes. She also teaches corporate and group classes under the name East Side Yoga, on top of giving one-on-one personal training.

(Above: Maria Lourdes Chan is known to take her yoga students to the next level. Photo: Maria Lourdes Chan)

Her one-on-one clients include bankers and other celebrities, including two Hong Kong household names who do not wish to be named because “they want to keep yoga their secret weapon. They don’t want to share their yoga teacher”, said Chan.

Hamasaki is a very persistent student, said Chan, who was trained to teach Bikram yoga, the original series of 26 postures and two breathing exercises.

Hamasaki works “right to her maximum capacity” in each session, said Chan. “Even when she cries out ‘itami!’, she does not give up,” she said, referring to the Japanese word for “pain”.

For Hamasaki, yoga “gives me calm and focus”. She said that as a show performer, the mind-body connection is important since “the more physical the performance, the calmer you need to be”.

She added that since training with Chan, “my strength and flexibility improved”. “I still incorporate certain movements and techniques of Maria’s,” she said, even though the two do not train together regularly today.

This is a first in a series of fitness trainers to the stars. Stay tuned for more.