Your S’pore Story: ‘I only did bicep curls that day – and my arm hurt for three days’
With more than 100,000 followers, this fitness coach was a chubby kid when young but wants to inspire more people to work out and stay fit now
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During the early days of his fitness journey, personal trainer Davin Choo used to train at the fitness corner at night to avoid being seen by others.
PHOTO: SPH MEDIA
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Fitness coach Davin Choo first rose to prominence during the Covid-19 pandemic, teaching Singaporeans on Instagram gym
Watch his video here.
In February this year, he decided to take a leap of faith and resigned from his role as a regional e-commerce specialist to focus fully on personal training.
As his following continues to grow, the 30-year-old now offers both online coaching and physical training sessions but his goal hasn’t changed: to get people moving. The once “chubby kid” in polytechnic reveals his journey into personal fitness and how it was inspired by an altercation on the MRT – and the Rocky movie franchises.
Mr Choo draws from his own experience to encourage others to stay committed to their fitness goals, whether they are just starting out or chasing their personal best.
PHOTO: SPH MEDIA
“In the first year of polytechnic, two things happened: I got together with my first girlfriend, and I also witnessed an incident that made me wonder if I’d be able to protect her.
I saw this ah beng-looking guy picking on a couple on the MRT train, and the boyfriend couldn’t defend the girlfriend because the other guy was physically bigger than him. So then I started thinking, what if that happened to me and my girlfriend, and I can’t protect her? That episode started me on my fitness journey.
I didn’t even start with gym training, but by watching Rocky movies – you know, the old-school Sylvester Stallone ones – thinking that I could learn boxing from them. And if you’ve seen Rocky, you know they have training montages halfway through the movie. So, I remember that I was watching Rocky when the training montage came up, and I got so inspired that I dragged my sister to the gym that day.
I only did bicep curls that day because that was the only exercise I knew, and my arms hurt for three days straight. But I liked that feeling. I liked it so much that I started doing more research out of interest and passion and from there, it morphed into my current fitness endeavour.
But when I started, I had a lot of gym anxiety and was afraid of being judged by others. So I still preferred to go downstairs at night to the fitness corner so I could do my own thing without anyone seeing me. Then Covid-19 struck, and circuit breaker came: The gym, the open spaces downstairs and even the fitness corner were out of bounds.
So, I started working out at home – just to make myself feel better. I had a couple of dumbbells at home, but I also started improvising. How do I work out at home using an elastic band? I’d tie it to the window. Maybe use a broom as a bar? And all sorts of nonsense that I would ‘MacGyver’ up with.
I started posting these set-ups online, and they started to catch people’s attention. After the posts gained a little momentum from there, people started asking whether they could have personal training – online, obviously, because we couldn’t meet physically, and here we are now.
It makes me glad that I made the right choice to try out fitness. I’m also happy I’m able to use my story and this message to reach out and motivate others to become the best version of themselves.”
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