The ‘10km Run With 5 Sets of Tabata’ Encik Also Conducts Free Fitness Classes at Jurong West

During the early months of the pandemic, if we weren’t crying at home thinking about when we’ll ever get to drink bubble tea again, we were training like olympians with a series of home workout videos.

Well, this zest for fitness and self-training has carried over into 2022, and a senior warrant officer from the Singapore Armed Forces (SAF) has joined the mix of “fitspo” content creators inspiring the rest of us to get in shape.

In a video interview by DJ Jerald Ko, Senior Warrant Officer Leong Teng Kee, who has been a regular in the army for 36 years, shared with us his vigorous daily workout routine.

“Every day, I either do a 10km run with 5 sets of Tabata or 10 sets of Tabata with a 5km run. Ended off with 1,000 crunches,” the Chief Master Trainer at SAF’s Centre Of Excellence For Soldier Performance (CESP) shared.

“[To] workout is to get healthy, [you’ll] get younger and younger!” he added.

In disbelief, Ko clarified if he really did say he did 1,000 crunches daily, and the 55 year-old confirmed the fact.

Although we’re pretty sure verbal confirmation wasn’t enough for Ko, as he resorted to getting textile evidence for the workouts nearing the end of the video.

“Tabata” Encik Interview Went Viral

The video itself, posted back in June, has since garnered 575.9k views. Pretty soon, people started posting videos of themselves working out with SWO Leong’s interview audio.

One lady even met the legend himself, and manage to get a 1-on-1 training session with him.

Others made fun of the interview with some TikTok parodies on the word “Tabata”.

In one video user @fariwu filmed herself preparing to eat 5 pieces of prata with the caption “Today I am motivated to do daprata set 💪🏻💪🏻💪🏻 Tomorrow I’ll do 1,000 koko krunch.”

Tabata, Da prata, Ciabatta…they’re all the same, right?

Well, not quite. Unlike the post-workout treat you’d reward yourself with, Tabata is a type of High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT) workout that aims to yield the most benefits in a short amount of time, through eight rounds of strenuous, 20-second exercises and 10-second rest intervals.

We must say chowing down five sets of da prata seems way more doable, though.

In a subsequent interview, DJ Ko help netizens find out if SWO Leong is indeed a fan of prata.

“I eat kosong, with sugar or curry…but not every time,” he said.

“No point I do 10 sets of tabata, 10km run, I only burn 500 calories, then I go eat 3 hamburgers (sic),” he added.

So there you have it—your ultimate how-to guide on how to age gracefully like Encik Leong.

He Responded to His TikTok Popularity

In an interview with CNA Lifestyle, SWO Leong shared that he was “very happy that I’m able to inspire a lot of people to get fit,” and that a lot of people have since shared with him that he inspired them to take on a new fitness routine for themselves.

However, the humble 55-year-old added that he was “just doing a small part”.

“If more people do the same thing, we can work towards a stronger and healthier community,” he said.

Upon gaining knowledge on his newfound TikTok fame, his family became more than proud of him for inspiring others. In fact, his daughter was the first to inform him that he was trending on the social media platform.

“Her schoolmates, her boyfriend in the army and other friends serving National Service had sent her the TikTok asking: ‘Is this your father?'” he shared.

He Also Conducts Free Exercise Classes on the Weekends

As if being in the military full-time isn’t gruelling enough, SWO Leong spends his weekends charitably by conducting free exercise class at the Jurong West Sports Centre.

He shared with CNA Lifestyle how it all came about.

“It started about five and a half years ago when a small group of army regulars and I met for workouts there. Some passers-by asked if they could join us and if they could pay us for classes.”

Declining the money, the group told them that they could just join them, have fun, and more importantly, “keep fit together”.

It’s clear that his passion for fitness shows through his actions. Now, Leong trains anyone from the age of 13 to 65 and even gets them to take their own progress photos to see how they have gotten leaner from the workouts overtime.

Some even brought their sons who were pre-enlistees, with one man moving from just passing to getting a gold in his final Individual Physical Proficiency Test (IPPT) during Basic Military Training (BMT).

When asked if he would consider a career in fitness once he leaves the SAF at the end of this year, however, he said that he would not want to because if he made fitness his permanent job, he “might diminish [his] passion for helping others.”

For now, he just wants to “teach for free, help more people, and see how fitness can bring people together to develop a national culture of fitness.”

If you’re in the area, why not join him for a class or two?

He Maintains His Own Fitness to Help Others

The seasoned soldier has been with SAF since 1985, and has been on many missions and exercises, some of which involve humanitarian efforts.

Back in 2015, he led a team of 182 personnels consisting of the Army Medical Team, Police Task Force, Civil Defence & Ministry of Health, including doctors and nurses, to support the disaster relief efforts in Nepal following an earthquake. Leong and the team also helped to evacuate Singaporeans trapped in Nepal safely back to our country.

On what he learnt during the mission, Leong shared with MINDEF in a feature story that one of the most important things he learnt was the importance of fitness. He believes that by staying in tip-top condition, soldiers will have a strong mind and body to overcome any challenge thrown their way.

“Being fit gives you that extra confidence you need to complete your missions, and makes sure you don’t feel lethargic when you’re out in the field. Exercising also helps to instil discipline and resilience in soldiers. This ensures that they are able to motivate one another to push on, when obstacles arise, to achieve mission success,” he shared.

So it looks like all that Tabata training and 10km runs do have a deeper purpose behind it, after all.

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Featured Image: TikTok (@jeraldjustinjk)