In the past, Lance James Little, 50, always found that his frequent business trips always used to get in the way of his fitness & training routine.

Said Little, “ I started personal training about three to four years ago, and I found that what was happening, was that I would have two weeks in Singapore working with my trainer – and I would start to get the gains that I wanted. Then I would go on a business trip and even if I stayed in a hotel with a decent gym and worked out on my own, I would not get the intensity that I wanted. Upon returning from the trip, about a week or ten days later, my personal trainer back in Singapore would tell me, oh you have lost muscle mass or you have got fatter.”

Billed as the ultimate fitness concierge

So the WorldTrainer platform – billed as the Ultimate Fitness Concierge, came as a god-send for Little – a Managing Director at a health care company, who does strength & conditioning and mobility training.

Said Little, “Now, with WorldTrainer, I maintain the intensity of training with top quality trainers and stay consistent with my routine, which comes with having the session booked into the WorldTrainer system. This has enabled me to continue towards my fitness goals instead of regressing every time I travel.”

Helps time-pressed professionals to stay committed to their fitness goals

WorldTrainer is a global system that is designed to help time-pressed professionals stay committed to their fitness regime whilst abroad on business trips. It personally matches the right trainer to the traveller – unlike a typical directory service.

This platform covers 21 different cities across Asia, Europe and North America – including Bangkok, Beijing, Ho Chi Minh City, Shanghai, Dublin, London, Zurich, Singapore, Connecticut, San Francisco and Toronto.

Trainers train the customers at their hotel gyms to save them time, and the system is built to ensure quality and consistency of training across continents. So all the traveller needs to do, is to simply indicate the desired time and location for training, and show up to train.

Maintaining a fitness regime whilst travelling is a challenge  

Said Patty Lee, 40, Founder & Managing Director of WorldTrainer, “Maintaining a fitness commitment whilst travelling is often a challenge of many. But knowing that a fitness expert is waiting to train you at your destination, can help you stay on track.”

She added, “It is a pity to see someone who is committed with their fitness goals regress, because their work requires them to be away from their trainer or routine. The will to build a better self should be supported and nurtured regardless of geography or circumstance. These people work hard to take care of their businesses and families. WorldTrainer is here to take care of them.”

Lee had founded WorldTrainer because she used to face the same problem as a frequent business traveller herself. She said, “I do a lot of training myself and it has become an integral part of my lifestyle. Before I started WorldTrainer, I was in a corporate position where I had to fly a lot. I had to travel almost every month and that took me away from my training and routine. So I became frustrated because I was on a journey to getting stronger and leaner but every time I went away from home, I regressed.”

She added, “So I realised that it would be really good to have a service that allows frequent travellers to access quality trainers and a system that helps to them to maintain consistency – which is very important when it comes to achieving your fitness goals.”

WorldTrainer features a wide range of exercises ranging from strength & conditioning, bodyweight training, bodybuilding and powerlifting, to bootcamp, endurance sports and even boxing.

Added Lee, “A lot of clients who use our services go for the strength and body weight training but there are also those who do boxing – they want to continue their boxing journey when they are away from home, because the moment that you do not do boxing for a few weeks, you forget about the moves.”

Singapore Launch event for WorldTrainer

Earlier this week, I had been invited to the Singapore launch event for WorldTrainer. Taking place at the People’s Park Complex, this had comprised of a short demonstration whereby we got to experience WorldTrainer for ourselves.

At the demonstration, we had been divided into two groups, and were supposed to be role-playing as two groups of travellers “flying” from Singapore to New York and vice versa.

The types of training that we were subjected to included mainly bodyweight training, such as squats, lunges and pushups, as well as some exercises involving free weights – including lunges with dumbbells.

The platform is fast and efficient

Though the mini demonstration may not be the best example of WorldTrainer’s services, I still feel that it did provide me with some insights into the smoothness and efficiency of the WorldTrainer services.

Customers certainly can attest to the efficiency of the platform. Said Little, “It is convenient. From a usage perspective, it is extremely easy to use, too. Sometimes my personal assistant will book my flights, accommodation and training for me. She can even log into the system herself. Also, when I realise that my travel itinerary has changed, I can simply sit in the airport and make amendments to my training schedule at my whim, as long as I provide enough time, say 24 to 36 hours, for WorldTrainer to make adjustments on their end. So I can practically change my training schedule at my whim.”

He added, “Also, with my busy schedule, I start work at 8.30am and finish at 6pm to 7pm. Then after that, it may be dinners with clients followed by entertainment, so I may not have time to find a gym. So the fact that the trainers come to my hotel is really convenient. Once you are in it, you realise how beautifully simple this system is. If I have to muck around with things, forget it – I don’t have the time.”

Little also cited a personal experience he had prior to discovering WorldTrainer – when he had to look for his own personal trainer during a business trip in Zurich, Switzerland. He said, “I reached out and found a personal trainer and she was good, but it took us 30 minutes of the one-hour session to actually get into the swing of things. That was a waste of time and money.”

He continued, “But with WorldTrainer, I can meet the trainer for the first time and he or she knows all my training requirements within five minutes – because they have already read it all from the system. Till today, I have used WorldTrainer in nine to ten cities including Shanghai, Vietnam, London and Basel and I have never had any problems with them, not even language issues. I have had Chinese trainers in Shanghai, for instance, and they can speak perfect English.”

Trainers are vetted to ensure their quality

According to Lee, the trainers are also vetted to ensure that they are of a high quality. She explained, “We pre-screen, test and interview our trainers to make sure that our clients are using the best trainer in the city that they travel to, to meet their needs. And the system is built in such a way that there is consistency across the board – so before you even meet the trainer, they know exactly what you want, and their routine goes back to your trainer at home – it is a closed loop, which helps our clients to continuously see progress on their fitness journeys.”

She added, “Almost all the trainers we work with are also truly concerned about their clients and they want their clients to improve – so that is why they are part of the network. They see themselves as being part of something bigger.”

A challenging and interesting experience for the trainers

For the trainers signed up the platform, it provides them with a challenging but interesting experience. Said Dylan Huan, 30, “With WorldTrainer, I am always meeting different people from different parts of the world and it is quite a challenge because I do not know them personally, but I know what they have done and what they want, so I can help them to achieve their goals. That keeps me going.”

Continued Huan, a Singapore-Based personal trainer who also works at a gym in Novena, “Though I can usually come up with an exercise routine that suits them almost perfectly, that also would be based on their mood at the moment and conditioning at the time, and then we will gauge whether to push more or reduce the intensity of the exercises.”

Clients can also use WorldTrainer in their home country as well

Lee thinks that WorldTrainer can help not only those who currently have a personal trainer, but also those who may want to be introduced to one.

She said, “I target clients who already have a trainer as well as those who want to start training – they can use the service in their home country as well. Having a personal trainer really helps you to stay committed to your routine – as you know that someone is there on the other end waiting for you. And you will be able to see results, much faster than if you had trained by yourself.”

She added, “There is not a lot of services out there that takes care of 1-on-1 personal training. There are plenty of group classes and online training plans but what we are trying to do is to create an environment that allows you to stay committed – that is what a trainer really aims for, to help someone who wants to improve, to continuously see improvements.”

To find out more about WorldTrainer, check out their website at http://worldtrainer.fitness.