Biography

Name: Indira Christiani
Occupation: Business Development Manager in Film Industry
Height: 160 cm
Weight: 57 kg
Personal Trainer: Alfad

Indira had been practising yoga for over 6 years and wanted to improve her yoga practice.

“There are certain yoga poses that require a lot of upper body strength, so my goal was to learn how to lift and also to build a strong but lean body.”

As a beginner in strength training, she wanted someone to develop a training program that was relevant to her yoga training. Indira heard about Level from her friends in the workout community, and in January 2021 she started training with Coach Alfad.

“During our first assessment, we looked at three areas: Daily Nutrition, Recovery Management (relating to sleep and stress), and Physical Assessment. We discussed macros and how to eat a balanced diet. As Indira was a pescatarian so we had to look at pescatarian-friendly substitutes for sufficient protein intake,” Coach Alfad explained.

From Indira’s Physical Assessment, she discovered that her shoulders didn’t sit at the same height and her ankle mobility was limited. These issues hindered her from perfecting her yoga poses.

Coach Alfad programmed corrective exercises to address Indira’s imbalances and taught her basic movements such as the squat, hip hinge, push, pull, etc.

One challenge for Coach Alfad was to balance how much to push Indira’s limits without adding too much stress on top of her day to day work pressure.

To accommodate Indira’s tight schedule, Coach Alfad also gave her home workouts to do when she was unable to come to the gym.

In three months, Indira managed to go from 34.6% body fat to 31.2% while gaining 1kg of lean muscle mass. Her form improved significantly.

Indira also saw improvements in her sleep. Previously, she needed prescription medication to help her sleep at night, but with regular training, she was able to sleep without taking any sleep medication.

Indira noticed visible progress too, and she was particularly excited about her visible bicep lines. She made better nutritional choices while still occasionally enjoying her favourite foods.

“Alfad is a great coach. He tracked my progress very well, put reminders on my calorie counts and most importantly he always push beyond my limits (read: putting more weights heavier without telling me!)”

Initially, Indira came in wanting a training programme that would support her yoga practice. After just three months with Coach Alfad, she ended up with much more.

We asked Coach Alfad what are his top tips for people like Indira who are just starting out in fitness, and he said:

“Focus on what we can control and don’t get distracted by things we can’t control so we can keep our eyes on our long term goals. This means controlling the foods we buy and consume, controlling our sleeping time, and controlling our patience and consistency in training.”