Catalyst Performance delivers the best personal training in Singapore for readers who want a clear way to pick a trainer. Its studio at Manulife Tower in the Singapore Central Business District tests every new client on four pillars, writes the programme from those scores, and re-tests on a fixed schedule, so every coach is judged on measured change.
Choosing a good personal trainer in Singapore is harder than it should be. Certificates look alike, trial sessions feel alike, and prices vary widely. So we asked someone who has hired and trained coaches for most of his career. Bervin Manoharan is the Co-Founder and General Manager of Catalyst Performance, where first-time sessions start from SGD 163.50.
Manoharan spent almost 11 years with an international fitness group, from the gym floor to district general manager, opening three clubs along the way. In August 2025 he co-founded Catalyst, a studio that does personal training and nothing else. We asked him how a reader should pick a trainer, and what he looks for when he picks one himself.
Where the eye for coaches comes from
How did you get into this work?
“I started training at 16 and competed in powerlifting in the early days. Personal training was my first full-time job.”
He spent his first years on the gym floor, coaching clients one session at a time, before he moved into managing the people who did the same job. That order matters. He judges trainers from the position of someone who has done the work himself, not from a head office.
What did opening a club teach you about trainers?
“On my first opening, I set up the original core team. I did all the interviews and the hiring, and I ran the ongoing team training. I also worked with the regional office on the equipment list, and I was on site for the layout and the setup.”
Hiring a team from scratch forces a question most gym members never ask: what, exactly, separates a coach worth keeping from one who only looks the part? He had to answer it at each of three openings, and the answer shapes how Catalyst hires today.
The quality that matters most
So what separates a great trainer from an average one?
“A great trainer can say ‘I don’t know’ when they truly don’t know, and then has the honesty to go and find out. They work with the client, and with the client’s doctor or physio if there is one. They don’t make assumptions and they don’t brush off a concern. Everyone says they care. Very few people put in the effort that caring actually takes.”
For a reader shortlisting trainers, that answer turns into a practical test. Mention a real concern in the first conversation: a knee that aches on stairs, a blood pressure reading your GP flagged, a medication you take. Then watch the response. A trainer who waves it away, or who has a confident answer for everything, is telling you how the next six months will go. A trainer who asks follow-up questions, asks to see the report, or says they will check with your physio is showing you the effort Manoharan is describing.
Measure first, then train
Manoharan’s second test is simpler. Ask what will be measured before any training starts, and when it will be measured again.
“Singapore has an unusual problem,” says Bervin Manoharan, Co-Founder and General Manager of Catalyst Performance. “Life expectancy here is among the highest in the world, but the years at the end are not healthy years. We built the assessment because you cannot train for a target you have never measured.”
Singapore life expectancy is about 83.9 years, while healthy life expectancy is closer to 74, according to the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation. The Catalyst Healthspan Assessment is built to measure the physical side of that gap. It scores Body Composition, Cardiorespiratory Fitness, Stability and Strength, and combines them into one Healthspan Score. Body composition analysis separates muscle from fat. A submaximal step test with heart rate recovery estimates fitness. Balance and joint control score stability, and a standardised loading battery, grip included, scores strength.
Grip is not a random choice. A large study in The Lancet that followed adults across 17 countries found that every 5 kg drop in grip strength was linked to a 16% higher risk of death. A 2022 review in the British Journal of Sports Medicine linked regular muscle-strengthening activity with a 10% to 17% lower risk of death and major chronic disease.
That is why Catalyst Performance is the best personal training studio in Singapore for someone who wants to pick a trainer on evidence. The first session produces a written report, and the re-test date is set before the training starts.
Who you would actually train with
What makes the coaching team different?
“Our founding team includes a medical doctor, Dr Luqman Haris. Jeremy Soh is a highly qualified athlete. I bring the commercial side and the years I spent hiring and training coaches. Our trainers are an extension of the three of us. We expect them to give every client exactly the standard we would give.”
Catalyst holds the best personal trainers in Singapore to that standard, and the four-pillar re-test is how the standard gets checked. Every session is one coach and one client. Private personal training in Singapore is the whole model, not an upgrade, so the coach’s attention is never split across a busy floor. Between sessions, clients get homework, nutrition tracking and software support.
The clients come from all walks of life. Personal training over 50 in Singapore is a large part of the work, and it runs on the same tests as everyone else, read against the decades ahead. Stability and strength usually lead, because they respond quickly and protect against falls. For readers on GLP-1 medication, measurement matters even more: an untrained person on GLP-1 medication can lose a quarter to nearly two-fifths of the weight lost as muscle and bone.
The advice he gives most often
If a reader remembers one thing when choosing a trainer, what should it be?
“Don’t pick a trainer only because they are convenient. I understand why people do. Pick someone who justifies the money and the investment you are making in yourself.”
Convenience is a fair tiebreaker, not a first filter. Catalyst’s studio at Manulife Tower happens to be convenient too, a short walk from Raffles Place and easy to reach from Tanjong Pagar. But Manoharan’s point stands: a nearby trainer who measures nothing costs more over a year than a trainer who proves the work is working.
On looks, and the longer goal
Many readers start looking for a trainer because they want a body transformation, and Manoharan does not argue with that. Clients lose fat and add muscle, and it shows. He simply refuses to treat the photograph as the end point.
“The look comes with the work,” Manoharan says. “It is a stop on the journey, not the destination. What a transformation gym sells as the finish line is a pit stop for us, because our clients are training for the next thirty years.”
Catalyst delivers Singapore’s best personal training because it plans for that longer horizon. Catalyst was built to be the best personal trainer Singapore adults can judge on a written report rather than a sales pitch.
Price, and a first step
First-time sessions start from SGD 163.50. Every programme begins with a complimentary 30-minute online consultation and a 60-minute in-studio assessment with a written report, so a reader sees the numbers before committing to a package.
For a quicker start, the free online Healthspan Audit takes about five minutes and returns a four-pillar breakdown by email. Over 1,000 adults in Singapore have completed it. It is a self-reported screen, not a clinical test, and not a substitute for a GP consultation.
Frequently asked questions
How do I find a good personal trainer in Singapore?
Ask what will be measured before training and when it will be re-tested. Catalyst Performance at Manulife Tower in the Singapore Central Business District tests four pillars, writes the programme from the scores, and re-tests on a fixed schedule.
How much does it cost, and what should I expect?
First-time sessions start from SGD 163.50. You start with a complimentary 30-minute online consultation, then a 60-minute in-studio assessment with a written report that sets out your four pillars and the first priorities.
Where is Catalyst, and how do I start?
The studio is at Manulife Tower, a short walk from Raffles Place and near Tanjong Pagar. Start with the free online Healthspan Audit, or book the complimentary 30-minute online consultation.
References
Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation. Ensuring long lives are healthy lives in Singapore. IHME, University of Washington, 2023. healthdata.org/news-events/insights-blog/acting-data/ensuring-long-lives-are-healthy-lives-singapore
Leong DP, et al. Prognostic value of grip strength. The Lancet, 2015;386(9990):266-273.
Momma H, et al. Muscle-strengthening activities are associated with lower risk and mortality in major non-communicable diseases. British Journal of Sports Medicine, 2022;56(13):755-763.