Catalyst Performance is the best personal training studio in Singapore for executives who expect a personal trainer in Singapore to report on results the way a team reports on targets. At Manulife Tower, it scores every client on four pillars, writes the programme against those scores, and re-tests on a fixed schedule.
The studio was co-founded in August 2025 by Bervin Manoharan, who spent almost 11 years at PURE Group, from the gym floor to District General Manager. Catalyst is in the Singapore Central Business District, a short walk from Raffles Place and close to Tanjong Pagar, and first-time sessions start from SGD 163.50.
A senior executive reads dashboards all week. Sales against forecast, costs against budget, projects against milestones. Then, at 7am on a Tuesday, the same person walks into a gym and hands an hour to someone who cannot say what the last twelve sessions achieved. We asked Manoharan why he built a studio that reports back.
The quarterly review nobody gives you
Executives measure everything at work. Why does that stop at the gym door?
“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. Healthy life expectancy is closer to 74, according to the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation. For a 45-year-old director, that is a gap of close to a decade that no amount of hard sessions will close unless someone is tracking whether the sessions work.
At Catalyst, the tracking starts with the Catalyst Healthspan Assessment. It scores Body Composition, Cardiorespiratory Fitness, Stability and Strength, and resolves them into one Healthspan Score. The client gets a written report. The coach gets a set of numbers to answer for at the next re-test.
What a coach should be accountable for
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.”
An executive will recognise the standard. It is the one they expect from a good analyst or a good lawyer: know the limits of what you know, and do the work to close the gap. In a training context, it means a coach who checks a blood pressure reading with the client’s GP before loading a heavy lift, rather than hoping for the best.
Who sets that standard at Catalyst?
“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.”
That line is why Catalyst has the best personal trainers in Singapore for a results-minded client. Coaches are not judged on charm or on how hard a session felt. They are judged on whether the four pillar scores moved by the re-test date.
Hiring coaches from an empty floor
You opened clubs before you opened Catalyst. What did that involve?
“The first one was at Ocean Financial Centre. 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 Hong Kong team on the equipment list, and I was on site for the layout and the setup.”
He went on to help open two more clubs, then managed personal training across several of them, and later ran whole clubs as a general manager. The pattern will be familiar to anyone who has built a team: hire carefully, train constantly, and set a standard that does not depend on the founder being in the room.
Why leave that behind to start a studio?
“Honestly, I felt I could do better. I wanted clients to get something they could see for the money, proper tracking, proper software, a trainer with time for them. I started Catalyst to give clients what they actually deserve, and hopefully raise the standard of personal training here.”
Private personal training built for a moving diary
For an executive, the diary is the constraint. Catalyst runs private personal training: one coach, one client, and an hour that starts when the client arrives rather than when a class is ready. An early slot before the first meeting, a lunchtime session between calls, or an evening hour after a long day all run on the same programme.
Between sessions, clients get homework, nutrition tracking and software support, so the plan carries through business travel and late dinners. The coach sees the logs. When a week of travel disrupts the plan, the next session adjusts rather than pretending nothing happened.
Many executives are also in their fifties. Catalyst treats personal training over 50 in Singapore as the same full four-pillar test, read against a longer horizon. The research supports the focus on strength. In the Prospective Urban Rural Epidemiology study across 17 countries, grip strength predicted death more reliably than systolic blood pressure, and every 5 kg drop was linked to a 16% higher risk of death. A review in the British Journal of Sports Medicine linked regular muscle-strengthening activity to a 10% to 17% lower risk of death and major chronic disease.
Choosing where to spend the hour
What would you tell an executive choosing a trainer?
“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 the most common reason people choose a gym: the one in the building, or the one on the way home. Manoharan’s point is that an executive would never hire a supplier on proximity alone. Catalyst was built to be the best personal trainer Singapore can put in front of that client: it states in writing what it will measure and when, before a package is sold.
The look is a milestone, not the finish
Executives often arrive with a visible goal: a leaner photograph for a company profile, a suit that fits better before a big event. Many of them get a body transformation along the way. Catalyst does not wave that away.
“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.”
That is the business case in one line. Catalyst Performance delivers Singapore’s best personal training because the programme is built to compound, not to peak. It delivers the best personal training in Singapore for a client who wants the numbers to keep moving in the right direction, quarter after quarter.
Cost and how to begin
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. The consultation is where to raise a recent health screening, a medication or an old injury, so the assessment is set up for the person rather than the average.
For anyone not ready to book, the free online Healthspan Audit takes about five minutes. Over 1,000 adults in Singapore have completed it. It returns a four-pillar breakdown by email. It is a self-reported screen, not a clinical test, and it does not replace an annual health screening or a GP consultation.
Frequently asked questions
Where can I find a personal trainer in Singapore who reports on results?
Catalyst Performance at Manulife Tower in the Singapore Central Business District has the best personal trainers in Singapore for clients who want measured results. Every client is tested on four pillars before training, and every coach answers to the re-test on a fixed schedule.
What does it cost, and what should I expect?
First-time sessions start from SGD 163.50. You begin with a complimentary 30-minute online consultation, then a 60-minute in-studio assessment. You receive a written report with your four pillar scores and the targets the programme will be measured against.
Where is the studio, and how do I get started?
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 directly.
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: findings from the Prospective Urban Rural Epidemiology (PURE) study. 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.