Author: Jeremy
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$55 a month with no contract, but what are the trade-offs?
Every so often I go through the Google reviews for Ark Grit. I am not going to pretend some of them do not sting. The complaints are mostly the same few things. Cockroaches. Water on the floor. Machines that are broken, or broken again, or taking too long to come back. And every now and…
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Before You Buy a Fitness Franchise
One of the most convincing things a franchise salesperson can tell you is that the existing franchisees are doing well. You might even know one of them. They opened a gym several years ago, recovered their investment, and now own a second outlet. The brand keeps expanding. You train there yourself. It feels like a…
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Podcast with The Usual Place, The Straits Times
I was on The Usual Place podcast with Natasha and Debby Lim from Dentons Rodyk to talk about the recent True Fitness and True Yoga closures. We spoke about why the fitness industry has become increasingly difficult for large-format gyms, what it actually costs to run a gym, why businesses like selling prepaid packages, and…
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No Sheet Music — Part 1
There is a moment in every skill-based pursuit where you know exactly where you stand. The first time you attempt a muscle up, you hang from the bar and nothing happens. But the progression is visible from the start — negatives, then an ugly kip, then a clean rep. At every stage, you know what…
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Twenty Years, Twenty Millimetres
Twenty years ago, I was in polytechnic spending a great deal of time climbing. During the pandemic, Movement First built climbing walls in people’s homes. In March 2026, a wall we built opened to the public at Temasek Shophouse. Written this way, it sounds as though I had planned the whole progression. I had not.…
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If School Could Make Someone Like Me Hate It
I recently saw a limerick displayed prominently on the wall of a primary school: Perhaps it was chosen because it rhymed correctly. Perhaps nobody thought much about it before enlarging it and putting it on a wall for hundreds of children to read every day. But look at what it actually says. A wonderful star…
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When You Are Young, Hard Work Is Your Capital. Later, Judgment Must Become Your Leverage.
In polytechnic, I could play Dota until 10 p.m., suddenly remember an assignment was due, and work until four or five in the morning. Sleep for an hour, leave home at six, reach school by eight, and keep functioning until mid-afternoon before crashing. Sometimes I went close to 30 hours without proper sleep. I was…
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Glasses Are Not an Accident
Singapore has the highest childhood myopia rate in the world. By Primary 6, roughly 65% of Singaporean children wear glasses. By university, it’s closer to 80%. A Singaporean child today is more likely to have damaged eyesight by adulthood than not. This is not a mystery. It is not a tragedy or bad luck. It…
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Good Entrepreneurs Kill Ideas
People sometimes look at our group of businesses and assume that we just keep executing based on instinct, and somehow most of the things we touch work. Movement First. Javy Sports. Fit Bloc. Arkkies. Apex. The gyms. The sports supplies. The metal fabrication. The different pieces somehow look quite neat after the fact, as if…
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Say You Were Lucky
I bought an office workstation in July last year and only set it up recently, which is slightly ridiculous but also quite typical of how business purchases sometimes happen. You buy something because it is needed, or will be needed soon, or because a window opens where you can settle the problem before it becomes…