Note: This visit to Catalyst Performance was hosted by the gym. All opinions are my own.
I’ll be upfront: I’m not a gym fanatic. I play football on weekends, get on the road bike when I can, and I’ve recently taken up yoga in a somewhat desperate attempt to deal with what I’ll call a collection of accumulated injuries — a torn ACL, a meniscus tear, lower back pain, and glutes so weak and tight they’re practically decorative. So when I was offered a tour of Catalyst Performance, a personal training studio at Manulife Tower in the CBD, I figured: what’s there to lose? Besides my dignity, possibly.
Their philosophy, printed on the floor. Bold. Let’s see if it checks out.
Getting There: Manulife Tower, Right Above Telok Ayer MRT
Catalyst Performance is at 8 Cross Street, #05-03 Manulife Tower, directly above Telok Ayer MRT (Downtown Line, DT18). If you’re coming from the CBD or Tanjong Pagar, it’s a short walk entirely in the air-conditioning. Take the lift to the fifth floor and look for #05-03.
First Impressions: Serious Without Being Intimidating
Walking in, you notice immediately that this is not a commercial gym. There’s no jungle of cardio machines, no televisions blaring, no queue for the bench press. The reception area — dominated by the backlit “CATALYST PERFORMANCE” lettering — is clean, dark-toned, and quietly purposeful. The kind of place that makes you want to stand up straight.
Dr Luqman Haris, one of the co-founders and the Head of Training Systems, was my host for the morning. He has a medical degree (MBBS) and his view is that by the time disease shows up in a clinic, it’s been measurable in a gym for years. That framing — fitness as preventive medicine — colours everything about how Catalyst approaches training. He’s the kind of person who can explain visceral fat levels and progressive overload in the same breath and make both sound completely accessible.
The 4-Pillar Assessment: Where They Actually Measure You
Before any training begins, every new member goes through Catalyst’s proprietary 4-Pillar Healthspan Assessment. The four pillars are: Body Composition, Cardio Capacity, Stability, and Strength. The idea is to get a data-driven baseline — not a generic programme pulled off the shelf — so your training addresses what you actually need.
Homer Simpson needs a body transformation himself.
Cardio capacity is probably the easiest station for me.
Surprisingly to myself, with the strength grip calculator, it seems my strength dropped significantly compared to before. Likely due to the lack of strength training in recent years.
The body composition part uses an InBody 370S scan, which sends a mild electrical current through your body to measure muscle mass, fat mass, hydration, and several other markers. It takes about a minute, and the readout is detailed enough to be slightly humbling.
My results came back with an InBody Score of 89 out of 100, weight 73.9 kg, and skeletal muscle mass of 35.2 kg — above the normal range, which apparently means I’m more muscular than I look. That was news to me. Body fat at 15.8% landed solidly in the normal range, and my body type was classified as “Above Average D-Type” — the athlete’s profile, Dr Luqman explained. High muscle mass relative to body weight, with body fat within or slightly above normal. This is the profile commonly misidentified as overweight on a standard BMI chart, which is why BMI alone tells you very little.
The less reassuring numbers: visceral fat level 4 (good, thankfully) but a pattern in my segmental analysis that pointed to the stability and mobility deficit I already suspected. The scan confirmed what my knees and lower back have been trying to tell me for years.
The Gym Floor: Built to Destroy (Then Rebuild) You
The studio is split across several zones. There’s a dedicated cardio room with Concept2 rowing machines, SkiErg machines, and air bikes — all facing a view of the CBD skyline, which at least makes the suffering more scenic. Then there’s the main floor: rows of adjustable dumbbells, benches with resistance bands, cable machines, and at the back, a row of power racks loaded and ready.
Because it’s a private personal training studio, you only come in for sessions with a trainer. No crowded floor, no one hogging the squat rack. Everything is prescription-based — the programme is built off your four pillar scores, not a template. If your cardio capacity is fine but your stability is poor, that’s where the work goes.
What This Means for Someone With Dodgy Knees and Tight Glutes
I’ll be honest — I came in half-expecting to be told I was basically fine and sent off with a vague recommendation to “train more consistently.” That’s not what happened.
Dr Luqman was measured but clear: my profile — high muscle mass, history of ACL and meniscus damage, lower back pain, weak and tight glutes — points to a stability and mobility deficit that football, road cycling, and yoga alone aren’t going to fix. The glute weakness in particular, he explained, is one of the most common drivers of both knee and lower back problems. You can keep building strength, but if the supporting structures aren’t there, you’re building on a shaky foundation.
It’s exactly the kind of framing I needed to hear from someone who knows what they’re talking about — not a sales pitch, just a plain reading of the data.
Worth Your Time? My Honest Take
Catalyst Performance is not cheap. It’s a private studio offering personal training only — you’re paying for the facility, the expertise, and the prescriptive approach. If you want a no-frills membership to do your own thing, this is not the place.
But if you’re someone like me — you’re not a beginner, you have specific goals or specific physical issues, and you’re tired of guessing whether your current routine is actually helping — then the structured assessment and data-driven programme make genuine sense. The 4-Pillar Assessment alone gave me more useful information in an hour than years of weekend football and occasional cycling have.
Their free 60-minute assessment is where I’d start. It costs nothing except an honest look at where you actually stand — and possibly a rethink of what you thought you knew about your own fitness.
Official Details
Catalyst Performance
8 Cross Street, #05-03 Manulife Tower, Singapore 048424
Nearest MRT: Telok Ayer (Downtown Line, DT18)
Hours: Mon–Fri 6am–8pm | Sat–Sun 8am–2pm
Website: catalystperformance.sg
Instagram: @catalystperformancesg
