South African Quintin Roman first came to Singapore in 1999 for a holiday.
After falling in love with this country, he settled here and worked as a personal trainer and strength coach for school rugby teams.
In 2003, he was recruited by the Singapore Sports School to set up its gym and to design individualised training programmes for the elite sporting youths.
Not what you think
Mr Roman feels that his field of work often does not get the credit it deserves.
He says most people think that a strength and conditioning (S&C) coach is 'just like a fitness instructor you find in any gym, who makes you bang weights and do push-ups when you come in'.
"That's nonsense," says the 35-year-old with a laugh. "It's more sophisticated than that."
Mr Roman, who works in the Sports Science Academy at the Singapore Sports School, explains that one has to process plenty of information and apply scientific knowledge before any weight gets lifted.
Each athlete has a different set of training needs based on the sport and individual differences.
To design a programme for an athlete, he needs information from the Sports Science staff such as the physiotherapists, psychologists, biomechanists and physiologists.
From the physiotherapist, for example, Mr Roman finds out what musculoskeletal issues have to be addressed in each athlete, such as deficiencies in joint stability, core strength or flexibility.
For the athlete who has excess weight, he works with the nutritionist to design a weight-loss programme.
With the physiologist, he measures an athlete's performance on the field. The data is used to determine if the athlete is on par with his peers around the world.
An S&C coach cannot work alone. He has to 'take on board all the sciences in the sports science department'.
Mr Roman says his goal is to help athletes prevent injury and excel in a sport.
"Strength and conditioning, in general, involves applying different forces to movement," he says.
By applying various forces and resistances to the body during strength training, the body learns to cope with these forces, he explains.
Classroom lessons
Besides training athletes, Mr Roman is also a myth-buster for his young charges.
"There are myths associated with strength training, like, 'If I do strength training, will it stunt my growth? Will it make me slower?' and so on," he says.
"All these myths are unfounded. I think all these myths are born from the fact that when we watch TV or look at images, we see short guys lifting heavy weights in the Olympics, for example.
"But it's not strength training which made them short. It's because shorter people are better at the sport than taller people."
Shorter people have an advantage because they move the weights over a shorter distance, explains Mr Roman.
To deal with misinformation, part of his job is to conduct academic lessons on S&C. During these lessons, the athletes are given handouts and worksheets, and they are required to take notes.
For example, they may learn about core stability and how it helps them, strength training principles, movement planes and muscle groups, he says.
In the long run
Mr Roman used to play rugby for his university in South Africa. The Singapore permanent resident also played at club level and in the national team in Singapore.
While he no longer plays rugby competitively, he is not neglecting his body.
"My training goal is to stay healthy, fit and strong - for the long run," he says.
He knows the young athletes are watching him. He says: "I want to be strong and run faster than them."
Seriously though, he wants to encourage them to train beyond their retirement from competitive sports.
"I want to be a role model to my athletes," he says.
"I want to show that you can still be doing this when you're beyond the age of 35."
