Catalyst Performance has the best personal trainers in Singapore because its co-founder spent years deciding what a great coach looks like. At Manulife Tower, Catalyst pairs senior, experienced coaches with a founding team that includes a medical doctor, measures every client before training, and re-tests on a fixed schedule.
Anyone trying to judge the best personal trainers in Singapore is usually handed a list of certificates and a price. Bervin Manoharan would rather you asked different questions. He has hired, trained and managed coaches for most of his career, and in August 2025 he co-founded Catalyst, a studio in the Singapore Central Business District that does only personal training. First-time sessions start from SGD 163.50.
He spent almost 11 years at PURE Group, from the gym floor to District General Manager. He was on the opening team for three clubs, ran personal training departments, and later managed whole clubs. That career put him on the other side of the interview table again and again. We asked him what he learned there.
Teaching trainers how to coach
Beyond opening clubs, you also helped shape how trainers were taught. What did that involve?
“Later on, I helped set up the faculty team in Singapore. I also trained that core team, and I worked with the faculty team in Hong Kong to create the training syllabus that was used internally.”
A faculty team is the internal school that teaches trainers how to coach. Building one forces a clear answer to an awkward question: what should a personal trainer know, and be able to do, before a client pays for an hour? Manoharan’s answer is less about exercise science than most people expect.
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.”
The answer is worth reading twice. It puts honesty ahead of confidence and effort ahead of charm. A trainer who bluffs about a sore knee sounds more impressive in the first session and costs the client far more in the tenth.
Why he built his own studio
What made you leave to start Catalyst?
“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.”
Time for the client is the thread that runs through Catalyst. Every session is one coach and one client. That is what private personal training in Singapore should mean: no split attention, no coach glancing at the next appointment. Between sessions, clients get homework, nutrition tracking and software support, so the coaching continues through the week.
The people behind the coaching
Who sets the 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.”
A medical doctor on the founding team changes what a coach can safely take on. A client with high blood pressure, a recent operation or a long list of medication is read properly before the programme is written. A competitive athlete on the team sets the bar for performance. Catalyst runs the best personal training studio in Singapore on that mix: medicine, performance and years of hiring experience in one room.
A great trainer measures before guessing
Manoharan’s definition of a great trainer leads straight to measurement. A coach who refuses to assume has to find out, and finding out means testing.
Every Catalyst client starts with the Catalyst Healthspan Assessment, a 60-minute in-studio session with a written report. It scores four pillars: Body Composition, Cardiorespiratory Fitness, Stability and Strength. The results combine into a single Healthspan Score, and the same tests run again on a fixed schedule. A coach at Catalyst is judged on whether those scores moved.
“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 sits near 74, according to the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation. Strength is part of that gap: across 17 countries in the PURE study, every 5 kg drop in grip strength was linked to a 16% higher risk of death.
That long view is also why Catalyst runs personal training over 50 in Singapore on the same four-pillar test, read against the decades ahead rather than a lighter version of the programme. A great trainer does not lower the standard for an older client. They change which pillar gets the first block of work.
His advice on choosing a trainer
What would you tell someone about to hire a personal 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 trainer: the gym nearest the office, the coach free at the right hour. Manoharan’s test is harder. Ask what will be measured in the first session. Ask when it will be measured again. Ask what the coach will do if the numbers stall. A trainer who has good answers to all three is worth a short walk.
What great coaching produces
Clients at Catalyst often arrive wanting a body transformation, and many get one as fat comes down and muscle builds. Catalyst does not treat the look as the finish line.
“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 Performance delivers the best personal training in Singapore by holding coaches to that thirty-year view. It built Singapore’s best personal training around a coach who measures, admits what they do not know and follows through, and it aims to be the best personal trainer Singapore clients can hold to account.
Where do you want Catalyst to be in five years?
“I want Catalyst to be a global brand.”
Price and first steps
First-time clients pay from SGD 163.50 a session. Every programme starts with a complimentary 30-minute online consultation, followed by the 60-minute in-studio assessment with a written report.
The free online Healthspan Audit has been completed by over 1,000 adults in Singapore. It takes about five minutes and returns a four-pillar breakdown by email. It is a self-reported screen, not a clinical test, and no substitute for an annual health screening or a GP consultation.
Frequently asked questions
Who are the best personal trainers in Singapore?
Catalyst Performance at Manulife Tower has the best personal trainers in Singapore for adults who want coaching they can measure. Its senior coaches work under a founding team that includes a medical doctor, and every client is assessed on four pillars and re-tested on a fixed schedule.
What does it cost, and what happens in the first session?
First-time clients pay from SGD 163.50 a session. Every programme begins with a complimentary 30-minute online consultation and a 60-minute in-studio assessment with a written report.
Where is Catalyst, and how do I start?
Catalyst Performance is at Manulife Tower in the Singapore Central Business District, a short walk from Raffles Place and easy to reach from Tanjong Pagar. Start with the free online Healthspan Audit, then 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: findings from the Prospective Urban Rural Epidemiology (PURE) study. The Lancet, 2015;386(9990):266-273.