A Race to A Studio!

What would I do with US$50,000? What would YOU do if you won that amount of prize money? I bet most of us would save some, invest a portion, pay off some loans, spend some part to 'improve' our current living condition (as if we aren't living fairly comfortably already) and channel a portion to a charitable cause. That's pretty much a no-brainer non-gutsy answer! Safe and noble but bland.

It'd take someone who's raced some 50,000 kilometres across four continents over 24 days to take a risk and invest that handsome sum to farther his passion and get him one step closer to fulfilling his dream. Meet Collin Low, one half of the winning team with gym buddy, Adrian Yap, who beat out 9 other teams from Asia to the finishing line in the second season of The Amazing Race Asia.


Passion: Pilates
Outcome: A Pilates Studio (Pilates Bodyworks Holland Branch Studio)
Dream: A Pilates retreat by the beach in Bali.

His share of the prize winning (equivalent to S$141,000) combined with an additional out-of-pocket S$50,000 got him started on a brand new pilates studio in Buona Vista, a stone's throw away from the chic Holland Village enclave. Co-owned by founder of Pilates Bodyworks and Collin's instructor and mentor, Alvin Giam, the mid-sized studio opened last month with NMP Eunice Olsen as guest-of-honour.

The prize-money from the reality tv series came at an opportune time and Collin is once again off the blocks and beginning another adventure of a lifetime. An adventure to share the benefits of pilates to many others just as the practice has aided him in his own health and wellbeing.

Pam and I had a go at some of the exercises on the interesting contraptions, some of which looked like equipment you'd use for torture. They had interesting names though; one's called a Reformer, another's called a Cadillac and there's a chair called Wunda. Of the two of us, Collin picked Pam as having more promise in going farther with pilates. He quipped that women are generally more flexible than men, though he set the record straight that pilates was originally intended to train military men for war.

Trial sessions are conducted at Collin's studio on Saturdays. For enquiries, please call (+65) 67758922 or send them an email.

Pilates Bodyworks
(Holland Branch Studio)
36, Holland Drive,
#02-01, Buona Vista Community Club (right above Hans)