Dedicated secondary school students share their inspiring story of bodybuilding.
By Justin Tai
A rejection from a crush may lead to a broken heart. But to Huang Wang Yu, it can be a source of power in the gym. The teenager started bodybuilding to mend his broken heart when he was 15.
“Being rejected turns out to be a good thing that makes me embark on my fitness journey,” the Form Six secondary school student recalls with a smile.
As the leader of the Bodybuilding and Fitness Society of Salem-Immanuel Lutheran College, Huang, now 18, has a six-day workout routine, in which he starts off with training his chest, followed by back on the second day and legs on the third.
“Each exercise is repeated for four sets until I reach my limits, a cardio-session is also added in each workout, which lasts around one-and-a-half to two hours,” he shares.
The cycle repeats twice a week with just one rest day in between.
Apart from Huang’s daily workout routine, he does not let his guard down on his diet as the goal is to keep fit and lower his body fat.
“My diet is bland and boring, I’ve been consuming as little rice and oil as I can, and my diet is mainly composed of meat and vegetables,” he shares.
In July 2024, his school held an inter-school bodybuilding competition. The 18-year-old won second place.
“The feeling was so crazy, because I have never thought the show would stir up this much attention from the bodybuilding community and the media,” Huang shares.
Behind the stage was not all sunshine and rainbows.
“Four months before the competition were the most tiresome and difficult periods,” Huang recalls.
With strict diet discipline, he only ate boiled chicken breast and blanched broccoli, and the amount of carbohydrates could be counted on the fingers of one hand.
“I kept eating the same thing three times a day for three months straight, let alone the six-day weightlifting and cardio routine. It was a living death,” the bodybuilder sighs.
Besides Huang’s daily routine, he also had to keep up with his studies and prepare for exams.
“It was pretty hard for me. But I decided to focus more on the competition and put away my studies for a while,” Huang recalls.
To recover muscle and release stress, Huang cut the workout routine down to three days a week just before the competition, ensuring he was in peak condition.
Having fulfilled one of his bodybuilding ambitions through the competition, Huang sees it as the beginning of his bodybuilding journey.
“I will participate in bodybuilding competitions when I am in university and win as many awards as I can. I want to be a fitness coach or a personal trainer,” he says.
While Huang started bodybuilding for a romantic reason, his gym buddy Law Tsz Shing, who just wanted to kill time by doing workout, has evolved from a shy boy to a confident young man.
“I had so much spare time that I didn’t know what to do, so I thought working out would be great, I might as well improve myself,” the 18-year-old student, who started bodybuilding when he was in Form Four, says.
“I’ve been sticking to a five-day workout routine. A week starts off with chest, followed by arms, back, shoulders, and legs, I usually do four sets of twelve reps for each exercise,” he shares.
Like most beginners, Law did not have any clue of what to do at the gym.
“When I first stepped in the gym, I felt uneasy because I didn’t know anything about fitness and weightlifting,” Law recalls.
The shy teenager in the first three months of lifting was guided by Huang, who encouraged him to join the bodybuilding competition.
“I was so nervous about this, especially during the two weeks before the competition. It gave me so much pressure knowing that I would be half-naked and posing in front of a big crowd,” the secondary student, who came fourth in the contest, says.
Law has evolved from once a timid and skinny boy to a man standing up on the stage showcasing his muscles.
“I wasn’t as sporty as I am today. I was more academic-oriented and I played sports just to kill time, but now going to the gym has become a hobby,” Law shares.
“I never thought of becoming a professional bodybuilder anytime soon; lifting weights is simply an interest for me now,” the 18-year-old adds.
The transformation of these young men would not have been possible without Wong Chun Man, one of the masterminds behind the school’s bodybuilding society and competition.
Also, as a gym-goer himself, Wong believes the results of working out are much harder to achieve than solving a math problem.
“I believe students who are in the bodybuilding society are very persistent and aren’t afraid of hardships. Even if you keep working out tirelessly, you may not see changes instantly. Because it takes so much perseverance and time. But for studying, as long as you revise, you can quickly see improvements,” Wong shares.
“Students can learn this important life lesson of being determined, that you must put in great effort in order to have great results,” he adds.
He points out that encouraging students to work out also helps solve their sleeping problem.
Wong, the vice-principal, also believes it is challenging for the young generations to find a particular hobby or interest due to the era of smartphones.
“Using one to two hours of your day working out at the gym is far better than two hours of mindless scrolling on smartphones,” Wong shares.
“Seeing the way students enjoy a specific hobby other than playing smartphones and getting results from it is already a great success to me,” he adds.
As the bodybuilding competition has gained traction from the public, the vice-principal decides to organize the competition again this year on 9th July.
“We have invited all secondary schools in Tai Po District to take part in the event this time, including the alumni. We hope to promote this event on a bigger scale,” he shares.
Edited by James Cheang
Subedited by Daniel Koong
