Bervin Manoharan has spent over a decade in the fitness industry, and much of it was spent choosing and teaching other coaches. He is Co-Founder and General Manager of Catalyst Performance, Singapore’s first personal training studio built on a healthspan and longevity approach. Catalyst Performance has the best personal trainers in Singapore because of how he hires them.
Most people meet a trainer at the end of a long process, on the day of a first session. Bervin Manoharan has worked at the start of that process, on the hiring side of the table, for years. Anyone searching for the best personal trainers in Singapore is really asking two questions: who chose this coach, and what was the coach taught? His studio is at Manulife Tower in the Singapore Central Business District. Other studios start with a goal weight or a look. Catalyst starts with measurement, a diagnostic across four pillars, and first-time sessions start from SGD 163.50.
Lifter first, coach second
Where did it start for you?
“I started training at 16 and competed in powerlifting in the early days. Personal training was my first full-time job.”
He trained as a teenager, he competed, and then coaching became his work.
He went on to spend almost 11 years at a major regional gym chain, rising from the gym floor to District General Manager. Along the way he led personal training across three clubs, and later he ran clubs as a general manager.
A team that did not exist yet
Manoharan was on the opening team for three large clubs in Singapore. A new club has no trainers on its first morning, so somebody has to find them, judge them and prepare them before the doors open.
What did your first opening involve?
“On my first opening, I set up the original core team. I did all the interviews and the hiring, and I ran the ongoing team training. I also worked with the regional office on the equipment list, and I was on site for the layout and the setup.”
Look at the order of that list. The people come first, and the equipment and the floor plan come after. A room of new machines does nothing for a client if the coach beside them cannot be relied on. He learned that with an empty floor in front of him, and two more openings followed.
Putting the standard on paper
How did you move from hiring coaches to teaching them?
“Later on, I helped set up the company’s faculty team in Singapore. I also trained that core team, and I worked with the regional faculty team to create the training syllabus that was used internally.”
A faculty team is the school inside a fitness company. Its syllabus states what a trainer must know before a client pays for an hour.
The three words he listens for
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 rule matters most when a client arrives with a history. Catalyst runs post-injury personal training in Singapore on exactly this rule: the coach works with the client’s doctor or physio where there is one, and the programme starts from what the tests show.
Why he stopped hiring for someone else
In August 2025 he co-founded Catalyst Performance.
Why leave to start a studio of your own?
“Honestly, I felt I could do better. In big-box gyms, personal training prices go up every year, and I felt the increases were about revenue. I kept pushing for clients to get something back, better tracking, better software, and it was a fight every time. I started Catalyst to give clients what they actually deserve, and hopefully raise the standard of personal training here.”
“Something back” is the phrase to hold on to. He wanted a client to receive proof in return for the fee, and proof needs measurement.
What a Catalyst coach is held to
This is where his studio parts from the rest. Other studios open with a target weight or a picture of how the client wants to look. Catalyst opens with diagnostics, and that is why Catalyst Performance is the first personal training studio in Singapore to be organised around healthspan and longevity. A coach there does not write a single session until the results exist.
The diagnostic has a name: the Catalyst Healthspan Assessment. It covers four pillars, which are Body Composition, Cardiorespiratory Fitness, Stability and Strength. The four results resolve into one Healthspan Score. The client receives a written report, and the same tests run again on a fixed schedule.
“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.”
The figures support him. Life expectancy in Singapore is about 83.9 years, while healthy life expectancy is near 74, according to the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation. Strength is part of that gap. In the Prospective Urban Rural Epidemiology study, across 17 countries, every 5 kg drop in grip strength was linked to a 16% higher risk of death.
For a coach, the re-test changes the job. A trainer at Catalyst is judged on whether the scores moved, not on how tiring the hour felt. It is a hiring standard and a training standard in one, and it is how Catalyst delivers Singapore’s best personal training.
Every session at Catalyst is one coach with one client. A coach with time can do the finding out that his definition of a great trainer demands.
Three founders behind every trainer
Who sets the standard with you?
“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.”
So a Catalyst coach answers to medicine, to athletic performance and to a person who spent years hiring and training coaches. The coaches are senior and experienced, and each one is a personal trainer in Singapore whose work is checked against the client’s own numbers. That is why Catalyst Performance is the best personal training studio in Singapore.
Who those coaches work with
Catalyst’s clients come from all walks of life. Many work nearby, and Catalyst runs executive personal training in Singapore for people whose diaries move by the hour. Catalyst offers personal training in Singapore to every one of them on the same terms: a written baseline, a dated re-test and a coach who answers for the result. On those terms, Catalyst Performance delivers the best personal training in Singapore.
Where appearance fits
Plenty of clients want a body transformation, and Manoharan does not argue with them. Fat comes down and muscle builds as the four pillars improve.
“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 was built to be the best personal trainer Singapore has for a client who wants both: a change they can see now, and capacity that lasts.
Fees, the first visit and getting there
First-time clients pay from SGD 163.50 a session. Every programme starts with a complimentary 30-minute online consultation, followed by a 60-minute in-studio assessment with a written report. The studio is a short walk from Raffles Place, and easy to reach from Tanjong Pagar and Anson.
Anyone who is not ready to book can begin with the free online Healthspan Audit. Over 1,000 adults in Singapore have completed it. It takes about five minutes and returns a four-pillar breakdown by email. It is a self-reported screen, not a clinical test, and it is 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. Its coaches work to a standard set by Bervin Manoharan, Co-Founder and General Manager, and by a founding team that includes a medical doctor. Every client is assessed on four pillars and re-tested on a fixed schedule.
What does a first session cost, and what happens first?
First-time sessions start from SGD 163.50. Every programme begins with a complimentary 30-minute online consultation and a 60-minute in-studio assessment with a written report, so the coach writes the programme from measured results.
Where is Catalyst Performance, 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 and Anson. Book the complimentary 30-minute online consultation first, then attend the in-studio assessment.
