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In this episode of the Wellness in China podcast I speak with Dan Siekman, co-founder of the popular natural fruit energy bar, Dali Bar.   Dali Bar uses natural ingredients like figs, almonds, cashews, ginger, cacao powder, dates etc. to make some of the best tasting energy bars I’ve ever had.   They are more […]

Thames Wagantrapavich is the co-founder of gre3n coconut water and is an all around interesting dude. Thames Wagantrapavich是gre3n品牌椰子饮料的联合创始人。同时，他也是一个性格风趣的家伙。 gre3n is a scrappy little startup that burst on the scene with it’s best-in-class coconut water and fun, funky attitude, that has since seen it partner with several of China’s leading health and wellness brands. gre3n是一家小规模公司，凭着其有趣的企业文化、尖锐的生意眼光与品质至优的椰子饮料，获得了中国几家顶尖健康品牌的青睐。 Without […]

  What a ride! 听天由命！   As I write this, it’s 11 days since fight night. 当我在写这篇文章时，拳击比赛结束已有11天了。   It’s only now sinking in that the journey is over, and ‘normal’ life is beginning to settle in again. I have to be honest, it’s kind of boring. Now that the fear, anxiety, anticipation and excitement have […]

We’re here. 我们又回来了。 In a couple days, it’ll all be over. 还有几天，这一切就结束了。 What a great journey it has been, and just a few days until fight night. 距离比赛的日子只剩下几天，这一路走来真的非常精彩！ At this point, the hard work is done, and it’s just about staying sharp and fresh. 眼下最艰难的时刻已经过去了。现在我只需时刻保持清醒与敏锐。 The final week has been mostly sparring for me, building […]

Wooooo! Starting to feel it now!   Just over a week until fight night!   Training is going well, feeling strong, confident, focused, and this is causing a corresponding shift in mentality as the fight draws nearer.   The training sessions continue to include a mix of cardio training, drilling and sparring, and I continue to […]

Man, I can’t believe it’s Week 8 already! Time seems to be flying by.   I think this is probably a normal phenomenon when you have a challenge waiting for you on the horizon, for which a great deal of preparation is required. Your mind is thinking about all the things that need to be […]

Fights / fighters picked last week, and the first Week of ‘Real Training’ has begun.   The teams have been split up based on the matchups, so each team has 3 nights a week of scheduled training. The intensity has definitely stepped up, and the balance has begun to shift in favour of technique training […]

And we’re in!   Tonight (Friday Oct 28th) was fight selection night. Myself and another one of the participants in my weight class (87kg) were the second group to spar. We did one round, both got some good shots in, and when we finished they told us on the spot that we were in!   […]

Sparring has started!   In this episode, I discuss my first experience sparring, immediately after getting home from the session.   The sparring was more intense than I expected, and I took a few good shots to the face and gut, but came out more or less unscathed (though I had a bit of a […]

The holidays are over and it’s back to the regular training schedule! I’m feeling recovered and strong! This week there was a lot more contact drilling, and it was nice to start getting hit a bit. Gonna have to get used to it sooner or later, so might as well get started! In this episode […]

This episode of ‘Building a Brawler’ focuses on some modified training due to the restricted gym schedule over the October holiday. This left more time for self-study, and I also did some independent training, focusing mainly on skipping and shadow boxing. Really beginning to see the importance of shadow boxing for making the right connections […]

In the second episode in the series, John talks about the challenges of adapting to the rigorous workout schedule, how he recovers from the sessions, and a how he is trying to be patient with his fitness and with the technique, so he doesn’t rush it and invite injury or miss important technique fundamentals.   […]

Welcome to the first episode of ‘Building a Brawler’! In this series I’ll be chronicling the 10 weeks of boxing training leading up to the ‘Brawl on the Bund’ in Shanghai on Dec 3rd. I’ll be documenting everything to do with the preparation for fight night, including diet, fitness training, technique development, rest and recovery, […]

Welcome to the first ‘Selfie-Cast’! We’ve gotten lots of great feedback from our listeners about some of the specific (and fun) questions we ask our guests at the end of each show, so this shorter-form content, which we are calling ‘Selfie-Casts’ (though I also refer to it as a ’Selfie-sode’ in the show) is an […]

Hello ladies and gents, and welcome back to another episode of the Wellness in China podcast. Today on the show I am joined by one of China’s most prolific expat entrepreneurs, and the founder of the ’naked’ brand and group of companies, Mr. Grant Horsfield. For several years Grant and the team at naked have […]

Hello everyone and welcome back to the Wellness in China podcast. In this episode I speak with Christin Wu , the founder of Essentials Protein Bar, one of Shanghai’s first cafes for sports nutrition. I wanted to speak with Christin for a couple reasons. For one, she was born and raised in Shanghai, and I’m […]

Hello everyone and welcome back to another episode of the Tech in Shanghai podcast. This week on the show I speak with Wolf Illing, one of two co-founders of local O2O startup, Saucepan. Saucepan is a food delivery company that focuses on providing ready-to-eat, great-tasting, and healthy meals, using the highest quality ingredients. Launched in […]

Welcome back everyone to another episode of the Wellness in China podcast. This week on the show I speak with one of Shanghai’s premier health and fitness personalities, and a good buddy of mine, Mr. Alan Leung. Alan is the owner of Olive Branch, a boutique fitness studio in downtown Shanghai. In both small group […]

Hello everyone, and welcome back to another episode of the Wellness in China Podcast. Joining me today on the show is Mr. Fionn Wright. Fionn and I have had a number of great chats ‘off-air’, so I thought it was only right to mic him up for an episode of the podcast. I’m not quite […]

Welcome back to another episode of the Wellness in China podcast. Today on the show I am joined by entrepreneur, practising Doctor of Traditional Chinese Medicine, and all around exceptional woman, Doris Rathgeber. Doris is the founder of Body and Soul Medical clinics, and is one of the head TCM physicians there. Doris has been […]