As someone who has led an active lifestyle all her life, Sheetal understood the benefits of having a strong and healthy body, especially when she found out she was pregnant with her first baby.

“I wanted to be able to lift my baby in the correct manner without injury, and prevent aches and pains during pregnancy.” 

She started pre-partum personal training in January 2020, at her fourth month of pregnancy with our personal trainer, Evade Woon who was also six months pregnant at that time.

Sheetal is no stranger to personal training, having engaged personal trainers when she was living in Hong Kong, training one to two times a week. She had previously been training with Level trainers Lorne and John when her goal was to get strong and look toned.

But with a baby on the way and developing a newfound respect for her body, her goal shifted to training safely and working with a qualified prenatal trainer – leading her to Eva.

“Eva understood what I was going through because she was also going through a pregnancy at the same time. This allowed us to connect on a totally different level.”



When baby Sofia finally arrived in July 2020, Sheetal resumed her postpartum personal training with Eva as soon as she got the go-ahead from her doctor, ten weeks after the birth.

Eva designed a program for Sheetal that included back squats, strict presses, farmer's walks, as well as glute, core strength and upper body exercises. A typical session would include some cardio to warm up, and then some body weight exercises before using weights.

With a focus on safety, Eva dropped the weights on the usual exercises Sheetal was used to doing, focusing mostly on body weight exercises. Workouts were also designed to eliminate jumps and unnecessary dynamic movements. For example, Eva would program strict presses, not push presses, or back squats with controlled tempo (3 seconds down, 1 second up) to keep the workout safe for Sheetal.



"Resuming training after pregnancy was the best decision I made for myself".

Not only did she lose the 9kg pregnancy weight, she also noticed the ease with which she could stand up from a low stool with Sofia in her arms after a bath, something her husband struggled to do. Training has taught her to engage the right muscles while squatting or picking up heavy objects.

"Watching Eva regain her strength after her own pregnancy has been so inspiring. It made me realise that your body can regain its former strength and still be fit and healthy after giving birth"

Regular training also did wonders for Sheetal's mental health, helping to centre and ground her when she experienced mood swings during pregnancy. Post pregnancy, she also appreciated the time to herself that she had during personal training.

"I love my gym time - which is just that little 'me time', which you need as a new mom. I come back energised and invigorated to get back to time with my baby and work."



Training pre- and postpartum has allowed Sheetal to stay consistent in maintaining her lifestyle involving fitness and movement - without having to give up during her pregnancy.

"The training at Level has been by far the best I've had since I had started personal training more than 7 years ago. I can really see and feel the difference it has made for me."

Nobody Asked, But is a snippet of information as useless as it is necessary, and is a discreet response to the trumpeting cry of “many of you have asked”. It also ensures that we have a trove of content to dish out in a slow month for news, and so we couldn’t care less if this helped you or not.



Filming yourself training is a complicated thing, because while checking your form is real and necessary, the ultimate aim of filming yourself is so you have something to put up on social media to prove to the universe (or yourself) that you did the thing, and you kind of did it well.

As we all know, no one who actively trawls social media looking for training videos is interested in actual or serious training, but what everyone can appreciate is good lighting, flattering angles and some sort of nonchalance while performing a cool party trick.

The ‘effortlessness’ of movement and mastery of movement is something the real coaches at Level are best at, and not this trash piece of writing, so sign up for a PT session or go for a class because those things will actually get you better. We’re here to talk about angles and lighting, specifically for a training video that people will actually watch.

We're going to assume that you don’t have a tripod, because if you did, then literally all your problems are solved. This article is for the unprepared and the desperate— those who have spent so much time kicking up into a 5 second handstand or so much money to learn how to decently perform a Snatch. You don’t have the time or extra cash to go to a confusing tech/plushie/portable fan/karaoke mic shop to buy a tripod (you know exactly what I’m talking about), and we are here for you.

First, find your low 45 degree angle. Stand where the act is going to be performed, and face ‘the front’. This is where an audience would typically sit, if people were paying to watch you do the act. From ‘the front’, turn 45 degrees right or left, depending on light (more on that later), but more importantly, depending on the space you have. Take two large steps along that 45 degree line for a Portrait shot, and three to four large steps for a Landscape shot. This is where your camera is going to be.

These villains topped the box office = many people watched the movie. Why? Low 45 Degree Angle Shots. They literally make you look badass.

Next, find a solid object at least half the height of your phone. A barbell clip works well, but make sure it doesn’t move around easily. Your half-full shaker bottle is a good choice as well. Place this object where your feet are, then point your phone in the direction of the act.

Now, get down on your knees and adjust the camera so you get as little of the ground as possible. This increases your headroom, so you don’t get your extremities cut off. You want a bit of the ground, just a sliver of it, framing the base of your shot, so your feet can be seen. This should be a great angle to capture whatever you’re about to do.

Let’s talk about lighting! You want to be setting up your shot so that the light source is behind the camera, not in front of it, unless you want a silhouette! A light source that hits the act at the other 45 degree angle (or 90 degrees from where you’re setting up the camera), could also make for some interesting (read: very good) lighting, especially during Golden Hour.

Why the 45 degree angle at that distance? With the 45, you get to see what both your front and back parts of your body are doing, which allows you to pick up compensations when the whole body’s moving together. A fully frontal or rear shot will allow for other useful angles when it comes to static holds, but it’s hard to get sexy lighting, and therefore, a video people will actually watch.

Want more answers to unimportant questions? Stand in the middle of the gym and yell your requests to the sky! We picked up this one from all the times people have tried balancing their phones on walls, windows and small children to film themselves (and failed). Siri's always listening, and so are we.