Upon entering SPARKD, I was struck by how different it was compared to other gyms. While there were the usual types of equipment such as treadmills and weights, there were also other machines I haven’t seen before. I’m talking screens flashing with different colours and numbers. I definitely felt a little confused when I first stepped in.

However, the whole place was clean and the staff were friendly. It didn’t give off the intimidating air you might feel at a normal everyday gym (you know what I mean).

After running through some warm-up exercises with my father and me, our instructor, Anna, brought us over to a wall where she placed five detachable lights. We were going to have our first taste of SPARKD’s unique cognitive training exercises.

The goal of the exercise was simple: focus only on the middle light and tap the squares as they lit up. We had to be fast and accurate. Simple? Not really. What we had to do was rely on our reaction speed and what we could see from the corners of our eyes. We were not allowed to move our heads around – and we shouldn’t since it would increase the time we took to respond.

Both my father and I did the exercise for 30 seconds each. To our surprise, we were shown how many lights we tapped, how many we missed, and our reaction speed between each tap. For me, I hit 27, missed 12, and had a speed of about 0.53 seconds. Overall, I was a little shabby.

After the first attempt, Anna made us do some stretches and squats with balls containing some sort of liquid. While we went through the motions, the gravity of the ball was ever-changing, forcing us to focus in order to keep our bodies balanced.

After a (quite tiring) session with the balls, we tackled the wall once more and were pleasantly surprised to see an improvement. I hit 36 lights, missed 13, and my reactivity time decreased to 0.47 seconds. My brain had ‘woken up’ after the activity with the balls and I was more alert than before.

There are many things you can do with the wall and detachable lights. For example, the lights can be set to blink in different colours. Anna had us hit the green lights with our right hand and the red lights with our left. This was where things got a little tricky; I had to really use my brain and consciously decide which hand was going to tap which light. My father definitely struggled with it. But practice makes perfect and he got the hang of it on the second try.

You can also take on the wall with your gym buddy if you go as a pair. With the lights spread further apart, we were assigned two colours each. The catch is that we could only tap the lights with our respective colours.

This activity had my old man and I were running around each other, yelling at each other when it was the other’s turn, and we were both laughing (and panting) by the end of it.

Our next activity included doing squats together on a platform that tilted in all directions. Unlike how I usually like to do squats – without really thinking and just trying to get to the end of each set – I had to really focus on what my body was doing so I didn’t end up falling onto my father or tumbling off the machine.

Afterwards, we took turns doing planks on it. I won’t lie, having to shift my weight for balance while doing planks was definitely harder than I thought.

Throwing balls at smiley faces is, indeed, part of the numerous exercise you can do at SPARKD. With a board full of flashing sad faces, we had to find the smiling one and throw the ball directly at it, after which it will change position. Watching Anna do it, I thought I would be at least decent at it, but this is one of those things that is harder than it looks.

When it was my turn to step up, it was hard to concentrate – not only did I need to find the smiley face and aim for it, but I had to remind myself to keep my legs moving at all times while my eyes searched the board. At no point was my body to be at rest to let my brain think.

The ball wasn’t too heavy, but it definitely got a bit tiring to keep throwing it. Running to catch it when it bounced off the screen was another aspect that kept me on my toes the whole time.

If there was a station that stumped me, this next one was it. Similar to the previous activity, we had to keep moving (in this case, do squats) and bump the screen with a ball. The difference? The screen flashed a math problem and we had to tap the correct answer.

We were given a choice between addition, multiplication, subtraction, and division, but we went ahead with addition. Doing mental sums while having to squat continuously was definitely a novel experience, one my father quite enjoyed (while I struggled). I can’t tell you the number of times I tapped the wrong answer and had to recalculate everything in my head.

The board could also be used in a different way: to find a pair of numbers on the board. This was significantly easier, but definitely still gave me a challenge as I had to scan the whole board as quickly as possible.

We took a break from the more physical activities and sat down in front of a screen. Yes, we sat down in front of a screen in a gym. Anna booted up the computer at the side and multiple tennis balls appeared, with four of them having a ring of light around them.

It was a mini-game that aimed to train your spacial awareness. When the game began, the four balls would lose the ring of light. With my focus on the centre of the screen, I had to keep track of where the four balls are as all the balls started moving. If I could identify where the four ended up among the others when everything came to a halt, I won that stage.

This game had many stages, and Anna informed us that it’s actually impossible to get all the stages right. The game is programmed to adapt to the player and push their brain to its limit, so there will always be instances where they are unable to identify the correct balls.

SPARKD utilises a wide range of technology for its training, and this next one was particularly fun.

The goal is to tap on the coloured lights that come up. Not only that, but the game is a matter of speed and compartmentalising. Based on the different colours popping up on the screen, I had to prioritise and get to those that were close to ‘exploding’. For example, if a red light showed up, I had to tap that before others because it was close to exploding and ending the game.

This was a game that really had my arms moving quickly and kept my mind whirling.

Making use of a device called the Trazer, we ended the day off by playing a game called Trap Attack. After syncing with an avatar, I had to move around the room and make my avatar on-screen step on the red light while avoiding traps that appeared.

It was one of the easier activities we did that day and was a good way to wrap up the session.

Overall, the session at the gym left my father and me invigorated. While we felt physically tired, we were wide awake and more alert than we were when we first went in. It was a unique experience that I enjoyed far more than a regular gym session.

SPARKD is a great place to bring your kids or parents if you are looking to work out with them and have a fun time. The activities in the gym can be catered to all age groups and you can have fun together while working out.

There are a variety of classes that you can join with a range of physical intensities. Group classes for kids and adults (mixed) are priced at:

• $199 for five classes (valid for one month)
• $450 for 12 classes (valid for two months)
• $840 for 24 classes (valid for four months)

For kids alone, four classes per month is priced at $128 while eight classes per month is priced at $240.

If you want to go for more classes, you can consider the group class memberships that allow you to go for unlimited classes. The prices are as follows:

• One month: $350
• Three months: $975 ($325 per month)
• Six months: $1800 ($300 per month)

Don’t want to join a group class? They also offer private one-on-one training sessions as well. If you can’t make it for in-person workouts, they also have a bunch of online workouts for you to try at home.

SPARKD is located at 46 Kim Yam Road The Herencia Unit #04-23 & 24, s239351. Find the class schedules and book a slot here.

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