M'sian Jay Chou-lookalike 'durian seller' is now fitness instructor using household items as gym equipment

Staying at home is making everyone thirstier.

Rexanne Yap | April 17, 2020, 10:43 PM

If you recall, back in 2015, the internet exploded with pictures of a shirtless hunk helping his friend sell roadside durians in Petaling Jaya, Malaysia.

Image from Yeoh's Facebook

Due to the fan frenzy then, Jordan Yeoh, the Malaysian fitness model/ instructor who bears an uncanny resemblance to Jay Chou, had to hide at home for three days to escape the media attention.

Today, the 33-year-old is staying at home for another reason - Malaysia's movement control order to curb the spread of Covid-19.

Despite being unable to go to the gym to maintain his physique or train his clients, Yeoh decided to tailor his home workout videos to show his fans how to train while stuck at home.

Cue the other people stuck at home, as fitness-starved people from all over the world tuned in to his live home workout videos, posted on YouTube and Facebook.

Our colleague being one of them.

Here is how insane that subscriber growth has been.

Screenshot from Socialblade

A usual month for Yeoh on YouTube, according to SocialBlade, would yield about 30,000 new subscribers. March saw him pull in 150,000 subscribers.

Over the last 30 days, Yeoh has seen a 766 per cent increase in subscribers, and a 500 per cent increase in views on his YouTube channel.

More of his videos are most likely being watched by those stuck at home looking for a workout tutorial, which means more of Yeoh's content, even those before the virus, is being consumed.

Yeoh himself is also putting out more content during this period. Usually Yeoh seems to put out about two videos a month on average, but he have pushed out four videos on his YouTube channel last week. He also answered fan questions in a recent video.

Yeoh, who now has more than 2 million subscribers on YouTube and 5 million followers on Facebook, is a little more prepared.

Using household items to substitute gym equipment

In his videos, Yeoh showed how to use various household objects to substitute gym equipment, including socks, pails of water, and yes, even his young daughter.

Don't worry if the water spills from the bucket, you can always mop it up and squeeze it back in (it also trains your forearms!).

Screenshot from Jordan Yeoh/Facebook

The first step is to commit

One reason for Yeoh's popularity seems to be his inspiring journey from flab to fab, which resonated with many of his fans.

“Many people think too much of what is the best exercise, what is the best diet, what is the best so-called secret exercise to lose weight. But none of them will work if you don’t take the first step which is to commit,” Yeoh told Malaysian newspaper The Star.

“So just do it. Ten push-ups a day is good because maybe 10 push-ups will lead to 20 push-ups, 30, 50 and so on,” he said.

https://www.instagram.com/p/B8tTklUpOeA/

ActiveSG also has a list of online Circuit Breaker-friendly exercises that you can access here.

If you decide to exercise outside, remember to be responsible and wear a mask before and after your activity.

Time to stop eating your #stayathome snack and start training to be a #stayathome SNACC.

Top photo from Jordan Yeoh/Facebook