Dao Fitness Tanjong Pagar Barbell Club: S$80 Drop-In

A single Barbell Club session at Dao Fitness costs S$80, and regulars bring that down with a S$580 pack of ten classes. The club teaches Olympic weightlifting from a basement unit at 6A Shenton Way, #B1-02 Downtown Gallery, Singapore 068815, in the Tanjong Pagar end of the CBD, and it opens at 6am on weekdays. Its own pitch is short: rooted in Olympic weightlifting, the club teaches effortless technique rather than grinding out heavy reps for their own sake.

Downtown Gallery is the retail podium under the OUE Downtown towers on Shenton Way, and Dao Fitness sits one level below the street, so look for the escalators and lifts down to B1 rather than a shopfront at pavement level. Shenton Way station on the Thomson-East Coast Line and Tanjong Pagar on the East-West Line are both a short walk away, which makes this one of the easiest weightlifting rooms in Singapore to reach straight from an office tower.

Opening hours are Monday to Friday 6am to 9pm and Saturday and Sunday 7am to 6pm. The weekday 6am start is the reason most members choose this gym: a 7am class still leaves time to shower and be at a desk on Shenton Way or Robinson Road before nine. Weekends are longer here than at many coach-run clubs, so it also works for people who live outside the CBD and can only train on a Saturday.

The Barbell Club is the gym's group weightlifting programme, built around the snatch and the clean and jerk. Classes break the lifts into positions and pulls before adding load, which is why the club talks about effortless technique: the goal is a bar that moves fast and close rather than a lifter muscling it up. Alongside the club, Dao Fitness runs small-group training, personal training, corporate sessions and workshops, so office teams sometimes book the room together.

One honest note for experienced lifters: the gym does not publish a list of platforms, bars or plate brands, so anyone who cares about a specific competition bar should ask before booking. The draw here is the coaching rather than a showroom of equipment. If you only want an hour of unsupervised squatting, a commercial gym day pass will cost less than S$80, and that money is better spent where someone is actually watching your positions.

The published rates are simple. A Barbell Club drop-in is S$80, and the ten-class pack is S$580, which works out to S$58 a class for anyone who commits to a few weeks. For one-to-one work, a trial and assessment with a specialist coach costs S$135, while the same session with the head coach is S$225. The assessment is the sensible first step for a lifter coming back from injury or switching over from powerlifting, since it shows the coach your mobility before group classes.

Compared with other Olympic weightlifting options in Singapore, the drop-in price sits at the premium end. Rx Performance in River Valley, for instance, sells a S$45 single strength class but does not accept drop-ins for its weightlifting sessions, so Dao Fitness is one of the few CBD clubs where a visitor can book one weightlifting class without signing up for a trial block. That flexibility is what the higher single-class price pays for.

Dao Fitness was registered as a company in May 2024, and it is led by founder and head coach Wu Chuan Fu. The coaching team includes John Cheah and Lim Kang Yin, whom the club describes as a national athlete and weightlifting record-holder. Having a competitive lifter on staff shows in the details coaches pick up, such as the timing of the second pull or the way a lifter catches a clean, which beginners rarely notice on their own.

The location shapes who the club suits best. With the doors opening at 6am and two MRT lines within walking distance, it is built for people who work in the towers around Shenton Way, Robinson Road and Tanjong Pagar and want a coached session before or after the office. The etiquette is the usual weightlifting kind: wait for a lifter to finish an attempt before walking in front of the platform, reset the bar when you are done and keep the chatter low while someone is setting up for a heavy single.

Book before you travel down to the basement, especially for the first classes of the morning, which are the ones office workers fight for. If you cannot get a weekday slot, the weekend hours from 7am to 6pm give more room, and they are the better choice for a first visit because you are not watching the clock before work. If the price puts you off, booking the specialist assessment first and joining classes later is a cheaper way to test the coaching. Bring weightlifting shoes if you own a pair, plus a towel and water, and arrive early enough to warm up before the class starts.

Amoy Street Food Centre is a few minutes away and one of the best breakfast or lunch stops in the CBD after an early session, with queues forming at the popular stalls around noon. A little further north, Lau Pa Sat at 18 Raffles Quay is the Victorian cast-iron market that turns into a satay street in the evening. Between the two, the shophouses of Telok Ayer Street make a pleasant cool-down walk after heavy pulls.

Address: Dao Fitness, 6A Shenton Way, #B1-02 Downtown Gallery, Singapore 068815. Nearest MRT: Shenton Way and Tanjong Pagar. Hours: Monday to Friday 6am to 9pm, Saturday and Sunday 7am to 6pm. Barbell Club: S$80 drop-in or S$580 for ten classes. Trial and assessment: S$135 with a specialist or S$225 with the head coach. For more weightlifting and recovery spots in the CBD, ask Karpo in the Karpo APP.