About Cindy Nya, Principal Sports Massage Therapist

Cindy Nya does sports and deep tissue massage at our Tanjong Pagar clinic. She spent almost 18 years as a personal trainer, starting in 2005. In 2023 she moved back to Singapore from Australia, looked at what she could do with her SkillsFuture credits, and decided it was time for a new direction. She trained in sports massage that year. Drawing on her knowledge of exercise, movement and rehabilitation, Cindy now specializes in helping clients reduce pain, improve mobility and support their recovery goals.

From May 2023 to October 2026 she has done 2,334 sports massage appointments. About 30% were for knees, around 700 appointments. Over the last six months she has seen runner’s knee, lower backs and shoulders most often, and most of the people sent to her come from physiotherapists. Among all conditions, knee and lower back issues are the areas she is most passionate about treating, particularly when it comes to helping her own family members maintain their health and mobility.

Her clients have ranged from high-performance and young competing athletes to gym-goers, desk-bound professionals and retirees. Her personal training background and functional anatomy shape the work, from preparing for an event to keeping the muscles going through a training block.

She is currently recovery therapist for Lion City Hockey Club, King Trails Events, Singapore Falcons Running Club and Ascend Volleyball Club.

At Phoenix the same hands work on tight calves, hamstrings, shoulders, necks and backs, inside a physiotherapy clinic. If what feels tight turns out to be an injury, a physiotherapist or hand therapist is in the same clinic, and they see it first.

Who comes to her

Cindy works with a range of active people, from marathon runners and HYROX athletes to recreational and competitive gym-goers. Many clients book appointments before major events to optimize performance and recovery, while regular maintenance clients usually come for tension in the shoulders, glutes and quads. A golfer comes for the muscles around his shoulder blades and his calves. A gym-goer who trains five times a week comes for full-body work, tight on the traps, lower back, calves and quads.

On 13 September 2026 she participated in the GU Forest Force Run, a King Trails event, working on the runners’ lower limbs: cramping calves and very tight quads and glutes.

How she works

Almost 18 years as a personal trainer taught her which muscles are doing the work. Her treatment approach has helped clients with a wide range of musculoskeletal concerns. A client with left-sided neck restriction experienced improved movement after treatment targeting the upper trapezius, levator scapulae, rhomboids and scalenes. A client whose knees felt uncomfortable in a squat had 90 minutes on the hip adductors, lateral quads, hip flexors and the tissue around the IT band. A client with four months of shoulder pain and restricted movement had one 90-minute appointment, and reported the pain going from 8/10 to 2/10.

These are what individual clients reported. Your own response may differ.

In her own words

• “Whether I’m a personal trainer or a therapist, I still get to ‘torture’ people, just in different ways.”
• “As a therapist, I have come to appreciate that recovery and movement go hand in hand.”

Training

• Clinical Orthopedic Manual Therapy, Regional Approach Level 1: Lower Back and Pelvis, 16 hours (The Art and Science of Kinesiology, Singapore, June 2024)
• Trigger Point Therapy Masterclass, Levels 1 and 2 (Qinetic Wellness Academy, Singapore, August and October 2023)
• Rehab Exercise and Therapy Specialist Course, Level 1 (International Sports Academy and Qinetic Wellness, Singapore, June 2023)
• Sports Massage Therapy, 32 hours (EduFit Asia, Singapore, May 2023)
• Certificate in Fitness for Older Adults (Fitnation, Australia, 2010)
• Certificate IV in Fitness, Personal Training (Australian Institute of Fitness, 2005)

Outside the clinic

She trained in Filipino kickboxing for two years in Singapore and in kickboxing for two years in Sydney. These days it is strength training at the gym and hiking around Singapore on her days off.

Where this sits

This work runs alongside the clinical rehabilitation rather than in place of it. Sports and deep tissue massage covers what the appointment involves, what it costs and when to see a physiotherapist first. The physiotherapists and hand therapists run their plans on the Phoenix Recovery Protocol. Cindy is at our Tanjong Pagar clinic, International Plaza, 10 Anson Road #02-77A.

Book with Cindy directly

• TANJONG PAGAR, book online with Cindy