Friday 6 June 2014

First boxing class

I've never pictured myself getting into a boxing ring. Yet, this morning, there I was jabbing, hooking, uppercutting and ducking at the Undisputed Fitness Gym in Bedfordview.


While I was at Expedition Africa my mom's friend passed a training voucher that she received on to my mom. She's not into boxing nor the other activities offered by the gym like kettle bells, muay thai and kickboxing. So she passed it on to me - I'm game for pretty much anything. I set a date and time with Byron and this morning rocked up for my first boxing session.

Vuyo, a former pro boxer, was my coach for the morning and the biggest challenge I found was to think quickly on my feet in response to his "left jab, right hook, left uppercut".

We started off going through the three punches and focusing on stance. Balance and keeping your weight centred is all important. Then we beat up a boxing bag before getting into the ring.

And then we added in some foot work - moving forwards and backwards, left and right. And then I'd have to "jab-jab, hook, duck" as Vuyo swung a 'punch' my direction. It's a good thing he was calling "duck".

After some time in the ring we did a bunch of squats and sit-ups and crunches. I'm going to feel the after effects tomorrow - maybe not in my legs but definitely in my shoulders.

This 30-minute session was immensely fun and also tiring. Despite today's cooler temperatures, I was dripping with sweat after 15 minutes!

The gym offers group classes as well as one-on-one sessions. The voucher I received includes another one-on-one and two weeks of group classes, which are Mon to Thurs. It's a good period to gauge gains.

I'm planning to hit the boxing gym again on Monday for a group class. Here they have a number of instructors and, like doing a circuit, you move between activities - punching bags, the ring, fitness and strength drills, kettlebells - all in one class. I'm allowed to bring some friends along with me - let me know if you're keen to give this a try.

The gym is about 3km from me so I can run there, do the class and run crawl home. Perfect.

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