Fitness File for Fitness-phobes
A Social (and very Physical) Experiment
This week, presenting you…
Boxercise
Release your inner fighter!
Girls, I don’t know about you, but wouldn’t it be great, just once, to not be considered the weaker sex? Throughout history, it has been the way that women should be feeble, meek, the damsel in distress in need of saving by a strapping young man. Pass me the sick bucket. With this in mind, one of my main aspirations in life has always been to learn self-defence to be a true Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon, able to turn around and do some serious damage if it came to it! For this reason, I thought I would give Boxercise a go and learn the steps of how to throw a decent punch, whilst building up a sweat and releasing some pent up energy. Ladies, this week, I present to you my personal account of Boxercise.
At 6pm on a Thursday evening, I thought all of my energy was spent as it was near the end of the week and I was faltering from the growing weight of impending deadlines. I entered the class not knowing what to expect as I had heard that ideas of Boxercise differed from class to class, institution to institution. However, in the space of 5 minutes, those weary worries went out of the window and I found myself deep in the mentality of a very hard working out.
To begin with, the instructor has you running around the room in all different directions, raising your heart rate and working up a sweat. Amidst this 30 minute run, the introduction of different exercises keep you on a tight schedule and train the different muscles of the body – 20 push-ups here, 20 tricep dips there, continuous burpies until the end of the track and so on. Activities such as practising dodging the ‘attacks’ of your comrades trains your attentiveness, keeping you alert at all times. It is key to remember that this class is not just a boxing class – it is a full body work out making it the perfect all round body blast. Much like what I imagine a boot camp to be, this class holds no prisoners – you are there to work hard or go home! There are no easy ways out – you do what the instructor says or you look stupid.
The second part of the class is where we got down to business – the fists were assembled and the gloves came out. It was here that I really saw my inner Hillary Swank from Million Dollar Baby come out, minus the unhappy ending… *spoiler alert*! Lined up facing the mirror, we first learned the boxing stance and foot work, following direction shouts from the instructor and throwing punches in a true Mike Tyson style. We then grabbed a partner and donned gloves and pads respectively, working with the larger group on our punch technique in all kinds of positions and angles. In Boxercise, your whole body is important as it requires both your lower and upper body, giving you a full body working that provides results. Your heart is racing the entire time and you really feel that good workout burn
Not for the faint hearted, but accessible to all, whatever your strength or size. I will definitely be going again for a full body blast and a great energy release!
My rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ (4/5)
Duration: 1 hour
Intensity: 5 for beginners
Sweat: 4
Difficulty: 3
Aftermath: 4 (A perfect class in time for a big dinner, meaning your body burns the calories faster!)
Result: 4
Image sources:
http://manchester-martial-arts.co.uk/western/boxercise/
http://www.bodyforce.co.uk/cavemanconditioning/group/our-services/boxercise