I don’t really like boxing. I’m familiar with the greats of the sport and can even get in on some nostalgic, riveting footage of the Rumble in the Jungle but the last thing I generally want to watch is two grown men punching each others teeth out. I tend to gravitate to sports with less blood and disfiguration. There’s a reason I didn’t go into the medical field!
The contradiction to all of this would be the fact that I LOVE punching things. Not people. I’ve never hit anyone, though I can think of a few times when people really truly deserved it and sometimes I wished I had socked ‘em one just so I could feel what it was like. But I generally like punching, well, punching bags. I got one for Christmas during a particularly stressful time in college and it was a godsend. There is no better way to get over a bad day than by punching something really hard. Go at it for a few minutes and not only will you be tired, you’ll have punched out most of your anger. (Note: Listening to the German heavy metal band Rammstein really loudly has a similar effect.)
That story was basically leading up to this one: I took a boxing class.
One of my friends from work took up a boxing class at a local gym earlier this year and has asked me multiple times to join her. Apparently she caught me on a week day recently because I finally gave in. I’m not sure why I was resisting. Partly because I find classes aren’t my favorite workout style, I’ve been trying to focus on running, and it’s not at my gym so if I loved it I’d have to pay for it. But the first class is free so why not?
Turns out it was pretty awesome. First we got some boxing gloves on and learned a little. Punches have numbers. A standard left arm punch is one and a standard right arm punch is two. Three and four I believe are uppercuts, and there’s at least a five, but since I was new to this I only got to use 1 and 2.
The first half, after some initial stretching, was all focused on boxing. There were punching bags around the room and the instructor had the thick hand pads. The three of us in the class that night rotated from working the bags (he’d tell us what to focus on) or working with the instructor. When you worked with the instructor he would call out what he wanted you to punch and you’d hit his hand pads. 1! 1! 1! 2! 2 1 2! During this he was moving around the room and you had to follow. He gave instruction on the footwork as well and this guy really knew his stuff. The bag work was just okay but working with him was kind of exhilarating.
The second half of the class was all conditioning. Which meant ab work and LOTS of it. Some variations of ab exercises were ones that I hadn’t seen before. It was tough. I was sore for three days and I only did 10 of each exercise! A part of me wants to start doing… maybe 3 or 4 reps of these exercises and work my way up, because clearly they work and I could use some improvement in the ab strength area, but I haven’t convinced myself to do it yet.
All in all, I enjoyed the class and would be interested in going back. I’m just not sure I will. I loved boxing with the instructor and if I could just do that part of it every now and then, that would be awesome. But like I said before, I’d have to pay for the class since it’s not at my gym and I’m not sure I want the extra expense. And if I’m really going to run this half-marathon next summer, I’m not sure I have time to be flirting with any sport besides running!
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