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“Boxing is egalitarian. In the ring, rank, age, colour and wealth are irrelevant. My main interest was in training; I found the rigorous exercise to be an excellent outlet for tension and stress. After a strenuous workout, I felt both mentally and physically lighter. It was a way of losing myself in something that was not the struggle. After an evening’s workout, I would wake up the next morning feeling strong and refreshed, ready to take up the fight again.”
~Nelson Mandela, exert from his autobiography, Long Walk to Freedom
Always been curious about Boxing but too intimidated to try it? Let 2013 OBA Eastern Canada Golden Gloves Champ – Steph‘Iron Lioness’ Buchanan show you the ropes. This low-tech workout will introduce you to Boxing conditioning and technique as a way to add variety and fun to your workouts. Don’t be scared; ain’t no body gonna smack you. Just good butt kicking fun 🙂 But don’t take our word for it, here is what some of the participants of Boxing 101 – Intro the The Sweet Science have to say about this unique program:
“For someone like me who has done a lot of strength training, Boxing was a lot of fun to learn, partly because of what a different way of moving it employs.
While weightlifting involves speed and technique, Boxing (which also involves speed and technique) feels a lot more relaxed, fluid and kinetic.
Boxing, for me, also shone a big spotlight on the weaknesses and injuries I had allowed to accumulate over the years.
So, while I could work around my wonky ankle and ignore my aching shoulders for a long time if I was just lifting weight and pushing the occasional sled, I could not do that if I was going to float like a butterfly and sting like a bee.
So, through Boxing I got healthier, learned a new sport, started to move better, and even got better at my job over at HBO Canada, which involves putting live Boxing events on cable TV. My new interest in Boxing has made me an “office authority” on the subject.
So, improved health, a new skill, better conditioning, and better performance at work have all been the result of learning to Box.
Thanks Coach Steph!” ~Ron Dykstra
“Here are some things you should know about me.
I’m 5 feet tall. I’m 40 years old.
I have a PhD. I am a bookworm. I like to eat tasty food.
I can’t catch a ball. I run slow. I was picked last for pretty much every team in elementary school. (By high school I just gave up and skipped gym class as often as possible — barely squeaked into getting my one obligatory credit with a C.)
So to recap: I’m pushing middle age, I suck at sports, and there’s no good reason I should be wrapping my hands and sweating on a Saturday morning when I could easily be lying in bed reading the paper, eating croissants.
But by golly, I love boxing.
I love the smell. I love the sound. I love seeing wet marks on the heavy bag where my gloves have brushed my sweaty face and are now making little glove-prints on the leather.
Some folks like to say that martial arts replicates war. I disagree strongly. And not just because that’s a ridiculous downgrading of the horror of real war. But because it’s the wrong metaphor. Boxing training isn’t war. It’s joy. It’s a game.
No matter how tired I am, no matter how much my arms hurt or feel like numb noodles, I grin like an idiot when I’m training boxing.
Part of that, to be fair, is because Steph makes classes so fun, you’ll start cancelling your late-night club dates in favour of waking up early. Hey — you get music! You get sweaty! You get to dance! You get to punch cute boys! (Wait… is that just MY normal Saturday night?) My core muscles get as much of a workout from laughing in Steph’s classes as they do from punching.
And part of that is that boxing training is a kind of moving prayer for being alive.
When you’re boxing, you can’t think about work, or your parking tickets, or whether you’re getting wrinkles, or taxes. You simply can’t. Because your brain has better things to worry about, like remembering jab cross hook duck duck hook hook uppercut run around.
You have to be present when you are boxing. You can’t be anywhere else. There is no place other than the radius of your armspan, and no time other than right now.
Boxing is a mental, physical, and emotional puzzle you are solving in each unfolding moment. And it’s a damn good workout. Bonus.
OK, you say, but I’m scared. What if someone hits me?
Well, first off, this is boxing conditioning. Nobody hits you. You do, however, smack the bejeezus out of pads and bags. Which is brilliant.
And second, as Rocky said, nobody and nothing is going to hit you harder than life.
Boxing isn’t just about training your body; it’s about training your mind and your heart. You have to retrain every instinct you might have — the instinct to duck and cover, to avoid discomfort, to treat fear like the plague.
Boxing says go towards fear. Make fear your prison girlfriend. Look fear in its fugly-assed face and go through it.
You won’t stop being afraid of things after you’ve trained in boxing. But fear won’t run your life any more. There’s some fight in you now. You’ll know you can feel uncomfortable and scared and survive. Fear might still kick your ass in the end, but at least you’ll get a few good shots in as you go down.
So if you’re thinking maybe, just maybe, you might kinda sorta perhaps like boxing, or at least punching something, and your fist feels a teeny bit itchy or your feet are doing a little bop-dance… well, come and try it.
Just sniff the leather gloves. Listen to the smacking sound as they hit the bag. Feel that impact vibrate down your arms, waking up your bones. Start to punch in time with the music, one-two, one-two, one-two, until you don’t even know where the song ends and your arms begin.
Afterwards, look for the stress you brought into class with you. It’ll be gone. It’s left no forwarding address. You absolutely, positively, cannot be stressed out after a boxing class. Fact.
Don’t believe me? Then come prove me wrong. Try it. Bring your worst, most teeth-gnashing, stomach-clenching anxieties and life stresses. Spend an hour bashing the crap out of things. And then see what happens.
My guess — you’ll leave with sweaty hand-wraps, a hearty appetite for brunch, a goofy grin all over your face, and a sense of zen that Buddhist monks only wish they had. (Meditatin’-assed hatas.)” ~ Krista Scott-Dixon
So, an excellent, stress reducing, FUN program for all levels? What are you waiting for? Email us for info on how to get started!
