Welcome back to Amateur Hour! This week I tried my hand at boxing with the Boxing Heavy Bags & H.I.I.T. class.  To preface this, I have never boxed a day in my life nor do I know anything about boxing, but I figured that I would give it a try! I’ve always wanted to see what it felt like to hit a punching bag and learn a few ways to defend myself.

First of all, the class was super welcoming. I’m not going to lie, I was intimidated going into a boxing class for the first time. I mean, I didn’t even know how to wrap my hands, but luckily, I had some assistance. Maria, the class instructor and director of the boxing department, was so helpful throughout the entire class. As we were going through the different exercises, she guided me along the way, demonstrating each and every move.

Most of the other participants had experience with this class before, which I thought would be daunting, but everyone was super encouraging. For example, when I was struggling about half way through the class, someone looked at me and said with a chuckle, “I don’t know if I’ll make it either and I’ve been doing this class for weeks.” Though a little scary, this made me feel less alone and pathetic.

Besides being a very friendly environment, the class was a fantastic workout. This 45-minute high intensity dynamic class kicked my butt in the best way possible. We started the class with 2-minute rounds of various high intensity exercises such as rowing, shuttle-runs, sled pushes, and farmer carries, definitely not some of my favorite things, but very effective. This ‘warm-up’ got our heart rates up and prepared us to go to the heavy-bags.

As we made our way to the heavy bags, I put my gloves on, fully prepared to embarrass myself.  We started with simple combinations and progressed to the more complicated as the workout continued. Luckily, Maria was amazing and was there to help every step of the way, so she made it seem as though I knew what I was doing. It took me about 5 times repeating the combination slowly in my head before I could do it on the bag, but then I felt like a pro. Each strike is associated with a number and a combination is a variance of these numbers, which helps to keep class exciting! My personal favorite is the uppercut, also known as a 5 as I learned in this class. As we completed the class with a last lunge and heavy bag sequence, I was exhausted but felt great.

Initially I was hesitant to take this class because it can be seen as aggressive or masculine, but I felt so empowered. Not only did it make me feel stronger as a person, but it was an amazing workout. I was pretty sore the next day, but it was well worth it. I will definitely be back again, and I highly recommend giving this class a try! With the new boxing studio opening later this fall, keep an eye out for new programming and offerings!