My brother recently purchased a punching bag to get back into Muay Thai and admittedly, I associate such activities with aggression and violence. So as to not make a passive judgement, I concluded that it would only be fair if I stepped into the shoes of a boxer and to understand it from their perspective.
To learn the art of boxing.
So this morning I went for my first boxing class at McCallum Park. And it was then when I realised how unfit I was. There were 50 something year old ladies sprinting past me in the warm up session and no [insert puffed out nauseous face here], I did not make it through the 45 minute boxing class.
As explained by my brother, boxing classes are not all about boxing. It involves an intense workout of different exercises to gear up your whole body. So you do things like "mountain climbing" where you get into a position as you would with a push up but with your hands in a fist and you are hopping off the ground and interchanging your leg position. As if you are climbing a mountain but horizontally.
At least I can say that I really enjoyed the punching.
So what have I taken away from this? That boxing is not all about machoism. It is about body control. About challenging your body and working them muscles while implicitly learning how to protect yourself.
Boxing, I have also discovered, is suitable for keen fitness enthusiasts of all ages and sizes. Need I emphasize on the word
keen.
Here's to a fully punchy 104!
