Kapow! ow, OW!

Officially, I'm just finishing up the last four weeks of my Turbulence Training competition, but unofficially the ADD has kicked in and my mind is beginning to wander. I love TT, but I've been doing it for a year now and I'm feeling the urge to - uh - smack things. Cue my return to Fitzboxing and Pro-Bo classes.

It's been a long, looooong time since I did any boxing training but I knew it was going to hurt and I had serious doubts about my ability to keep up. On my first class I nearly didn't stay, but then I had to because the lovely Wayne had spotted me and motioned in the direction of the skipping ropes (aaaaargh!). The room was full of gigantic males warming up in a blur of skipping and sprinting. I thought I might be the only woman, but right at zero hour in strolled a superbly fit looking goddess with short blonde hair and professional looking boxing tape (or whatever you call it) wrapped around her iron mitts. I felt a bit scared, but then class started and all sissy emotions had to be suspended for 45 minutes of 'omg, I'm gonna die'.

Boxing training is not all about hitting things. There is a strong emphasis on speed, agility and cardiovascular fitness. What I really like about it is that the whole class is a HIIT session. You work hard for a minute, then you either rest or work less hard for a minute. It's anaerobically challenging. We did press-ups, sprints, ab work, shadow boxing, agility games and, of course, gloved up and threw jabs, uppercuts and crosses at each other. Awesome. I'm sure the guy that got to partner with me was really holding back, but I didn't want to say 'you can hit harder' in case I ended up plastered to the mirror. I'm sure that my new half-price 'goes see-through when it gets very sweaty' white gym top made up for any sense of injustice he might have felt at being paired up with the new girl.

As if the transparent top was not embarrassing enough, there was a point somewhere in the middle of partner work where I was rather seriously in danger of flaking out right there and I had to take an additional rest period. I did a quick pulse check and figured that my bpm were at least 180, so that'll explain the wooziness.

In spite of the intensity, I found myself raving later to my sister about how much fun it was and showing off my boxers injury, which is where my pinky nail got ripped off the nailbed (ouchy!) I'd like to say 'you should see the other guy' but actually I got it while tussling over a scrap of material in an agility game and the other guy was unaware that I was being de-nailed. It took about four days for the DOMS to subside and yesterday I headed back for another class. I'm pretty sure I'm not going to become a boxer, or even a boxing class addict, but what I do have is a needed burst of variety into my training. Having fun is often overlooked in training, but for the long term, exercise must be fun. If it's fun, I'll want to do it again, and pretty soon, helloooo boxers shoulders.