I Love Kickboxing

I have never enjoyed watching boxing, wrestling, any of those fighting sports.  I just don’t like watching people get punched, kicked and slammed, over and over again. 

Confession, I’ve never seen any of the Rocky movies… well except that newest one that came out… what is it called? 

Oh yeah… Creed. 

That one was good.

Maybe I should see the originals.

Anyways even with my dislike of actual boxing, I’ve still always been interested in taking a boxing class.  I’ve also always been terrified by the idea because even though I haven’t seen the Rocky movies, I’ve seen enough clips of his training routines to the music of Eye of the Tiger that I know a boxing class would be super intense.

I’ve been working out a lot more recently, and I have been wanting to do something different, because while I love my workout routine, I’m afraid I may get in a rut soon.

While scrolling through Facebook recently I found an ad for a new gym here in Louisville called ilovekickboxing.  They have a deal going, until supplies lasts, that you can get three classes and a pair of PINK gloves for $9.99!!

I had looked into getting boxing gloves at one point because the YMCA offers a contact boxing class that says gloves are recommended, and boxing gloves themselves can be up to a $50 value.

Also don’t worry, if you don’t like pink, they offered to let us get a different color if we’d like.  My friend Amanda choose to get black instead of the pink because she’s going to let her kids play with them, and figured her son would prefer black ha-ha.

After seeing this ad I decided to see if I could get anyone to join me on this adventure, because while I like trying new things, I’m also a big chicken. 

Luckily my friend Amanda Fox said she’d join me, so we signed up, and when it’s your first time going you have to call and schedule your first lesson to make sure they have room for you in the class.

Friday night was our first class, they asked us to get there 30 minutes early so they could give us a tour of the studio, go over paperwork and health goals.  As Amanda and I got out of the car we were hit with really loud music, Amanda turned to me and asked if we should have brought earplugs.  We are just not about that super loud music! 

While the music was loud during the class, and made listening to instruction difficult, if I were a veteran to the class I wouldn’t have minded so much, it’s easy to just get lost in the music and not realize you are in a class with 20 other people.

We walked in and were greeted by a very enthusiastic guy named Hunter who greeted us by our names… I guess that’s the benefit of a small gym and being the 2 new people. 

They even had our names up on a whiteboard at the front door welcoming us to our first class (along with the other people who had come for the first time that day). 

Hunter showed us around, it’s a small gym so there wasn’t much to see, they have some cute shirts and other merch up at the front of the studio, and they have some protein bars, drinks, and water for sale if you need anything like that during class. 

I had brought my favorite water bottle (see my post about ithere), and 2 extra water bottles, I’m glad I did because I drank all of that, plus they gave us a free water bottle since it was our first night, I took one of those on my way out.  This class works up a sweat so you need lots of water! 

I also brought my favorite energy protein bar with me, and I’m glad I did because I ended up getting a little light headed during the class so I was able to grab a few bites of the bar in between punches.

Stay tuned for my review on this bar… seriously you won’t want to miss it!

After we got the grand tour that consisted of the bathrooms, which don’t have showers, but they have all kinds of stuff for us to use to basically take a sponge bath if needed, and the locker rooms, we were given the paper work to fill out. 

Basically just signing that you understand you are taking an intense class and you are physically able to do it.  The second part of the paper work was asking about our health goals.  After filling it all out we talked to our coach about what kind of physical activity we are at, and what our goals are.   Once that was all over he got us our gloves and let us put our stuff behind the front desk, since we didn’t bring any locks for the lockers. 

This workout is bare feet, which is a bit gross to me, but it makes sense, and luckily they told me about that when I made the appointment for the class, so I had a week to prepare myself for it. 

They boast that they are a gym for all fitness levels, and honestly, they were very encouraging even when I couldn’t do some of the exercises, but for my personality I hate not being able to keep up, I’m incredibly competitive.  I’m glad I waited to take a class like this until I had been working out on my own for a few months because if I had tried this out as one of my first classes back to physical fitness I would have hated it. 

You start the class by running laps around the mat, maybe like 5 minutes.  That isn’t much to most people, but if they had asked me to do this even a month ago I would have just laughed in their faces.  But thanks to my training for the Down Syndrome of Louisville 5k race on September 29^th and using the C25K app I felt good about the jog, I was able to jog the whole time and not feel incredibly winded.

After the jog we did warm up exercises, which was honestly the hardest and worst part of the whole class.  There were a lot of exercises I had to modify because I’m just not able to do all that yet. 

We did a lot of burpees, and what’s funny is a couple weeks ago I read an article about how beneficial burpees are, so I started incorporating them into my exercise routines each day, modified burpees that is, I can’t do a real one… yet!

After the warm-up period was over we did some stretching, basically a kind of cool down to make sure you are ready to start throwing punches. 

Once we were told to put our gloves on I was excited, this is what I came for!  Amanda and I were with Hunter, our personal coach during the whole class, and we didn’t do what the rest of the class was doing for the boxing part of the class because we were getting one on one instruction about how to throw the punches, how to have good form and things like that. 

It was great and so much fun to jab, cross, upper cut, kick and feel like an over all warrior. 

When the boxing section was over they did a speed round that Hunter told us we wouldn’t be doing today, I think they didn’t want us to over extend ourselves on the first day.  Once the speed round was over we did partner drills which were fun, and even when we had to switch partners to get to know someone new it wasn’t too bad, everyone seemed so friendly at this gym.

After partner drills we did cool down stretches, ended with a clap cheer and that was it. 

When the class was over our coach took us back over to the benches to share with us how we could save over a $100 if we signed up for a membership that day. 

I had read some of the reviews about this gym and some people complained about how pushy they are about joining. 

Let me set the record straight…

They were NOT pushy…

AT ALL!!!! 

Yes they presented the different membership options, and did their best to sell the best option, but as soon as my friend Amanda said that she just couldn’t join right now he didn’t push her any more on the subject. 

I told him I couldn’t make a decision in that moment and he said he could give me a night to sleep on it. 

After a lot of thought and going back and forth I’ve decided right now isn’t the time for me to join this gym, I loved it and if I had the budget I would join in a heart beat, but I just don’t have the budget for it, and it isn’t conveniently located for me, if the gym was in Oldham County it’d be a no brainer to sign up right away.

I am however considering getting my own punching bag and just doing my own drills at home, I’m sure YouTube has some great instructional videos I can try out.

I already belong to the YMCA, and one of the branches in Louisville offers a contact boxing class I plan to check out now that I have my own gloves!

I encourage anyone, no matter your fitness level to try at least this promotional deal and give the gym a chance. 

The deal I signed up for can be found on their website ilovekickboxing.com or they have a deal on groupon. 

Again, if pink gloves aren’t your thing, they have black ones (and purple ones I think).  This gym is in all 50 states so even if you aren’t in Louisville, find one near you and check it out!

The class will leave you feeling fierce and unstoppable, well after you get over being sore!

I still have 2 classes left… who wants to join me??