Kickboxing/Boxing Bootcamp Master Class

Otherwise known as the best 90 minutes of the entire weekend.

On Sunday I went to MC Dance & Fitness for a kickboxing/boxing boot camp master class with Theresa Alini. I had never heard of her (not like that means anything), but if Yves says she good enough to teach a kickboxing master class, she is.

Theresa Alini

From the MC Dance & Fitness invitation:

Theresa Alini has been in the fitness industry since 1989. Her group fitness classes range from Pilates, vbarre, boot camp, strength training, and cardio kickboxing. Her favorite class to teach has been and always will be kickboxing with equipment. As a master trainer for ISCA, her experience has brought her through the United States certifying instructors, trainers and fitness professionals. Standing only at 4 feet 10 inches, her strong voice and big personality makes her a giant in the field. 

The class was freaking awesome. We started off with about 20 minutes of a regular kickboxing warm up. Very Yves-like routine, which you know means "the way it is supposed to be" in my book. We jumped, we punched, we kicked, and then my abs woke up from seven months of slumber.

Then we put on boxing gloves and did a similar routine so that we could feel the resistance. I own my a pretty pair of white boxing gloves, but of course I didn't know that we would need them (Yves, please include a packing list in the invite!) so I had to borrow a pair. A fun fact about me is that I don't like to wear things on my hands because I find it really uncomfortable and distracting. I also prefer gloves to mittens, and boxing gloves are a misnomer.

that's me in the front row, closest to the camera

Then we moved on to sprints, agility work, and focus mitt drills. I don't like to wait in line so I kept sprinting around the room until it was my term to work with Theresa and Yves.

the studio

We used the fitness squares pictured in the top photo. These things are really neat because they have a place for your feet and for your hands. I found it really helpful when practicing my sidekicks. It's also more challenging to stand on the square and keep your balance. You can flip it over and also use it as a sliding disc. There's a patent pending and I expect to see more of these squares soon.

source: Yves Maco

For some odd reason, Yves has yet to realize that he should just film me the entire time. You can see snippets of me in the mirror. That's Jackie in the teal tank.

We finished up the class with jumping rope and stretching. I successfully jumped rope for 10 minutes and only hit myself twice.

Saturday Morning Impact!

As a result of waking up at 5 am for work, I've lost all ability to sleep in to a normal hour on my days off. On Saturdays I wake up at 7. Yes, the time you wake up to go to work. This Saturday I was up cleaning my bathroom by 7:15. I reorganized my closets. I washed the underside of my kitchen cabinets.

After I was done scrubbing my apartment, I got dressed for the gym. I decided I should get my money's worth and use my boxing gloves again. I have white Everlast gloves that I bought last winter. They've made it out of their case twice. My gym schedule is booked as it is... it's hard to attend four different classes at 6pm on Tuesdays. That's why I got excited when I saw that Impact! is offered from 10-10:45 on Saturday mornings at the Equinox at 85th and 3rd.

The instructor was late because of traffic or parking. Someone from management sent a trainer in to warm the class up. Unfortunately he got sparing confused with the cardio expectations of group fitness junkies and I thought this one lady was about to eat his head. Right when it looked like a violent outburst was guaranteed to erupt, the instructor arrived. Her name is Abby and I liked her. I've been to Impact! before with other instructors, and I must admit that I didn't really enjoy it. Abby took the time to correct form instead of working out on her own bag.

My partner had a lot of patience, and a sick roundhouse. If you're going to go, try to find someone who looks about your fitness level to share a bag with because it's no fun when you're pinned in the corner because you can't keep up.

If it's too cold to run, I'd go again.

Impact!

     Today I went to Impact! at the Roslyn Equinox.  I have been eyeing this class for quite some time, but I wanted to go to Pam's class, which is only offered on Mondays when I am usually at work.  I picked up a pair of white Everlast 12 ounce gloves (so hot) at Dick's Sporting Goods yesterday so that I could attend today's class.  These were definitely a good investment because most of this class is spent working with the bags.
     Impact! allowed me to practice the skills I have learned in cardio kickboxing and work on my form.  My arms were killing me and kicks are totally different when you are actually kicking something.  Two people work on each bag to keep it from moving around, and I must apologize to my partner.  I was all over the place.  I think we started a little late, but we got in a solid 50 minutes and I was dying at this point.  I really didn't believe that 12 ounce gloves would make that much of a difference, but even jumping jacks were more difficult.
     My one issue with wearing boxing gloves is that I am a fidgeter, and they make it extremely difficult to fidget.   I am always tightening my ponytail, readjusting my sports bra, and now that I have a heart rate monitor, I find that I'm playing with that thing too.  I had to keep taking off my gloves to readjust everything.  Next time I will make sure to be completely set before I put those things on.  My HRM said I burned just under 500 calories during the class.  I know I wasn't working at my full intensity because I was trying to figure out what to do and I was busy messing with the gloves.  The class level would probably burn more than 500 calories if I worked hard the entire time.