Bagged

Christmas is just around the corner and I'm not going to lie, it's been more difficult then I thought it would be to stay on the right track.  With gingerbread, chocolates and more wine than the French countryside has, all at my disposal 24 hours a day, this holiday season could have been a pretty serious disaster on the waist line like it has in years past (circa 1982 through 2009).  This year is different, of course, because by reading this, you are holding me accountable to my health and wellness.  I have made allowances for treats here and there but I have put a full focus on not letting anything stand in the way of my everyday workouts. Not gingerbread, not chocolate and not wine (although this one has been the toughest to run off in the morning).  I've made a point of getting my butt out the door right when I get up each day so that I don't have a chance to let the heavy calories and liquid heaven pull me back to the warm bed... and so far it's been working but I guess we won't find out just how well it's been working until I weigh in on January 1st.

Last week I decided that a great way to shock myself into staying at the height of motivation would be to try a new and challenging workout at Studeo 55, since we all know I am obsessed with that place.  I took a look at the schedule and did the old eyes-closed-finger-on-the-map way of picking and landed on the "Bagged" class. My shoulders hunched and I looked down at the ground in defeat. The only thing going through my mind?? OH. NO.

Bagged is a boxing class that devotes half the time to 3 minute boxing drills on the bag and the other half of the class is wrestling-style agility drills and core/ab work.  So basically abs and arms, my 2 weakest body parts. Great, just great.

So here's how it went down.  Tell me this... as a woman, what could possibly be more intimidating then walking into a cage (yes an actual cage) filled with a dozen or so boxing bags, boxing gloves, speed bags and, of course, big sweaty men ready to punch things?? The answer is nothing, unless you have an teacher like John.  John is the instructor of all the boxing, mixed martial arts, and kick boxing classes at Studeo 55 (check out his wicked credentials at http://www.clubdojo.com/). He holds a black belt in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, Muay Thai, and Sabaki karate and with over 22 years of martial arts experience he is just generally Bad Ass.  So obviously he's more than qualified to teach an outstanding boxing class but what took it to the next level was his personality.  He's a riot, and not only with his non-stop commentary about you and your workout but he also has no problem belting out a Britney Spears tune when the mood strikes.  I was worried walking into his class that I wouldn't get what he was trying to teach me. After all, the most physically aggressive thing I have ever done was throw a remote control at my sisters head and that was followed by me crying and begging her not to tell my Dad.  John made it easy to understand and fun to follow but don't get the wrong idea of him, if John thought for one minute that you weren't giving it 100% he would let you know about it. I'm willing to work hard on every level and John is willing to put 100% of his effort into teaching you, so I'm happy to say a great relationship was born and I can't wait to try all the other classes that he teaches.

John took an hour before the class to teach me the basics one on one.  I learned how to jab, cross, hook and kick a guy in the balls.  All things that might be helpful in a dark alley sometime past midnight. But when he put the boxing pads in front of his face and asked me to right hook him while saying "Show me what you'd do if a guy asked for your number in a club", I got confused... Punch the guy? No chance! I never get men asking for my number... It would be like a Christmas miracle or something... I'd have to give him my number! So we had to go back to the dark alley scenario, much more plausible that way.

As we went through the basics and then John took me through some wrestling and Jiu Jitsu techniques I could really start to feel how good of a workout this was going to be.  Little did I know that he was being easy on me for the intro lesson.  As I walked into the cage for the actual Bagged class I went around introducing myself to all the men (and a couple of buff girls) as I normally would. I'm pretty sure they were thinking "Who the hell is this broad? and how the heck does she suppose those arms are going to withstand 30 minutes of punching a 120 lbs bag?" The workout was gruesome.  Cross jabs and hooks followed by deep squats, sit ups, and back extensions and an all-out pounding of the bag.  After that we had to hoist a medicine ball across a room and sprint after it, like 50 times! When I thought I couldn't get any more tired we had 3 sets of agility partner exercises and then we finished the whole thing off with numerous sets of ab and core drills. ugg. Well friends... I would like to report that not only did this broad kick some serious ass on the bag but I was also the last man standing when it came to the core workout. Not bad, not bad. At. All.  (you better be clapping)

I ran home from Studeo after the session was finished and was super pumped with adrenaline for hours afterwards.  I can't believe I was ever intimidated to enter into the class, considering that now it will be in regular rotation in my workout schedule.  I'm pretty sure my arms and abs ached for a good 2 million hours post class and I haven't had that kind of amped up feeling in a very long time. Not to mention the fact that every last person in the class had the kind of ripped arms that I would actually PAY for.  If you have any reservations about trying a boxing/MMA class give John a call. He's like a super hero in slit-up-to-there shorts and if you're lucky he might just sing you a Katy Perry song.