The Boxing Club, La Jolla

So yesterday, I was supposed to do abs with my girls at work, but forgot I had to pick up bagels for our morning meeting by 8am, so I got a quick warmup in with about 5 minutes of abs...

Soo... this morning, I took up my friend, Sandy Said, up on her offer to try out the Boxing Club in La Jolla.

I was greeted by a friendly fellow named, Salam, at the front desk. He signed me in and when Sandy arrived, we both headed to the ladies locker. I really like lockers with keypad locks built in them. This place had them.

So when I get out, Salam, is ready to wrap my hands for me. I kid you not, that was one of the best handwraps I have every had. Very secure and yet comfortable. They stayed put the whole class. He gave me an intro to the basic punches and although I already knew them, I always welcome a lesson. Free knowledge compounds on existing knowledge. I don't ever claim to know everything.

Salam introduced me to my "trainer" for the day, Carl. We did some light jumprope time with no real direction, so I just jumped for speed. We did pushups, jumping jacks and side shuffles. I wasn't super impressed, but it was only a warm-up afterall. He had us do some shadow boxing and then we were sent to the balcony to run back and forth. Then he had us pick up a medicine ball and stand outside in a line drilling with it. I was a little shocked at how strenuous it was, but I endured... the sun was beating on us too today! At 1130am, it was about 82 degrees (I had tan marks today, to give you an idea of how hot it was in San Diego in February).

When we headed back in finally, he told us to drop our medicine balls and do alternating toe taps on them. Ahahahahahaha! I drop mine with a thud and I see the women in the class drob theirs with a plop. Yes, my friends, unbeknown est to me, medicine balls come in different weights. I probably grabbed a 20 pounder! heehee, no wonder it was sooo hard for me compared to the rest of the peeps.

Halfway through the class, I realized that I didn't like it... why? Because the 'trainer' wasn't working with us... he told us what to do but did not participate. This seemed weird to me. I am not used to that. The voice of Rudy Reyes floated through my head and I immediately knew this place was not for me. I was not gong to sign up anytime soon. He gave us 25 seconds to get water and get back... it took me 25 seconds to get my gloves off and twist off my water cap and then glug it down... I was too slow, along with a few others and he "punished" us by taking us off the bags and making us do pushups. I didn't dig on that. I understand him wanting us to 'hustle', but if he were doing it with us, he'd see we need at least a minute to sip some water. He was more bossy drill instructor rather than motivating trainer. Just not my style or what I'd pay for. I miss hitting heavy bags, but will stick to my Beachbody workouts* for now.

(* Arlene is a beachbody coach. www.beachbody.com/virtuefit)