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Sparkle (0)
When I told a friend at work that I was planning to give boxing a try, his reaction was, “Zan! Oh, no! In a boxing ring?” I assured him the class I was taking would be far from dangerous -- it was a group class with individual punching bags, so there would be no big, mean fists aimed at my face. My roommate, Jen, had recently joined L.A. Boxing and seemed to be enjoying herself, so I agreed to tag along with her to take a class.
When I took the krav maga class, I didn’t have anything on my hands. Zip. Nada. They were completely bare (which is how I ended up ripping off the skin from several knuckles), and it took several weeks before they healed.
I found out after the fact that I should have worn hand wraps to protect them from the constant thudding, but having my knuckles destroyed was a big reason why I never went back to take another class. (Not one person at the facility I went to brought up the option of hand wraps, which seemed like an irresponsible way to handle a newbie like myself.)
I must admit, I was very happy that the folks at L.A. Boxing were serious about taking good care of my hands. They let me borrow a pair of boxing gloves, and they made sure to point out that they don’t recommend using the gloves without wrapping up your hands first. Luckily my roommate had an extra set of hand wraps for me to use (which are basically loooonngg strips of material that you wrap around your hand and wrist and in-between your fingers).
We started the class by warming up with 20 minutes of cardio before we even put on our boxing gloves. The instructor told us we shouldn’t stop moving for the entire 20 minutes -- and we didn’t. There were a lot of jumping jacks involved, and hopping around with different foot-shuffling combinations. (Apparently the amount of cardio before boxing depends on the instructor, because Jen said she’s been in classes where they boxed the entire time instead of focusing on regular cardio first.)
After we were good and sweaty, it was time to punch the life out of our bags. That was the fun part! I hadn’t had the best day leading up to the class, so I was looking forward to having a physical release for some of the aggression I was feeling. The instructor would demonstrate a combination of punches and we’d do those moves over and over until a buzzer went off. Rounds of boxing were interspersed with dropping on the floor to do pushups -- and I have to admit, my arms were pretty much shot by that point. I could only do a few pushups before my arms would give out and I’d collapse on the floor.
My only complaint was that it was difficult to hear the instructor. The music was loud (which was nice; it’s good to have a pumping beat when you’re trying to beat the crap out of something), but he didn’t have a microphone or anything to amplify his voice. Most of the time I’d just watch what he was doing and try to copy it, since I didn’t have the faintest idea what he was yelling. It wasn’t a big deal, though -- when I couldn’t hear what kind of combination he was asking us to do, I’d just beat the crap out of my punching bag. (Left-left-left...right-right!! Jab-jab-uppercut! You get the idea.)
It was a really good workout and I was wiped out by the time we left. I wouldn’t mind going back -- they offer kickboxing, too, which would be interesting to try -- but they don’t have the option to pay per-class, and I’m already in a contract at another gym. (Not having the ability to pay per-class was a complaint I had about krav maga, too.)
I didn't experience any soreness after the class (when you start something new, especially if it's so physically demanding, it's typical to be sore for a few days). I work out with weights already, and all the hopping around wasn't so bad because my legs and calves are pretty strong -- but soreness is definitely something to be prepared for if you're not used to this type of workout
