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Lucy’s boxing blog – the final workout!
By slhaf | July 22, 2010
This week I’m not at my normal Tuesday boxing class. Instead, I’ve run up a killer hill for 45 minutes, done an hour of yoga and an hour of rebounding on tiny round trampolines and it’s only 10 in the morning, with still more to come. However, before anything else, it’s time for breakfast – a juice made from apples, cucumber, celery, ¼ of a pineapple, spinach, lime and blended with avocado. It’s green…very green, but boy it tastes amazing.
You may ask why I’m not doing my usual training with CJ (Cjsfitness.co.uk) this week? It’s because I’m at a Jason Vales juice retreat in Turkey (juicemaster.com). You live up in the mountains for seven days, drink four juices a day and walk away seven pounds lighter. I was worried I would risk losing my newly learnt boxing skills but I’ve discovered they have a punch bag here, plus I have made good mates with a guy called Scott, a Thai boxer from Manchester. It’s so nice exercising in the sun, and before you ask about the lack of food and my energy levels, don’t worry, poor Scott can testify I have plenty of get up and go!
Before I left for Turkey, I’d ordered a punch bag, so on my return home I get to work. It’s a Reebok free-standing technique bag (available from newitts.com, £445.90) so doesn’t need to be attached to my wall. I just stand it in the garden and for an hour each day over the weekend I blast my iPod and do three-minute intervals of punches, hooks and uppercuts, being as creative as I possibly can with combinations. In between rounds, I either do sit-ups, lunges or burpees. It’s not easy to keep going without CJ around but I do and feel so great for it. I’m buzzing from my week in Turkey, and when I start my last session with CJ it shows.
Before we start, I tell him about my trip and boxing practise in my garden and he asks me to show him some shadow boxing, recapping what I’ve learnt. I find shadow boxing pretty embarrassing as I bob and weave around the NKD Ambition gym (nkdambition.com), but I get over it.
It’s my last session and CJ has an evil glint in his eye. We start with basic combinations before learning a new drill – the uppercut. I have some knowledge of this, but CJ shows me how to drive up with my legs and push up and turn from my core, which provides me with maximum power. I don’t get it straight away and I take a few wild swings that get me all twisted and out of balance – not an efficient way to attack my opponent!
Half an hour into the session and I feel I’ve mastered the uppercut, so CJ works on my reaction speed. At first he just puts his hands up and if I don’t punch fast enough the hand goes down and I miss. I miss most of the shots, so it’s back to square one – straight tabata punches to improve my speed and accuracy. CJ gives me a simple combination and tells me to do it for 20 seconds flat. In my 10-second recovery time I shadow box to get my breath back. We do this for 15 minutes before a few abdominal moves to finish off.
I’ve learnt so much; I have some great new skills under my belt, newly strong and powerful arms and legs and a love for boxing that I hope will continue.
Read Lucy’s full feature in November issue of Health & Fitness magazine. On sale September 29, 2010.
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Topics: Home | 1 Comment »
August 17th, 2010 at 7:17 am
Thanks for your nice article!