Spencer’s Boxing Challenge – End of week 2

This is the second week of the boxing training i’m doing in readiness for the Real Boxing Challenge in March and i thought i’d share how i’m getting and how my training has changed to help – at least i hope it will help 🙂

Sparring

As i mentioned in my last blog relating to this challenge (link here) i’ve done plenty of ‘fitness’ type boxing – by that i mean i’ve used pads, gloves and bags but the one thing that i had never experienced was people actually hitting me lol.

Well this last week i’ve been lucky enough to start some light sparring and so far i must say i’m really enjoying it! In the video below you can see me and fellow participant Brett having a little sparring session – we are not trying to show how great we are as we both know we are far from boxers – we just thought it would be interesting to show our first sparring session and then later in the programme share our last just before our fights to see if we’ve improved.

We have a lot to learn still but considering neither of us has done much other than hit bags before we felt it was not bad to start off! The one thing that did surprise us both was how much your heart rate goes up without you really being aware of it while you are sparring – great cardio session! Great fun as well 🙂

The training – this is how my training week looks as of today – sticking with the basics of this but as i tweak it i’ll re post what i’m doing.

Monday.

Prowler push + pull 25m each + Single arm press ups x 10 x 4 sets

25m Lunge walks and shoulder press combo x 5 to 8 set

Boxing training later

Tuesday

Sparring

Wednesday

Straight arm pullover with crunch @ 30 kg x 12 + Plate squeeze extensions x 12 @10kg x 4 sets

Single arm snatch x 10 (5 each arm) @30 + Double bent forward row + 10 burpees x 5 sets – 40 secs rest between sets 5 sets

Thursday

1 min skip + 10 x Renegade rows (5 each side) + Bent forward ‘squeeze’ row + Upright rows + Biceps curls x 5 sets – with 16kgs. No real rest between circuits

Friday

122 kg Deadlift ladder Up to level 6 (out of 10 levels so that would be 6 deadlifts/12 press ups / 12 front and side raise/ 18 crunches then back down in reserve) complete with press ups / front side raise and crunches 8kg db’s

1 x DL

2 x Press ups

2 x Front / side raise

3 x crunches

= Level 1

2 x DL

4 x Press ups

4 x Front side raise

6 x Crunches

= Level 2

Saturday. REST / light sparring

Sunday. Brazilian Jujitsu training

The above is quite a shift from the heavier work i’ve been doing recently and i must say the burpees and higher cardio stuff are challenging me some what 🙂 I’ve done some progress pics but those of you that know me will be aware i’m not a fan of showing my body off but i will do so on the 8 week mark in comparison to the week 1 photo so you can see what all this has done.

Conclusion

I’ll keep popping these short posts up for people to read and will happily answer any questions relating to this so ask away if you want me to go over anything in particular.  I’m honestly really enjoying it – ok – still slightly concerned that in a matter of a few weeks someone is going to be trying to knock me out but hey ho – as i get more used to the sparring that fear is started to lessen – anyway – does not pay to be complacent eh?

Spencer’s boxing challenge!

So, after all these years playing around with and training people (for fitness) on bags and mits its finally time for me to have a go myself and get in the ring! Saturday the 3rd March 2018 sees me take part in a charity boxing match organised by Real Boxing Challenge at the Corah Suite in Leicester. Why would a 40 something bloke want to suddenly get into the ring is a perhaps a valid question – here’s my answer 🙂

A bit of background…

Boxing training has always been something i’ve enjoyed – in fact well before i finally got into fitness in my late 20’s / early 30’s i had access to a friends punch bag in his garage and i loved it.  At the time i was overweight and unfit and the thought of actually going into a real club was crazy – i’d been bullied as a kid and had many preconceived ideas as to what would lay in wait for me if i went into a proper club (sadly i later found out how wrong i would have been but more on that later) so decided to just blindly plug away by myself.  I was constantly being told that weights and boxing was the ‘wrong’ way to lose weight and get fit by my friends so reluctantly i gave it up in the search for something else 😦

A few years past and i started to get in to fitness training – eventually becoming a qualified instructor and then a personal trainer.  Along the way i’d begun following all sorts of trainers online and by far the most influential to me was a guy in the US called Ross Enamait – he had a website and wrote some great blog posts and sold some really good PDF books which became the building blocks to my training. He re-kindled my interest in bag training and after really making it part of my own training gained a fitness based qualification called PadBox (awesome course ran by a proper boxing coach!) to help my clients that also wanted to learn the basics of safely hitting something 🙂 I also started training at Sileby Boxing Academy which was far from the fear inducing place i’d imagined – although – i’ll be dead honest the first time i went down i was nervous of what it might be like – very glad i did though – was a fantastic environment – great fitness building as well. The only issue i had was at the time 30 years old was the maximum allowed for amateur fighters and as i was older than that and my personal training work had picked up a sadly dropped the weekly sessions.

Fast forward a fair few years and i set up NPC – we had a few bags which i still loved using as part of my training and i had kept up the personal training 1-2-1 fitness pad work so boxing of some description still played a part in my fitness life.

I’ve often wondered what things would have been like for me if i’d got into something like boxing as a kid. I was teased and bullied a bit as child – nothing major but enough that it affected my school life and self confidence.  The thought back then of going into somewhere like Sileby Boxing Academy was simply too scary to even enter my head but i think it is a shame these places had and still have negative stereotypes associated with them. The people and trainers i met were great – friendly guys and girls there to get fit and burn off some energy doing something they loved. I feel now that if i’d gone to somewhere as supportive and fun as that when i was being bullied it would have got me fitter, helped me lose weight and given me a degree of self confidence which at the time i lacked.

So why am i actually doing this? 

Partly because of the chance to give something a go that i’ve done a lot of training for – ok, ok – VERY different i know as bags don’t often hit back but at least my fitness, co-ordination and bag work is quite good LOL.

Another reason though and if i’m dead honest the bigger reason i want to do this is to try and finally lay the pesky little demon of me being bullied to rest. Although i have a lot more confidence these days, am in pretty good shape and have a fairly good level of fitness i still feel sometimes that my past can hold me back from situations where i may be tested. Stepping into a boxing ring is, as friend of mine put it, simply a form of ‘pressure testing’ and i think it will give me the chance to prove to myself that i am able to stand up and face things that are daunting or scary – something the younger me would have avoided at all costs.

This is something particularly important to me as we are also really pushing our anti-bullying programme with children this year (more here on that) – facing up to fears and building self esteem is a key part to that.  I’m honestly not bothered if i win or lose – to be fair completing the training, actually getting into the ring and not getting knocked are the main prioritise 🙂

I’m going to do a much shorter weekly blog post on how i’ve been training and how the preparations are going and thought that might be interesting to some people – be sure to keep an eye out for those – i’ll also detail my training and eating plans and answer any questions people may have so ask away via the comments box below.

 

If you feel you could also do this there is time to still get on board – Monday and Thursday  7pm at NPC – no cost to train and you don’t need to be a member – who knows it might just give you a boost to your New Years training a resolutions!

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NEW morning classes starting 15th January!

We’ve been asked a few times if we’d run morning classes and are now pleased to say we are starting them next week. Initially there will only be 2 classes but as the want / need for them increases we intend to roll them out to 5 days a week. The sessions will be 40 mins long and start at 06:15.  We’ve designed them to run in smaller groups than our evening  classes and will be using much more of the functional type equipment we have here at NPC.

The sessions are designed around high intensity interval training (HIIT) functional resistance exercises and circuit training. By combining these 3 similar training styles we can burn calories, build lean muscle and tone all at the same time. We will use everything from barbells to boxing bags to keep it varied. If you wanted to find out more drop us a line or speak to us next time you are in – sessions are bookable now via this link

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NEW range of memberships at NPC

We are pleased to say that we have now finalised the new membership options to use the centre. We now how 3 monthly options for you to choose from:

Option 1 – Gym only – £25 a month – any time – no restrictions

Option 2 – Gym and evening  / weekend classes – £31 a month – this allows full gym use AND evening / weekend group exercise classes

Option 3 – Gym and ALL classes – £35 a month – this is our top level membership – this allows full gym use, evening classes and access to our new  for 2018 rise and shine group exercise sessions. These new sessions run on a Monday and Thursday at 06:15 and last 40 mins.  They are a great way to kick start the day and will use a different format to our evening classes – these classes are only bookable via the top membership – there is no pay as you go option.

Will also still be offering a pay as you train membership which is £5 a visit. 

Why the new memberships?

We have rolled out these new memberships as we wanted people to be able to choose how they use the centre – if you are only ever going to be using the gym then why do you have to pay the same as someone else who wants the gym and classes?

We have also been asked to add classes in the mornings and have decided that we will start these with 2 and add a third / fourth as the need for them increases.  To do this we have kept the top level £35 a month membership. If you are never going to be using these new classes we thought we’d offer a discount to a persons membership – £31 a month.

Is this just for new members?

No – not at all – we hate when offers are only for new people – this change is available to all members current, past and new

How do i upgrade / downgrade from my current membership?

You can do this yourself via your normal team up log in – a step by step guide can be found here – please note we can not do this for you but are happy to help if you are struggling – just drop us a message 🙂