Fitness: My Boxing Gym Workout Regimen

There are a lot of different types of gyms. The most common type of gym is the kind that hones one's general fitness. This type of gym normally has a treadmill, a bench press, and a set of dumbbells that comes in varying weights along with a few other pieces of equipment. A boxing gym is different from your regular gym and for this blog post I'm going to show you my workout regimen when I put the gloves on.

A boxing gym is much more spacious than your regular gym.

Before I start with my workout regimen I want to tell you how different a boxing gym is from the ubiquitous kind that I mentioned a while ago. A boxing gym has all sorts of different equipment that you won't ever see in your average gym. In the boxing gym I go to, Elite Boxing Gym, these are:

• Heavy punching bags (obviously)
• Double-end bags
• Speed bags
• Wall Bags
• Kettle Bells
• Lightweight dumbbells
• Jump ropes
• A Spar Bar
• A boxing ring (I think that counts as equipment)

I don't utilize all of the equipment listed above; I usually ignore the wall bags and I just casually toy with the spar bar from time to time. The rest of the equipment I use though, and they're great for improving one's technique and form in boxing just as much as they're useful for breaking a sweat.

A boxing gym will typically have a boxing ring and a timer.

Now that I've painted a picture of what the boxing gym has to offer, let's get right to my workout regimen:

1. Jogging - 3 rounds

That's right my first exercise doesn't include any of the equipment I listed down. Not yet. I jog around the gym for 3 rounds. For those of you who don't know a boxing round is 3 minutes in length with a minute of rest in between each round. 

When I jog I try to jog at a pace that's near sprinting speed. I avoid jogging leisurely to keep the blood pumping. The jog serves as a warm-up after all.

2. Jump rope - 2 rounds

Once I'm all warmed up from the jog, I grab a jump rope and start skipping. Naturally, I go into the Boxer's skip for this exercise. If I hit the rope while skipping that's alright, I just carry on my way like it didn't happen. To prevent the exercise from getting monotonous, I like to incorporate a view tricks and moves into my skipping. I must admit I only do 2 rounds of these because I want to save up my leg energy for the other exercises that are yet to come.

3. Shadowbox - 2 rounds

Before I start shadow boxing, I wear my hand wraps. This takes a while so I get more than my fair share of 1-minute rest from the previous exercise. This is when I try to get into the rhythm of boxing. I'm more focused on form, technique, and defense in this exercise than working a sweat.

Ideally, the first round of shadowboxing is done with lightweight dumbbells in my hands and the second round is done without any dumbbells to improve my speed, but sometimes I just do both rounds without any weights at all.

4. Mitts Work - 3 rounds

This is where the fun begins. My trainer puts on the boxing mitts, I put on my boxing gloves, and then we begin our combination drills. Focus and concentration are of utmost importance in this exercise. There is a delicate balance between speed, power, and soundness of technique. My trainer critiques my performance if I'm not boxing properly. I try to keep the quality of my punches consistent throughout all 3 rounds without showing any signs of exhaustion to improve my stamina and endurance.

5. Heavy Bag - 3 rounds

What comes after 3 rounds of punching? Even more punching! And there are more punches to come after this exercise too. A heavy bag is a simple tool that's made to be punched, but it's important to not neglect technique when using this equipment. The aspects of boxing that I take into consideration the most when I use the heavy bag are distance, range, and accuracy. The bags in the Elite boxing gym have a logo at eye-level so I like to make that my target when I work the heavy bag.

6. Double-End Bag - 3 rounds (and beyond)

This is my favorite tool to use in the boxing gym. I'm only required to use this piece of equipment for 3 rounds but I aim for 6 rounds with this. It develops good habits, speed, and hand-eye coordination. The double-end bag instills the rhythm of boxing into the individual practicing on it. I make sure to work my head movement and footwork when I use the double-end bag.

7. Mitts Work again - 2 rounds

My arms are already tired by this time in the workout, but that's when my endurance and stamina start to improve. I focus on keeping my hands up at all times while I do my combination drills.

8. Speed Bag - 3 rounds

Although it's called a speed bag, it doesn't actually improve speed, per se. It hones my rhythm and -- given how exhausted I am by this time -- it improves stamina and endurance even more. This can get repetitive just like the jump rope exercise so I like to mix it up by alternating between punches from ones to twos to threes.

9. Ab workout - 2 sets of 5 different exercises

This is the most difficult part of the workout because my body barely has any energy left to complete this set of exercises. It's also the last one. I try to do 2 sets of several different ab exercises like crunches, planks, Russian twists, burpees, and so on.

That's about it for my average workout regimen in the boxing gym. If you tally the number of rounds from each exercise, excluding the ab workout, we have about 21 rounds in total, which roughly translates to 63 minutes of exercise. Sometimes when I'm feeling really energetic, my coach likes to add in other exercises in what he calls circuit training, which is a hundred times more difficult. Circuit training is for another blog post. Sometimes my coach puts me in a sparring session, which I already made a blog post about here.

Reflection: The Pros and Cons of being Funemployed in the Philippines

I've been free from work (aka Funemployed) for about a couple of months now. It was my decision to resign from work so I never had any regrets for the first month of being free. However, slowly but surely as the second month of my unemployment comes to a close, I've become more and more anxious about my status.

I planned to go to the United States for a vacation during my freedom from work but sadly my relatives that are supposed to welcome me with open arms have their hands tied at the moment.

I'm pretty sure being unemployed isn't very different abroad, but I'll go ahead and list down the pros and cons of having a lot of free time.

Pros:

• You have all the time in the world

Let's start with the obvious one. Being unemployed is different from finally retiring, but both statuses mean a person has near-limitless time to do whatever the hell they want to do. I usually use my free time to workout, play video games, and do chores around the house.

• Working out regularly is possible

Before I resigned, my whole clock revolved around my shift at work. That meant I have to compromise other time-consuming activities. Sacrificing my workout time to sit in a cubicle at work is neither fun nor healthy. Being funemployed lets us use our bodies as it was meant to be used.

• Biking for fun is possible

Biking is something I've always wanted to do but never found the time thanks to my busy schedule. Now I can bike around the city where I live in and no one's there to stop me from wandering around. It may be silly, but I like to pretend I'm like a cowboy when I'm on the bike. The bike is my trusty steed and I ride off into the sunset.

• Play video games all day every day

During the rainy seasons when it's too wet outside to head to the gym or to bike around, it's best to play video games in the comforts of my own home. Just recently I played the heck out of Red Dead Redemption II with no discernible regrets in sight.

• Meet up with other friends who are free

Chances are there are other people out there who are also unemployed. Maybe some of your friends are unemployed too. Bar hopping is usually done by employees after their shift on Fridays, but we don't have to wait for the weekends to bar hop. Good times and good memories can only be made in this time of uncertainty and freedom that is Funemployment.

Cons:

• Too much time for you to handle

When does "so much" become "too much"? Too much of anything imposes detrimental effects on you. In the case of having too much time, you're faced with an attack on your psyche. Although we don't intend to overthink, neither do we intend to spiral into an existential crisis, that's most likely what'll happen. The pressure isn't there directly in front of your face. Instead it's an underlying sort of pressure that constantly reminds you that you're not being as productive as you should be, or it reminds you that all your other friends your age have jobs already but you don't. These are tough thoughts to struggle with.

• Your family becomes envious of you

Given the current traffic and weather situation in the Philippines, it becomes hard for your other family members braving the outside world to not be jealous of you because you have the choice whenever you want to go out of the house or not. Your family members don't have that choice. 

• Job hunting is hard

I was employed for about 2 years in my previous company. Just because I got a job once doesn't mean that other job offers will come in so easily. When I resigned, I didn't have another company already lined up. Objectively looking at it, it's most likely I'd get a job soon. But in reality, it's hard to look at things at such a logical perspective. Uncertainties of ever finding a job start creeping up, and who's to say the job I would find would be one that I enjoy? Will I even last six months in the new job that the future holds for me?

• Dwindling savings

If you're like me, you're living off the savings that you've accumulated from your previous job. I was wise enough to save a large chunk of what I earned, but until I start making money again, I'm eventually going to start eating away at a large portion of my savings. 

Fitness: Surprisingly Specific Analysis from Anytime Fitness' Free Consultation. Here's What I Learned

Just around July 26 -- that was a Friday -- Anytime Fitness representatives paid a visit to my old company's building as part of the company's Overall Health & Safety (OHS) campaign. Anytime Fitness offered free wellness consultations that I signed up for. The whole consultation doesn't take more than 20 minutes but there's a great deal to be learned in such a short time.

The InBody 270 isn't your average weighing scale.

The fast consultation is all thanks to Anytime Fitness' unique weighing scale that measures height, weight, blood pressure, and posture at the same time. It even prints your results for you. Once you've signed up at the booth, the representatives will put you on the scale and they'll tell you to follow the instructions on the screen. You'll be holding handle bars in both of your hands and you'll be raising them upwards, sideways, and below your waists. This whole process only takes 5 minutes. The rest of the consultation is the representative breaking down the results for you so that you understand the charts and graphs that the machine printed out. You can ask as many questions as you like.

Some of the special terms the representative will point out to you will be visceral fat and subcutaneous fat:

Visceral fat is the kind of fat that wraps around our internal organs.

Subcutaneous fat is the kind of fat that resides just underneath our skin.

Since Anytime Fitness is more concerned with improving our wellness instead of our sexiness, they'll tell us that it's important to reduce our visceral fat as much as possible. Because that's the kind of fat that contributes to most fitness-related illnesses like strokes and hypertension.

My results.

During my consultation, I was told that I had normal levels of fat and muscle all around my body. I'm doing a good job with my health goals. But I was also told I have the potential to put on more muscle. I was given a score of 78/100 which is already great apparently. Super muscular people can get scores above 100.

My girlfriend's results.

My girlfriend had different readings. While mine said I had normal levels of fat throughout my entire body, my girlfriend has a higher level of fat around her tummy area. It's okay I still love her anyways. She was also told that she has the potential to gain more muscle AND lose more body fat. She was given a score of 70/100

As long as you don't mind getting spammed by Anytime Fitness -- they'll inevitably do that once you sign up -- then I recommend getting one of Anytime Fitness' free consultations if ever they drop by your company grounds.

Fitness: Reviewing the sparring sessions that I've fought in

"'Taas mo kamay mo kahit di mo na kaya. Yan ang Fighting Spirit. (Keep your hands up even when you can't do it no more. That's true Fighting Spirit)" - Coach Julius, my first boxing trainer

Sparring is one of the most important parts of martial arts training. There's literally never been a professional fighter out there in the world that never did any sparring. This is very important because you learn to control your adrenaline, strategize while you're under live fire, and simulate what a real fight is like without exposing yourself to too much risk. You're pitted against a live moving target while wearing protective headgear. You learn to fight the smart way. Expert Boxing is one of the first places online I went to for some boxing wisdom, so you should check it out.

I was inspired to start writing about this because I just got out of a fierce sparring session yesterday. It was only two rounds of sparring, but I threw some heavy blows and I took some heavy blows. The whole sparring session was originally intended to be light i.e. nothing too serious, but things quickly started heating up in the second round.

I ate an uppercut that made spit come out of my mouth, I also took body shots that knocked the wind out of me. I wanted to keep it light because the guy I was sparring with was shorter than me, but those punches he threw made me take him seriously. I got lucky plenty of times in the fight. Since he was shorter I threw a lot of jabs and some lead left hooks. I hit him with plenty of those. I got extra lucky and hit his eye. He was tearing up but he acted like it's no big deal. That's the mark of a fighter.

So from here on out, I'm going to list down my most memorable sparring sessions. I'm in a reminiscent mood so I'm doing this for posterity. I'll place a divider between different sparring sessions so they're easier to tell apart.

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This is the only video of me sparring that I have. It's my first sparring session and it happened during the first year I was in a boxing gym. It's just light sparring so there's not a lot of force in our blows. You can clearly see I'm still a beginner in this video clip. As of today, I've already been in over a dozen sparring matches and I can confidently say I'm a lot better now. I now have the endurance to keep going in sparring sessions that can take as long as four to five rounds max. I'm also not afraid to take harder hits nowadays.

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One sparring session that I can never forget is the one that happened in the Elorde Gym at Taft. I wanted to go three rounds but I only managed to do two rounds because I couldn't take the hits that were being thrown at me. I admit I was scared for a moment. I took a straight right hand to the left side of my forehead which sucked so bad. I got dizzy when that happened, I saw stars during the spar and I knew that couldn't be good.

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As part of the Muay Thai club in my company, our coach lets us lightly spar if we have extra time to do that. This video shows the exact same meeting room where we normally do our light sparring. I sparred with one of my coworkers one day. I don't want to brag, but I can confidently say that I'm in full control of that sparring session. He's super hesitant to throw any punches at me, and he often positioned himself too close to me so I can hit him with some hooks if I wanted to.

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A couple of weeks ago I had another sparring session. It wasn't as heated as the one I had today, and it was the first real sparring match I had in a long time. He didn't hurt me much, because he was just throwing jabs. He was the evasive kind, so he was more focused on slipping and dodging my punches. I was still able to hit him a lot of times nevertheless. I managed to do that by incorporating some feints and footwork into my long combinations to create angles and openings.

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Last but not least I remember sparring with someone who didn't take the sparring session seriously at all because I was still a newbie. What made this sparring session memorable for me was the Drunken Fist he incorporated into his style. That's when I realized I still have a lot to learn, and up until now, I've been striving to be seen as more of a threat. I think it's reasonable to assume that I'm boxing more effectively if I manage to get my sparring partner to up their game.

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There you have it those are the most memorable sparring sessions I've had up until today. Looking forward to making more memories and learning new techniques as I continue to spar. I strive to be good enough at boxing that I can handle myself in a self-defense situation or street fight. I need a lot of technique and experience to take down a bigger guy. I'm hoping I could spar with someone bigger than me soon to be able to study what works and what doesn't work when I get the short end of the stick in a fight.

What awesome sparring moments do you remember in your boxing journey? Sharing badass fight stories make you 20% cooler :) Leave your comments below!

Fitness: Watching the Ultimate Knockout Challenge (UKC) and what I've learned

Back in May 2018, me and my dad went to Paranaque to watch young fighters from all over the nation compete in amateur matches. I didn't know anyone competing at the event personally. I just wanted to spectate to see what the fighters have to offer. After all has been done, I can finally compose my thoughts on the event I just witnessed. In summary, it was kind of epic.

This annual event, known as the Ultimate Knockout Challenge (UKC), is organized by Elorde Gym. It's at a level that's applicable to students and regulars of combat sports a bit below what would be internationally considered amateur boxing. The skill levels that I saw were those of novice practitioners. They aren't brawling away so blindly, but they also aren't throwing lightning-fast jabs.

If you're a young aspiring combatant, you might want to spectate one of these first to have a feel of what exactly it is you're getting into while you work your way up the ranks.

The fighting is as real as it can get; I saw a fighter get knocked down, and I saw another one got his nose bleeding after the fight. So anyone that joins the UKC deserves respect, imo. The rules of the bouts follow standard Amateur boxing rules: 3 rounds that are 2mins long each, with 30 seconds rests in between. You can find more of the rules here.

It was definitely an eye-opening experience for me. The fee to spectate the event is just around 200Php. I'd recommend fight fans to watch it if they don't have the means to attend any other fighting events. I think "watching a fight in person" should be in everyone's bucket list of life.

What do you think of the UKC, are you content to just watching from the sidelines or you've thought about competing in it one day? Let me know so I can buy a ticket and watch your big debut :)

Fitness: Boxing is All the Exercise you Need

I've always wanted to write a post about Boxing. It's become an integral part of my lifestyle and there's so much I want to say about it, but I don't actually know where to begin. I can write endlessly about how awesome it is to practice the sport, to wear cool gear like gloves and handwraps, and to teach other people self-defense. I could write about whatever came into my mind about boxing, but then my thoughts would be really unorganized because there are just so many aspects of the sport that I can delve into.

One of the great things about Boxing is you can practice it anytime and anywhere. My video above shows what I mean. It's a video of me and my sister doing mitts work in our living room. You can't practice like that with other sports because they require a wide spacious area to practice, like basketball, or football. You also need to get more than a couple of people to free their schedules so they can join you, which is a hassle for everyone.

I titled this blog post the way it is because I wanted to emphasize how beneficial boxing is for those people who want to get fit and toned. I've been practicing the martial art -- and adhering to exercises relevant to the necessary conditioning for the sport -- for nearly 5 years now. I can easily say that it does a great job at keeping my body toned and my spirit confident, as I've shown here. I've listed down some very nice features of boxing that might lure others to be a fellow practitioner of the sport.

1. Gear and Gym Rates are super affordable

Boxing is one of the cheapest sports around. The Philippines is a nation full of people tight on budgets, so affordability is a heavenly characteristic. The bare minimum you have to invest in are a couple of boxing gloves and handwraps, which would cost no more than $40. Your handwraps and gloves can last a couple of years even if you're rough with them (and you will be rough with them; you'll be throwing punches the whole time you're wearing them.)

Boxing gyms like Elorde and Elite are incredibly cheap compared to places like Fitness First and Anytime Fitness. The latter two gyms I mentioned charge you membership rates on a monthly basis. The boxing gyms? They charge you cheaper membership rates per year. You save up so much money by working out at a boxing gym instead of overpriced places like Fitness First and Anytime Fitness.

2. You can practice it anywhere, even if you're alone

Like my video above showed, you don't need a lot of space. More space is good so you don't hit any walls or people while you're doing your thing, but obviously you don't need an entire basketball court to box.

You don't even need anyone else but yourself, per se. It's always nice to have a partner to do mitts work with, or a coach who can whip you to shape (that's of venerable importance to athletes who are aiming to be professionals) but when it comes down to it you can just box by yourself. More specifically, you can shadowbox by yourself, which is a fundamental workout for all practitioners of boxing, regardless of skill level.

3. Boxing exercises your body, mind, and soul

When you box, you use every inch of muscle in your body. Obviously, you use your arms to punch, but punching requires more than that; it takes back and hip muscles to throw punches packed with power. A lot of people underestimate boxing because it doesn't have any kicks involved, but these people don't know that the footwork required in boxing will make you use your legs to their fullest extent, because you always have to be on your toes. Your abs will also get a lot of workout, because a good core is important to quickly slip and dodge incoming fire.

Boxing requires your mind to be sharp so you can see the punches coming, and react accordingly. You also need to train your mind to stay focused (even if you're exhausted!) so you can throw your own shots with precision and accuracy. Boxing also has strategy. You need to fight your enemy with a plan in mind so you can exploit his weaknesses and vulnerabilities while protecting your own.

Finally, boxing is good for your "soul" because it's an immensely cathartic experience. We live in an age of stress and anxiety. Our bodies were designed to react to stress with fight-or-flight responses. Depriving ourselves of the physical outlet in which we can let our bodies do what they have to do eats away at our souls. Boxing lets our body release all the adrenaline it's producing, so we come out of the ring with a better state of mind; destressed, confident, and free.

So there you have it! That's all I'll say for now. Thank you so much for sticking around until this part of the post. Maybe in the future I'll blog about more specific things in boxing, like who are my top 5 favorite boxers lately, the times when I taught young girls self-defense, or about the different Boxing Gyms I've been to and which of them do I think is the best. There are really a lot of things to talk about in this exhilarating sport.

What do you think of boxing as a workout? Leave a comment below and let's talk :)

Fitness: What I wish I knew before participating in a Modeling Contest

My montage used for the competition.

On August 26, 2018, Tronix Imaging Center opened up applications for their Image Model 2018-2019 contest. There are several categories to choose from (depending on what age and gender bracket the participant falls under) and application for the contest is to remain open until December 31, 2018. Lucky winners will be picked by judges based on the following criteria:

• Appeal
• Projection
• Expression
• Confidence.

They did not provide much details on the criteria, but grand winners for each of the categories will receive 20,000Php in prize money along with several gift certificates and other goodies.

In addition to this, Tronix has an online voting competition which can be accessed here -- note that the link will prompt you to log in to your Facebook and like their official page before you can proceed any further -- and participants with the most number of votes will win their own set of prizes, albeit not as glamorous as the prizes of the grand winners. One important caveat about the online votes is that they do NOT have any bearing at all on the final decision of the judges for the grand winners.

I heard about the contest from my local Tronix Imaging Center branch, which had posters of the competition displayed just outside the store. I gave it considerable thought before I applied for the contest, and after much deliberating, I decided to go along with it. Before anybody says it, I would like to beat them to the punch: no, I am fairly certain that narcissism and vanity did not delude me into joining this contest. Below are lessons that I wish I knew before I joined that I eventually learned:

1. Application for the contest is fairly quick and painless

The application process took only an hour and a half at most, and that already includes waiting in line to use the photo studio. Once you inquire about the contest at the counter, the receptionists will ask you for two things:

• A photocopy of your birth certificate
• 349Php for the picture package they'll be using for the contest

Once you have those, the kind receptionists will provide you with all the necessary forms wherein you'll fill in your basic info such as your name, email address and phone number so that they can contact you. When you're done with that they'll hand some flyers with all the important information to keep you updated. The whole affair of handing them your documents and filling out the forms will take about 30 minutes.

You can then decide if you'd want to have your picture taken for the contest already, or you can do it another time. Since you've already paid for the pictures I highly suggest that you go through it right away, even more so since it'll take them a few days to edit the pictures.

2. Bring more than one set of clothes

When I went to apply for the competition, I had a feeling that the photo shoot would take place at the same time so I wore clothes that I knew I looked good in, but I could have done better than that. Don't get me wrong my photographer said I looked great, but she also asked if I had another set of clothes I wanted to try out. Their other model competition participants prepared all sorts of clothes that they put on for their own photo shoots.

3. Already have some poses in mind for the photo shoot

Your photographer will have some poses in mind, but it'd be great if you came in prepared with your own poses. The photo studio should have a small movable staircase that you could sit on if you'd like to pose that way. Confident, open, and smiling poses are most attractive, and it's the norm among all the contestants.

4. You'll be taking several photos, but only a few of them will be used for the final output

I already knew this from the beginning, but nonetheless, it still feels kind of disappointing to know that the particular shots wherein you feel you look the best don't end up on the final selection. Your photographer will be taking dozens of shots, but in the end they'll only be using three pictures of you.

I mentioned that I carefully thought about joining the competition. What finalized my decision was that when it comes down to it, I simply thought it'd be fun to join, and it'd be a great story to tell one day. I also thought that it'd be worth it, because the age limit to joining was 24 years old and below. I'm already 23. If this competition doesn't accept applicants older than that, then what of the other competitions? I would have regretted not joining any modelling competition when I get old.

I recommend everyone give any competition they're interested in a shot. If by any chance you don't succeed the first time, you'll learn just like I did, and do better on the next competition, right? I'm looking forward to more things out there that I could learn. What other things are there to know about modelling?