Last Sunday was my first fitness event of the year – Fight Klub Jump Start Tour in Southend. Mel and I have never tried Fight Klub before, but I was really excited and pretty sure I was going to love it as Boxercise used to be one of my favourite classes. There’s something so satisfying in being able to punch and kick something that doesn’t hit you back! The gym I’m at now doesn’t offer it, and it’s one class that I really do miss.
It takes about 1 and 1/2 hours for us to get to Southend, and we have to go via the M25, so Mel and I set off at 10 for the 1pm start in case of bad traffic. It was a good job we did, as I made the mistake of putting Mel in charge of the sat nav and we rocked up at Southend airport instead of the David Lloyd club! Luckily, she’d only got one digit wrong and we weren’t far away, so we decided we had time to grab a quick lunch before going round.
We had booked our places by paying a £10 deposit, which would be re-credited to us after we had attended the event, and on the day all we had to pay was £1 entry and £1 donation to a local charity, which was amazing value! We went straight upstairs to have a look at the Fight Klub t-shirts, and were thrilled when we were told we could have one instead of having our £10 deposits returned – it totally felt as if I was getting it for free, as I’d paid the £10 weeks ago!
Our friends Ali and Sameena arrived and after we’d all caught up and taken a few selfies it was time to head into the sports hall. There were 4 people to each freestanding punch bag, but even though we had been among the first to arrive, we somehow managed to be among the last to actually go in to the sports hall, so unfortunately we ended up getting separated. Mel and I went on one bag, while Sameena and Ali went on another.
We’d all been asked to bring our own boxing gloves, and we put these on and got ready to start. As soon as the music started I knew I was going to love it – it was fast beat, loud, and brought back memories of my teenage years! Chrissy Harper was on the stage giving us instructions, and I remembered him being brilliant from Armageddon in November when he taught us steel combat. It’s quite hard to explain what we did, so here’s a video of us doing it to give you an idea! Basically it was 45 minutes of beating up the bag with punches and kicks, and a bit of twerking and high-fiving to add to the fun! It was great, and felt more like a party than a work out, although I was dripping with sweat all the way through it and I definitely worked hard!
After the bag section was up, we got into pairs and stood opposite each other in a long line down the sports hall. One partner held focus pads, while the other had to follow the instructions and punch them! I enjoyed this bit a lot, although I did find it a bit difficult doing burpees in between punches with boxing gloves on – that’s harder than you would imagine. Mel was my partner, and she cracked me up by backing away from me while I’m trying to hit her pads! After I’d had my turn we swapped, and Mel repeated the same routine.
Next it was time for some freestyling. I have to admit, I found this bit a little confusing, but basically what we did was Mel held focus pads while I hit them, then every few punches she had to move and turn away from me and I followed her round and punched some more, before swapping over.
After that, it was time to lose the boxing gloves for a bit of Totally Shredded, which was taught by Dean Heitman, the founder. This is basically HIIT (high intensity interval training) combined with combat moves and body weight exercises to music that is 150bpm. I really enjoyed this one, although it was pretty hard work! It was during this class that I noticed that, although I was clearly working hard, I was nowhere near as out of breath as I normally would be. I often find that my cardio fitness is slightly lacking, and my asthma makes it really hard for me to improve this, but today I was breathless but not in pain. I’m pretty sure I can credit that improvement to my recent Regiment Fitness sessions.
After that it was time for a quick lunch. The David Lloyd club had provided us with an order form when we arrived, so we could have our lunch waiting for us, but Mel had brought a packed lunch for us so we went and had that. I decided not to eat much, as I remembered feeling quite sick after the lunch break at Armageddon, and I’m glad I didn’t as we were straight in for Steel Combat afterwards!
Steel Combat is one of my favourites – it’s a non-contact class combining Boxing and Martial Arts, and was taught by Chrissy Harper. The last time I had tried it was as the last class at Armageddon, when I was totally exhausted and half dead, so I was looking forward to giving it a proper go! I wasn’t disappointed, it was just as great as I had remembered, and this time I had a lot more energy to put in.
Once we had finished that, it was time for Fight Klub round 2, so we got the bags back out. This time we were better prepared, so Mel, Sameena, Ali and I all managed to get on a bag together. This round was lead by Troy Dureh, the celebrity fitness trainer and presenter who came up with Fight Klub (as well as the 90’s trend Khai-Bo). We all had lots of fun with this one, especially when we had to shuffle round the bag and every single time we all managed to go opposite ways and crash into each other!
Last up was the bit we’d all been looking forward to the most – the Michael Jackson Thriller Finale! Interestingly, I had a Halloween party last year and after a few Jägerbombs Mel and I had spent most of the evening using YouTube to try and learn the Thriller dance (and failing miserably) so we were seriously excited about learning it properly! Troy taught us a few moves at a time, and I was surprised how much easier it was than it had seemed on Halloween… Once we had learned all the moves and had a practice run through it was time to put it all together. Everyone did really well and I was amazed how good it looked on the video.
And then it was time for the long drive home. It was such an amazing day, and I was so hyped that when I got home I went straight on-line to book for the Fight Klub Mayhem Event in Luton on 29th March. I can’t wait!
My Crazy Life 