How Boxing Kicked My Butt, but I Still Kept Going Back for More

Skills and lessons I learned after 6 months of training

I never was big on going to gyms.

The thought of exercising on machines while I could be out running and smelling the fresh air didn’t quite appeal to me. I was also subconsciously thinking people would stare at my horrible form as I flailed away.

So, when my then-fiance and I decided that we should do an activity together, her sister told us that a gym dedicated to boxing could be an option for us to entertain.

I honestly didn’t know what that entailed and was initially hesitant about going to such a class.

I had questions such as: Would I get hit, how hard were the classes, were the people their professional boxers?

It turns out the gym had a wide range of programs that beginners and advanced boxers could take.

By the end of the 6-month training in boxing, the classes transformed how I worked out physically and challenged my mind mentally.

Increasing your cardio endurance

Before you even get to the boxing classes, you must complete a 10-minute cardio workout. This cardio usually dealt with stretches, some light boxing, and jump rope workouts.

I hated jump rope workouts.

Jump ropes are the bane of my existence because I find it incredibly hard, and I usually collapse in a heap after less than a minute of jump roping.

I looked like a madman who had lost his sense of balance.

Unfortunately, to get to the boxing lesson, every member in our class had to jump rope for 5minutes.

I gritted my teeth and told myself that I had to do a continuous jump rope for 30 seconds. No more, no less.

Weeks later, after I was able to master 30 seconds of jump roping continuously, I was able to bump it up to 40 seconds.

Soon afterward, I was able to get it to 90 seconds non-stop!

I would be lying if I said I like to jump rope now, but the amount of cardio needed for warmups helped me prepare for the actual boxing portion that comes right after the “light” cardio workout.

Memorization skills

I did not expect this skill to be part of boxing.

When I think of boxing, I just think of an instructor yelling out commands such as “jab!” and “hook!” for us to perform as we hit the punching bag.

However, this was not the case. Instead of yelling out instructions, he would yell out numbers.

Each number represented a different type of punch. He would then stack numbers one after another, and then mix them up so it trips up the student.

For example, if the instructor yelled out “1!”, you would throw a left punch.

Sounds easy right?

Well, not when he starts doing combos. You can get orders such as “1!–1!–3!–2!–4!”. This meant you would have to do left punch, left punch, left hook, right punch, right hook all one after another.

See how much more difficult that is?

That’s hard in itself, but think about doing this for a solid 30 minutes while you have already been punching and sweating from the cardio work before!

Although this part was really difficult at the beginning for me, I slowly noticed that the more I worked on this, the more focused I was in anticipating the numbers my instructor threw at us.

My memorization skills improved because I was literally remembering 10 hit combos that were barked by my instructor just seconds before! At the start of the class, I could barely remember 5 numbers, now I can remember twice that amount.

To be honest, my memory is below average, but I was surprised how quickly my brain improved in memorizing hit combos from my instructor in a matter of weeks.

You will mess up, and that’s perfectly fine

I don’t want to make this whole boxing sound too intimidating for people interested in it, but the fact of the matter is, everyone messes with the combos in the beginning. I have seen even regulars that have been going to the gym for years mess up at times. Heck, we all mess up even to this day!

But that is the beauty of it.

I realized later that I didn’t have to be perfect when I performed these punches since everyone in the gym messes up. When I realized that, I was able to stop focusing on all the mistakes I was making but instead channel that energy into how I could improve my form instead.

At no point was anyone putting me down in the class, which helped me have less anxiety about how I was performing.

“Everyone makes mistakes. The wise are not people who never make mistakes, but those who forgive themselves and learn from their mistakes.” — Ajahn Brahm

I never knew punching a bag felt so good

Did you have a bad day at work?

Punch!

Did you get cut by a car driving to the gym?

Punch! Punch!

Your spouse didn’t take out the garbage again?

Punch! Punch! Punch!

(oh wait, maybe not that personal!)

I never knew I would love to enjoy punching a bag. The stress and anxiety that I had entering the gym would slip away with every punch I landed on the bag. Turns out, hitting a bag feels good as it helps relieve your stress.

With our program, you would have 12 rounds of punching with a cardio workout in between rounds. An example would be 3 minutes of combo punches, followed by cardio works (ex. pushups, jumping jacks, lunges, etc.).

By the end of the 12 rounds, my classmates were just exhausted and collapsed on the floor. But man, was it worth it.

If you never punched a bag after a day full of stress and anxiety from work or personal life, you owe it to yourself to hit one ASAP.

Getting hit (slightly)

“Everyone has a plan until they get punched in the face.” — Mike Tyson

I never had to experience this quote until I got into boxing. Now, I didn’t get punched in the face during my boxing class, but my instructor would sneakily put in a couple of light jabs at my temple while he held my bag as I punched at it.

His point was:

Don’t let your hands down; always protect your face, don’t get flustered.

When he first tapped my head, I have to admit I froze like a deer looking at the headlights. I had never been in a fight before, so just this act of a tap on my temple completely stopped my mind.

I thought:

Wait, what was that. He just “hit” me. What should I do?

My instructor smiled after he did that since he knew that I was too focused on hitting the bag and remembering the combos. He succeeded in breaking my concentration. When that happened, all my training went out the window.

I learned later that I needed to relax, stay flexible, and vigilant whenever a possible tap from my instructor could come my way.

After it happened the first, second, and then a third time, I eventually got used to my instructor tapping my head at random times, and I knew how to react accordingly to his tap when it happened.

In the end, I focused on my punches, put my hand up high to block my face, and my instructor smiled approvingly.

Building a community

I noticed that after my workout was over, I would be all loose since my stress and anxiety were gone after destroying a punching bag. I found it easier to talk to the instructor and also to my classmates after a hard workout.

In the end, I realized this boxing was a way for me to join a friendly, tight-knit community and also get an excellent hard workout twice a week.

Although boxing continually kicked my butt many times, I still enjoyed going to the classes and experience the great workout and community. To top it off, I spent time with my wife and met wonderful people who shared the same passion as us in doing boxing.

I want to leave you with this quote which perfectly describes what I learned from having been to a gym and boxed for six months:

“If you want to become healthy, you have to surround yourself with a group of people that are getting healthy, and you have to be connected to a community that is doing what you want to do.” — Henry Cloud