All I have to say is, 'boxing is painful, so painful'. And I haven't even been punched yet!
Yesterday, my Korean buddy David (see climbing photos) and I joined Seoul Boxing Gym. My health club gym membership ended a couple of weeks ago and I decided not to resign. I hate gyms, I've always hated gyms and two years ago told myself I'd never go one again. I've always figured if your life is active enough you won't need them. And if you have to exercise, you should find a fun way to do it. But big city life changed me so I ended up lifting weights and running a treadmill like a hamster for months just to stop the over indulgance of big city life from killing me. But I've now decided that getting punched in the face on a regular basis will be better for my health...
A former student told me about Seoul Boxing Gym a while back and I decided to join when my gym membership was up. He told me it was reasonably priced, but warned me that the 'master' was a bit of a loose cannon and hot tempered with a habit of telling students "You're rubbish, just go home" (in Korean of course). But somehow this attracted me to the place more than deterred me. Images of me proving myself to my 'master' masked the realistic images of me vomiting in the toilet or passing out from exhaustion, or memorizing Korean for "I want my Mommy", in case of emergencies. I envisoned facing my master and replying to his scornful comments that "I might be rubbish, but I will not go home", or something really cool along those lines, even as he jabs a finger into my little beer gut.
Unfortunately though on the first day he wasn't mean enough to me for me to make my point. So I'll have to wait.
He did however grab my beer gut. Early on, before warming up he took a look at my paunch and then grabbed it. Instinctively I tensed up, but quickly reconsidered in hope that he would go easy on me. He laughed and gave it a shake. To which I replied 'mekju mani'-a lot of beer. He said something in Korean about not drinking anymore which I couldn't understand even when David translated it. Anyway, probably not important.
Then we did some stretching and he got us started on the jump rope. We had to do five rounds of three minutes each with a thirty second break between. There's even a real bell that rings at these intervals. Skipping mightn't sound that difficult, but you'd be amazed. And we had to alternate from one foot to the other and then at different angles. David and I were saturated in sweat by the end of the third 'round'. And in the fourth and fifth we were delirious and swearing, but too afraid to quit despite the cramps.
Then we got a short break followed by more jumping. This time though it wasn't with a rope. Just posing in front of the mirror in a boxing stance. It took about five minutes for me to get the stance correct. I couldn't understand the coach and David was too tired to translate so the big meanie resorted to pushing me and kicking my feet until the position was right. I laughed at these actions, but I was crying on the inside. Thought I felt better when I saw him do the same things to David. Ha!
Anyway, we then had another three gruelling rounds of trying to maintain this position while hopping up and down (like boxers?).
Then three more rounds of skipping even though we could hardly stand. Then he let us go home telling us we need to know how to do our own taping my tomorrow and and that today was just a gentle warm-up. I made some excuse about having a date and said I'd come back 'another time'. He laughed, but I could see he wanted to slap me. He said something about needing to practice a lot and reiterated his earlier point about alcohol intake, which I still didn't understand.
Now, the morning after, my calfs are a little stiff, but otherwise I feel good. And since I've already paid a months fees I might actually go back again. Watch this space...
Yesterday, my Korean buddy David (see climbing photos) and I joined Seoul Boxing Gym. My health club gym membership ended a couple of weeks ago and I decided not to resign. I hate gyms, I've always hated gyms and two years ago told myself I'd never go one again. I've always figured if your life is active enough you won't need them. And if you have to exercise, you should find a fun way to do it. But big city life changed me so I ended up lifting weights and running a treadmill like a hamster for months just to stop the over indulgance of big city life from killing me. But I've now decided that getting punched in the face on a regular basis will be better for my health...
A former student told me about Seoul Boxing Gym a while back and I decided to join when my gym membership was up. He told me it was reasonably priced, but warned me that the 'master' was a bit of a loose cannon and hot tempered with a habit of telling students "You're rubbish, just go home" (in Korean of course). But somehow this attracted me to the place more than deterred me. Images of me proving myself to my 'master' masked the realistic images of me vomiting in the toilet or passing out from exhaustion, or memorizing Korean for "I want my Mommy", in case of emergencies. I envisoned facing my master and replying to his scornful comments that "I might be rubbish, but I will not go home", or something really cool along those lines, even as he jabs a finger into my little beer gut.
Unfortunately though on the first day he wasn't mean enough to me for me to make my point. So I'll have to wait.
He did however grab my beer gut. Early on, before warming up he took a look at my paunch and then grabbed it. Instinctively I tensed up, but quickly reconsidered in hope that he would go easy on me. He laughed and gave it a shake. To which I replied 'mekju mani'-a lot of beer. He said something in Korean about not drinking anymore which I couldn't understand even when David translated it. Anyway, probably not important.
Then we did some stretching and he got us started on the jump rope. We had to do five rounds of three minutes each with a thirty second break between. There's even a real bell that rings at these intervals. Skipping mightn't sound that difficult, but you'd be amazed. And we had to alternate from one foot to the other and then at different angles. David and I were saturated in sweat by the end of the third 'round'. And in the fourth and fifth we were delirious and swearing, but too afraid to quit despite the cramps.
Then we got a short break followed by more jumping. This time though it wasn't with a rope. Just posing in front of the mirror in a boxing stance. It took about five minutes for me to get the stance correct. I couldn't understand the coach and David was too tired to translate so the big meanie resorted to pushing me and kicking my feet until the position was right. I laughed at these actions, but I was crying on the inside. Thought I felt better when I saw him do the same things to David. Ha!
Anyway, we then had another three gruelling rounds of trying to maintain this position while hopping up and down (like boxers?).
Then three more rounds of skipping even though we could hardly stand. Then he let us go home telling us we need to know how to do our own taping my tomorrow and and that today was just a gentle warm-up. I made some excuse about having a date and said I'd come back 'another time'. He laughed, but I could see he wanted to slap me. He said something about needing to practice a lot and reiterated his earlier point about alcohol intake, which I still didn't understand.
Now, the morning after, my calfs are a little stiff, but otherwise I feel good. And since I've already paid a months fees I might actually go back again. Watch this space...
1 comment:
can you please tell me how to get to the gym you visited ?
thanks.
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