Apparently Punching Things is How Supermodels Work Out

It is both my hobby and my job to try out new workouts around NYC. (My life is really hard, I am aware, yes.)

And with each new year comes new workout trends. Boxing is one of those workouts that seems to keep popping back up, thanks to supermodels? (My friend/former coworker wrote a hilarious article about that time she tried to work out like a supermodel.)

There’s two that I’ve tried recently that I’ve had a lot of fun with (i.e, 10/10, would punch again.)

Box and Flow

Box and Flow is actually a workout I’ve done quite a few times now, and I LOVE it. Because I am too lazy to travel out of my neighborhood to work out before work, I haven’t been here as much as I’d like. As the name might have you believe, Box and Flow is a workout consisting of boxing and yoga.

The class has an 8-minute warmup (why I remember that exact number, I’m not sure), followed by ~25 minutes of boxing, including boxing on your own on the bag, holding the bag for your partner and each of you punching at the bag. During the boxing section, you also take breaks to do stuff like wall sits. It is a tough workout, and by the time you get to the end of the boxing section, you are dying for the yoga (or at least, I am/have been!)

The yoga section is about 20 minutes (it seems like they’ve been playing with the section lengths the few times I’ve been there, as it’s a new studio), and it is juicy!  The stretch feels so, so good after a difficult workout, and it feels almost indulgent to get such a good stretch and cool things down from such a heated state. I’ve always completely melted into savasana by the time we get there — in other classes, I sometimes feel like I’m not yet ready. My only complaint is that the shorter version of the flow feels a bit rushed — like they’re still trying to get all of the same poses into a more condensed time.

Rumble Boxinga

Rumble is much more convenient to my apartment! It’s on 23rd, and it’s been under construction for a while. It was started by Noah Neiman, a former Barry’s instructor/reality show star. The format of this class definitely reminds me of Barry’s a bit — broken down into several blocks.

You have the option of starting on the floor or the bags. They’re not the typical leather bags; they’re these crazy smaller water-filled bags. The class is broken into 11 “rounds”, which equates to about 4 rounds on the bags, 4 rounds on the floor, rinse, repeat. The boxing part is pretty typical to other boxing classes I’ve taken; the floor section feels much like Barry’s, down to the benches (which are really more like steppers.) It’s a mixture of some strength and some cardio moves (i.e. squats and burpees.)

I get overwhelmed sort of easily, and I like the actual workout, but there are SO many people in here (I want to say a full class can be about 50 people), that it feels a little much at times if you’re in a crowded class like Noah’s at 8am on a weekday.)

What about you? Do you like boxing? I have learned lately I really enjoy punching the crap out of things. It’s such an amazing release of those emotions that are lingering deep down.