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Self-Help: Boxing

In an attempt to reverse the downward spiral of your mental and physical wellbeing, we bring you the lowdown on classes and sporty things
Last updated: 2015-11-09
In an attempt to reverse the downward spiral of your mental and physical wellbeing, we bring you suggestions of classes, sporty things, team events, volunteering and educational stuff that might just pull you out of that boozy tail-spin.



Week 1: Boxing


There are a bunch of boxing gyms in town that teach in English. Lots of them mix in a bit of kickboxing or Muay Thai (check-these-out if that's your thing). We hear good things about all of them, but first up we checked out Golden Gloves on Xinqiao Lu next to Suzhou Creek.

The gym was set up by Michele Aboro, a former professional boxer from England who retired the WIBF super bantamweight champion of the world. Michele’s pretty amazing. She was a world-champion kickboxer before switching to boxing. She had 21 professional fights, and won them all, became world champion and defended her title three times. She’s one of the few fighters ever who, like Rocky Marciano, retired an undefeated world champion.

She came to Shanghai to set up this gym and promote boxing generally. Shane Benis, who runs the White Collar Boxing events and the Brawl on the Bund, also runs the gym with her. Here's a My Weekender with one of last year's fighters.



Golden Gloves is open six days a week. There are two classes each evening, a beginners' from 7-8pm, and an advanced class from 8:15-9:15pm. On Tuesdays and Thursdays, these are women-only classes and a women's bootcamp. There are also classes on Saturday morning. Those preparing for the White Collar Boxing events train here three times a week or more.

What you need


Gym clothes: shorts or sweatpants, T-shirt, clean pair of trainers. Golden Gloves has all the gloves and pads you’re going to use. The gym is on the 16th floor of a big office building. (Oddly enough, there are two 16th floors, go to the higher one.) On the outside it looks a bit dingy, but inside it’s kitted out well. There’s space to change and shower, but you need to bring your own towel. There are lockers to put your stuff in.

Who goes


Our class had six people training, one girl and five guys. Everyone’s at a different skill level, but that’s not a problem. The mood was very friendly. There was no machismo, cussin' or fighting talk. Most people there looked like they were boxing for fitness, to lose weight, tone up and sweat out some toxins, rather than to learn to kick someone’s ass.



What happens


First up, some skipping. I was rubbish at this bit. The rope kept getting tangled up. More accomplished skippers politely averted their eyes. Then there was some stretching and warming up, followed by some footwork exercises and basic punching. Music’s playing throughout the class, first 50 Cent then Metallica. Thumbs up. Good music to work-out to.

Next we trained in pairs using boxing gloves, putting together some basic combinations and working our feet. This is when things got tough. After two minutes of punching, we’d drop and do pushups, then get back up and punch some more. Then more pushups, different types of pushups, squats, more punching, more pushups.

It was staggeringly exhausting. An hour of this felt like a hard three-hour workout in a gym. By the end I was totally spent. Shaky hands. Drenched. An hour later, pouring alcohol into a glass without spilling it was still an arduous task. The next day, I hurt in many places. Two days later, new bits were aching.



And, this is the point. Boxing is an extremely tough workout. For those who want to get fitter but don’t have lots of time, boxing is ideal. It’s more fun than the gym because it’s communal and there’s a sense that you’re learning something, and it’s also a much tougher cardio workout than a treadmill.

At no point did anyone punch me in the head, and Michele says that no matter how good you get, if you never want to fight anyone, that’s fine. Obviously you’re going to learn how to punch well and this is a useful skill to have, but there’s no pressure to fight anyone or take any damage.

How much of your life will this take up


An hour a week, twice a week would seriously improve fitness. Three times a week and you’re going to get ripped. Factor in changing and milling around and you could be in and out of the gym in 90 minutes.

How much does it cost


120rmb a class, sold in blocks of 10 classes. Sign up for three months of unlimited classes for 2100rmb. A year of unlimited classes is 4500rmb.



Plus points


An excellent workout in a short time. And you learn how to throw a punch. It’s more social than a gym and you get to train with a world champion.

Minus points


It’s hard to think of any. Except to say that, like all martial arts, to become good at it would take years of devoted practice, doing the same thing over and over again, tens of thousands of times. So if you’re easily bored, maybe boxing is not right for you.

For more info about all Golden Gloves classes, you can click here for the full address and a map, call 5171 7517 or email info@goldenglovesgym.com.

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