As the story has it, one day I headed to the opposite side of the globe – the Flipside. I arrived in Korea February 16th, 2005 and thought I’d do a year, then leave. I was wrong. I stayed, launched my first company, Flipside Fitness, and then opened Korea's largest boxing club, Hulk's Boxing (now called Hulk's Club).

After 11.5yrs in Korea, I then picked up one day and returned to Toronto, Canada. But then I left again.

Now I live in the Philippines where I am the CEO and head coach of Empowered Clubhouse, the Philippines' first and only boxing clubhouse exclusively just for women. I also am the founder of the Lil' Sistas Project, CEO and designer of Slay Gear and Baa Baa Black Sheep .Ph.

Monday, October 06, 2014

Training with an Audience... Monday, October 6

Today I felt good.  I felt super confident and in control of my game with having had just put myself through what I initially had assumed would be one of the most uncomfortable training session with Snickers.  Today I trained with an audience.  It wasn't just any audience though, gosh no because that would be too easy, instead my audience consisted of our club's leading sponsor (Wow), my father-in-law (K-Gere), and one of our close friends (Stark).  One by one they filed into the club, took a seat and watched as I went from warming up and skipping to extensive padwork and weight training. 

Today's Training:
52mins -- 9.57km morning run
20mins -- skipping
20mins -- shadow boxing
65mins -- padwork with Snickers (no heavy bag work due to the intensity and excess of padwork)
20mins -- weight training: tire flip-pushes and hanging oblique cross raises
177mins = almost 3hrs
I can't honestly remember the last time K-Gere watched me train, I can only recall the one time when I first met him at the other club.  Up until today I have been keeping word of my fight all hush-hush with my in-laws, insisting Snickers not tell them.  I am sure nothing "impresses" them more than knowing that in addition to the fact that I don't bend over backwards to cook for their son that I am still very much all about my boxing, sarcastically speaking that is. 

Today I told K-Gere I have a fight.  Correction, I let Snickers tell him.  He gave me a thumbs up, a huge smile, told me to continue to train hard, and then punched me right in the shoulder... nice.  Perhaps that's why K-Gere is up there in my favourite in-laws list because he isn't the typical Korean man and he acknowledges my differences with enthusiasm whereas most others try to ignore them or push me towards their ideals.  Granny Kim scores first place though, by a long shot, and after K-Gere in second place is Snickers' cousin Brooklyn.  

Weight training was brutal today, just flat out brutal -- 3 sets of 20 tire flip-pushes and 3 sets of 20 hanging oblique cross raises.  Some of my Hulkies who know I've switched up my training for my boxing and know that I'm focusing more on crossfit-style full body training asked me what weight training I did today so I got them to do today's workout.  The two exercises appear simple enough but, in practice, wow do they burn!  A few couldn't do a full set of 20 hanging  oblique cross raises while one stopped after only two sets.  My side definitely hurts from the cross raises, it hurts like no other pain I have ever felt in my side before actually.  No pain no gain....right?!  I'm banking on this saying to be true.

Next week I'll be training with a different audience, an audience that may or may not be so obvious with watching me.  Next week I'll be training at a boxing club down in Thailand and I know it's going to be nerve racking because I remember what it was like training with Snickers in the Philippines when he had a fight there.  I really enjoyed training at the boxing club there, it was an amazing experience. But with people sitting on the fence lining the club and watching when we boxed and others following us on their bicycles when we did our morning runs, it was also rather distracting too.  I'm as excited as I am nervous about training in Thailand but I'm going to make the most of it.  I've already decided to bring a few extra Hulk tank tops with me, to hand out to any boxer there I bond with and to the friend of a friend who is letting me stay at his house.  

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