An intense and peaceful workout? Sounds like an oxymoron, but that’s how some describe boxing yoga at Jabs Gym in Birmingham.
It’s a place to find your center through a punch and a pose.
Owner and trainer Willie Fortune helped come up with the concept called “Bo-Yo.”
“Yoga and boxing kind of go hand-in-hand, which people don’t know the elements go together,” he explained. “We use boxing to generate the heart rate up and we use yoga to bring it back down.”
There are two types of Bo-Yo classes. The standard class choreographs boxing and yoga together, while the more advanced class has intense intervals.
“Punches, a big combination and then we mix it in with the calisthenics, after that we have our bags that move out of the way, lay our yoga mats and actually go through a yoga flow.”
Fortune says it is a workout for your body and mind.
“It teaches you so much more about yourself than anything else.”
You can be feisty and intense one minute and calm the next.
Fortune said, “Everybody has day to day fights. The thing is sometimes we are going to lash out sometimes we are going to control it. You want to be able to balance the two.”
If you think downward dog or child’s pose is more like child’s play, you’re not alone, even Willie needed convincing to try yoga.
“I was like ‘ohh well at least maybe I will get a stretch. If I don’t do nothing else, I will get a stretch.’ So when I went, surprisingly it was more challenging than some of the workouts that I’ve done.”
Fortune says don’t take a “jab” at it.
“Everybody owes it to themselves to give it a shot,” he said.
