Gotham Gym, where founder Rob Piela has been professionally training for over 20 years with an A-list clientele ranging from pro fighters to supermodels. After Gotham Gym’s West Village outpost became one of NYC’s most high-profile boxing gyms, Piela opened a spinoff studio, Gotham G-Box, on Crosby Street. On the menu: a 60-minute total-body conditioning class that packs in boxing technique, cardio and calisthenics. In other words, a one-stop summer-body shop.
Because boxing is, in your correspondent’s humble opinion, the best workout out there: an ideal mix of hardcore cardio and high-impact resistance training. And Gotham’s G-Box concept is perfectly suited to even the greenest of recruits: a blisteringly intense regimen that requires no prior experience but will lend anyone a healthy dose of pugilist swagger. The highlights:
- Cardio: High knees. Jump squats. Rope skippin’. If you aren’t awake before the first 10 minutes of a G-Box class, you sure as hell will be afterward.
- Pad Work: Next, you’ll pair up with a classmate to either throw or catch punches with trainer’s pads. Then you’ll switch.
- Conditioning: For cool down, trainers guide the class through planks, pushups and yoga-esque maneuvers to further tone your physique. Collapsing afterward is tolerated.
Gotham trainer Tatiana Firpo, on training like a fighter:
“Mind over matter. Think about how you’ll feel after. Try not to think about how tired you are, but concentrate on breathing, form, or that the summer is around the corner! Don’t beat yourself up. Do your best each time and you’ll see progress.
All of this can apply in boxing as well. Breathing is essential; you should be exhaling when you throw punches and keeping your shoulders loose and relaxed.”
43 Crosby St.
917-472-7384
gothamgymnyc.com
