JCBoxercise

Jackie Chan Boxercise (in short, thus referred to as JCBoxercise) is an exercise program choreographed personally by Jackie Chan, who recently came to Singapore (this September) to introduce it to his Jackie Chan Sport Club here at California Fitness Bugis Club. It is a mix of cardiovascular & musculoskeletal workout which involves punch combinations targeted at arm pads (for beginners), punching bag, as well as the use of a boxing ball.

I was one of the few first-timers at this class & took the initiative to introduce myself to a few fellow club members. After going through the punching basics which, to me, were very similar to Body Combat, I paired myself up this guy next to me. We didn’t know each other, but I was glad that he is experienced in this exercise, so I could learn from him.

This exercise involved working in twos (preferably of similar height & gender), with one person holding the arm pads & the other wearing the boxing gloves. I held the arm pads first, while the other guy punched in combinations, as instructed by the Group Exercise (Group X) instructor. At the end of his turn, he turned to me, introduced himself as ‘Alvin’ & asked for my name. Then he said that I had very strong arms & I make a very good sparring partner. After that, he exclaimed that to his other two female friends next to him! I felt happy that he didn’t think I was lousy for a beginner & was smiling at his comment about me!

When it was my turn to punch, he was taken aback because he didn’t expect someone of my size to be able to exert such an amount of force that flung his arms backward! I went “Boom! Bang!” as I punched with my left hand, followed by my right… & my right hook threw his right arm across his face with a rather explosive force! I was surprised too… reminding myself that it could be because of my resistance training that added on this my power punching.

At the end of my punching sets, he was sweating & said, “Wah… your arms very strong! Do you have training in boxing?” I humbly replied that I did not & sheepishly grin quietly to myself. I was glad that my resistance training worked out pretty well, though I would be revising it, now that I have completed my Basic Exercise Course.

So I had power… or at least, a reasonable amount of power for a relatively small built guy. But I knew that I had very poor speed & footwork. Why? Coz even though I could exert a strong force when punching, quite often I found myself off balanced when punching! The instructor noticed that & came to me to caution me. Alvin, my sparring partner could see it & told me to check my stance & distance when punching. And I knew that I was rather off-balanced coz I once nearly tripped over my other feet when we were practicing out forward step jabs.

But all in all, it was a pretty interesting new workout. We finished off our session with 3 sets of circuit training. In the first set, one person skips for 1 minute & the other does push-ups for that entire 1 minute. Trust me, doing continuously push-ups for 1 full minute is no easy feat… at least for me… & after I have done all that punching & dodging.

The next set involved one person doing push-ups, whereby the other person throws an arm pad at him, which he’s supposed to catch, throw back, before doing another push-up. The same steps are repeated for an entire minute, before partners change sides. This was relatively easy for me, but Alvin struggled through it.

Lastly, we had to do partner-assisted leg raises, where one person lies on the floor & raises his legs to the chest level of his partner… & his partner will push his legs downwards - forward, left or right, in variation. This time, I was struggling & he was going relatively strong.

All these prove one thing – One can be strong, but not agile. One can have strong chest, but not necessarily strong abs. It was interesting coz both of us complement each other. It was a good experience indeed.

But one warning for those who wish to participate in JCBoxercise – go & buy a good cloth wrap for your hands, coz without it, your hands, wrists & knuckles will hurt from the punching! Like how I’m feeling now. Quite cheap, about $14 - $18. Wearing this cloth wrap helps prevent injuries to the knuckles & wrists too.

Finally, something to share – for the first time, I heard California Fitness playing new songs! One of them was ‘The Crazy Frog’ & the other was the theme song from ‘Chicken Little’! Luba Luba Leh… =)