Author: The Ring Team

DISCLAIMER: These personal stories do not constitute medical advice. This piece contains descriptions of mental struggles and trauma including suicidal thoughts, that may be triggering for some readers.

If you, or someone you know, is experiencing thoughts of suicide or self-harm, please contact the Silver Ribbon hotline (+65 6386 1928).

The following post is a personal anecdote of Hannah from our Marketing and Members Relations Team.

 

I’m seated alone, on an armchair in an open area. My hands are bound, mouth sewn shut, eyes forced open and I’m on fire. It is dark and I am afraid. I am choked up and I cannot scream. Every nerve in my body is throbbing with pain and the voices in my head are all screaming at once, and yet I feel nothing.

My body trembles as these different emotions collide and I feel a need to inflict pain on myself. Without hesitation, I do exactly that. Since the age 13, I have used self-harm as a way of escape. With every slice, I went deeper… and deeper… until the physical pain drowned out the voices in my head. This was the only tool I had to take control of how I was feeling.

It has been a decade of dealing with the rollercoaster of emotions that come with these thoughts. At their mildest, I brush them aside. At their worst, I regularly contemplate suicide. As I have gotten older, some of my coping mechanisms have evolved into head twitches or punches to my arm. Believe it or not, my mental state is in a much better place than it was years ago. Look out for Part II of my story as I share more of my journey to better mental wellness.



Mental health should be taken care of as urgently as physical health. No matter the severity of something physical, it’s very common for people to say, “You should see a Dr about that.” How come we aren’t as supportive of each other when it comes to mental wellness?

On my quest to find healthier ways to deal with my mental wellness I found an outlet where I was able to release the knotted emotions within; exercise! I always felt a sense of accomplishment when I would nail a certain technique, when my chest would touch the floor doing a push-up or even a quick roller-skate to the store. In those moments my mind is occupied with the present moment and celebrating small wins that my inner voices are muffled.

Scientific studies have found that physical exercise, while commonly associated with the desire to lose weight, look great and stay fit, also has strong psychological benefits. The potency of physical fitness has been proven to ease depressive episodes.

Endorphins, or as I like to call them, ‘feel-good chemicals’, are produced by the brain and spinal cord while exercising. Whenever I exercise, a type of high flows through my body as I am filled with a sense of euphoria, relaxation, and optimism.

Boxing is a sport that constantly requires the participants to engage both physically and mentally. It’s not called “the sweet science” for nothing! Through boxing, I am challenged to stay in the present moment, which silences my inner voices and helps me perform at my best. I have developed healthier habits because I have had to accommodate being physically and mentally present. Also, it is truly cathartic and therapeutic when hitting the bag.

Words of advice to my younger self:

1. You are not alone, seek help for mental wellness in the same way you would seek help for physical wellness.
2. Regular exercise helps regulate naturally produced chemicals in your body and brain so exercise is good for your head and your heart!
3. You are enough and you are worthy just the way you are.

The Ring, your boxing gym Singapore, is dedicated to normalising mental wellness and encourages will be your pillars of support. We’re always in your corner, never forget.

In boxing, a large component of the training focuses on building your offensive skills and knowing how to land those punches and counter punches is key. However, developing your defense is just as important if you’re looking to win that fight – it’s often been said that the best defense in boxing is to not get hit in the first place.

Many of the greatest boxers, such as Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Muhammad Ali, have demonstrated just how important a great defense within your boxing repertoire can be and have achieved legendary status by honing their defensive skills.

Read on to find out five defensive techniques which should be an essential component in every boxer’s training:

GUARDING

Your fists, when not throwing punches, should always be up and guarding your face. This basic defense move allows the fists and arm to guard against jabs as well as uppercuts to the chin.

BOBBING AND WEAVING

By bobbing and weaving your head as you move around the ring, you will make it more difficult for your opponent to find the right timing to launch an attack at you. This is a popular defense move as you will remain a constant moving target and be much harder to hit. This move allows you to avoid your opponent’s punch at the same time as allowing you to emerge on their other side.

Make bobbing and weaving drills an integral part of your training sessions. The more you practice the easier the movement will come to you, making you a target which is much more difficult to hit.

SLIPPING

Slipping is a reactionary defensive tactic and involves the boxer turning away from the incoming punch – this move requires you to anticipate your opponent’s punch before it happens. Once anticipated, you can choose to slip to your right or to your left in order to miss your opponent’s punch. After slipping, you may even have the opportunity to land a counter strike on your opponent.

Successful slipping allows a boxer to both avoid lethal punches to the head and also to prepare for hooks or uppercuts.

PARRYING

Parrying involves you deflecting a punch from your opponent with your hands and is a move that allows you to use your opponent’s momentum against him. This technique gives you the ability to defend against stronger punches as you redirect the motion and trajectory of the punch, and this causes your opponent to miss. For a short time after a successful parry, your opponent is then left wide open and vulnerable. A successful parrying could even end up with your opponent being knocked out.

This defensive technique is definitely harder than it looks and requires a great deal of skill, fast reflexes as well as fast reactive times.

FOOTWORK

Good footwork is important in the sport of boxing – it allows you both to move towards your opponent to make an attack but also allows you to get away and defend yourself when your opponent attempts to hit you.

Boxing is a dynamic sport and it is important to work on your footwork so that you are able to get away from your opponent’s attack as fluidly as possible – you can do this by constantly changing direction, moving while punching and incorporating side to side lateral motions. The best way to improve your footwork is through working drills and focusing on the movements required to help you move quickly around the ring.

Here at The Ring, your Boxing Gym in Singapore, we’re here to help you develop both your offensive and defensive techniques, to make you into an all-round fighter. Book your class and join us today!

Many boxers have stepped in and out of the ring throughout the years, however there are a select few who stick in our minds – fighters who changed the way we think about boxing and who inspire our own boxing styles and way of fighting.

Today, we want to take a moment to appreciate the boxing styles of some of our favourite fighters – true legends to the sport. Read on to learn more about the boxing styles of our top five fighters, Ali, Lomachenko, Pacquiao, Mayweather and De La Hoya:

Photo credits: Google

MUHAMMAD ALI

Muhammad Ali, the Greatest, was a heavyweight boxer known for his prowess inside the boxing ring as well as his charisma outside of it. Many boxers today have been inspired by his unique style of boxing which included the Ali Shuffle, the Dancing Jab and the Right Cross. 

In the ring, Ali used movement and footwork, dancing circles around his opponents, working to expose openings which he could take advantage of. We’ve all heard the phrase, “float like a butterfly, sting like a bee,” – Ali did just that. He was light on his feet and danced around in the ring in a way that wasn’t often seen in the heavyweight division at the time. He would also throw obvious punches early on during the fight, allowing him to play with the mind of his opponent. This element of unpredictability in his movement and style is what many boxers try to emulate during their own fights. 

Photo credits: Google

VASYL LOMACHENKO

Lomachenko is a master at working around his opponent’s space with ease, combining fight intelligence with impeccable footwork, he knows when to shuffle forward, when to retreat and when to move side to side. 

In fact, it was his father who taught him how to box from a young age, but not until he completed traditional Ukrainian dance lessons. The focus on footwork during his dance lessons became instilled in him and came in handy during boxing training, feet always before fists being his motto.  “All the power, all the coordination, all my victories – everything comes out of my footwork,” states Lomachenko.  It is this footwork, which has given him the nickname “The Matrix,” as you’ll find him darting around the ring, agile and explosive but never off-balance. It’s as if he’s teleporting around his opponent.

Photo credits: Google

MANNY PACQUIAO 

Filipino boxer, Manny Pacquiao, first came into the boxing scene in 2001, when he fought reigning IBF Super bantamweight champion Lehlohonolo Ledwaba and beat him in 6 rounds. It was Freddie Roach who then began to work with Pacquiao and harnessed his raw talent, making him one of the top fighters in the world. 

His most noticeable boxing prowess comes from his footwork and foot speed. Being fast on his feet he is able to quickly distance himself from his opponent and return safely out of range in between bursts.

Once within range of his opponent, Pacquiao has a lot of punching power. His speed, punching power and stamina to put punches together in large numbers is what makes him stand above the rest. 

It’s not unusual to see him reel off six, seven or even eight punch combinations when he fights and these power punching combinations, together with his footwork, are what has made Pacquiao so effective as a fighter. 

Photo credits: Google

FLOYD MAYWEATHER

Floyd “Money” Mayweather Jr. is best known for his impregnable defense. If you believe that the art of boxing is about hitting whilst not getting hit – Mayweather embodies this phrase. 

His shoulder-roll defense is one part of why his style is so effective defensively, this combined with the speed and accuracy with which he fights has given him legendary status within the boxing world.

Mayweather positions himself side-on and his stance give his opponents very little to aim for. In addition to his defensive boxing stance, Mayweather has fast reflexes as well as a strong boxing IQ – enabling him to know when he should be dodging punches and when he should be swinging punches.

Photo credits: Google

OSCAR DE LA HOYA

During his career, Olympic gold medalist Oscar De La Hoya fought his opponents strategically and also with KO power. De La Hoya is a complete fighter who is technically proficient, intelligent in dissecting his opponents and has power in his punches – a throwback to the fighters of boxing’s golden age. 

But, did you know that he was born a southpaw but fought in an orthodox stance? His lead left hook was devastating and his combination of speed and power matches up with any of the great boxers out there. He even revealed that it was his left jab that he used to finish his opponents during his fighting days.  

Who inspires your boxing style? Come visit us at The Ring, experience Boxing Singapore and show us how you fight!

In light of COVID-19, we have all had to adjust to the ‘new norm’ and have found the lines between work and home life increasingly blurred. With more time spent at home, we may find regular exercise slipping off our to-do list. 

However, if working more at home has left you feeling less energetic, moody or you have even found yourself suffering from anxiety or depression – a little exercise during the week could be the key to help you feel more like you again! Whilst boxing has a multitude of physical benefits from increasing your strength to building stamina, did you know that it can also be beneficial to your mental health? 

Read on below to find out how training at The Ring could help you to relieve stress, sleep better and even increase your self-confidence during this unprecedented time:

MANAGE STRESS & ANGER

Working at home, it can be tempting to sit on the sofa and put your boxing workout on the back burner for another day. However, it’s especially important to stay active during this time. 

By making boxing a regular part of our daily routines we can take ourselves out of the current situation and instead be in the present moment, focussing on the task at hand – a moment to switch off from the outside world and any stress, anxiety or anger you might be feeling. Any form of movement can help, but you’re more likely to experience a bigger benefit if you are focussed – allowing you to interrupt the flow of worries occurring in your mind.

In addition to being in the present moment, boxing, as a form of exercise, releases the production of endorphins and helps to relieve any muscle tension which is felt when stressed. These ‘feel-good’ hormones will help you to relax and forget your worries, for at least for a little while.

SHARPER MEMORY & BETTER SLEEP

Without an office environment, are you finding yourself less focused on your work, procrastinating and becoming distracted by your home surroundings? Those same ‘feel-good’ endorphins that make you more positive can also help your concentration and help you to be more mentally sharp. If you’re struggling to stay focused, a quick boxing workout can give you a productive break from your laptop and help you to complete tasks more efficiently when you return to your desk.

As a form of high-intensity cardiovascular exercise, boxing can also help to improve the quality of your sleep. A good night’s sleep is essential for your brain and cognitive function – ensuring that you’re rejuvenated and energised for the day ahead.

OVERCOME CHALLENGES

In light of COVID-19 we are facing more challenges than ever before. And, there are many examples of people who have turned to boxing to help them overcome challenges they have faced. Each punch of the bag can really make you feel empowered – helping you to build confidence in yourself and your abilities. By meeting your fitness goals, you’ll feel a sense of achievement and be ready to take on whatever challenges the day throws at you.

As studies have shown, all forms of regular exercise have a positive impact on your mental health. Boxing in particular can have a cathartic and therapeutic effect on both your mind and body as you are able to ‘take it out on the bag.’ With more time spent at home than ever before, this is something we all need more than ever to help us to relieve stress and become more focused. Find out for yourself by booking a class at The Ring and get ready to punch your worries away! Boxing Singapore with the Ring!

Have you ever taken an extended hiatus from the gym and tried to jump straight back into your regular gym session or fitness class? You may have been shocked to find how quickly you had lost your stamina and strength.

In light of the current pandemic, many of us have tried to keep up our training intensity from home via live Instagram or Zoom workouts. However, without the energy of our trainers face to face and without our training partners and friends alongside us, the intensity which we have been training with at home may not have matched up to the same intensity we trained at in our favourite gym. Also, with such a drastic change to our routines, many of us have also lacked motivation during this time to train at all. 

With the gyms reopening, if you’re looking to head back to train once again, be careful of jumping back into it too fast too soon as this could lead to sore muscles and even injury which could see you taking an unwanted break from the gym for another couple of months.

Read below for our top 5 tips to help you get back to your fitness routine and regain your pre-circuit breaker strength:

WARM UP

Every gym session should be preceded with a warm-up to safely prepare your muscles for the work ahead – if you’ve had some time off, a warm-up is even more important to increase blood flow and support mobility. At The Ring, we make sure your warm-up is an essential part of your workout by incorporating skipping, shadow boxing and active stretching at the start of every session.

SLOW AND STEADY

If you haven’t been exercising, you will have lost muscle mass so it is important to decrease the intensity of your workouts. To prevent injury after time off from the gym, make sure to start slow and focus on increasing the intensity and strength one session at a time. 

STRENGTH TRAINING

If you’ve spent a lot of time sedentary and lost muscle mass, incorporating light strength training into your workout will help to rebuild your muscle – particularly in those areas in your posterior chain. These muscles are essential for everyday movements. By focusing on strength exercises for your posterior chain, your posture, core strength, as well as strength in your glutes and hamstrings will improve – making you less prone to injury as you transition back to your fitness routine.

RECOVERY

It is important to recover properly after your workout to allow your muscles to rebuild, particularly if they’re working at a higher intensity than normal. If your muscles are not used to training, you will experience DOMS (delayed onset muscle soreness), which is likely to leave you sore for 24-72 hours post workout. Recover well by drinking water and upping your protein intake to help minimise the soreness you will feel, particularly after your first workout back. 

LISTEN TO YOUR BODY

Lastly – be patient with yourself! The pandemic has forced us all to find new routines and new ways of training whilst at home. If you find yourself not at your previous fitness level, focus on the small victories and work towards rebuilding your strength. Keep your goals realistic and look after your body as it begins to readjust to a new routine. Before you know it, you’ll be hitting your personal best once again.

Our trainers at The Ring, Your Boxing Gym in Singapore, are here to help you return safely back to the gym at a pace which suits you. If it’s your first time back let us know and we will guide you through your first workout. We can’t wait to welcome you back!

We all know that exercise is beneficial for our health. It helps to keep us strong, maintain a healthy weight as well as improve our mental wellbeing. It is also thought that exercise helps to mobilise the white blood cells in our body so that they can fight off any germs or infections we might be exposed to. And, in light of COVID-19, a strong immune system is more important than ever. But can your workout also hinder your bodies’ ability to fight off infections?

IMPACTS ON IMMUNITY

Exercise could make you more susceptible to infections and compromise your immune system – but only if you’re training particularly hard. Research has shown that more than 90 minutes of high-intensity endurance exercise, for example, marathon or triathlon runners, are more likely to catch a virus for up to 72 hours after their workout. A workout of such high intensity is stressful on your body and leads it to produce stress hormones – cortisol and adrenaline, raise blood pressure and suppress your immune system. 

This will also affect all you fitness enthusiasts, if you are overtraining hard for an extended period of time you can also make yourself more susceptible to catching a bug or virus as it may cause fatigue. 

In addition, so that it’s not a shock to the system, if you don’t currently train regularly, make sure to start your fitness regime gradually to allow your body time to adjust.  And, if you are already unwell, it is also best to avoid exercise and let your immune system focus on fighting the infection.

However, if you make sure to incorporate rest and recovery into your exercise regime, you will be able to maintain a healthy immune system. It is important to strike the right balance between exercise and recovery and this includes eating nutrient-dense foods before and after working out to ensure that you are replenishing your body with the protein, carbohydrates and other vital nutrients it needs to recover.

BENEFITS FOR IMMUNITY

Whilst regular high-intensity workouts and overtraining could be detrimental to your health and the strength of your immune system, regular and moderate exercise has many benefits for our body. In fact, it can lower your risk of infection. 

Moderate exercise, approximately thirty minutes a day for three times a week, enhances the movement of white blood cells throughout the body, this helps to strengthen your immune system by allowing these cells to do their job efficiently. If repeated regularly, this can lead to fewer illnesses and less inflammation of the body in the long term.

Working out will also help you to maintain a healthy weight which is essential for the overall health of your body and its organs. It will also release endorphins, the happy hormones, which in turn improves your sleep quality and reduces stress levels – two other known components that can compromise our immune systems. When a consistent workout routine is combined with regular sleep and the intake of healthy food, you have a recipe for success for a healthy immune system.

Be physically active every day, whether that involves walking, running, a trip to the gym, a boxing class or even just gardening. Just be mindful of overdoing it as too much exercise can actually be detrimental. You can join The Ring @ Home and workout with our coaches and community! Remember to allow your body and your immune system time to recover, particularly after ‘stressful’ high-intensity workouts. 

Keep your body moving, it will thank you! 

The Circuit Breaker has meant a huge shift to our normal training sessions. Without our gyms, fitness studios, and limited time to spend outside, we are now figuring out how to stay healthy and keep fit from the comfort of our home. Trying to get an effective full-body workout in beyond our usual gyms can be tricky, both in terms of a lack of gym equipment we are used to and a decline in motivation when we’re no longer training with coaches, having a familiar atmosphere and faces around us. 

However, without exercise and a routine, our minds might be less able to face the challenging times we are currently confronted with. Exercise is more crucial than ever in helping us to build mental resilience.  

If you already had a fitness routine before the Circuit Breaker, adjusting the transition is not as difficult as you might think. And, if you are looking to adopt a healthier lifestyle during your time at home, there is no better time to begin.

Nelson Mandela: A Boxer

This week, we look to Nelson Mandela for inspiration and motivation. Did you know that during his incarceration on Robben Island he looked towards exercise to help him through the time? 

Mandela had started boxing whilst he was a student at Fort Hare University and he carried on his boxing training and routine, which had previously taken place in a Soweto boxing gym, every week Monday to Thursday whilst still in prison. 

He attempted to follow his boxing routine starting with running on the spot for 45 minutes, 100 Fingertip Push-Ups, 200 Sit-ups and other calisthenic exercises.

In fact, Mandela believed that exercise was fundamental to both his physical and mental health – “exercise dissipates tension, and tension is the enemy of serenity. I found that I worked better and thought more clearly when I was in good physical condition, and so training became one of the inflexible disciplines of my life.”

Building Resilience

The news of the coronavirus pandemic and the subsequent directives from the government have left many of us experiencing negative emotions. As for Mandela, exercise could be the key to helping us face these difficult times. Research has demonstrated that exercise and good nutrition are both directly linked to our emotional well-being.

It provides us with an outlet for the anxiety and worries we are all confronted with at the moment. We must learn to adapt and be resilient during these challenging times. For those of us who are living in a confined space, it is time to get creative with our workouts. If you are limited to a confined space, no-equipment exercise routines are a great place to start.

Staying Motivated  with The Ring @ Home Series

Don’t let a change in your usual routine leave you feeling unmotivated. Use this time to build a new routine. Our advice is to schedule in your home workout session as if it is a work call or appointment. Your new routine will provide you with the mental strength you need to get through this!

And, scheduling your home workout session just got easier with the launch of our The Ring @ Home series. You’ll be reunited (albeit virtually) with your favourite trainers and fellow Ring members as we workout together online via a Zoom class. Find out more here. 

Finally, remember that nothing lasts forever, this too shall pass! Let’s all take inspiration from Mandela as we go forward into this new month and week.

If your goal is to lose weight, chances are that you have tried a diet regime before only to eventually put the weight back on, perhaps even faster than it took to lose it. There are numerous fad diets out there all claiming to help you lose weight but aren’t effective in helping you to keep it off!

If you’re looking to shed those unwanted pounds, it is important to remember to be kind to yourself in the process. Work hard at it and be proud of the small accomplishments which you achieve on your journey.

Read below for our tips on how to lose weight AND keep it off:

MAKE IT A LIFESTYLE

The word diet in itself has many negative connotations and before you’ve even started the thought of a diet brings up ideas of a short term fix and suffering in the process. In order to actually lose weight and maintain it, you need to make permanent and sustainable changes to the way you eat. 

Everything in moderation! Don’t restrict yourself to a fad diet or make such drastic changes that you are unable to stick to your new way of eating, indulge yourself sometimes with a ‘cheat’ snack or meal, this will help you to keep on track in the long term. 

MINDSET

In order to maintain your weight in the long term, your mindset is crucial. Everyone slips up occasionally and no one is perfect, however the way you face the slip up is key. Face the slip up with a positive attitude and know that you will get back to normal the next day. If you stick at it, over time healthy eating habits will start to become routine.

PROTEIN AND FATS

As part of your diet, make sure to incorporate protein and plant-based fats. These two ingredients, along with fresh fruit and vegetables, will help to keep you feeling fuller for longer. Incorporate protein and plant-based fats in every meal you consume, as much as possible.

By failing to prepare you are preparing to fail. Therefore, it is also helpful to plan your meals in advance and have healthier, lower-calorie foods on hand at all times so that there is less temptation to consume less nutritious food. Keep track of your foods using a food tracking app on your phone and this will help you to stay accountable.

REST AND RECOVER

When you’re stressed and tired your body begins to produce more cortisol, a stress hormone that can cause you to crave carbohydrates and to fall off the diet wagon.

Make sleep a priority in your life to help you focus on your diet regime and help you to maintain it. Research has shown that aiming for approximately seven hours sleep a night can help to lower your stress levels, lowering cortisol levels and therefore helping you to maintain your diet.

EXERCISE

Finally, make sure you keep active! Losing weight involves working out to burn calories, burn fat and boost your metabolism. However, don’t just stick to cardio! In fact, it is the building of muscle which will help to boost your metabolism in the long term. Swap those hours on the crosstrainer for strength and interval training instead – a full-body cardio and strength workout like boxing is perfect!