

Those who have taken up the sport now feel very much at home. That would be withholding the sport from a person based on where she’s from, or her religion, or her upbringing.” “I’ve lived in the Middle East most of my life, and I would never want anyone not to come to my gym because there’s not a female-only space for her. “When I set up the gym, I put the ladies changing room upstairs to ensure I can block off the floor for female-only classes,” she says.
#Real boxing gym how to#
I wasn’t weak I just wasn’t taught how to be strong.”Īs more women discover and embrace boxing, Kuehn wants RBO to provide a safe space for them. Which is what I discovered on that day during three lesson. Boxing helps you find that inner confidence, that strength. You hit like a girl, you fight like a girl – these are not empowering statements. That we’re not thin enough, we’re not strong enough. “There are so many things in this world that makes us women insecure. “Boxing empowered me, and I wanted to empower others,” she explains. Kuehn’s personal gratification, however, comes from conducting ladies-only sessions. Real Boxing Only has a floor dedicated to womens-only sessions RBO, intentionally, retains a lean, spartan look, and the classes are designed to appeal to people of all ages and backgrounds, from children and teenagers to boxing professionals. Others joined as the space was fitted out. Nothing flash, just straight boxing.”Īfter securing the investment, she found an abandoned gym in Al Quoz, and formed a training team led by two fighters from Cuba, a hotbed of boxing talent. The traditional spit bucket, running at five in the morning. “Everything was moving at a really fast pace, and it felt good.”Ī post shared by Real Boxing Only stated using hashtags on my social media before I had even opened the gym: #RealBoxingOnly,” she says. You get up earlier and you’re not sluggish, but I also learnt to do things I’d never done before. You feel switched on all the time and you move a lot faster. “Physically, your circulation increases, you become sharp.

One or two weekly sessions quickly became five, then six, and Kuehn reaped the benefits both physically and mentally. What I had been doing was mediocre I wasn’t going to be that person anymore.” There was a feeling of accomplishment, but also a massive sense of urgency that I had to change my life. “No one had pushed me, and I hadn’t pushed myself. “What struck me most was not that I wasn’t able to before, but that no one had ever told me I could,” she says. Kuehn was so impressed by her progress that she had an epiphany that night.

“I thought I had run a marathon,” she says. In her first session, an out-of-breath Kuehn managed to run for only four minutes on the treadmill. Weighty issue: at what age should children start working out?
