Fighting the fat at Fight Club

Fight Club promotes everything in fitness except put up a fight.

Employing a fitness program using pure methods of boxing builds stamina while it firms and conditions the body. What has attracted children, women and men to a boxing training program is the way it develops body strength, stamina and cardio and muscular endurance while releasing stress. The boxer training program at Fight Club encompasses the fundamentals of boxing where the trainee learns proper stance, footwork, punching combinations and proper executions. Dance like a butterfly and sting like a bee, as former boxing king Muhammad Ali would have it. Trainees also learn to hit the heavy bag, speed bag, jump rope and get in the ring with an instructor to work on punch mits. It inculcates self-defense while improving self-confidence.

Boys just want to be boys but sometimes getting that straight punch on the nose must be done professionally. Seven-year-old Juancho Cobar beamed confidently about how he would challenge bullies to "give me your best shot" where he is ready to give the straight, jab and hook. Cobar also plays soccer.

Tennis child stars Jacob and Julius Lagman are cross training into boxing to enhance endurance in a competition.

Martial Arts winner Neal Alvarez has found in boxing the "adrenalin rush" that has made his body flexible and fluid. "My psyche ability is super enhanced in boxing," said Alvarez even as he continues to compete in Martial Arts in the US.

Mark Geniston said boxing changed his life because of the discipline it requires. The former bartender who stands with a height of 5' 8" once weighed 180 pounds. He is now firm and well-shaped at 150 pounds or slightly lighter with a hairstyle cut from the stars of Meteor Garden.

Boxing knows no gender. Women are into boxing to stay in shape and some say they are losing weight faster with boxing than other forms of exercise.

ALA Boxing Incorporated organized Fight Club as an exclusive boxing gym with authentic amateur boxers for trainors.

Membership fees come at P1,000 for adults and P500 for children while there are monthly and per session program rates. Martial Arts competitor and winner Neal Alvarez gave it straight when he said fees mean little - nothing beats dancing like a butterfly in speed and athletic grace and stinging like a bee in swinging that polished punch.