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Xtreme Martial Arts – Kickboxing @ Plaza Damas

June 4, 2010 By 7 Comments

Asha from Original Bootcamp does kickboxing at Xtreme Martial Arts at Plaza Damas in Sri Hartamas. She kindly organised a trial session for a bunch of us so we could have a taste of their sessions.

AVS Bathi led us through our session. Bathi, a World Kick Boxing Champion is also the Founder and President of the Malaysia Kickboxing Federation (WKA). Having represented the country many times for TaeKwon-Do and Kickboxing (and won several medals at that), you know that you’re getting the real deal here.

Xtreme Martial Arts - Kickboxing - 01 Warming up Xtreme Martial Arts - Kickboxing - 02 Warming Up
Stretching and warming up

Indeed, Bathi was an excellent instructor. Even with my poor coordination (AND poor comprehension of coordination), I found that I could understand what he was teaching, which is the mark of an experienced teacher. He was also rather strict, heh.

Besides going through some really basic kicks and punches (emphasizing on postures and stretching), Bathi also made us do lots of sit-ups, plank holds, burpees… Felt a bit like being at Original Bootcamp without the grass and mud, quite a thorough workout!

Xtreme Martial Arts - Kickboxing - 03 Learning to stretch Xtreme Martial Arts - Kickboxing - 04 Learning to punch
The steps before learning the basics

Very much enjoyed myself even though I was a bit dizzy from slight dehydration, but that’s another story. If you’re looking for a place to get your kickboxing kicks, I do think that Xtreme Martial Arts is a good place to learn your stuff. They also have other classes, e.g. TaeKwon-Do. As we were leaving, a bunch of guys were just about to begin their Russian martial arts lessons. They had large sticks, hmm…

Xtreme Martial Arts - Kickboxing - 05 Group photo
Us with Bathi

Xtreme Martial Arts - Kickboxing - 06 Group photo
Us posing…

From what I understand, public classes are inexpensive. Something like RM200 a month and you can attend as many public classes as you want. Quite a good deal for what you’ll be getting, actually! If you have a group of 10 or more, you could arrange for private classes. For more information, you can contact them at…

Xtreme Martial Arts / Kickboxing
A-2-2 (A003) 1st Floor, Plaza Damas,
Parklane Walk Shopoffice,
Sri Hartamas, 50480 Kuala Lumpur.
Tel/ Fax: +603-6203 4749
Mobile no: +6012-232 6749
Email: contact@kickboxingmalaysia.com
Click here to view Google Map

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Muay Thai @ MuayFit

May 17, 2010 By 11 Comments

Last Friday, I went for a trial session of Thai boxing at MuayFit with Hafiz, Yati and Tate. Was in a bit of a rush because I attended Original BootCamp Malaysia‘s Bring-A-Friend Day at PJ PM, and was covered in sweat and dirt. Must have looked funny to by-passers.

Turned out I need not have rushed because there was a miscommunication or misunderstanding… and they did not prepare enough trainers for us for the trial session. So as it turned out, we had about 10 to 15 minutes each with the same trainer, Adan.

Tate went first so we mucked about with the equipment in MuayFit. A video showing how to work the TRX was on the wall telly, so we gave it a (very, very brief) try.

TRX @ MuayFit
TRX fun

As for the Thai boxing itself… well I suppose it would be fun if I knew what I was doing. But I guess that comes with lessons, though I have to say being able to clearly communicate with your trainer would be a major plus. It was fun, and all the body rotating helped me with my swimming lesson on Sunday. There was also a deeply satisfying feeling of punching hard and on target!

Think we’re going back this week for the 2nd half of our trial. Will see how it goes!

Muay Thai @ MuayFit
Tate, Hafiz and Suanie with Adan the trainer

If you’d check their website, there are details on how to get 2 trial sessions at MuayFit. It’s a limited offer as they’d just opened their centre about a month ago. Feel free to check it out, let me know if you do!

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PowerSwim: Baby steps to learning swimming

May 11, 2010 By 14 Comments

There was a moment last Sunday when I felt shivers down my spine.

No, it was not due to the unheated swimming pool at the National Aquatic Centre in Bukit Jalil. Though I have to say, having to immerse yourself in cold water when your body is still warm and toasty at 11 a.m. on a Sunday morning is not the most pleasant thing in the world. A more pleasurable alternative would be the English breakfast at Jarrod & Rawlins, but I digress.

No, it was not caused by the half-naked Caucasian male overseeing his two sons doing the backstroke at the very same pool. But you should have seen him – tall with a good mop of wavy hair, stunning manly facial features and oh, the shoulders the abs the arms! Any more beautiful, he would have been the Vitruvian Man.

It was at a time when I felt so frustrated because I was not getting it right. I asked my swimming instructor, Abdul Hafiz if I could skip learning how to swim freestyle and jump to breast stroke as the latter is something I already know how to do. Not perfectly, could use a lot of polishing but it doesn’t give me the problems I’m encountering with learning how to do it freestyle.

Then he looked at me, smiled softly and said, “I know you can do it Suanie. Just give yourself time to learn. Give me time to teach you, because I know I can do it.”

Okay lah. You’re the swimming expert, I trust you :)

Swimming lessons with PowerSwim
With my swimming mates, and instructor Abdul Hafiz of PowerSwim

So yes, I’m learning how to swim. Will tell you more about it later!

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The PushMore experience… well, almost

May 4, 2010 By 11 Comments

Many moons ago, Lynn commented on my blog suggesting that I give PushMore a try. I had heard about PushMore and how tough it is, so naturally I was reluctant to give it a go.

From what I understand, PushMore’s workout is based on CrossFit programmes, a methodology that combines a mix of gymnastics, weightlifting and metabolic conditioning for the ultimate fitness. It is used in many gyms worldwide and by fire departments, law enforcement agencies as well as military organisations. You can read its Wikipedia entry here.

Anyhow, one fine day I decided to take up Lynn’s offer. Rallied some of my OBC mates for a trial session and off we went to Merchant Square where the PushMore centre is located.

Said hi to the super duper fit Lynn and Jonathan who are PushMore trainers. Believe me when I say super duper fit, I mean SUPER DUPER FIT! Bit on the quiet side, but can see that they are serious about their profession. The place itself is simple, sufficient, no-frills. None of those extravagant machines you see in assorted gyms because that’s not what they are about.

Lynn took us for our warm-up – a run around the block followed by 3 sets of sit-ups, push-ups, squats, something to do with stretching, another thing to do with stretching, probably something else which I’d forgotten and pull-ups. According to Niki, the warm-up was more than his usual gym routine, heh. Luckily I read a lot of blogs and I know how elaborate their warm-ups are, and so I have that mental preparation already.

BootCampers at Pushmore
Most photos nicked from Cynthia

For our work out, we were teamed up in twos to do burpees and pull-ups, as many as we can in 10 mins. Kevin partnered with me because in his words, “I want to take it slow…” WTF!!! Grrrrrrr….

Of course it was tiring, especially more so when you have Tate and Nicholas next to you going at full speed. Then you try to keep up with them and you really cannot because… okay I have to reveal this now… THEY ARE NOT HUMANS!!! Yes, they are in fact aliens who came here a long time ago to spread the words of the Church of ‘COME ON YOU CAN DO IT!’. Then you buy into the hype and you try and you try then you realise at the end of the day that human and alien strengths are just too different and there’s nothing you can do and it’s okay. Life goes on, ending this ridiculous paragraph of nonsense that I wrote in 5 minutes during lunch hour.

What we did was rather mild compared to their Workout of The Day, of which you can obtain information from PushMore’s Twitter, website, blog and Facebook group. I’m sure you can get other information from any of the links as well.

Would I join PushMore? Hmmm… it took me this long to go for the trial session, so honestly I don’t know. I do see the benefits and I would really recommend it to anyone looking to SERIOUSLY improve their fitness level. The equipments are more than sufficient and the people are great. But for personal reasons that I shall not get into (for now), I think I’ll chill for now. Who knows in the next few months… :)

Thanks Lynn and Jonathan for having us. Was a pleasure and eye-opening experience!

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skytrex adventure @ taman pertanian malaysia, shah alam

March 1, 2010 By 19 Comments

As some of you already know, I have the unfortunate tendency of saying ‘yes’ to some things before giving them much thought. That was how I ended up doing the SkyTrex Adventure a couple Sundays ago with some of my OBC friends. I had no idea what it was… something about ropes, dangling wires, dangling planks, up to 22m above ground…

What’s more, we ended up registering for the Extreme Challenge. BootCampers mah, damn fit mah, lansi mah, can do more mah… Never mind that the brochure recommends that you do the Big Thrill before going for the Extreme. Haiyah, two or three additional challenges only what… can one lah!

SkyTrex Extreme 01

Bloody hell. SkyTrex was a huge slap in the face for me ok. Perhaps I didn’t show it, but I went home feeling rather deflated and disappointed with myself for not being able to complete all the challenges. That’s right, I cheated. Didn’t take the chicken exit, but I skipped about 5 challenges which according to my friends who completed them, were the toughest of all the challenges. Thinking back, I don’t think I could have done them then. Maybe next time lah. Errr next time? Probably never, lazy already.

After we were geared up and shown how to use our harnesses and cables, we had an easy trial run before our first challenge. Those were damn easy, I skipped and hopped through them. Hah little did I know.

The first challenge was hauling your arse up a long-ass ladder made of massive PVC pipes. We were stuck there for a while because there were 21 of us, and only one person could go up at one time. Some of them made it look so easy, e.g. Yati, Hafiz’s wife. So I tried to copy her style but massive phail, unfortunately. You’re supposed to kick yourself up to get to the next rung, right? Well I ended up using my arms a lot because gravity can be unkind.

SkyTrex Extreme 02

The second challenge was a long flying fox across the stream. To me, it was the second most difficult challenge because I have a slight fear of heights. I got up there, prepared myself to fly (so to speak) but somehow my legs wouldn’t cooperate. Want to go, don’t want to go, legs akin to trembling jelly, wondering if I could just go home now, wondering wtf was I doing there on a Sunday morning when I could be sleeping or eating bak kut teh…

Then I heard my name being screamed from far below. I could make out Farhanah from OBC KL Alpha’s face and voice as she encouragingly urged me to take the next step forward. It was by coincidence that some of the OBC KL platoon recruits were doing SkyTrex on the same day as us, though at a later time.

Okay lah. Squat down… buttocks back, lean forward and… FLYYYYyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy!!!!!!!!11111111

Damn fun lor.

SkyTrex Extreme 03

My arms nearly gave way at the 2nd massive ladder up. It was the longest and most difficult for me and it took everything I had to get to the top. As Fireangel was at the same station as me, she took the ladder with the smaller PVC pipes and I took the one with the large massive pipes. That killed.

Another flying fox, and I decided to take a short cut because I couldn’t balance myself at the hanging barrels. I could see Bev et al struggling at the more difficult challenges. So I zipped through a flying fox to a station where a tiny ladder was waiting for us and ended up following behind Tate and his fiancée.

The rest of it was actually pretty okay. The only parts that hurt after that were my hands because the RM3 gloves we bought were sucky and only covered half our fingers. If you’re planning to do this, I suggest that you bring your own, better gloves (not made of cotton though).

Sorry, not much details of what we did because I’m in the process of blocking the painful ones out :P Also not a lot of photos of us in action because I didn’t bring my camera while doing the challenges. But here’s one of my bruised and battered left arm…

SkyTrex Extreme 04

Whine whine whine. Okay lah it looks worse than it actually is, heh. Well, at the end of the day I had fun. Might not do it again because I’m a lazy @#&*@#, but at least I did (some of) it! Hehehe thanks people :)

For more information on SkyTrex Adventure, check out the website here. If you ask me anything not already listed on the website, I’m most likely to ignore you :P

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