What’s with all the names…?

A new chapter in the ADK Boxing saga begins. We are now ADK Boxing & Fitness, LLC, and we have a new facility. Yep, it’s ours. Well, I mean we are renting the space. Just under 1200 sq. ft. of studio space, a reception area, bathrooms and showers.

So there is ADK Boxing & Fitness, the ADK Boxing Club and Flow Fitness. So what is going on here?

ADK Boxing & Fitness, LLC is the company, it’s the business side of things, the umbrella under which ADK Boxing Club and Flow Fitness operate under. ADK Boxing Club is pretty self-explanatory: we are a USA Boxing-sanctioned club and surprisingly enough we do boxing. Boxing fitness classes, individual lessons, competitive boxing, and youth boxing. Flow Fitness is the feature of the business that focuses on fitness and well-being. It’s the personal training, strength and conditioning, and the plethora of classes and instructors that will use the space to enhance people’s lives.

Okay, the cynic voice in my head says, so what does that all mean? With vague answers like that you should be a politician.

Right then. Never one to be satisfied with current systems and processes, I am always looking to do things better, that make more sense to me and hopefully others as well. I am committed to well-being and fitness, and despite the ads you see in social media, there is more than one path to get there. There is no one Ring of Power, no one-diet/exercise regimen-to-rule-them-all. So why create a business that does that?

ADK Boxing & Fitness isn’t just boxing. It isn’t just a gym. It’s not just a fitness center or wellness center. It’s so hard to define I’ve had trouble naming it just one thing. Just like fitness, wellness, mind-body health, etc. mean different things to different people, so should my facility be. It is a place where right after a boxing club session where we finished sparring, there’s a meditation or yoga class. A workshop on postural and functional mobility, there is a self-defense class. It’s a space for every discipline that is involved in the overall improvement of people who are trying to be and feel better.

ADK Boxing Club. Teaching and coaching boxing is my passion. there is so much to learn and to be gained from it. How and why the body moves like it does, the physics behind it, the practice, the art of it, all fascinates me. Not to toot my own horn, but it’s what makes me good at it. And I love to share it with those who want to learn it. Club sessions are skills development, strength & conditioning training, and sparring in a group setting.

We are a club that is sanctioned by USA Boxing - the governing body for amateur Olympic-style boxing. That is what we teach. From beginner to advanced and competitive levels (which is not to say that I wouldn’t or couldn’t coach professional boxing). When you join the club you also will join USA Boxing as a member-athlete; whether you are an adult or a kid. Being a member-athlete covers supplemental health insurance for you if you’re injured during club activities, and covers ADK Boxing Club’ liability insurance. Win-win.

Flow Fitness. In my not-so-humble opinion, the best way (but not the only way) to maximize the benefit of exercise is by fluid motion and movements. Elite athletes at the top of their sport don’t move in short, jerky movement patterns, even in sports that it seems like it’s exactly what they are doing (weightlifting competitions, for example). We are, in the words of an alien species from Star Trek:TNG, ugly bags of mostly water. Even our bones. Fluidity of movement is built in to our very structure. As we grow up we forget - when we stand up too fast, tweak our backs from moving in weird ways, hurt our knees from unnatural movements - and have to relearn it. I know I did.

So Flow Fitness is a nod to the natural state of or bodies and how it should move through space (no, not outer space). How many times in our daily lives do we make references to rivers and other bodies of water, meaning that things are flowing like they should, or that fluidity means smoothness and easy going? The intention of the Flow Fitness feature of our business is to use our space for exercise, wellness and mind-body health help your body and mind flow easier and with less resistance.