It turns out that 9.45am on a Thursday is an ideal time to get one’s aggression out. We were initially sceptical, since we’re the kind of anaemic folk who rise like Dracula in the mornings, and have to wait an hour for our blood-pressure to stabilize and our innards to start functioning properly. A session in Sculpt Punching with Wolfgang Trezise and Kevin McCullough at Sheraton Fitness was not something we would have signed up for willingly, had our editor not threatened us with confiscating the office hummus.
Wolfgang and Kevin (hailing from Australia and the UK, respectively) are qualified personal trainers with experience in sporting disciplines ranging from boxing to body-building and are now the team behind Sculpt Punch at the Sheraton. And what is Sculpt Punch, you ask? It is an exercise routine that emerged from Wolfgang’s background as a bootcamp trainer, but is considerably different and a great deal more fun. ‘Bootcamp has been overdone,’ said Wolfgang. ‘And people are tired of being yelled at.’
The focus of Sculpt Punch, as he went on to explain, is not to learn how to inflict damage, but to tone up and raise your cardio fitness while punching, kicking and blocking. So what you’re sculpting is your own body (on its way to becoming Grecian godlike) while learning some combat moves. Would the routine come in handy as self-defence if the need arose? This isn’t how Wolfgang wants to advertise the routine but ‘Yes’ was the answer. Simply because resorting to self-defence is a knee-jerk reaction and if you’ve taught yourself the moves your reflex will likely be to use them in the event that you need to.
Five minutes into the routine (which commenced after a quick warm-up) and we were convinced. Initially rather timid and shy about punching like a girl, Wolfgang’s motivating prompts and encouragement got us to break out of the morose façade and start punching and kicking like an angry girl who means business. Pah, pah, pah, pah, pah! Fifty straight punches into Kevin’s pads. Then some side hooks, and uppercuts and kicks, followed by some dodging as Wolfgang got his own back by slapping the pads at us.
The routine involved various combinations of these moves, to get a good blood circulation going through the upper and lower body. During our short breaks in between, we had to keep ourselves from cooling down, so we were told to jog about, squat on site or do the squat-walk… or what we refer to as the ‘Borat-walk’, you know… from the movie… Borat.
For those of you who harbour an intense dislike of gyms – this is an incredibly fun way to work out. And making it all the better was being able to take advantage of the cool weather and doing it all outdoors. By the end of the session we felt invigorated and so high on endorphins the pain in our arms and legs was oddly satisfying.
Wolfgang is a brilliant trainer, who isn’t scary (thankfully) but isn’t soft either. He’ll go easy on you if you’re a beginner, but because he has a good eye for figuring out someone’s physical capacity, he’ll be sure to push you just that little bit further than you think you can go, so that the last punch always comes down with a cry that’s equal parts satisfaction and agony. Wolfgang was also kind enough to point out that even the fittest, most hard-core trainers will find the routine tough to begin with. So for someone as unfit as us to just about last the hour-long session without vomiting our breakfast, was an achievement to be proud of. And proud we were.
Sculpt Punch offers classes individually at Dhs85 or one-to-one at Dhs240. Reservations are required due to limited places. Sheraton Health Club, Sheraton Abu Dhabi Hotel & Resort (02 697 0272).
