Double X: Rock Box and Kazaxe

Ten years ago, I wrote, “I don’t twerk. This should be made perfectly clear from the outset.” Ten years and many pounds later I can say that fact about me has not changed.

Lisa, like all of us, is ten years older and approaching a milestone date. To challenge herself she decided to do 75 workouts in 75 days leading up to the big date.

In order to accomplish this, the Wheelers had to go back to the old Summer twofer torture.

I have not been great at keeping active, other than lifting at home and the planks and assorted ab exercises Lisa is challenging us with daily. I do enjoy getting out and moving, and I’m thankful for friends that not only make that possible, but mandatory. I wonder if I can do two hours safely at times.

Lisa selected two places in Springfield / Franconia, which is convenient for me. Plus, parking is a breeze.

I suspect she selected Kazaxe first and found another that was convenient to Kazaxe.

Kazaxe, you’ll remember, is the rave / twerking workout we first tried out in 2015.

Rock Box

The first class we tried was Rock Box. A boxing / circuit gym class that is a little like 9Round in that if pairs boxing with functional exercises.

A difference is the length and setup. It’s 50 minutes and managed. They ensure they will not have more people than they have stations.

First of all, it has a great new-gym feel. Enthusiastic trainers and managers. Our Meg for the day was Brandon. He has great energy and has clear coaching skills. Many trainers are all pep but low skill. Meg is knowledgeable, energetic,  and personable.  

Meg took us through the workout. We were a bit amused when he asked/assumed we had no boxing experience. By that point I started wrapping my hands as James Vick and Mick from Title showed me and he caught on. Lisa pointed out we’ve been around. I mentioned I haven’t kick-boxed in a bit, and he paid attention.

It was a full class that day and Meg moved some people around so the four of us (Lisa, John, Mendy, and me) could start on heavy bags.

These weren’t heavy bags like in a pure boxing gym. They were Thai bags, as called. A bit lighter, but set into heavy sandbag donuts on the floor, as well as suspended from the ceiling, to limit swinging in a tight space.

They also have teardrop bags like used for uppercuts and certain kicks. Today they were there for punching only.

The drop bags were close to the middle of the room and the proximity to other classmates may have made bigger moves dangerous.

One reason they wanted to start us on bags may be because the directions were written out on a board for each round. There were four rounds on each type of bag. Do a round on the Thai bag, then one on the teardrop bag, times four.

The moves were simple enough. Even with the Thai bags there wasn’t a lot of kicking. In the later rounds we had push kicks and side kicks. Good for confined spaces. I suspect doing full roundhouse kicks would end up with someone crying. I worry it would have been me.

As we progressed, Meg had us work on elbows and knees. Both great exercises. He had us do a spinning elbow strike, which I haven’t tried in many years. Great way to put a back out, as I recall. Meg explained it well and showed us how to pivot properly before the strike. He did that quickly and it made a difference.

I should say about Meg, he was present. Not just with us but with the entire class. He knew names, gave encouragement and minor corrections. For a class of twenty people that is impressive. And he’s a young guy. He demonstrated that with his music choices. I’ve heard of Paramore, but Red Jump Suit Apparatus? Energetic choices, but most of us were too old to sing along.

Between rounds, moving from station to station, we were told to do squats, lunges or burpees. Mostly for ten seconds, but by the end even that was tough.

The functional exercises were focused primarily on abs. After our rounds on the bags, we moved on to the floor stations. Meg had to scatter us a bit for these, so each station had two people. He paired me with a nice fellow.

We started with the “I’m a little teapot” exercise. Otherwise known as side bends.

We used heavy bands for this rather than weights. It worked well but I didn’t know I was supposed to switch sides halfway through. It’s bilateral enough, with the eccentric portion, but my left obliques may be a little stronger now.

The next station, which is technically station one, had sliders. These were sliding pikes. I have sliders at home I use, so those muscles aren’t in bad shape, but a proper pike should look like the top ridge of a house. I don’t think I had a straight line anywhere on my body.

Next we went to a stations with benches. Two benches, each with plate weights and heavy dumbbells. This was a sit to stand exercise. The idea is to hold a heavy plate, lay on the bench with your feet under the dumbbells, sit up, stand, and press the plate overhead. The nice fellow and I both selected 45 pounds.

The exercise itself wasn’t too hard, though I was losing energy, but it took a couple of tries before I felt stable when I stood. The weight seemed to want to pull me forward.

Each station has a stand with a small screen that shows the exercise demo. With so many stations it helps to see the demo.

The next station was on the floor. Medicine ball toe touches. You’re on your back and your feet are pointed to the ceiling. Not mine, they may have hit a 50 degree angle, but it worked. Raise off the floor and attempt to reach your toes with the medicine ball. I had 16 pounds because it was closest to where I was.

After that we were still on our backs only doing leg thrusts. Laying on your back you do a standard leg lift but at the top you thrust your feet as high as you can. I managed better than I expected but was fading a bit.

Here I get a little lost. I feel like there were two more stations but I remember one. A plank with opposite knee to elbow touches. The nice fellow opted for low planks. He did well, I must say. I did the exercise for a while but opted to join him. I did not do as well.

We end all workouts, Meg said, with burpees. I got a few done. I should mention each round is two minutes. I’m glad we started on the bags. Two minutes of punching goes by faster than two minutes of planks.

Meg announced the class had a few minutes left and offered some stretching. Most stayed but our crew left since we had other appointments. John begged off round two to get some work done.

Kazaxe

On the map, getting from the Manchester Lakes shopping mall to Industrial drive looks pretty straight forward. Waze put me on 395 by the mixing bowl and onto Edsall.

It’s cool to drive around the area where I spent my first 10 years of life, but it’s hard to get used to. The world is much smaller in a car.

We still had time to kill when we got there so we walked around the building. I should mention the parking there is almost entirely for Fairfax County Public Schools, but only during weekdays and business hours.

When we walked in it was clear it hadn’t changed at all in 10 years. The lobby still looked like a good place for public meetings. The desk was in the same place and they offer earplugs in  cute vending contraption I’d not seen before. Some of the merch may have been new. They seem to be doing well.

The arena was almost the same. The boxing ring and other areas were still set up the same. The last time we were there they had a plywood partition in the back. Maybe to reduce noise. I remember because that’s where we stayed last time and it was convenient place to stash our stuff. Now we stayed in the back, just ahead of the support columns about 10 feet from the back wall.

The class itself wasn’t full. At least, it felt less full than 10 years ago. The other noticeable difference was the lighting. It was brighter and fewer lighting effects.

Our classmates seemed to represent all the skill levels. There were a few Solid Gold dancers with real moves. Lisa and I brought up the lower end skill levels with Mendy just above us.

On the stage they had legit dancers and twerkers. They also had a few men that new the moves, had the moves, but weren’t that intimidating. I felt like I could follow them and not feel weird about not being so rubbery. This may have helped me.

I’ve said I do not twerk, but I also do not line dance. Following along with a dance leader is a bit like line dancing. “A few steps to the left, move your arms thusly, a few to the right, arms again. Drop and do that thing they’re doing. “

Having extra room and not being as intimidated I was able to work a little more on the moves. It helped to see other people taking the class moving a bit like me as well. Mostly, I moved a lot and kept up with the general spirit of the dance.

Now, twerking. I have made a point this year to work on my glutes. You’ll remember I built a gym in the basement during Covid for lifting. I do a lot of leg curls. Having slightly more toned glute muscles does not help twerking.

There needs to be a lot extra and men don’t have that.

For example, I did testosterone pellets for a few years. They are implanted in the fatty butt tissue using a marinade syringe. My doctor noted I have very little fatty butt tissue.

So, how does a man twerk is there is not extra butt-fat bouncing about?

One of the good things about blogging with pictures is that I can see what I wore to the gym 10 years ago. I still have most of it. It is worth noting that, since I work from home, my gym clothes get worn more than anything else I own. It gets washed, of course, but I’m gross.

I wear compression shorts under my baggy shorts. Always. That’s not unusual as most people wear some sort of compression. Yoga pants, for instance. Ten-year-old compression shorts offer some compression, but not a lot.

This is leading somewhere, I promise.

Gravity affects everything. We think of women needing sports bras. Especially women in old National Geographic magazines. Graphic is right. Gravity affects men a little lower.

So, if a man wants to know if he is twerking properly there will be a bit of a 6 o’clock to 12 o’clock swing. Maybe a slapping sound if there are no compression shorts. I think there’s a GIF/meme of a gorilla that demonstrates what I’m describing. I’ll leave it to you to find it.

Being on supplemental testosterone, I have a bit more tissue and smaller chance of injury in that region, but there’s enough. This may be why things like parachute pants came into being.

I doubt it looks impressive, but it does engage the lower back and glute muscle differently. It’s like a pulsing squat with a bit of a roll.

Aside from that revelation, the class worked the legs hard.

Have you noticed that most led gym classes do not have clocks? There is one in the arena. A nice, big one like we had in school.

Lisa and I would look at each other, already bursting with sweat, and say things like, “It’s only been five minutes?”

Towards the end I was thinking, “I can make it 15 minutes.”

It was hard. The few pauses we had in the dance lasted longer and longer for us. We figured we could catch up. I thought I would fall out, especially after working so hard at Rock Box. I did not, but I was careful to pace myself.

The part of my body that felt the most engaged was my calves. Moving around the floor requires being light on your feet. I’m not light on anything. I’m at least 15 pounds heavier than 10 years ago. Again, testosterone replacement.

At the end of the class we left before the crowd. We were in the back and probably missed out on the applause we all earned, but we were starved.

In the parking lot we struggled to make out phones work with shaky hands and everything else, but we found Delia's in Franconia was close by.

We all love Delia’s. The food is great, and parking is easy. I will sum up our experience this time by saying good help is hard to find. Still great food though.

Even while we were at Kazaxe, I thought about how bad my legs would feel a couple of days later. I was a little shocked that I didn’t have much trouble. Certainly I had some soreness but I didn’t feel like I was crippled.

Overall, with both workouts, I felt like the load on my was balanced. No muscles were more or less sore.

I’ve wanted to focus on my legs more lately, since I sit all day, but even my sporadic workouts and daily planks (Thanks Lisa) must help conditioning.

Rock Box is going in our rotation. The Class Pass credits are reasonable and the workout and energy is fantastic. It’s well run, balanced, and personal.

Kazaxe is Kazaxe. It looks like they’ll stick around a long time and it’s a great dancercise class. It’s fun because most of the merch is about booties and watching the people on stage is still like going to a rave.

Maybe it’s because I’m older and care less, but I’m not as self-conscious about whacky classes. Of course, we’ve done a lot of whacky things over the last 10 year, so maybe it’s that.