Fit to Print Volume 24 Issue 4 December 2015 | Page 17

“

The Queenax is your opportunity
to become reacquainted with
your inner child, or to be
introduced to your internal
primal savage.
-Sara Harrison, CPT

figured “why not give it a try.”
PS: You are one of the gym’s fittest
members, and functional training is a
big part of what you do here.
KH: I feel functional training is very
beneficial for athletes, and I have seen
great results in my own training with it.
I was so used to mixing up my workouts
with boxing, between in-the-ring stuff
and out of the ring, that when I retired
from boxing my workouts got a little
stale. Functional training allows you to
think outside the box and never gets
stale. These workouts help to improve
your stabilizing muscles, and it’s a total
body workout rather than just focusing
on one muscle group at a time. The
TRX is a great tool for this, as are the
battling ropes and VIPRs (I get a lot of
this training in POWER X). In the last
few years, I have seen my body change
drastically in appearance and have
elevated my performance levels in all
of my sports and races.
My cardio and strength approach
changed back when I was boxing. I had
the strength when I began competing,
but the endurance aspect killed me
because I would be winded in the first
or second round. Once I started adding
in jump roping, sprints, elliptical and
cycling to my workouts, I saw a big
improvement in my training. I don’t
think you need to do hours on end of
cardio but definitely have some sort of

base. I know everyone is different, but
everyone needs a strong heart to train,
and the cardio aspect helps this along.
PS: Also (and I always ask this as a
runner/cardio guy who has to be
dragged kicking and screaming to
strength training) which of the two
spheres do you like best?
KH: I honestly cannot pick between
the two. All of my workouts
incorporate them both! I know in the
end, when you are done, the feeling of
accomplishment outweighs the dread
before you have to put yourself
through a tough workout.
- end And Now an unsolicited
Word from Our Editor:…
The first impression when you
enter the newly transformed
Boxing Room is that it’s now
the Queenax room. The sheer
look of the Queenax Bridge
supplies an OMG moment. It's
that impressive, like a smaller
version of the International Space
Station landed at Fitness Incentive.
It's sleek and looks sturdy without ever
appearing bulky or clumsy. And somehow the
room itself looks considerably bigger than it
did before the installation of the Queenax. I've
watched other people repeat my own first
Holidays 2015 FIT to Print

experience of it: just standing there mouths
agape, looking it over, drinking it all in.
But the real story begins once you start working
through the various stations. There are so many
of them! There must be 10 different ways to do
pull ups and chin ups. Thin bars and thick, a
convex “bow” curved bar…even the support
struts lend themselves to usage. There are new
toys, too. The Super Functional attachments
—they look like swings, moveable crossbars on
black straps—can be adjusted from floor height
to ceiling to allow for everything from standing to
seated to hanging to floor work to…there is
almost no end to the ways these can be used.
Two heavy bags can be locked into place for
stability, but can also moved aside for other
work. Then there's a Mini Tramp that serves as a
medicine ball pitchback, then over to the
Plyometric Platform for step-ups and modified
push-ups. Jump to the Fixed Parallels for dips
and leg raises. Adjust the Abdominal
Bench for crunches, then on to the
Rope Pulleys for curls and presses.
Around the room and back
again…the whole thing presents as a
unified functional circuit.
And then there are the monkey bars!
Rung to rung the length of the
bridge…challenging! Feel like a kid
again—except this time you're getting a
tremendous workout.
The whole room has literally been transformed
into a large, integrated workout apparatus!
- Paul Smith, esq.

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