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Lake Zurich’s new fitness center to come out swinging
Title Boxing Gym trainer Tode Dmitrovic works out on a punching bag Oct. 23 during an afternoon kickboxing class at the new Buffalo Grove fitness center. A Lake Zurich location is set to open this month. | Michelle LaVigne ~ Sun-Times Media
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Updated: February 22, 2013 12:24PM
LAKE ZURICH — Sometimes an hour with a punching bag is necessary when the stresses of work, raising a family or life in general start to feel unmanageable.
It’s also a great way to work out.
Enter Title Boxing Club.
The club’s newest location is set to open this month in the Lake Zurich Northlake Commons Center, near the intersection of Rand and Half Day roads. Club manager Michelle Sikorski expects it be especially well-received by women.
“In our society, there aren’t many places where it’s acceptable for women to just go in and punch something,” Sikorski explained.
Long Grove resident Marvin Somlo owns the Lake Zurich club, in addition to one other Title Boxing Club facility in Crystal Lake. A club also opened in Buffalo Grove last fall.
Sikorski attributes the club’s popularity with women to the idea that they are getting tired of the conventional gym routine and want their workouts to be more of an exciting challenge.
The nationwide franchise has grown increasingly popular with both men and women of all ages over the past five years for various reasons. One reason, Sikorski noted, is that club members get the advice and direction they need from trainers during classes for less than the price of a personal trainer at any other health club.
She added that many retired boxers and martial artists, in particular, also enjoy Title Boxing Club’s classes because they offer effective workouts that are similar but not as harsh as the routines they practiced during their fighting days.
That is the idea in which Title Boxing Club was founded.
Danny Campbell, a former professional boxer and promoter, founded the chain of clubs in 2008 in Kansas City in an attempt to find a way to get back into shape without having to get back into the intense routines he did when he was in the midst of his boxing career.
“So he came up with the Power Hour, and he just wanted to mainstream a kickboxing routine that anyone could do,” Sikorski said.
Campbell’s Power Hour starts with 15 minutes of warm ups, followed by eight, 3-minute rounds of either different boxing or kickboxing combinations with a one-minute active rest in between. The active rest keeps the heart rate up with jump squats or jumping jacks before moving on to the last 15 minutes of core workouts.
The goal of the workout is to have the body moving nonstop for 60 minutes. The club says the workout burns between 800 and 1,000 calories per hour.
Sikorski noted that anyone could do the classes because the difficulty of the work out is up to the individual.
“The big draw is that it’s a fat burner and a weight-loss tool, and it’s not like other fitness clubs where you have to go and try to figure out for yourself what to do,” Sikorski said.
Title Boxing Club’s Lake Zurich location is currently offering free enrollment and a complimentary pair of boxing gloves to the first 100 members that pre-enroll.
