Penalty Box: a new fitness craze in town
Anew fitness work out is taking Gaborone by storm. Penalty Box, a very simple but rewarding experience for those who have tried it is a fun and exciting full body workout program that started in the USA by Kris Barr who wanted to invent something exciting for his clients.
Interestingly, the workout is ideal to improve ones health, athletic performance, and their overall training as evidenced through the amazing results of clients such as Tebogo Matenge. Over the past couple of weeks, she has been sharing the amazing results of finding her way back to a healthy lifestyle. She wakes up in the morning ready to hit the ground running a couple of kilometres and pushing and challenging her body on the courts with this truly fascinating workout. She has a new found energy and she oozes passion for life.
Imaan Pule is the brains behind # PenaltyBoxBw. He tells this publication that he grew up playing football until he sustained an injury. He then became inactive for almost five years but soon he had a yearning for physical exercise. That is when he started running and is part of the biggest running club in Botswana, Gaborone Striders Club where he developed a passion for training.
He then proceeded to study Fitness Instruction online with the Newskills Academy in the US and recently completed Nutrition and Hydration.
He explains that Penalty Box entails making use of a 4 box grid that can be used flat as a grid or as a hurdle, allowing for multiple different types of exercises such as speed and agility, core, cardio and even plyometrics, and so much more.
Pule highlights that there is nothing like it in Gaborone. He explains that with Covid- 19, this is a perfect way to workout in a safe space.
“Each person gets assigned their own box, placed a distance away from the next person. Because of the many different exercises available to use with the Penalty Box your workouts will never be boring,” he says.
A typical session comprises of Warm up for 5 minutes, stretching for 2 minutes, followed by doing a selected workout for 45 minutes with water breaks in between of 1min 30 secs, and cooling down.
“I wanted something fun and exciting that would get people excited to get out and exercise and that is exactly what we are seeing with Penalty Box,” he notes.
He explains that the response has been phenomenal and that his clients love the work outs. This positive feedback inspires him to look at ways to expand their product offering.
The advantages of Penalty Box are many, he says. For starters the work out can target multiple exercise areas and that the exercises are fun.
And most importantly, the Box is small and lightweight which makes it super easy to bring the fun to you if you can’t make it to the intimate group sessions
“The exercises allow you to lose weight, tone up or just work on your overall fitness. The exercises are suitable for everyone whether you’re a beginner, intermediate or advanced. Clients also have overall improvement in mood.
They have recently just introduced the Penalty Box Mini onto the market, a smaller grid that is perfect for adults and even kids, a fun filled exercise program for the whole family in a nutshell.
Pule explains that on average they have four classes weekly at the North Gate Mascom 5 aside centre held on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 0500hrs to 0545hrs, Saturdays and Sundays from 0615hrs to 0715hrs.
In total, he has more than 50 clients who take their turns through bookings.
“I can take up to 24 clients but due to COVID- 19 Protocols I only allow 16 per session, “he says.