‘Sweat Box Stretch’ – my sweaty hour at a This Girl Can x King’s event

Last week, This Girl Can hosted a series of events promoting female fitness, health, and well-being at KCL campuses. Generally speaking, since I became a university student, I have never been less fit or healthy, and my well-being at this point? I don’t know her.

So, when I was offered the opportunity to try out one of these events, I casually accepted, whilst internally wondering who I could borrow a pair of sports leggings and shoes from. I signed myself up for ‘Sweat Box Stretch’, and of course invited a friend to join me.

Not really having any idea what to expect, we turned up at Strand Campus at 8:15am, and gave the term ‘sweat box’ a google, just in case it was a specific form of exercise. The first result that came up was for a gay sauna in Soho, so maybe there is a tidbit of information you can take from this article after all.

An overview: At the beginning, I felt like I wanted to die – but this exercise class still put a huge smile on my face.

What’s more fun than pairing up with your mate and punching their hands, which are held very closely to their face, to some banging tunes? Maybe the free gift bag you get to take home when you finish the class, but this is a great place to start.

The class started with a HIIT workout. Us 8 early birds that turned up to the class pushed hard through 10 rounds of 5 high intensity exercises like mountain climbers, jump squats, and burpees, with 10 seconds rest between each exercise, and a minute rest between each round.

The 4 women running the class demonstrated how to do each exercise, would help us correct our form, and encouraged us whilst playing some old school bangers and some of the top hits of today – I've never related more to Jax Jones' 'Breathe' whilst lying flat on the ground after barely managing to do 6 burpees.

After our HIIT workout, I was about ready to tap out, but realised that if I had done all the sweating, then the boxing must be coming next. We paired up and were given a pair of boxing gloves and a pair of boxing pads, were taught proper stance and form, and then went through a series of exercises, intermixing jabs, hooks, and uppercuts whilst pivoting in a circle. I felt like Lara Croft in Tomb Raider, except my partner and I were giggling throughout the whole workout.

The class finished with – you’ve guessed it – a stretching section, and we were reminded of the importance of always stretching after a workout. I nodded wisely as I lay on the ground, feeling invigorated but struggling to catch my breath. The class ended with a big round of applause, and I realised how much fun it had been to sweat and work hard with a group of women. I left feeling productive and really pleased with myself.

That being said, I ached for a week afterwards – but the free t-shirt and tote bag made it all worth it.