TITLE Boxing Club NYC – Midtown West

TITLE Boxing is one of the largest brand names in the community. Try to think of frozen yogurt without the name Pinkberry coming to mind, and you can’t. That’s what it’s like in boxing, so we had pretty high expectations for this club. They are typically known for their retail, but it’s no surprise they hopped into the studio game with 172 locations across the country. We wondered if they’d go down more of the legitimate fighter training old school route or if they’d try to keep up with the incredibly high standards of the NYC fitness scene?

Well, let’s just say the theme and the equipment do not disappoint – old school style but still approachable for the regular studio goer. Plus the classes themselves are definitely at the intermediate/advanced conditioning level, pushing you way beyond what you think your body can accomplish. Their layout, however, is a hot mess. And speaking of hot messes, can we talk about their options for signing up? You either have to come in through ClassPass or buy a membership; there is NO in between and NO drop in option – mega mega harsh. We love to box, but have commitment issues when it comes to studios. And us New Yorkers need this flexibility, dammit!

RUNDOWN

WORKOUT

We like to have the lights turned down a little lower and the tunes cranked up a little louder when having our asses handed to us. But, in the great tradition of no frills boxing, TITLE leaves out the club vibe we’ve become accustomed to: it’s just you vs. your bag (or the floor in the case of warm up and abs sections). We get the sense that a lot of trainers have a bet with themselves to see how soon they can get someone to puke…. For realz. We clocked it and you spend about four solid minutes in a plank position doing different moves from mountain climbers to spider man push ups to side plank toe touches – and this is just during the warm up. The warm up and abs are torture sessions, each about 10 minutes long, and are the break on either end of a mostly bag work boxing class. There’s no shadow boxing, no jump rope, no sparring – just round after round after round of combos. So yea, what this class does bring in sweat it lacks in variety. But we know that everyone has their favorite boxing class preference and for those of you who hate to spar, this is the one for you. Also let’s look at this glass half full here: with a minimum of 10 rounds of different combos, you really get to work on your different punch form.

INSTRUCTOR

Honestly I would be willing to bet that there is a “Raul” in every boxing studio throughout the city, or throughout the country for that matter. He’s a tough guy with enough energy to keep a class from flat lining and has a “something to prove” attitude to prove he is a good instructor. There really was nothing unique about his training style: no fun little expressions or quirky personality traits, and surely nothing that pushed us to dig deep. Plus, since he didn’t really provide any modifications, it felt as though he was more our babysitter or moderator. He’d call out a move, but didn’t really check whether everyone was doing the move correctly. He was nice enough, but ugh, he is like the oatmeal of instructors: just bland. He does have an evil look in his eye so at least there was some fire in there, but it was channeled toward creating warm up moves that even a regular visitor to Tone House wouldn’t be able to complete. Which, folks, in our opinion kinda defeats the point.

SPACE

We have to give it up to them for making the traditional world of boxing more approachable. Typically, they either swing way too clubby or way too gritty, but TITLE is juuuuust right – Goldilocks would be very happy. Now, we wouldn’t mind slightly less gritty locker room areas: your stuff is stored out in the main studio, which is fine, except that you have to bring your own lock. But God forbid you have to shower or change; it’s like trying to do these very personal things inside a super dirty H&M fitting room. Just all the yuck.

The majority of the space is reserved for studio classes, but there is a ring and some super beat-up workout equipment for “open gym” if you go the membership route. Otherwise, we can safely say that two thirds of the space is dominated by heavy bags hanging from the ceiling. And here’s the part where things go to sh@#t: there are WAY too many of them and the bags are super close to one another. It screams “We don’t care if you can see or hear the instructor, we’re looking to maximize that cash mooonaayy.” We hear you TITLE, but if you’re not savvy enough to get there ten minutes early and IMMEDIATELY reserve a bag toward the middle, your class experience is already ruined.