POW! How to train your inner Pacquiao
Because champions are made not born. Yes, train like a beast, end up a beauty.
Here’s a torture test: With only a 30-second break in between a four-category-workout (strength, mobility, endurance, and agility), you have to finish the whole routine without a single strand of hair out of place, as if nothing happened, as if it’s just another walk in the park. Deal? By the end of the 21-minute circuit routine, it should leave you standing strong, begging, asking for more.
It starts simple. Leg lunges, shifting weights to the side, stretching. Yawn. But then again, it’s just the start. When you got some of the country’s biggest names in fitness—Erwin Tagle of Ultimate Fitness, Coach Rio or RunRio, Paolo Cabalfin of Focus Athletics, Dexter Pulido of 360 Fitness, and Edward Pagonzaga of Elorde—nothing is easy.
Then, badass routine follows: A few kicks here and there and a jab-straight-hook combo to the left, to the right, surely got you sweating like a pig. A few mixed martial arts (MMA) basic foot works, say the participants, were the most fun and engaging. There’s a ladder-like mat, too, where you have to jump in and out of the boxes. It’s for your leg stretches.
Before you know it, 21 minutes will already have elapsed. It will leave you panting, on the verge of passing out.
Congrats! You just did a portion of Manny Pacquio’s hours and hours of routine. That heart-pounding, fat-shaking, open workout at Whitespace Makati emulates Pacman’s moves. Rexona’s latest brand ambassador Manny “Pacman” Pacquiao says, “In preparing for a fight, the opponent may vary, but my training routine remains the same. I live by the philosophy of training more to be the best you can. I spend hours in the gym, running, sparring, and improving.”
Whenever he has a match coming up, Manny would wake up at 6 a.m., do a five-mile run and a series of shadow boxing, jumping rope, and sparring.
Lanky Manny started out awkward. Weighing just 106 pounds, he was 16 years old when he first stepped into the boxing ring with hope in his hands and a burning desire to win. There was fierceness in his eyes, then and now.
His secret? Constant training. “Success is earned and worked hard for. To be the best, you have to train more,” says the first and only eight-division boxing world champ.
Now at 35, weighing 65 kg (143 lbs), the boxing superstar is among this year’s Sport Illustrated’s top 50 fittest athletes worldwide. Size matters when you’re on the ring. Heavy weight fighters usually have 7.69” wrist, but Manny has 8”. Again, charge it to constant training.
When not on the ring though, he juggles many other roles: A father, congressman, businessman, basketball player, and PBA coach. “It’s about pursuing passions, really,” he says.
An active lifestyle seems to run in his family, too. His wife Jinky likes to sweat it out in fun Zumba classes and badminton rallies. Mommy Dionisa meanwhile keeps her youthful and chipper disposition, thanks to her ballroom sesh (could it be the secret to having a younger boyfriend?). His kids, well, are just being kids: Playful and active. Manny is just too glad nobody has showed intention to follow his footsteps yet.
While exercise and a balanced diet work hand in hand, Manny seemingly has been blessed with an active metabolism. He says he eats whatever he wants. “I really don’t have a diet. When I know that I’ve eaten a lot, I’d exercise more. I’ve always been active, anyway,” he says in Filipino.
Dying to be like Pacman, but not really into boxing? No worries, it’s okay, as long as you keep an active lifestyle, says Manny. And with him as its newest ambassador, Rexona encourages gym buffs and champion wannabes to experience a workout a la Pacman. The trick’s simple. Just sign up at the Training Camp via Rexona’s Facebook page, select your fave sport (MMA, boxing, Jiu Jitsu, or Muay Thai), pick a location, and book your session to more than 50 gym partners nationwide. Voila, a free workout session for you.
“It’s all about pushing your physical limits, taking ‘do more’ to the next level. That’s why Rexona is doing the training camp,” says brand manager Mar Corazo.
There’s only one requirement though: Backing out is not allowed, just as Manny Pacquiao is not yet ready to retire: “(If I retire) then who are you going to watch up there?”
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