Gym Review: Elorde Plus - BF Homes

To all my brothers and sisters who hail from the south, let me hear you scream! All right. I'll let you in on a dirty little secret: This gym kicks ass! You'll find out why after reading this comprehensive review.



How to get there - the gym is located at Fitness & Beauty mall, 290 Aguirre Ave, BF Homes, Paranaque - just a few minutes away from Las Pinas, Alabang and NAIA terminal. If you're coming from Manila, I urge you to go via President's Ave. From there Aguirre Ave is just a few kilometers away. I wouldn't recommend using Google Maps/Waze to get there, we've gotten lost a couple of times doing so (you've been warned). Just follow the instructions above and you'll be fine. For those commuting, there are FX vans coming from Roxas Boulevard that you can take and drop off at BF Homes. From there you can take a tricycle to get to the gym.

Right across the building is Starbucks (take a pre-work out Espresso shot for energy maybe?) Along the street you'll also find fast food joints and some restaurants. Please don't visit them after working out as it'll defeat your purpose of going to the gym, okay? (But I'm not your mom so do as you please.) I got there at around night time and there's still quite a number of people, you can say it's a pretty busy street.

The Place -  the building has an assigned security personnel and a bunch of CCTV cameras inside and outside the building. Safety-wise? Check. For parking, there's a of bit space you can work around in front of the building. I would estimate around 8-10 cars can fit in it any time. Now what about the actual gym, you ask?  You know how I'm selective when it comes to the gym size. 

Elorde Plus -BF Homes provides a decent amount of space for you to maneuver your body. Not to mention Elorde Plus is NOT just a boxing gym - they also offer Muay Thai, indoor cycling (they call it Spinning), Zumba classes and HIIT (High Intensity Interval Training) sessions! In the middle you'll see a boxing ring. On the side are a few heavy bags and a couple of speed balls. There's a separate space for lifting weights, a huge room where you can presumably conduct a dance class (although I'm pretty sure it's for doing different exercises like Yoga), and another room for spinning! Imagine you're inside your office building with function and meeting rooms, that's how it looks like. Pretty awesome I'd say.

the boxing session

When I entered the rest room, I seriously thought I was in a high-end condominium building. The tiles are brand new, oh and the shower sprinkle heads are twice as big as my head! Did I mention that the whole place was top-notch in terms of cleanliness? Here's the part that I can't get over with: the gym is fully air-conditioned! I was so used to boxing gyms that don't have AC's that I didn't know what to feel when I trained at this gym. Was I going to sweat a little bit? Will I even sweat at all?

Forgot to bring your gear? Worry no more as they have rentals for boxing gloves and wraps. (Bring your own underwear I beg of you). Water and refreshment can also be purchased at the counter.

The Spinning Class

Price and Promos
                                                                                                                                                               

Annual Membership: 1500
This price is within the prevailing market price for most gyms that offer full-contact sports training. This one is in the middle lower range, considering the location, size, not to mention the quality of service.

Boxing: 200
This is right around the market price for boxing. Market is price is around 150 - 300 per session. Get a sizable discount with 10 sessions.

Muay Thai: 300
The rule of thumb for pricing is Boxing fee + 100.

Indoor Cycling (Spinning): 300
This is dirt cheap compared to others. Market price is anywhere between 500 and 1000 per ride.

Gym Use: 1000/30 days or 33/day
This may not be Fitness First or Gold's Gym but the equipment they have will make do. No one goes to a boxing gym to be a body builder anyway.


The Experience

Here's the juiciest part - the actual training session! I opted for their Muay Thai training program (one session) just for the heck of it, I kid of course. I love the sport so much I can't let this gym not let me try it. I also haven't trained in a while so might as well loosen those hip joints, eh?

(I would image that boxing session wouldn't be any different in terms of the program except that there will be no kicking.)

Now there's usually around 10 coaches available at any time of day (6 for boxing and 4 for Muay Thai) according to my trainer. The coach that was assigned to me was a young, professional MMA fighter. He works in the gym in the morning and trains at night. Okay great, an active fighter will be training me. Horaaaay! Plus he seemed a pretty nice guy, until the training started.

 

a student doing Muay Thai pad work with the coach

We began at approximately 6:15 PM. Immediately, he tells me to run around the ring and do 4 sets of exercises in between. "Okay now that we're done with the warm up, let's stretch." WHAT, that was just warm up? It took about 7-10 mins to finish then I was given a full round (3 minutes) to rest. After which, he told me to hit the bags with knees and do a couple rounds of shadowing boxing. This guy ain't playing no games homie!

Rest. Then on the intense pad work. After the exhausting 3 minutes of your life you'd be asked to do 10 push ups (can you say no?). Now you would think that exercising in a fully air-conditioned room wouldn't make you sweat, and you would be wrong. 

Rest. He then instructed me to do 2 rounds of kicking on the heavy bag (20 in each foot). Rest. Then another blood-sucking 2 rounds of pad work. Rest. 50 kicks to the pads and 1 minute of knees. (Are you still with me?) Rest. Then I was surprised at we did next. I have never seen this equipment in a very long time, he strapped a 5-pound ankle weight on my foot and I did a number of kicks after another while he's holding the pad. (It was a new exhilarating yet an awesome experience for me).

But wait, there's more...

After a seemingly endless work out, my trainer told me to lay down. I guess it was nap time? No, it was time for the ab work out. I thought great, almost done. The workout literally took all the gas in my tank, still he made me do 3 different ab exercises (no rest in between) with the last one involving him pounding a folded yoga mat on my stomach while doing crunches. He was a savage one that coach, then he gave me that half smile them hot boys give you to badly get your phone number (I'm talking to you girls here).

"Okay you go stretch to cool down and be ready for the massage." I couldn't believe it at first, then a masseuse walks towards me and the rest is history. After giving my earthly body the punishment of a lifetime they reward me with a world-class massage. I swear that massage was the real deal, I don't know what type of massage it was, it could have been Thai, Swedish or some Asian country-oriented massage. Needless to say, it was a very relaxing one. It took a minimum of 15 minutes (although I might have fallen asleep in the process, who knows?)

a student getting help stretching after the work out

Value 

Time check: 8:15PM. After everything was said and done, my coach walked up to me and said, "You've got great cardio, I actually had to use the 'advanced' program as I sensed you have a higher level of fitness." This is not to brag but to point out how the trainer adjusted his approach depending on his student's current fitness level. It's worth noting that this is the first time I have been to this place. Now, ladies and gents, this is the kind of standard that you must look for when you go to any gym. You wouldn't want the same program that was laid out to hundreds of other students. Since this sport requires a one-on-one, coach-student type of teaching approach, the teacher has to have that ability of recognizing your skills and limits so he can tailor-fit his approach to your needs, whatever your fitness level maybe.

The Verdict

Considering everything, I would give this experience a 9 /10. I would have given this a 10, had the gym been bigger. I'm used to training at gyms that have 2 boxing rings so I can play around like a five-year old but that's just me.

I hope you enjoyed the review and I wish that I was able to help you with everything I wrote in choosing whether or not to train at Elorde Plus - BF Homes. You may visit their  page @ https://www.facebook.com/elordeplus

See you in my next gym review!

(Disclaimer: I was not paid in cash or any kind by Elorde Plus - BF Homes Boxing Gym management or its affiliates to make this review.)