The classes may be smaller and the boxers may be masked, but local boxer Tony Suggs keeps the hits coming through coronavirus with a new Boxercise class.

Suggs, a local boxing star, has launched a new boxing class to help locals stay fit and focused.

“It started virtually on my own, just to give back to the community, ” said Suggs. “That started going really well, so when we went back to work with the city I was telling my managers how I thought a program like this was working.”

Suggs said the program was seeing active participation from both parents and kids. Suggs started with virtual sessions last summer but the first in-person, 45-minute sessions for local teens and young adults started two weeks ago.

“45-Minute HIT & Cardio” is offered every Thursday from 6-7 p.m. at the Charles Houston Recreation Center (901 Wythe Street). The class is available through the city website as class 313616. Enrollment to the class is $39 for city residents or $64 for non-residents.

Because of COVID precautions, the program is only allowed to have nine participants currently, with some parents exercising alongside their kids. If conditions improve in Alexandria, Suggs said he hopes to gradually open the class up to more participants.

“It’s high intensity training, but it’s really catering to the audience,” Suggs said. “I ramp it up for the kids and tone it down for the parents. We do step work, speed ladder, burpees, ab work, push ups, punching bag and hit the hand mitts.”

Beyond the boxing program, Suggs said he’s spent the last few months helping to train T.C. Williams athletes while school sports aren’t meeting to practice. Suggs says training for boxing can help enhance coordination for any other type of sport.

“It’s shut down and they want to stay in shape,” Suggs said. “I have a couple guys I’ve been voluntarily training.”

Suggs said training with masks on and being distanced can be difficult for young athletes, but ultimately Suggs said it could be a boon to those who get used to training in these conditions.

“It’s hard on the kids sometime,” Suggs said, “but being a boxer — training in high altitudes like Colorado Springs — I know how important it is to have thin air. That makes you better in shape.”

The city website described the HIT and Cardio training class as:

Ages 12 & up. Join us for a workout thats geared to get the heart pumping. This 45 minute class will include exercises like boxing movements, jump rope combinations, and mixed aerobics with resistance trainings. This class is ideal for teens and young adults.

Photo via Tony Suggs/Facebook

Dawson Saint Jour wants to be the Tony Robbins of boxing. Every Sunday, the coach with Hiit Hard Training is at Jones Point Park with his coaches and boxers, shouting motivational aphorisms while punches are thrown and footwork is improved.

“When life knocks you down, try to land on your back, because if you can look up, you can get up,” Saint Jour recently told ALXnow, quoting motivational speaker Les Brown. “Another favorite of mine is, ‘Don’t just go through it but grow through it.'”

For the last three years, Saint Jour and his team of boxing coaches took their talents to the business world with a corporate wellness program. But the pandemic changed the way offices work, and now with more clients working from home Saint Jour is looking to open a physical location in Alexandria.

For the time being, however, that means weekly workouts at Jones Point every Sunday from 1-4 p.m. It costs $20 for one class and $65 for four classes.

“We’ve been doing corporate wellness since 2017, and due to the COVID restrictions we had to stop offering our program at the on-site facilities,” Saint Jour said. “We wanted to continue offering these programs to individuals, and we’ve been stuck in our homes for months and months with no way to relieve stress.”

Coach Devon Davies started boxing five years ago and has worked with Saint Jour since October.

“I was going through some personal stuff in my life and I was looking for something to sort of wake me up and feel like a part of a community again and that’s when I got into boxing,” Davies said. “Dawson has changed my life. These people become your family and you know they have your back, and you have confidence in yourself to stand up and defend yourself and have passion for people you love.”

Courtesy photos and video

Dennis Porter, the longtime head coach of the Alexandria Boxing Club, passed away on Jan. 7, 2020.

The trainer of such Alexandria champions as 2016 Olympic Silver Medalist Shakur Stevenson and former IBF World Featherweight Champion Eric Aikens was 59 years old and died of a heart attack.

“He was a demanding guy. He had that force behind him, like a drill instructor. You listened to him, because you could hear him all over the building,” said Alexandria Boxing Coach Jeffrey “Steady” Johnson. “He was one heck of a guy, to give this much of his life to a program. It doesn’t happen often when a guy can do it for 30 years.”

Porter is survived by his wife, Crystel, children Dennis, Jr. and Timothy, and a number of grandchildren. He was memorialized by his fighters in the gym the day after his passing.

“There were guys I hadn’t seen since the ’80s,” Johnson said. “It made me tear up, because around here it’s all about family. It was a beautiful thing to see.”

Iesha Kenney became a national amateur champion under Porter.

“He always pushed me further than I thought possible,” Kenney said. “He was an all-around good guy and he was always here.”

Porter’s funeral will be held on Saturday, Jan. 18, at 11 a.m. at Antioch Church of Christ (1120 Queen Street).

Photos courtesy Alexandria Boxing Club