If you want to work out like a celebrity, you’re in luck. Rumble, a new boxing studio frequented by celebrities like Justin Bieber and Kendall Jenner, opened just steps from campus Friday.
The workout studio at 2001 M St. NW offers 45-minute classes that incorporate boxing with strength training and metabolic conditioning. Each class involves 10 rounds – like in a boxing match – that alternate between working on punching bags and exercising on the floor with weights.
An individual class costs $34, and your second class is free. The studio also offers series of five classes ($165), 10 classes ($320), 20 classes ($600) or 30 classes ($850).
After you check in, you can rent a pair of Rumble’s signature white boxing gloves ($3) and purchase wraps ($8) that are yours to keep before you make your way inside the dimly-lit workout room. You can also purchase “Rumble Juice” ($5), the workout studios’ branded energy and recovery drink, to enjoy before, during or after your workout or a bottle of water ($3).
The single-room studio has gray industrial floors and glossy white walls covered with boxing-themed pop art paintings of Biggie Smalls and Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg wearing Rumble boxing gloves and a crown.
The room is lined with strips of flashing neon red and blue lights, and a digital screen at the front wall tells you what moves to do and how many reps to complete. If you are a beginner boxer, there is even a GIF demonstrating each move to ensure there is no confusion.
Before the class officially starts, there is a five-minute “pre-class,” where the instructor teaches any first-timers – or anyone who needs a refresher – how to do the six different types of punches. The instructor will also take you through a cardio-fueled warmup routine before you begin throwing punches.
Andy Stern, a founding trainer and instructor for Rumble, said the six basic punches provide the foundation for each session, but instructors are given the flexibility to switch up the routine for each class to challenge everyone – even those who regularly attend classes.
“Above all else, we want the experience to stay simple by design and challenging by execution,” he said.
To keep the class energizing, Rumble blares upbeat tunes for the class like a remix of “Eye of the Tiger” by Survivor and “Beautiful Girls” by Sean Kingston.
Stern said Rumble is unique because it has its own in-house DJ that curates playlists to power you through each workout.
When the instructor isn’t walking around the room motivating people, they stand at a podium that resembles a DJ booth in the front of the room to observe the entire class and demonstrate combinations.
The class itself consists of three rounds of boxing on the bags, where you apply combinations of the six different punches, followed by three rounds on the floor for strength and conditioning using dumbbells to work your arms, abs and glutes. You finish back at the bags for two more rounds of cardio – including the high intensity “Rumble Round” – before finishing strong with two more rounds on the floor.
In larger classes, participants will split up with half the class on the punching bags and half on the floor.
Stern has been teaching group fitness for nearly 10 years and was previously a head trainer at Orangetheory Fitness. Stern said he wanted to help launch Rumble because he wanted more people to experience boxing and have an outlet to de-stress.
“When you combine great music with a great sport of boxing in an atmosphere that’s very inviting, it creates a huge win,” he said.
Stern said he doesn’t view other boxing studios like Urban Boxing or Belly and Body as competition, because they all create an opportunity for more people to get exposed to the sport. He said that boxing can be an intimidating activity because it is an unfamiliar style of workout for most people.
“I think there’s anxiety that ‘everyone’s going to be better than me, I’m not going to know what to do, I can’t follow along, this isn’t for me,’” Stern said. “No one is here to judge you, make fun of you or yell at you. It’s not a boot camp type of style – it’s engaging.”
