Without a doubt during my 6 months of travelling around South East Asia, my favourite place was Boracay and more specifically, Legacy Gym. I wrote little bit about this in an earlier post called Wanderlust but I want to go into more detail here.
Hands down, Boracay is one of the most beautiful places I have ever visited in my life. One side of the island is lined with an unbelievable white sandy beach, White Beach, with tranquil turquoise blue waters. On the other side lies Bullabog Beach which is perfect for kite surfers. The island is postcard perfect.
Legacy Gym is in Diniwid which is away from the hustle and bustle of station 2 with it’s own perfect little beach no less than a couple of minutes walk away. Having been to Legacy in January/February of this year I swore I would come back in May for a month of training, and I did, and it was F-A-N-T-A-S-T-I-C!
Similar to Monsoon Fightclub in Koh Tao the gym offers training twice a day, the focus here however is more on Fillipino boxing. The gym also offers Muay Thai, Jujitsu and MMA training. There is also Beach Conditioning 3 times a week which is absolutley killer as you are tortured with animal crawls on the sand (completely knackering but effective).
At Legacy you can stay in a private bamboo room above the boxing rings, or rent a private hut in the grounds. The gym is managed by a wonderful family who really make you feel at home. On Saturday nights there are often BBQs at the gym and we all head out together to one of the local beach bars, Exit, or the huge new club on the island Galaxy. The nights are generally hilarious and end with a lot of epic stories.
Training is exhausting and challenging, with a mixture of HIIT workouts, agility training and technique. It’s perfect for improving your boxing or Muay Thai if you’re already familiar with it but anyone can go along to these camps as the trainers will help people of all different levels to learn and improve in these sports.
What made Legacy so special were the people. We were like family, it was one of the most enjoyable experiences of my life. The trainers are just awesome and hilarious and all so supremely skilled at their work, they either still fight now or were professionals or ex champions in their time. Their dedication to their craft is so impressive. The way the gym is set up makes it so easy to become friends with the other people staying there. You all hang out together, train together, eat together it really does feel like family. It’s no wonder that so many people return to this place every year, it really is a truly wonderful place and it will always have a special place in my heart.
