Thanks To Boxing, This New Year's Weight-Loss Resolution Came True

   It is an age-old story this time of year: Man looks in mirror. Man sees too much of himself in the mirror. Man vows to get in shape.
   For Leesburg’s Tom Nesslage, that’s exactly what happened 18 months ago. Consequently, he’s now entering 2012 weighing about 170 pounds, a full 65 pounds lighter than when he embarked on the journey. The key ingredient?
    “Boxing,” Nesslage said while putting wraps on his wrists in getting ready to work out at Silver Eagle Group’s Mixed Martial Arts Academy in Ashburn.
    Looking at Nesslage, you’re not going to confuse him with the likes of Mike Tyson, George Foreman or Muhammad Ali, raising the question of how the urge to get in shape led him into the boxing ring.
   “The moment when it snapped for me was when I was trying on clothes and had to go up to a size 40 waist,” Nesslage said. “I was only 30 and thought ‘Oh Man’, this can’t be happening to me.”
   Now 31, Nesslage, who works for Verizon in the field of telecommunication at a desk job he openly admits contributed to his weight troubles, at first went the conventional route. He watched what he ate, skipped lunch to work out in the company gym, and tried his best to adhere to a schedule of three days of weightlifting and three days of cardio each week.
   It worked for awhile, as Nesslage lost close to 30 pounds over the next 6 to 8 months. But then he plateaued, a not uncommon phenomenon in exercise. Or as Nesslage put it, “I got bored.”
   So he went looking for something different. Health clubs had a certain “intimidation factor,” as Nesslage put it, “because you almost have to be in shape in the first place. You worry you’ll be embarrassed because others are already stronger or in much better shape.”
   But Nesslage was also a gun owner, and had been regularly coming to Silver Eagle Group to shoot. He became aware of SEG’s MMA offerings, and the rest, as they say, is history.
   “I was at 200 pounds and wanted to find something that could push my experience to the next level,” he said. “At first it was just something different. But the classes were small, the instructors worked individually with you and they push you.”
   Nevertheless, the leap from running on a treadmill to boxing is not a small decision. Was he concerned with injury? What did his family say?
   “My wife said ‘what’s going to happen to your nose?’,” Neselage laughed. “But there’s really only 6 moves in boxing and that’s it. Everything else is footwork, dodging and moving to avoid being hit, which is why strength and conditioning are so important.”
   So you won’t get hit in boxing?
   “You will get hit,” he acknowledged. “But we wear 16-ounce gloves to diffuse the punches, plus headgear, mouthguards and as much protection as possible. We’re not trying to hurt anyone. They are teaching us to learn from each other and our sparring is to teach each other what could have happened. It’s about as safe as it can be.”
   Nesslage attends the boxing sessions twice a week (“2 of my three cardio workouts,” he says”) and credits small class size and the individualized instruction of Bao Khong and Shin Kim (who is also a 4-time National South Korea Judo Champion) with creating an environment that has pushed him toward losing the final 35 pounds of his journey.
   “I think it makes a difference,” he said. “You get a focused group of people with an instructor-led atmosphere that is raising people up and hearing from each other, it almost becomes a classroom environment that fosters a feeling of responsibility toward each other. It’s pretty intense.”
   Nesslage also credits the way boxing complements his other more routine workouts as a way to keep him exercise regimen going for well over a year, something that has certainly been a key to the 65-pound weight loss.
    “It actually makes me work harder in the non-boxing workouts,” he said. “Because I’m now looking for ways in those workouts to get stronger, so I can be better in boxing. One is pushing the other.”
   Silver Eagle Group offers anyone interested in participating in any of the club’s MMA classes a no-risk free two-week trial period, and if in the first 30 days since starting the trial period a participant decides to join, they will receive a 50 percent discount off their initiation fee.