Assemble Your Armour Fitness Retreat: Under Armour Women Empowerment

The fitness retreat I recently attended is a timely event promoting women empowerment. Women have always had their own distinct strengths and qualities but our progress has always been held back even to the point where our self respect and dignity are challenged. In comes Under Armour to further help us women build up our physical and mental abilities.

UNDER Armour athletes Meggie Ochoa, Gretchen Ho and Kali Huff, lead the Under Armour Women’s Fitness Retreat “Assemble Your Armour” at Chi Spa of Shangrila EDSA. With each woman possessing their own special set of skills and successfully being champions in their own field of sports, they shared their training regimens and fitness routines.

I was in for a pretty rough day, I admit. Out of shape yet eager to learn and dive into an afternoon of health and wellness. This retreat sparked an interest to continue with physical activities like exercise. I researched ones I could easily do at home and also looked up videos that would help me tone with the help of my newly gifted resistance stretch bands.

One of the highlights of the event were the self defense techniques that ambassadress Meggie Ochoa shared. Meggie Ochoa once again ruled the Asian region recently when she bagged a gold medal in the Asian Indoor and Martial Arts Games (AIMAG) in Ashgabat, Turkmenistan. She was one of the two gold medalist for the Philippines to capture the top honor in the women’s Ne-waza -45kg division event. She also earned another gold medal last year when she took first place in the Asian Beach Games in Vietnam. Following the success of in the AIMAG, she’s aiming for the 2018 Asian Games in Jakarta, Indonesia.

“Overwhelming,” said Ochoa in an interview after arriving from Ashgabat. “Right from the beginning, marami kaming pinagdaanan bago kami makarating dito. Sobrang grateful, sobrang grabe ‘yung pasasalamat especially kay God dahil kung hindi dahil sa kanya, Siya ‘yung nag-align ng mga pangyayari para mag-lead dito.”

I was deeply impressed by this young lady, at her confidence and her accomplishments yet maintaining a down to earth nature. She shared useful self defense techniques that could potentially save us women if we were ever to find ourselves in an unsavory predicament.

Check out the video to learn 3 lifesaving techniques, how to fall properly and stand up from a fall. The last 2 don’t seem important but in fact there are proper ways to fall and stand up so we don’t injure or incapacitate ourselves from a safe getaway if we were ever to be attacked.

My desire to learn some self defense was finally fulfilled. In the future I hope to take on a few classes to learn more techniques and develop my physical strength. If you’re interested to learn from Meggie, visit her Facebook page: jiujitsumanila. She teaches classes at a center in Greenhills, San Juan City, Philippines.

To further arm us with women empowerment, Gretchen Ho taught us a few fitness activities to keep us fit. Ten stations were set up where we all rotated from one station to the next. Whew! That truly tired me out and I have to admit I got home lay, down and my body throbbed and ached from all the sudden exercise. Yet, instead of feeling discouraged I felt inspired to continue on. My takeaway from Gretchen’s session was to focus on what your body needs and change it up.

I have just that in mind and since I’m a work at home mom I need exercises to stretch my muscles. I’ve already chose my line up of exercise videos that I’ll interchange! When I began losing weight, I was focused on my appearance now I’m focused on how I’m feeling. With a push from Under Armour I’m now well on my way to a fitter me. More on my next blog post about recommended exercises videos for beginners like me.

Watch out for them again at the next Under Armour fitness retreat in partnership with Aegle Wellness Center and Sanctband on January 27,2018 at Balesin Island, Quezon.