Lifting all things heavy on a BXR Retreat at Daios Cove in Greece
Alice Barraclough reviews an intensive fitness retreat on Crete where she overcomes her fear of boxing, lifts more than her bodyweight and learns how to flip a tyre
“This time you’ve got four uppercuts, then four hooks,” shouts personal trainer, boxing and Muay Thai coach Charlie ‘Boy’ Peters, through his headset microphone. “Elbows up, rotate those shoulders. Let’s go!”
I’m standing in the middle of the tennis courts at Daios Cove – a cliffside, five-star hideaway in Crete – in the blistering midday sun, dressed head-to-toe in lycra and donning a pair of sweaty boxing gloves. Boxing has never been my ‘thing’, but at BXR – a boutique-boxing gym in London, endorsed by heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua – boxing is very much their bread and butter. This is why every day on their six-day fitness retreat at Daios Cove, there’s a 50-minute boxing class with Charlie. And considering he’s the former three-time World and UK No.1 champion in Muay Thai, he knows a) what he’s talking about and b) how to really push you outside your comfort zone.
“What makes this retreat stand out – besides the team of first-rate BXR trainers who each offer buckets of expertise and charisma – is the state-of-the-art facilities at Daios Cove”
In unison with 23 others – a fairly even mix of men and women ranging from late 20s to early 60s – I continue throwing uppercuts in time to the blaring house music. Sweat drips down my face as each sequence seems to progress in pace – every muscle hurts and I remind myself this is only the third workout of the day, so I need to conserve energy for the remaining two.
I knew this retreat wouldn’t be for the faint-hearted and before arriving that familiar voice of self-doubt plagued my mind: ‘What if I’m not fit enough to work out five times in one day?’ it asked, as I meticulously rolled up 12 different workout outfits to squeeze into my suitcase.
Without a set schedule until we arrived, I felt quite in the dark about what exactly the week would consist of. I expected a calorie-restricted diet and hours of punishing workouts, but this retreat isn’t advertised as a boot camp, nor is it advertised as a weight loss retreat – instead it describes itself as a “transformational programme, designed to help you achieve noticeable results within a short period of time”.
The days started bright and early with 7.30am classes; either an intensive cardio conditioning session on the tennis courts or beach, a gentle 4km jog around the hotel or a sunrise Pilates class on the helipad. Breakfast, which is served at the Pangea restaurant, is arguably the best meal of the day. A buffet-style, all-you-can-eat feast, scheduled straight after the first workout – it takes some serious self-restraint to walk past the pancakes covered in maple syrup and warm chocolate croissants and instead fill up on oats, fruit, thick Greek yoghurt and a mountain of granola. There is also an omelette station (which always has a queue) but be wary of eating too much – as no one wants their breakfast to make a reappearance mid-sumo squat.
By 11am we’re up on the tennis courts again for back-to-back classes – strength and conditioning (think: kettlebell swings, lunges and TRX-style pull-ups) followed by boxing. But it’s the 5pm ‘form and focus’ class which I find most challenging. Switching between lower and upper body exercises, these workouts aim to develop your strength and technique – so there were fewer repetitions and much, much heavier weights.
As a self-proclaimed cardio junkie, I’ll be the first to admit that I find strongman-type gyms, full of (usually) men lifting impossibly heavy weights intimidating. So you can imagine my disbelief (and the confidence boost I got) when, by the end of the retreat, I managed to deadlift 85kg (which, for reference, is much higher than my body weight). The last class of the day was either a much-needed mobility stretch or yoga flow to help ease our aching muscles, finishing in shavasana listening to Baz Luhrmann's Everybody's Free (To Wear Sunscreen).
Of course, it wasn’t all hard work and no play. We were rewarded with a couple of hours of downtime each afternoon, which I spent happily power-napping in my huge room or ordering iced coffees directly to my sun lounger on the beach.
Others chose to unwind in the sauna and steam room. And I don’t blame them. What makes this retreat stand out – besides the team of first-rate BXR trainers who each offer buckets of expertise and charisma – is the state-of-the-art facilities at Daios Cove. The hotel gym is one of the biggest I’ve ever seen, while the spa facilities at KĒPOS – which offers advanced wellness treatments (although these do cost extra) include cryotherapy, colon hydrotherapy and IV drips. This truly is a world away from the old-school yoga-and-massage approach to retreating.
But how much can you really change in six days? Well, perhaps more than you think. As part of the retreat, everyone is invited to book a 30-minute personal fitness consultation at the KĒPOS by Goco spa to discuss their goals right at the beginning of the week. George, one of the wellness coordinators, talks me through how the Styku 3D scanner works – I have to stand in a fixed position while the low turntable rotates 360 degrees and then, within minutes, it assembles a SIMS-like avatar of my body on the computer screen. Offering in-depth stats on my BMI, body fat percentage and muscle mass, it shows me how fit I am in comparison to other women my age. The idea is that by the end of the BXR retreat, when you go back for your second scan, the results should be different.
I also decided to do the RMR (resting metabolic rate) test, which measures your resting metabolic rate and how efficiently you burn fats and carbohydrates. George straps me into a special breathing mask and heart rate monitor and then walks me through the results – I score highly on pretty much everything, my lung fitness is excellent and my ability to burn fat as a fuel source is good, too. The report tells me I should eat 2,185 kcal on the days I don’t exercise, and 2,531 kcals on the days I do. I tell George I’m not interested in losing weight – but instead want to work on my strength – and he recommends increasing my protein intake. “You should be eating at least 120g of protein a day,” he tells me – which is way more than I usually eat at home.
Luckily both lunch and dinner are full of protein-rich dishes – with chicken, fish and veggie options. Although I’d be lying if I said that by day three I wasn’t a bit bored of the white rice and boiled vegetables set-up and seriously craving some fresh Mediterranean bread dunked in olive oil.
For me, this retreat was never about losing inches off my waistline (or saying no to a glass of wine), I was much more interested in how I’d feel after pushing my fitness so intensely, rather than worrying about the numbers on a screen.
I left the Cove tired and ready to devour a bowl of pasta – but I also left feeling strong. It turns out that it doesn’t actually matter if you forget which order you’re meant to be swinging a jab, uppercut or power punch, you just need to be able to laugh at yourself and have a little self-belief. Because you can do hard things. And, yes, that includes flipping tyres.
