Rise to Personal Empowerment at RISE Boxing

"Our goal is to help people rise to their greatness in any capacity." Photo: RISE Boxing

PARK CITY, Utah. — Maryguenn Vellinga-Hinz opened RISE Boxing in May 2018. Her vision is to create a community that elevates, challenges, and encourages members to rise to greatness in any life scenario.

The first time Maryguenn tried boxing, she was instantly hooked. RISE is an outlet to share her zeal for boxing and foster healthier lives. “I believe fitness should be fun… The narrative that you are only working out to stay fit makes it a lot harder to keep it going. Boxing is a blast, and I really want to share it with people,” she says.

Maryguenn interweaves her wisdom from boxing professionally, training, and coaching to overcome hurdles in her own life. Her intention is to share those skills with the community. “I can draw from my experience in boxing and relate it to life all the time,” she says, “You can’t hide from yourself in boxing. You are forced to confront everything.”

The classes offered at RISE challenge participants to grow, and Body+Box, Box+Build, and Breathe+Box are all open to first-time boxers. The precision movements, high-intensity training, and calorie-burning benefits attract newcomers, yet it is the combination of physical demand and mental perseverance that gets people hooked.

Maryguenn explains how boxing aids people in self-discovery. “[In boxing] we are not in our comfort zone, then we add in doing something hard. When we are pushed to a limit in anything, that is a place where we discover things about ourselves,” she says, “We grow the most when we get into uncomfortable situations and we move through them.”

Boxing is the practice of persistence and perseverance. Maryguenn draws parallels between the grit required for boxing and life. “There are times in life when you have a struggle or challenge, and maybe you don’t move through it gracefully, but you get to move through it. Sometimes it is just about coming out the other side.”

RISE Boxing aims to honor each student by acknowledging their commitment to show up for a class.  “When you come here for an hour, it is a sacrifice of time… I want that hour to be an hour that empowers you,” Maryguenn says, “I want you to leave feeling that you left better than you came.”

Maryguenn elaborates on the RISE mission and motto, “Our goal is to help people rise to their greatness in any capacity.” The practice, the community, and the coaching are the RISE recipe for personal empowerment.

– Written by Ashley Brown on behalf of Neighbors of Park City