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  • Dori Velasquez is Straight Blast Gym Buford’s Fitness Athlete of the Month for April 2021

    General

    “Dori is a beast! This girl regularly comes in for my 5pm Fitness Kickboxing class and then I’ll see her in the 6:15pm Fitness Performance class right after that. You can see the results of her hard work in her physical appearance and the way she moves in class. Watch Dori knock out pushups like it’s nothing and you’ll see exactly what I mean.”

    Cardio Kickboxing, Fitness Kickboxing, Kickboxing, Kickboxing Buford GA

    These are the words of Coach Alex Caruso, one of the Fitness and Muay Thai coaches at Straight Blast Gym Buford. When she first walked into SBG in the summer of 2020, she was looking for something new and different to take her workouts and physical results to the next level. At the time she was doing casual runs outside and it just wasn’t cutting it for her. After being interested in martial arts for a while, she decided to make moves and start doing Muay Thai.

    Muay Thai coach Jim Sheppard remembers Dori’s first few classes in our Foundations program:

    “The sport of Muay Thai is predominantly dominated by men, so I love when we have females enter our Foundations program. Not only did Dori have a great attitude but she was the kind of student that would ask questions and was really interested in her skill progression.”

    It wasn’t long before Dori graduated from Foundations and entered Muay Thai, which also saw Dori begin training in our Fitness Kickboxing and Performance classes. It was around this time that we saw Dori’s physical progressions kicked into overdrive. Not only was Dori training just about every day, but as Coach Alex alluded to earlier, often twice per day. Between the classes that she was taking at SBG Buford and the tweaks to her diet, Dori began to lose body fat while adding some lean muscle.

    When asked about what she likes most about training at Straight Blast Gym Buford, Dori said the following:

    “My favorite part of training at SBG is the coaches. Alex, James, and Jim have changed my perspective on fitness and Mui Thai, and I have also gained opportunities to try many different programs that have helped shaped my body for a healthier lifestyle.”

    Dori has shown incredible improvement in her kickboxing technique, and her numbers in Fitness Performance classes have continuously improved over the past few months.

    Great work Dori! Congratulations on being Straight Blast Gym Buford’s Fitness Athlete of the Month for April of 2021.

    Jim Sheppard

    is one of the co-owners of Straight Blast Gym Buford and Straight Blast Gym Atlanta. He has been training / coaching / competing in Muay Thai since 2013 and holds a blue belt in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu.