By Christina Hershey
Baltimore Watchdog Staff Writer
In a dim alley behind Maxi Adelstein’s home, 15 women bounce from one foot to another and punch the air while ducking invisible opponents.
They are the Baltimore Bittiez Boxing Club, a group Adelstein began about a year ago to create a safe space to exercise for women of color and/or women who identify within the LGBTQ community.
“One two, slip two,” Adelstein said. “Everyone is doing a really good job of keeping their hands to their face.”
Running a business is difficult, Adelstein said, but she isn’t in it for the money. The workout class is run on a pay-what-you-can basis and all of the equipment has come cheap from Craig’s List or other helpful donors.
“Everyone is broke and I’m not interested in breaking the pockets of my friends,” she said.
The small basement barely fits the 15 Bittiez, who glisten with sweat as they wait for instructions. Adelstein quickly creates and demonstrates an 18-station circuit that includes weighted hip raises, wall sits, Russian twists, and even a station where a medicine ball is thrown violently at the wall or the floor.
“The gym sucks, nobody wants to be around a bunch of sweaty dudes,” she said. “Myself included.”
By the end of her demo, Adelstein is out of breath as she straps in to a resistance belt. She raises her mitts for the main event: the punching bag. The chain jingles as the bag hits the wall. The women watch with admiration.
“I just wanted to do a martial art or a fighting sport to train myself in self-defense. I needed to know that I could punch someone and run if I had to,” she said. “I know what it’s like, I’ve been in those situations.”
Adelstein began boxing four years ago and is now training to fight in the amateur circuit. She doesn’t intend to put her friends in the ring, instead she aims for this underground project to help herself and those around her build confidence and strength.
“My mom is an Israeli immigrant and has always had this mentality completely based around strength,” she said as she made a white-knuckled fist. “If you want something, you go out and you do it.”
Adelstein said that she grew up eating too much all the time and said that this project has really helped her break that habit by having the support of other strong women.
“All the women in my family are curvy and thick, basically all the nice words for a-little-extra,” she said. “I just get so scared – don’t want to get to the point where I just can’t move, because it’s so easy to do nothing and eat junk, and that’s the worst thought, that one day I’ll just be this debilitated mother, unable to take care of myself or my children.”
Adelstein said that with limited space and no structured business plan she didn’t think that her fight club would ever be lucrative, but people have regularly paid what they can for months now.
“It’s a friendly atmosphere to do hardcore workouts for free with a bunch of hot and empowered girls,” said Laura Jackson, a regular Baltimore Bittie and local business owner.
Jackson owns a farm-to-food truck called Wild Time. Recently she was evicted from the restaurant space she was parking her truck in and many of her personal belongings as well as food and cooking equipment were stolen.
Adelstein could empathize, since only a week earlier her truck had broken down and she was stuck driving a cramped Prius rental to keep her landscaping business afloat.
“You can’t really pick and choose when awful, stressful things happen in life,” Jackson said. “You have to find and develop healthy coping mechanisms, and Maxi really came in clutch with that for all of us.”
Another Baltimore Bittie, Maya Walsh, said that she wouldn’t typically feel like working out after a long day of “life,” but the fact that she was going to be in a basement working out with a bunch of great women made it feel more like hanging out than anything else.
“I actually met Maxi through a friend at the Wind Up Space,” Maya Walsh said. “So I drunkenly and creepily asked ‘Oh do you lift?’ Cause she has a really nice physique and she was like, ‘Yeah I do. I hold a work out group in my basement,’ and I’ve been here every Tuesday since.”
Before the night is over, the women hustle out the backdoor for sprints and tire flips. Sweaty but ready, each Bittie flips the tire five times and then catch their breaths. The class closes out with a bit of yoga and some specialized breathing techniques.
“Everyone is welcome,” Adelstein said. “I’ll never turn someone away.”