A bright Sunday at the Expo Center LA saw a steady influx of people—young and old alike—on the gymnasium floor to participate in the Creed III Recreational Therapy Day in celebration of the new film. MGM teamed up with music giants Dreamville Records and Interscope Records to host a fitness and training course over the course of six hours, focusing on everything from Breathwork and Yoga to basketball and boxing.
The day started with a workshop focused on Yoga and Breathwork, where instructors led participants on the ins and outs of proper form and correct technique. Following that was a basketball clinic where volunteers were run through the paces of various drills and team exercises. The last half of the basketball session concluded with a slam dunk competition, where a panel of judges graded each contestants stylish scoring on a scale of 1 to 10.
Appropriately for a Creed inspired event, the third part of the day’s festivities concluded with a boxing class: participants weren’t given the classic red boxing gloves, but were instructed on how to properly apply wrist wraps and how to perfect a jab-jab/hook-hook combo. Each of the coaches walked us through their personal stories and relationships with boxing and fitness and made sure to give each of the day’s athletes some personal attention and assistance in preparing for the course. I had the most fun running through the training circuit, comprised of five-minute intervals of jump rope, boxing pads, crunches/pushups and a standing punching bag.
It was a fantastic event for the Los Angeles community, and a great way to celebrate the release of Creed III, which is as much a love letter to the city of LA as it is a boxing film.
Check out the video for some of the highlights from the event and watch Creed III in theaters now!
Elijah Isaiah Johnson is a writer/illustrator/animator. His most recently published works include the Amazon best-seller Nightmare Detective, Noir is the New Black, the Comixology Indie best-selling series Leaders of the Free World, The Formula and much more.
