Kind of frustrated, need some advice

[F l i c k e r]

I am 17 years old and live in Poughkeepsie, NY. I'm about 5'11" and 135-140 lbs. All of my friends are body builders and are super jacked, but I never was one for weight lifting so I'm on the slim side. I decided I wanted to get into boxing a few months ago in order to gain strength and to learn self defense.

I learned that my local boxing gym (which was the first my city had in a long time) went out of business last year due to building code violations. I found the second nearest one (about 30 minutes away) and tried several different ways to contact them to find out that they too have gone out of business.

Most recently I got in touch with the head trainer at the local gym (before it closed) who now gives private training. I was pretty excited until I spoke with him and found out it is $50 per half an hour of training which is too expensive for me.

So as of now, there's a gym about 40 minutes away that's built for school kids (I'm in college now) that I'm unsure I'll be able to get into. There's also a couple others that are about an hour away from where I am.

My question is, what would you do if you were in my situation? There isn't a boxing gym in my area and the closest trainer is extremely expensive. I'm basically looking for a place to work out and learn to box so I'm not even sure if just seeing a trainer once a week could accomplish this.

Any advice?

Thank you!!

I would say forget gyms. Do research, get what you need/want and start doing it at home. You have friends that can hold the pads for you. They arent stupid and have two eyes(im assuming) so they can watch a video on "how to" and thus now you have a pad guy. Get a heavy bag, now you have a punching object. Spar with your friends (Bruce Lee did it). Conditioning can be done at home without a gym. Most people like to go to gyms for this because they either need someone to keep them on track(encouragement) or dont know what they should do at home.

[g0tcha]

I would say forget gyms. Do research, get what you need/want and start doing it at home. You have friends that can hold the pads for you. They arent stupid and have two eyes(im assuming) so they can watch a video on "how to" and thus now you have a pad guy. Get a heavy bag, now you have a punching object. Spar with your friends (Bruce Lee did it). Conditioning can be done at home without a gym. Most people like to go to gyms for this because they either need someone to keep them on track(encouragement) or dont know what they should do at home.

it is true that it can be done at home but its different when your in the gym and around other people training. sometimes being in the gym pushes some people harder then being at home. i know i can push myself hard at home but the push that i have in the gym is never the same as at home. again do what you can though at home and if you want it badly then make the commute.