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Dedicated to the Fight
Reader Model Carey Williams-Nunez shows how she stays in shape and motivates others.
By Christine Carey
Inside Prime Time Boxing Club in Sacramento, Calif., nothing will strike you harder than meeting 30-year-old Cary Williams-Nunez, co-owner of the gym and one of amateur boxing’s few flyweight females. If her powerful punch doesn’t knock you out, then her unstoppable dedication to the sport of boxing will!
As a girl, Cary never intended to become a boxer. Raised by her single father, Cary thought she would become a singer or an actress. "My mother left us when I was two, and then died unexpectedly when I was 14," Cary says. "My dad raised me to do what I have to do. He brought me up to put myself first, to make sure I could take care of myself." 
Her career took an unexpected turn when she met her husband and partner, Angelo Nunez, while finishing her college degree at California State University, Sacramento. At the time, Angelo was on the professional boxing circuit. After Cary took a position on Angelo’s team as his nutritionist, they fell in love.
Cary and Angelo opened Prime Time Boxing Club in 1998 to bring their passion for boxing to the public. "A year before I retired from professional boxing, Cary started talking about opening a gym," Angelo says. It was all her idea, and there’s no stopping her when she puts her mind to something." Originally intended as a learning center for adults, the club evolved into a non-profit activity center solely for children age eight to 17. Prime Time Youth Activities Center provides a safe facility for at-risk, underprivileged and multi-ethnic youth. It also provides an outlet for Cary’s mission to master boxing on three levels: teaching youth, coaching elite athletes and fighting her own battle to the top of female amateur boxing.
To meet the challenges she sets for herself, she stays in top physical condition. "In martial-arts-related fitness classes and videos, the purpose is to get fit," Cary says. "In boxing you are defining a sense of power, so you can feel like you can defend yourself and push yourself to your limits. True boxing leads you to a level of physical fitness that you can’t get anywhere else. Adults who trained with us and then went back to standard gyms have told us how disappointed they were with plain fitness routines. You will never train as hard in your life as you will when you learn to box."
In her quest to master boxing, Cary has gotten certified in both CPR and in head and neck trauma recognition. She teaches coaching certification courses, and in 2000, she and Angelo traveled to the Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs, Colo., to participate in their Elite Coaches Clinic. After the clinic, both she and Angelo passed the Level IV Olympic Coaches Test. She is only the second woman to achieve this level of expertise and is currently eligible to coach men in the next Olympic games.
Boxing in a man’s world
As a woman among men, Cary’s reputation is constantly under fire. Angelo says, "Almost every man that walks into this gym and sees Cary behind the counter treats her the same way. She’s a woman, so what could she possibly know about boxing? Then, within a week, she commands their respect because she proves that she knows more about technique, more about the rules and regs, more about getting inside the boxer’s head, than anyone around."
"Men sometimes give up boxing because they think they’re going to come in and hit stuff," Cary says. "To learn boxing, you start with footwork. It’s a slow process to learn correct form, so some get frustrated because they don’t want to think about the 20 things that go into the fundamentals. They just want to hit. And sometimes, the workout is just too hard."
I love working with young girls because they have no inhibitions, she adds. "When we first opened the center, it was one girl to every 10 boys. Right now, the Center is almost 50/50 (girls to boys). Adult women mistakenly think that if they come to the boxing gym, they’re going to get hit. The only time you’ll get hit is when you’re sparring, and the only reason to spar is if you’re training for a fight."
Finding the time
Cary trains six days a week with her husband, their adult clients and other staff members. On Tuesday, Wednesday and Saturday mornings, they run and lift. For an hour and a half on Monday, Wednesday and Friday nights, a coach leads the team through traditional boxing workouts. "Men and women are built completely different, but they can work out together," Cary says.
Although women generally have less upper body strength than men, a female boxer does not necessarily need to overcompensate with extra upper body training. "Your power to strike comes from your body, not your arms and hands," she says. "Your legs and abs need to be strong, so your hands can become like a whip."
Although the couple pours their hearts into helping their underprivileged kids, Angelo says, "We can’t live on love forever. Luckily, the word CAN’T is not in Cary’s vocabulary. She is always pushing us to take it to the next level." Right now, Cary plans to get into match making and promoting professional fights. In the mean time, their weeklong adult boxing camps subsidize the youth activities and keep the Center going.
Cary finds the time to work toward her goals even though she maintains a busy schedule. "I manage my full schedule by not thinking, just doing," she says. "It’s easier when I’m working with the kids because I enjoy it so much, and I love to see the changes in them." If she finds a spare moment, she picks up the phone to find doctors and dentists that will do pro bono work for the kids, or writes grants to try to secure future funding for the Center. Her unstoppable nature keeps her pursuing her own boxing talent, too.
"I love challenges, and boxing is a real challenge. Right now, my next goal is to get a match. It’s hard to find female matches, so if I can get one, I’ll keep training, and if I can’t, I’ll keep training. Training this hard takes you to a level you don’t get to in everyday life, and I love the workout. It’s what life is all about—pushing yourself to keep improving."
For more information about Prime Time Youth Activities Center or about adult boxing camps, visit Cary online at www.primetimeboxing.com.
A day of eating for energy and endurance
6:00 a.m. Breakfast: Focus on carbs to build energy for mid-morning workouts
1 serving of oatmeal and a banana or whole-wheat toast with all-natural peanut butter
1 cup of yogurt
1 cup of coffee
24 ounces of water
Supplements: Vitamin C, vitamin E, calcium, B complex, echinacea and ginkgo biloba
11:00 a.m. Lunch: Focus on protein, fruits and vegetables
One serving of pasta or a grilled chicken sandwich
An apple or an orange
One 12-ounce bottle of water
Supplements: Magnesium and potassium
"The key to my mid-day meals is to get enough protein. Otherwise, I’ll feel hungry when I go to bed," Cary says.
3:00 p.m. Early dinner:
A repeat of lunch or an all-natural peanut butter and jelly sandwich
One fruit smoothie with one scoop of soy protein
One 12-ounce bottle of water
8:00 p.m. Snack:
Unbuttered popcorn or fruit
One 12-ounce bottle of water
"I eat carbs at night because I train so hard during the day, that my body needs the fuel, she says."
A week of Cary’s killer workouts! (Try if you dare.)
Monday, Wednesday and Friday: Boxing workouts
Cary’s boxing workouts take an hour and a half three nights per week. Each drill is measured in "rounds" of two to three minutes each depending on how hard the drill is and whether the coach feels like pushing you.
Training for a fight? Add sparring to your workout. 3 to 6 Rounds of sparring are added to the workouts two to three weeks before an actual match. Allow a little time for healing after sparring with a partner. Allow three days of healing after a fight.
Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday: Weight and cardio workouts
Cary runs and lifts three mornings per week without splitting her routines. She prefers to work upper and lower body in each workout. Each exercise is done in three sets of 10 repetitions unless otherwise noted.
Begin outside with a two- to three-mile run. Training for a fight? Add a mile of sprints. Then, get into the gym for a weight-training workout.
Dumbbell flyes: 15 pounds per hand
Dumbbell curls: 15 pounds per hand
Weighted punches: 15 pounds per hand
Triceps dips: Three sets on a bench
Military push-ups: Three sets on the floor
Lat pull-downs: 40 pounds
Walking lunges: 15 pounds per hand for 48 lunges
Kickbacks: One 5-pound weight on each ankle
Dumbbell squats: 15 pounds per hand
Dumbbell deadlifts: 15 pounds per hand
Abductor machine: 40 pounds
Adductor machine: 40 pounds
No calves: Jumping rope three times a week eliminates the need to train calf muscles.
Sunday: Sleep in!
How safe is amateur boxing?
Amateur boxing ranked 23rd on the National Safety Council’s 1996 accident report and list of injuries. Boxing ranked lower in the numbr of injuries compared to hockey, soccer, gymnastics and in-line skating. Female amateur boxers wear a mouthpiece, force-absorbent headgear, an absorbent shirt and breast protectors. Also, amateur boxing gloves are designed to absorb, rather than to transmit shock.
What’s your weight class? USA boxing’s 12 Olympic-style weight classes:
Pinweight (women only): 100 pounds per 45 kilogram
Light flyweight: 106 pounds per 48 kilograms
Flyweight: 112 pounds/51 kilograms
Bantamweight: 119 pounds/54 kilograms
Featherweight: 125 pounds/57 kilograms
Lightweight: 132 pounds/60 kilograms
Light welterweight: 139 pounds/63.5 kilograms
Welterweight: 147 pounds/67 kilograms
Light middleweight: 156 pounds/71 kilograms
Middleweight: 165 pounds/75 kilograms
Light heavyweight: 178 pounds/81 kilograms
Heavyweight: 201 pounds/91 kilograms
Super heavyweight: +201 pounds/+91 kilograms
Facts about women’s amateur boxing:
- In October 1993, USA Boxing officially lifted its ban on women’s boxing.
- Currently, there are approximately 2,000 international female boxers who can compete in sanctioned amateur competitions.
- In a bout, men’s rounds typically last three minutes while women’s rounds last two minutes.
- Women are not allowed to fight if they are pregnant.
- Women’s boxing may become a future Olympic game.
- Sweden, Canada and the United States are home to the top female boxing programs in the world. There are currently 34 countries worldwide that have recognized female boxing programs.
Source: USA Boxing. Headquartered in Colorado Springs, Colo., USA Boxing is a non-profit national governing body for Olympic-style boxing. It is the United States’ member organization of the International Amateur Boxing Association (AIBA). Formerly known as the United States Amateur Boxing Federation, this organization has governed men’s amateur boxing in the United States since 1888 and women’s amateur boxing since 1993. USA Boxing sponsors not only national and international competitions, but also clinics and training camps to help athletes and coaches learn international techniques. For more information, contact one of USA Boxing’s 56 Local Boxing Committees (LBCs).
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