Another in a series of peeks into your exercise options.
It was a thing of beauty in an evening otherwise dominated by sweat and missteps. Two women stood facing one another, red vinyl body bags on their left and right. On cue, they began punching the bags with side kicks – left foot/right, left foot/right, left foot/right. After less than a half dozen kicks, they were in synch. Bam! Bam! Bam!
Their kicks weren’t intended to take out an enemy combatant. They were simply to get the heart rate up, the leg muscles and abs working. Jean-Claude Van Damme may have employed kickboxing to avenge his cinematic brother, but to these two women, to their classmates in a Raleigh Parks & Rec. cardio-kickboxing class, and to tens of thousands of fitness enthusiasts, kickboxing is a way to stay fit.
Cardio kickboxing, to use the fitness industry parlance, is a pacified form of the martial art. It borrows certain kicks and punches, stressing the aerobic benefits. Classes vary and many incorporate moves outside Jean -laude’s repertoire – crunches, rope skipping, jumping jacks and a number of other more traditional exercises. Cardio kickboxing is offered through gyms and municipal parks and rec departments, underscoring the growing emphasis on the “cardio” vs. the “kick” and “boxing.” The courses are popular, too, because they burn calories. According to Glamour.com’s fitness calculator, a 170-pound person burns a whopping 674 calories during a 50-minute class.
George Whitten, a Raleigh personal trainer, has taught cardio kickboxing for several years. He says its benefits are numerous. “Cardio kickboxing provides a way for people to relieve stress. There is a certain joy of pounding a bag and working out your frustrations. The classes also burn a lot of calories, which provides a huge benefit for those focusing on weight management.”
He especially likes cardio kickboxing because it’s a good form of cross training, addressing balance, coordination, agility, strength and endurance. “By training this way, my clients develop the basic qualities – muscle development – for daily living. I call it becoming young again.”
Whitten keeps his 45-minute classes varied – no two are the same – for a more efficient workout that’s better for the body. He draws this analogy:
“If you keep folding a piece of paper along the same line, what happens? That piece of paper will eventually tear along the fold,” he says. “Now, use the same thought for a runner who follows the same routine, same pattern and places the same level of stress on his/her body and joints. Eventually those areas become that piece of torn paper.”
Watching the two women flawlessly execute side kick after side kick raised another question. They were young and flexible. What about those of us who are not young and flexible?
“We modify the moves to accommodate what different people can do,” says Whitten. If you’ve got bad knees, for instance, that side kick thing may not work.
And if you’re just starting out? Whitten says there are ways to scale back most moves until you’re comfortable stepping it up. Because above all, workouts need to be one thing: fun.
“My philosophy,” says Whitten, “is if the classes are fun, people will keep coming back.”