Kickboxing as a workout is usually referred to as cardio kickboxing and it’s something where practitioners don’t challenge themselves on who’s the better fighter, but rather on their overall fitness.
If you’ve recently heard of kickboxing workout classes and thought that it may be a good idea to try it yourself, well, what are you waiting for?
For those who are having second thoughts, here are five reasons to help convince you as to why kickboxing is a really good way to workout.
- Excessive calorie burning. Like other kinds of aerobic exercise, kickboxing is a great way to burn all those calories. The average person burns around 372 calories for every 30-minute kickboxing class, while those who put in much more effort and work out for longer periods are likely to burn almost twice as much.
- Fitness and toning, all in one. Kickboxing raises your heart rate considerably, making it a great cardiovascular exercise. Apart from that, the exercises help tone other parts of your bodies as well, mainly your arms and legs, as well as your cores.
- Improved balance and coordination. Kickboxing involves doing one sequence of moves followed by another, requiring a lot of coordination and balance to do. Also, kickboxing classes, or any other martial arts class for that matter, also require cool-down periods that involve a lot of stretching, which should help improve your overall flexibility.
- Improved mental health. All that kicking and punching is a great way to relieve yourself of all your life’s frustrations and anger, which in turn will help release stress. Apart from that, finding out that you’re actually quite good at something, paired with much less stress, is a great way to improve your confidence and your self-esteem. True, most kickboxing workout classes rarely focus on self-defense, but the fact that you can and know how to kick properly may come in handy once the need to defend yourself comes.
- A breath of fresh air. Other forms of aerobic exercises can get a little boring at times, especially since they’ve been around for quite some time already. Kickboxing, though, is fairly new, especially kickboxing workout classes, so they’re a breath of fresh air for those looking for an alternative means of keeping themselves fit.
Just a fair warning for those who plan on taking up kickboxing workout classes soon, kickboxing is a high-impact and high-intensity sport. Even if you’re doing it for “just fitness”, it will take a lot out of you and your first few sessions will leave you sore for days, at a time. So, you may want to take it slowly at first and be sure to listen to all of your instructor’s advice so as you don’t overwork yourself.
Also, those suffering from chronic conditions may want to get themselves by their general practitioners first. Whatever the results are, be sure to tell your instructor about this as well, so that they know where you stay with your health and what your limits are in terms of just how much intensity your body and health can take.
