Kickboxing is defined as a group of martial arts and stand-up combat sports based on kicking and punching, historically developed from karate, Thai boxing and western boxing.
While it is known more as a discipline for self defense or as a contact sport, fitness kickboxing for general fitness and muscle toning is increasing in popularity.
Why fitness kickboxing can make sense
Kickboxing can make sense for a lot of us since it is an excellent adjunct to an existing workout regime which you are looking to tweak or enhance or in which you may have reached a plateau.
Kickboxing can also help break the boredom of the same old workout so that it can help to motivate you and keep you on track for further fitness gains.
Fitness kickboxing can help stimulate the metabolism anew and engage and challenge different muscles.
How fitness kickboxing works
Kickboxing can use a mixture of high power exercise routines and actual full contact fighting.
This can help strengthen the body, and enhance mental toughness, and also help increase stamina and muscle endurance.
We may not think of it in that way, but fitness kickboxing can be a very effective cardio workout since an estimated 500 to 800 calories can be burnt per hour of kickboxing due to the high intensity nature of the workout.
Since kickboxing can be a highly concentrated activity, a beginner may want to take it easy and begin slow, even if their personal fitness levels are fairly high to begin with.
Fitness kickboxing Basics – There are some basic moves that constitute kickboxing:
- Punches are of different types such as the jab, the cross, the hook, the upper cut, the short straight punch, the back fist, the flying punch, the cross-counter, the overhand, the bolo punch, the half hook and the half swing.
- Kicks such as the front kick or the push kick (derived from disciplines such as taekwondo) the side kick, the semi circular kick, the round house or circle kick, the hook kick, the crescent kick, the axe kick, back kick and sweeping kicks constitute fitness kickboxing.
- Knee and elbow strikes such as the straight knee thrust, rising knee thrust, hooking knee thrust, side knee snap strike, and so on are also part of fitness kickboxing routines.
- Defense or defensive maneuvers also are an important main constituent of kickboxing – slipping, bobbing and weaving, parrying or blocking, covering up, the clinch and so on are the defensive part of fitness kickboxing.
What is aerobic kickboxing?
This is a sport specific form of fitness kickboxing, which was developed by Frank Thiboutot and is also known as cardio kickboxing. This is an equipment based form of kickboxing that is designed specifically for attaining fitness goals and uses equipment such as training pads, heavy bags and so on.
The aim of aerobic kickboxing is to provide a dual benefit to the person; a cardio workout as well as resistance training that consists of kicks, punches, hand strikes and self defense moves as well.
