Kickboxing Calorie Burner Workout

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Do you really want a workout that delivers on the hype? Well look no further than a real kickboxing calorie burner workout. What do I mean by a “Real Kickboxing Workout”? Well have a good look around the fitness and workout world. You will see loads of stuff people call “Cardio Kickboxing” or “Aerobic Kickboxing”. I have to tell you straight, this is not a real kickboxing workout and I also truly believe it can damage your health if you are not careful.

I have been involved in practicing, teaching and competing in kickboxing for over 26 years. I teach real kickboxing techniques using safety kick shields, focus pads for punching and professional punch and kick bags. This is all to do with safety and with truly burning calories during a real kickboxing workout.

To get a great calorie burning workout you need to be working with a professional in their field. This has to do with being able to teach safe and correct technique that you can perform ad not injure yourself. Using professional hand protection, such as boxing gloves and professional strike targets is vital for safety but also for a great calorie burning workout.

I have watched many a cardio kickboxing or aerobic kickboxing workout and cringed when I see people paying good money to not be shown how to perform correct techniques in a safe way. I see regularly people kicking and punching thin air with speed and power, this is hazardous to the health of your joints.

People should not be punching or kicking into thin air with speed and power, especially if they have never been taught how to deliver the correct hand or foot technique. I am not having a go at aerobic teachers by the way. I would never walk into an aerobics class and try to tell the instructor how to run their class. However I believe the system must be totally flawed if an aerobics teacher can suddenly open up a new class and call it some kind of kickboxing workout, even if they have been on a 2 hour induction course!

To get a real kickboxing calorie burning workout, get yourself along to a professional kickboxing school. Now remember I said “Professional Kickboxing School:” not some hidden down a back alley, kick your butt psycho Rambo wannabe kickboxing class. When you walk into my kickboxing school you will be greeted in a polite and friendly manner. Someone will introduce themselves to you and ask you how they can help you.

Once you have been assessed to be fit and able to take part in a physical training programme, and you have consulted your doctor to ensure you are also okay to do so, we will allow you to take part in an introduction session. In this short session you will be taught some easy stretching routines to warm yourself up for a kickboxing session. You will also be taught some basic techniques that you will be using in future kickboxing sessions. An introductory session will not be a full forty five minute session, but just a short insight into what you are going to become involved in.

You will then progress into your beginner group where you will have an instructor monitoring you to ensure you are performing all the techniques in a safe manner so as not to injure yourself.

You will now be striking the professional kick and punch targets that our school provides for your convenience. You will start to feel just how much effort it takes to deliver the correct technique onto a professional kicking or punching  strike shield, say compared to kicking out into thin air. You will also feel that your joints are not being extended too far, which is what happens when you punch and kick thin air with speed and power.

Once you start to improve your techniques and are performing them all safely, you will be moved into a slightly more experienced group where you can push yourself a bit harder to burn even more calories and get your cardio strength even better. The point here is that when you are striking targets correctly and safely, you burn far more calories and work far harder than you do when you dance around an aerobic studio throwing out your legs and arms to hyperextend your knee, elbow, wrist and ankle joints.

Now remember that we are talking about a kickboxing workout here, there is no physical contact taking place with another person. No one is hitting you and you are not hitting anyone else. The strikes are done onto professionally designed punch and kick strike targets as well as professionally designed punch and kick bags. The great thing with a real kickboxing workout is that when you get better at the techniques, with your instructors professional guidance, you will be able to punch and kick the targets even harder and therefore burn even more calories.

The really exciting thing is that every workout will be different. When we run the kickboxing workouts at our school we always ensure that one session is never the same as the next. Now I know obviously that when it comes to getting better at a certain technique then repetition is the mother of success. However if you have a good quality, qualified and motivated instructor, they can disguise this technique repetition with fun and exciting drills.
If you want to lose weight, get fit or fitter, tone up or just get into a healthier lifestyle for a new years resolution call 07971460089 to book a FREE trial session in the safety, privacy and comfort of your own home. Or visit our website www.costakickboxing.com

A Kickboxing History

A Kickboxing History

I have been practicing, teaching and competing in kickboxing for over 26 years. I believe that the physical efforts of practicing kickboxing are probably one of the best forms of physical fitness training that someone can do.

Now I am talking about western kickboxing here with the use of modern kick and punch bags and strike shields for kicking and punching techniques. The thing I am getting at here is that I am not talking about an aerobic dance session that has some kind of kicking and punching routine built into it. I am only talking about real kickboxing training here.

So what is kickboxing and where does it come from. We can look back over many years to see the development of what you could call modern western kickboxing as it is today. There are many different ancient styles of kickboxing and martial arts from all over the world. These styles vary greatly with some even having throwing, take down and wrestling techniques within the style. A lot of styles you may never even have heard of before. I will go over a select few ancient styles from different parts of the world.

Bando Kickboxing is a style that derives from Burma. The ancient style was called Lethwei and included strikes with hand, feet, elbows and even headbutts. There are now Bando Kickboxing associations all over the world and they hold major competitions.

 Muay Boran is a kickboxing art that comes from Thailand and is quite similar to Lethwei as in it permits the use of strikes with hand, feet, elbows and headbutts. Muay Boran is believed to be the predecessor of the modern day Muay Thai Boxing.

Muay Thai Boxing is the modern art of Thailand and is in fact their national sport. It still allows the use of full contact knee and elbow strikes but head butting is no longer allowed.

Indian Muki Boxing is also known as Southern Kalaripayattu. This Indian system is probably the oldest fighting system known to man. There were other similar styles for Norther and Central Kalaripayattu. But the southern style was practiced by the Nairs who were a Indian martial cast people of Kerala in India. This style included strikes with feet, hands, knees, elbows and forehead. The system was also devised into dance routines.

Savate Is a style of kickboxing normally associated with France. However there are links with the same style developing in North West Italy and North East Spain all around the same time. This style (in modern days) only allows strikes with the hands and the feet. In modern Savate practitioners still wear their shoes, in fact the word Savate is taken from the French word for “Old Shoe” or “Old Boot”.

Full Contact Karate is more likened to a set of rules than a fighting style, but basically hand and foot strikes are allowed and a win by knockout is allowed.

Sanshou or Sanda is a Chinese style (Kung Fu/Wushu) of kickboxing which allows striking with hands, feet, elbows and knees. Throws and takedowns are also allowed but not wrestling or ground fighting.

Shoot Boxing is a fighting sport from Japan founded in 1985 by Caesar Takeshi. The sport has weight categories and an established set of rules. This is extremely popular in Japan. Rules allow strikes with feet, hands, elbows and knees. Combatants are also allowed to use throws and takedowns. They are also allowed submission techniques while standing but not on the ground as in wrestling.

Freestyle Kickboxing (sometimes known as Oriental rules Kickboxing) is a modern style of kickboxing that allows strikes with the hands and feet. You are not allowed to use elbows or knees but you are allowed to strike with kicks below the waist. The combatants strike to their opponents thighs and calves with their shin bone. This is purely a standing fighting style.

Full Contact Kickboxing is another modern style of kickboxing. This style also allows strikes with the hands and feet but not with the elbows or the knees. Combatants are also only allowed to kick above the waist, similar to western boxing where punches are only allowed above the waist. Competitions in this style of kickboxing usually have a minimum kick rule per round. This is most commonly between six to eight kicks per round with points deducted for not reaching that target.

K1 Kickboxing is not actually a style of kickboxing or martial art, but many people think it is, so that is why I have mentioned it here. K1 is actually a Promotion Company. It was founded by Kazuyoshi Ishii in 1980 in Japan. The rules have changed many times over the years to suit a changing audience and now K1 is famous around the globe. Right now strikes are allowed with hands, feet and knees. No elbow strikes are allowed. Originally K1 stayed in Japan and you could only compete by invitation. Today (July 2011) K1 faces an uncertain future as a promotion company due to financial difficulties.

Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) is the most modern version of kickboxing as a sport. This combines western boxing and  Muay Thai boxing stand up fighting techniques with the ground fighting techniques of Brazilian Ju Jitsu. MMA is one of the fastest growing sports in the world right now.

When most people talk about kickboxing though, they are talking about either Muay Thai Boxing, Freestyle Kickboxing or Full Contact Kickboxing. When I train my students I use a combination of all three styles. This gives my students a fantastic workout. I will talk about the workout side of kickboxing in further articles.

ps. You will probably find more fighting styles from around the world if you look hard enough, however it was not my intention here to list EVERY single style known to man that has a link to kickboxing. It is only an overview to give you an idea as to where the modern term and style of kickboxing came from. (so sorry if you practice a style I left off the list).  

If you want to lose weight, get fit or fitter burn fat, tone up or just get into a fitness routine for your new year resolution then we can help you. We offer ONE 2 ONE training in the Northumberland and Newcastle Upon Tyne areas. We offer a FREE session which we will carry out in the privacy and comfort of your own home. Call 07971460089 and book a FREE trial session today. We will carry out a full assessment and work with you towards your own personal goals. Visit www.costakickboxing.com for more info

Kickboxing Fitness Routines

I want to share with you some Kickboxing Fitness Routines that you can easily do at home either with a partner or by yourself. Now we are going to put some video up on the blog of these drills and we will post them here and on youtube. However in the meantime let me give you some ideas for training drills. The first drill I am going to explain to you is a punching drill. If you are working out with a partner you will need the following equipment ; Boxing gloves (recommended) or bag gloves and Focus Pads. You can get excellent quality boxing gloves and focus pads by clicking the banner above.

If you are working with a partner one of you will wear the focus pads and the other will wear the boxing gloves. (I like to wear heavy boxing gloves say 14oz or even 16oz, this gives you a harder workout) Start off with your left legs forward (both of you) the one holding the focus pads will hold the pads target side down on their stomach. the preson with the golves on have your hands up to your chin and elbows tucked in to protect your ribs.

The person with the focus pads is in charge of the drill all the time. So they start to move around with the pads still on their stomach, when they want their partner to work they lift the pads to their partners head height, with the target area facing their partner. Remember to hold the pads away from your face and hold them strong because your partner will be striking them. The person working out will deliver four straight punches to the focus pads, trying to hit the centre spots in the centre of the focus pads. The left hand strikes first and your left hand punches to the focus pad on your partners left hand and vice versa with your right hand. After delivering the four straight punches, the person holding the focus pads starts to move around in circles followed by their partner.

When you first start the drill try not to punch full strength until you get your range correct and get your eye in as they say. ie hitting the target correctly each time you strike. The more comfortable you get the more accurate you will become. Then when you are accurate enough you can strike the pads with full power hits, this will obviously give you a better workout and burn more calories.

If you are doing this exercise drill on your own then you will need the following equipment ; Boxing gloves as above and either a punch/kick bag or a Firepower XXX Freestanding punch/kick bag. The Firepower XXX is a fantastic piece of kit if you want to work out without a partner, but you have nowhere to actually hang a punch/kick bag from. You can use these anywhere, even in your back yard or garden.

The drill is exactly the same as it would be on the focus pads, however instead of someone else telling you when to punch, you just decide for yourself. I know this drill sounds, and is, pretty basic. But I love doing it now even after 26 years of doing it and it is a great calorie burner and cardio workout when done correctly. Give it a go and see what you think. However always make sure you look to safety first, make sure you have the correct equipment to work out safely in your Kickboxing Fitness Routines.

Have a look at the images below, they are all links and provide great information about the equipment that you will need to practice the Kickboxing Fitness Routines mentioned above.

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Not only that though, he is feeling more confident about his appearance and about himself than he has felt for many a year. This (he told me) has had a very positive impact on the  relationship with his partner and also in his career. his business has improved and he is very sure it has a lot to do with his boosted confidence. Wow I think that is amazing, all these life improvements because he got involved with Fitness Kickboxing For Weight Loss.
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Kickboxing Fitness Training

I just want to go over a kickboxing fitness training session. I will give you an idea of how we would run a normal forty five minute kickboxing fitness class. Remember what I said previously about only getting out of a session what you put into it, anyone can sneak their way through a session without really doing anything. But who are you cheating? You are only letting yourself down and you know it. Also just so you know, every class we do is different, when you train with us you will never be bored.
Anyway lets take a look.
Warm up (roughly ten to twelve minutes)
Starts off with gentle stretching and agility movements, side bends, arm swings, arm stretches, leg stretches, leg swings, just a general warm up to get the blood flowing through the muscles.
Then we start jogging around the outside of the training hall (140 square metres) while punching out in front of you, change direction, jogging while punching above your head, change direction while punching down to the floor.
Drop to the floor ten push ups, ten sit ups and ten full squats.
Jog around the hall again while kicking your feet up behind you, hitting your hands with your heels, change direction jogging around and lift your knees up as high as you can, change direction side stepping facing in, then facing out and keep changinf facing in and out.
Drop to the floor ten push ups, ten sit ups and ten full squats.
Sit down with legs apart as far as you can stretch, lean forward and try to get your head onto your knee, after a while change to the other knee. Then change into the centre and put your head between your legs and try to put your head onto the floor in front of you.
This warm up can and will change all the time, but all of the muscle groups will be warmed up and stretched in one way or another and it will generally take around ten to twelve minutes. I would always have a short break for people to get a drink of water. Keeping hydrated is vitally important while participating in any high impact exercise session.
My students will now be ready to progress onto more vigorous types of exercise. For this example I am going to look at more of a beginners kickboxing session. So I am going to work on basic kicking skills and drills. I want people to be safe during my sessions so I want to ensure that people can strike our punch and kick shields/bags correctly without doing any harm to themselves. To do this I will have my students practice the kicks or punches (for instance) without actually striking a target. This is an extremely high impact aerobic type of movement and will be burning a high amount of calories and working your lungs very hard. I would envisage that this section of the session will last about seventeen to twenty minutes, remember we are running a fory five minute session but we need to have plenty breaks for people to drink water, hydration is vitally important.
For the final part of the session I like to highten the tempo a bit. I am definitely going to be using the strike shields and kick/punch bags here. We (myself and my assistants) will be keeping a very close eye on the students just for safety, but we will be pushing them hard now as well. So lets say we want to do punching drills but for speed and calorie burning for instance. We line up the students in front of bag number "one" in a line of eighteen punch/kick bags. They have to perform 4 straight punches on the first bag as fast as they can and then move onto the next bag to do the same, then the nexy etc etc.
When the first students returns to the first bag of the circuit again they have to perform four hook punches on that bag and repeat that on every bag in turn. Once again when the first student returns to the first bag in the circuit they then have to perform two front kicks (one on each leg) and repeat this on every bag. You get the picture though. This is just one drill I decided to write about here today, but there are so many different exercises and drills that burn calories like flames burning paper.
This will take the session to the forty five minute mark and the students will be more than ready for it to end. I am going to write out proper  kickboxing fitness training routines that people can follow. I will put these routines on a seperate page.

Kickboxing fitness with stretching

Later on we will show some videos for kickboxing fitness with stretching but I just want to expalin a little bit about it. Stertching is vitally important in any sport, exercise or fitness regime. A lot of people think that in kickboxing you have to stretch so that you can perform the high kicks as seen in most action films involving martial arts. However that is only part of the picture. In our kickboxing fitness with stretching programme, we sometimes spend a whole class of forty five minutes purely on stretching. When the sessions are finished the participants are still worn out, just as if they had been working out with punches and kicks to our strike shields and bags. On the calorie burner estimator they have vigorous stretching burning about 180 calories. Again I believe during our stretching sessions we probably burn more calories due to the different types and methods we use to stretch.
The most basic reason that we stretch in our sessions is not just to burn calories, neither is it to ensure you have a chance to get on a movie because you can kick high. The reason we stretch is to strengthen and lengthen the muscles that we are actually stretching. Then as your muscles get longer and stronger, yes you may be able to kick someone in the head (in a friendly competitive way :-) I mean), but you can also deliver a low range or mid range kick with strength, accuracy and your own safety.
When I say "Your own safety" I mean that you can perform the said technique without injuring yourself with pulled orstrained muscles/joints or losing your balance to put yourself in a dangerous situation. When we run our stretching sessions we use static stretching, dynamic stretching and isometric stretching. I wil cover these three different types of stretching later on when we cover a bit more on kickboxing fitness with stretching.

Fitness kickboxing

Have you ever heard the term "Fighting Fit". Yes of course you have. Fitness kickboxing is the workout that will definitely get you there.The thing is though that it is not just an off the cuff remark (fighting fit), it is a truth. To really get yourself fit, get yourself involved in a regular kickboxing workout. A great kickboxing workout will give you an all over body toning exercise programme.

When you workout in kickboxing you use every muscle group in your body, that is why it is such an effective system to get fit. Literally from head to foot, you are exercising. The obvious impact thing you can see is you are going to be punching and kicking on specially designed bags and pads. But when it is done correctly with the correct supervision, you will be using stomach, back and leg muscles just to deliver a good punch. Remember this, when thinking about getting fit, losing weight, cardio fitness and muscle strength think of fitness kickboxing.