Weekly exercise series: Kickboxing
Kickboxing offers a fun way to improve fitness, lower stress levels, and improve mental health.
Kickboxing, usually associated with individuals knocking each other out, is an amazing, all-encompassing method of exercise, even if you don’t want to fight anyone. With such a fun way to burn body fat and build strength in your body and mind, kickboxing can be done anywhere and modified to meet your level of fitness.
“Once people try it, they get excited,” Taylor Merritt, a trainer for Title Boxing, a boxing gym with 155 locations in the U.S., tells Women’s Health Magazine.
Endurance, speed, and power training play a role in kickboxing, so it isn’t just one type of training. “This is a great combo of cardio and strength, which makes you tone up quick, too,” says Merritt.
For students, an added benefit to kickboxing is that it can be a major stress reliever. It can be empowering to fight against the punching bag, while metaphorically fighting against the burdens in one’s life.
“There’s a physical element of fighting back against things that weigh you down in life,” says Brooke Budke, the vice president of marketing for Title Boxing.
A study from 2014 found that after five weeks of kickboxing training, one’s upper-body and aerobic power improves, as well as anaerobic fitness, flexibility, speed, and agility. It also improves posture and coordination.
The lower body can also experience benefits. “A lot of people might think, ‘oh I’m just using my upper body’, but if you’re doing it correctly, power comes from your lower body and core,” says Merritt.
A bonus is that kickboxing is a great way to learn self-defence as it can teach you basic skills and techniques. It all makes sense why so many celebrities—such as Halle Berry— have been practicing kickboxing for some time now and boast about its effectiveness.
While UTM does not offer kickboxing on its own, there is the option of martial arts classes, which you can check out on the RAWC’s website.
