Musings on My Weekly Cardio Kickboxing Class

Some time ago, I posted this entry regarding a weekly Cardio Kickboxing class I attend at my local gym.  To be honest, this is my favorite class and the only one I have consistently attended for several months.  Not only is it my time to get my heart rate up and release tension, but it also teaches the basics of self-defense.  What strikes me as utterly hillarious is every week, I see a parade of new women attend.  I question if they really get that the whole point of the class is to learn to perfect basic fighting moves, such as kicking, knee strikes, blocks, and the basic punches.  Every time I go, I see some scantily clad overly made up newbie with free flowing locks standing in front of the mirror gloriously admiring herself prior to the warm-up.  Later on, the sweat begins to form on her now reddened face and her eye make-up begins to run.  Very rarely does one make it past the standing part of the class into the abdominals section at the end.  This is when someone either utterly falls in love and becomes a devotee or absolutely hates it, walks out never to return.

For some reason, most of the time, the message that the class is fashioned after actual fighting moves does not sink in.  I will not step into a class that is marketed to burn the fat or because it's fun and teaches you funky moves or whatever other stupid statement they think most women want to hear.  The truth is that at the very  minimum, a class should teach you how to perform the basic fighting moves with proper form so your joints don't end up taking all of the damage from misalignment and injuries. 

A decent class should look something like this:

The class above allows the students to go at their own pace and they will get out whatever they put in. As you can see, some students perform the moves properly while others do a half-ass job, but there seems to be some general understanding that the class is geared towards teaching you moves that can be used in real life situations if need be.

For example, a proper knee strike should look like this:

but more often than not, the type of class you will encounter looks like this:

Which begs the question - if you were faced with an attacker, what would you do? Entertain him with your funky moves and colorful spandex outfit in the hopes he will simply go away after keeling over from laughing at you? Not exactly how the real world works!

I am not saying that these types of classes are a replacement for actual martial arts training or that you should feel you can kick anyone's ass after a good workout session.  The way I see it is you might as well get something useful out of the class.  These are moves that can be employed in real life scenarios if necessary and should be practiced with the intent of perfecting them so that if you ever had to use them, you are prepared to do so effectively and accurately. And truth be told, if you do perform each move with your guard up and as much power behind each move as you can muster, you will burn a lot more calories than simply flailing your arms and legs about repeatedly with nothing behind it. Moral of the story: There IS more that you can take with you from the gym than just the mere satisfaction of looking cute in your new outfit and working up a good sweat!