FIT FOR LIVING: Kickboxing

 

What is the new year for if not to wipe the old fitness slate clean and start anew? While it’s easy to fall into an exercise rut, finding a new activity can jump-start motivation and results, which is why, with some trepidation and two creaky knees, I showed up at Berkshire Nautilus in Pittsfield, Massachusetts, on a Monday morning following a fairly athletic weekend, to take a kickboxing class with certified personal trainer and kickboxing instructor Aimee Marshall.

Endorsing the philosophy that novices should just dive in and either sink or swim, I mostly dog-paddled my way through the hourlong class. I certainly soaked a shirt and tested my athletic ego without sustaining injury or even acute soreness afterward.

 

While kickboxing classes vary wildly (the more advanced may include sparring sessions, extreme high kicks, and physical contact with a heavy bag or partner), Marshall says that hers is the fitness equivalent of jogging ten-minute miles, almost five miles total when you subtract the combined warm-up and cooldown time from the hour. Depending on one’s size, this translates to burning upward of 450 calories.

 

Though classes and routines undoubtedly vary with each instructor and gym, even the most rudimentary kickboxing session should prove challenging enough to make it far less monotonous than a mindless run or equivalent workout on one’s own.

 

Starting with a few jabs followed by uppercut crosses, routine sequences typically increase in complexity, alternating punches with kicks, jumping jacks, squats, and sidekicks. This is all far more gratifying than it probably should be for any grown man. And with throbbing techno music to help with one’s rhythm (or lack thereof), fifty minutes of sustained effort whizzes on by, which sure gives the boot to the feeling of having punched the same old fitness clock. [Jan/Feb 2010]

 

Chris Newbound has completed two marathons and for five years was the editor of Inside Triathlon, a magazine that covered, arguably, the fittest athletes in the world. Find more of his fitness columns at www.berkshireliving.com.

 

THE GOODS

Berkshire Nautilus

42 Summer St.

Pittsfield, Mass.

www.berkshirenautilus.com

 

Berkshire South Regional

Community/Center

.

Great Barrington, Mass.

www.berkshiresouth.org

 

Berkshire West Athletic Club

100 Dan Fox Dr.

Pittsfield, Mass.

www.berkshirewest.com