Martial arts style conditioning

tomatoey
tomatoey Posts: 5,446 Member
edited November 9 in Fitness and Exercise
I can't actually do this kind of thing anymore, but just curious - what is going on with this kind of workout? Is it HIIT --> fat burning, or what?

I ask because I was in the best shape of my life when I took kickboxing classes. No other activity has gotten me as lean or strong. I didn't eat any differently, either.

We did two 3-hour classes a week, with 1 hour of sparring, prefaced by 2 hours of conditioning (typically, jumping jacks, kicks, squats, crunches, punches, and pushups, nonstop for two hours).

Replies

  • JeffseekingV
    JeffseekingV Posts: 3,165 Member
    That sounds great. Sure beats the dreadmill. Not sure about the muscle part but it will get you in shape. I've wanted a speed bag at my Y for years.
  • Sam_I_Am77
    Sam_I_Am77 Posts: 2,093 Member
    Hitting the heavy bag is some of the best and my favorite forms of cardio. Depending on how you setup the training it could be HIIT or it could just be aerobic. I have an app for my phone that calls-out punches and combinations to throw and it's completely random. I can increase the speed in-which it "calls-out" to increase / decrease intensity. I typically go hard for 3 5-min rounds, it's tough.
  • tomatoey
    tomatoey Posts: 5,446 Member
    Sam_I_Am77 wrote: »
    Hitting the heavy bag is some of the best and my favorite forms of cardio. Depending on how you setup the training it could be HIIT or it could just be aerobic. I have an app for my phone that calls-out punches and combinations to throw and it's completely random. I can increase the speed in-which it "calls-out" to increase / decrease intensity. I typically go hard for 3 5-min rounds, it's tough.

    Yeah, I can imagine.

    I hated/loved those classes. It had to have been HIIT or something, though, I remember it was fairly fast-paced, and all of us were pouring sweat.
  • tomatoey
    tomatoey Posts: 5,446 Member
    JeffseekingV wrote: »
    That sounds great. Sure beats the dreadmill. Not sure about the muscle part but it will get you in shape. I've wanted a speed bag at my Y for years.

    I don't think we used bags! Just the air or each others' bodies, lol.
  • RoverAndKie
    RoverAndKie Posts: 7
    I use to do kickboxing and krav maga about 6 years ago, and I was in the best shape of my life before I had to quite due to a knee injury. It pretty much is HIIT - due to the high intensity your body will start building muscle and you'll loose some weight but it mostly tones muscles. I would say there could be some fat loss, but only due to the muscle strength that you build. If I ever go that route again, I'll get down to my goal weight first and then use it to tone my body.
  • tomatoey
    tomatoey Posts: 5,446 Member
    Sorry about your knee :/ I'm not in a position to do it either, also have bad joints. I hope you heal and are able to get back to it :)

    I could be persuaded that it's muscle building that's happening, but fat loss as the mechanism seems possible to me too... idk!
This discussion has been closed.

Categories