Crav Maga

I've never trained Krav Maga but I can tell you that it SHOULD be a good workout. Krav is all about defense through offense. In other words the theory behind KM is to attack relentlessly without backing off until your opponent is unable to continue to threaten you. It is highly aggressive and very fast paced.

Another very popular MA workout is to train Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, but it is much lower intensity at training speed than KM. Whatever you do train hard.

I did Krav Maga for a couple of months. I found it not a majorly intense workout as it was about learning the techniques - breaking down all the moves and practicing them - I was quite slow to pick it up so it took me ages to learn the moves! Maybe someone quicker on the uptake could get more intensity going quicker than I did! So my personal opinion is brilliant self defence, not so brilliant as a workout.

I train in Krav Maga and the level of workout you get depends on the class and the instructor.

Some classes I don't break a sweat (generally more technical sessions) others I feel like I'm going to die by the end of the warm-up!

I did a few sessions with a HRM on and got an average calorie burn of about 550 cal/hr (which is what a local gym advertises their Body Combat class as burning).

You probably will get a better workout with Muay Thai or BJJ, but with a good instructor Krav Maga is a much more complete self defence package (my background is Kuk Sool Won, Judo and Ju Jitsu when I was younger).

Krav Maga teaches much more that self defence techniques, a good instructor will aim to instil a survival mind-set, tactical and situational awareness. At my grading, the visiting Israeli instructor basically said if you get as far as actually using any of these techniques - something has gone wrong as you have let your attacker get close enough to be a threat instead of recognising and preventing a potentially hostile situation.

If you decide to train in Krav Maga, make sure you get a club affiliated to one of the major Israeli organisations (I'm with an IKMF club) as there are a lot of bogus classes out there using the Krav name.

Our club/school has a youtube channel with some good videos on, http:www.youtube.com/monsterandsons

Hope this is of some use

Dom

I train in Krav Maga and the level of workout you get depends on the class and the instructor.

^ 100,000,000x this.

All martial arts styles are effective, what matters is the quality of the instruction and how well it aligns with your needs.

[ soapbox ]
I would strongly suggest you reconsider looking for a specific style to learn unless you already have past experience. It's not to say that KM is bad (it isn't), but there are bad instructors in all styles. What you should be looking for is a martial arts school that fits your needs.

I intensely disagree with the idea that certain styles are more functional while others are more conditioning oriented. I'm a black belt in Judo and an ik kyu (3rd degree brown) in Isshin Ryu Karate, I learned more about self defense in Judo (the 'sport' martial art) than I have in karate and I've gotten FAR better grappling experience at my karate dojo (the 'striking' martial art) than I ever did in Judo. It's all about who's teaching you. The style they show you, especially if you stick with it for an extended period of time, really doesn't matter.

There are a few primary components to any martial arts style: self defense, sport (if you want to compete in tournaments), physical conditioning, and history/lineage/culture. Figure out what you want to gain from learning martial arts and find a school--of ANY style--that meets those needs. I think you'll find yourself far more satisfied than if you go to a school simply because you heard that style was best.
[ /soapbox ]

I Krav Maga. Some classes are more intensive than others based on what techniques you are going over. However, the calorie count I found for my height and weight for a 1.5 hour class was over 800 calories, and I find that to be accurate on average since I eat all my exercise calories back and still lose.

My instructor is one of the most highly ranked in Israel, and a typical class for us is a 5-10 minute warm-up, 5-10 minutes of stretches, an hour of fighting skills, and then 15 minutes of fitness. However, the fighting skills portion can also be very cardio-intense, especially when we are working on speed. For example, my muscles are still sore from 30 minutes of working on dodging punches on Sunday.

But, yeah, it's important to find an instructor who is affiliated and accredited by a real KM organization. Injuries are entirely possible in any martial art, and you want someone who knows a) how to keep you safe and b) how to react to any injuries that do occur.

Thinking about taking it up as well. Was attacked randomly a few years ago by someone close to me. Hated the 'deer in headlights' feeling.

There are drills in Krav that aim to help with this, but you never really know how you'll react until crunch time.

For an insight into it it's well worth reading Meditations on Violence by Rory Miller.

I liked A FIghter's Mind for that.

There are drills in Krav that aim to help with this, but you never really know how you'll react until crunch time.

For an insight into it it's well worth reading Meditations on Violence by Rory Miller.

I liked A FIghter's Mind for that.

By Sam Sheridan? I'll have to check it out - thanks.

Yup, I enjoyed it and Fighter's Heart a lot. Bit of a modern slant on the psychology of combat. I have to read older texts because of my dojo, his stuff was a good change of pace.

I love Krav too !

Mark