Sweat It Out Saturday: Cardio Kickboxing

It’s been awhile since I did a Sweat It Out Saturday post and this week is the perfect week to rejoin the party since I tried a new class. On Thursday night, I redeemed my Groupon for cardio kickboxing and I dragged my sister along with me.

I have to admit I was a little intimidated ab0ut trying my first class. It’s been awhile since I stepped outside of my comfort zone and tried a new workout without knowing how challenging it would be. Yes, I’ve done a few BodyCombat classes here and there but this class was at an actual martial arts studio and taught by a 4th degree black belt.

I don’t even know exactly what that means, but it sounds scary.

Actually, the instructor turned out to be really nice. She greeted us right when we walked in and showed us around the studio. Her teaching style was just the right mix of tough and encouraging.

As for the class itself, it wasn’t actually that much different from BodyCombat – it included all of the same moves (front, side and back kicks, uppercuts, side punches, etc) but with a slightly different format, and the instructor liked to throw in sets of push ups and squats between drills (I’m proud to say I did every single push up on my toes!). For the last 20 minues or so, we actually got to hit and kick a real punching bag, which was my favourite part (I’m all about novelty).

There were also some pretty intense intervals mixed in with periods of active recovery, which is my favourite kind of workout. I love going into beast mode for a few minutes knowing it will all be over soon. There was one particular punch, kick, burpee combo that spiked my heart rate like crazy.

I had so much fun in this class and left feeling really pumped to go back. Even the instructor noticed because when I went to get my card stamped, she was like, “You looked like you were having a good time.” That’s because there were a few parts where I was actually smiling during the workout. You know when you see stock photos of women smiling while they work out and you’re like, “who the eff actually does that?” Yeah, that would be me.

I also have to give a shout out to my sister. This was her first high-intensity workout since the baby (and yet she’s still managed to shed the baby weight – go figure) and she absolutely killed it. As a certified gym rat, I found the workout really challenging so for someone getting back into fitness to do that workout was very impressive.

One downside – the studio wasn’t air conditioned and of course Thursday night happened to be one of the hottest nights of June (almost 90 degrees even at 8:00 p.m.). I thought I was going to die when we first walked in there but surprisingly the heat didn’t bother me that much once class started. I guess I got used to working out in the heat last summer (another perk of half marathon training?) and also from doing a lot of hot yoga in the winter months.

Another downside?  Even after taking Friday and today off, I am still sore from Thursday’s class. New workouts will do that to you!

Thursday’s class was therefore the last of this week’s workouts:

Sunday – RPM
Monday – BodyPump + Zumba
Tuesday – BodyFlow
Wednesday – BodyPump
Thursday – Cardio Kickboxing
Friday – OFF
Saturday – OFF

Happy Sweat It Out Saturday (even though I didn’t do any sweating today). Thanks to Stefanie @ The New Healthy for hosting!

Have you ever tried kickboxing? Did you like it?

Are there any workouts out there that you are intimidated to try?