Kickboxing is traditionally seen as a male dominated sport. However, kickboxing is a really good martial art for females: it combines fat burning, intense cardio, muscle toning, as well providing stress relief. It’s also an excellent self defense system and easy to learn.
Full body workout
Kickboxing provides a full body workout. It involves both punching and kicking techniques which uses both the upper and lower body. In addition, striking involves twisting your mid-section to add power which also makes it a core workout as well.
Using a heavy bag is a form of resistance training: the impact of the punches and kicks moves a hanging weight. As a result, the muscles are forced to adapt and get stronger and become more toned. Heavy bag work is particularly good for toning the arm muscles.
Kickboxing training also involves pad work, skipping and calisthenics, all of which provide an amazing cardio-vascular workout. In each training session, there’s sufficient variety to keep the training interesting.
A typical session will involve spending some time on each station. You might start with a warm up before moving on to heavy bag work, followed by skipping, and then pad work. This mix keeps everything fresh. It’s not like other forms of training, for instance trudging along on a running machine like a hamster on a wheel.
It’s safe
Kickboxing training can involve sparring whereby you practice your striking and defensive techniques against a live opponent. Typically sparring will involve semi-contact where you hold back some of the power in your strikes.
However, there’s no obligation to spar. You can do all the other elements of kickboxing training, making it a relatively safe martial art to practice. You can still work on all your striking techniques using the heavy bag and the pads.
You can’t practice in this way in other martial arts. In BJJ and wrestling you actually need to grapple with a live opponent to become better.
Self defense
If you practice kickboxing, then you will develop powerful striking techniques. These can potentially be life saving if you’re ever in the unfortunate position of being attacked in the street. A powerful strike can be enough to stun the aggressor giving you enough time to make your escape.
Kickboxing also improves your stamina enabling you to run away from your attacker once you’ve delivered your strike.
Stress Relief
If you’re feeling anxious, worried or stressed then an intense kickboxing workout can be just what you need to help you feel better. Exercise releases ‘feel good endorphins into the body but also taking your frustrations out on a heavy bag just feels good.
Easy to pick up
Humans have been fighting with their hands and feet for hundreds of thousands of years. I think this is one of the reasons why kickboxing feels a very natural sport to practice.
Whilst it can take years to master the striking and defensive techniques, it can take a few training sessions to pick up the basics of a cross and jab.
Another important point is that there are a limited number of techniques to learn making it relatively easy to pick up. Of course, the real challenge is to chain these different techniques into winning combos.
It’s for all these reasons that kickboxing is an ideal sport for females.
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