October 19, 2017October 19, 2017

Martial Arts vs Kickboxing Fitness

Hi everyone. I received an email asking about martial arts in regard to our Kickboxing Fitness Classes. I guess I should start by introducing myself. My name is Stu Rosenstein, and I oversee the class schedule and content. Along with my father Harry, we opened our first gym over 30 years ago. However, we have been martial artists much longer than that. My father started in Martial Arts beginning in 1959, myself in 1974.

Though my love is in martial arts, when I started designing Kickboxing Fitness classes, I had to make a very conscience decision not to make them Martial Arts classes. The reason is simple. You cannot grasp Martial Arts in 5 minutes. The goal for a Kickboxing Fitness class is to give the participant an engaging, high calorie burning workout through the use of various hand and leg strikes on a punching bag. Besides the great workout, most find it to be a lot of fun!

Each Kickboxing Fitness class starts with a warm up, followed by an instructional segment. There are 2 goals during the instructional segment: 1. We want the participant to know what to do when a strike command is given 2. We want the participant to not get hurt. That’s it; know what to do and not get hurt. We have some people take our classes that have boxing experience. The way a boxer holds their hands up in a guard position is 100% different than how I, as a traditional martial artist, holds my hands. The way a boxer jabs, hooks and punches is different than the way I jab, hook and punch. So, during the instructional segment, if we can get the participant to know that a “jab” is done with the front hand, and they do not over extend their elbow, that’s perfect. It would be impossible to teach proper Martial Arts hand and leg techniques in 5 minutes. I have been doing traditional Martial Arts for close to 45 years and my punch is “ok”, I still have a lot to learn.

If anyone ever needs more instruction on the techniques that are used in our kickboxing fitness classes, please do not hesitate to contact me and I will make sure you receive some extra help. If anyone ever has an interest to learn Martial Arts, we do provide one on one private instruction.

See you class!!