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When you attend a kickboxing
competition you can expect to see all those good fighters both male and
female are equipped with a well defined and toned body. A six-pack!
Kick boxers are required to have lean strong
explosive muscles to deliver the punch or kick with speed and power. These
lean strong muscles also act as a protective shield against the opponent’s
strike.
Kickboxing training employs
an aerobic toning workout to improve strength, stamina, coordination,
reaction time and awareness. The workout not only burns
calories, it also helps build muscle and increases your metabolism, both of
which turn your body into a more efficient fat-burning machine, even while
at rest. Flab is turned into taut muscles
and you get into great shape whilst improving your self-defence ability.
Muscle is absolutely essential for maintaining
your ideal physique. Each pound of muscle you have,
burns 30 - 50 calories a day just to support itself. Fat cells, on the
other hand, are inert. As muscle takes up five time
less space than fat cells, a person with a high percentage of muscle and
low body fat at the same weight as a person with a high percentage of body
fat will look leaner.
While you are having fun running through Kicking
and punching techniques to
improve coordination and space awareness, stored body fat is burned and
used as fuel. At the same time microscopic tears
in the muscle occur. When the muscle recuperates, it becomes tighter and
stronger. The kicking and punching workouts also help to increase your cardiovascular endurance, leading to weight loss.
Although kickboxing workouts help to make you
lean, toned and tight, it is difficult to help your muscle to get bulkier
or bigger unless enhancing drugs are used. This is even more so for a women
as she only has approximately one third of the testosterone of a man.
Kickboxing workouts become the most successful
weight loss programme, slow the aging process and
promote mood elevation, leading one to experience a good quality of life.
A healthy weight allows your body to function at its best, reduce the
stress on your heart, lungs and joints. Many try to lose weight by just
dieting. This works initially, but the body quickly
readjust its metabolism to survive on fewer calories, making it even more
difficult to lose weight.
As we age our body starts to lose more and more
of its lean muscle mass. As we drop off muscle our metabolic requirements
are reduced, and our body begins to store this extra, unused fat. Without proper workouts to burn calories and increase
metabolism, the average man or woman over 30 puts on about 5 pounds
of fat per year. The body biologically ages about twice as fast and
age-related disorders such as high blood pressure, heart disease, Type 2
diabetes and osteoporosis develop. Loss of the ability to take part in
simple everyday activities may follow and even insufficient energy to get
out of bed, and finally the loss of any interest in life.
Over 90 percent of us can not stick to an exercise
routine for more than six weeks. In kickboxing you will find that in each
belt there are always some interesting techniques to learn and new skills
to master. Although you may never have to use those punching and kicking
skills, you still gain greatly the physiological and psychological benefits
to your body and mind. Kickboxing becomes a very meaningful part of life
for many people.
Many martial arts teachers exploit this
situation, charging large amounts of money to run weekend courses to teach
aerobic instructors a few kicks and punches for their exercise programme,
adding a little spice to many people’s life.
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