Top Cardio Kickboxing Workout to Burn Calories
Article Researched & Written by: Mike Jones – Elite Sports
If you are looking for a way of having fun, challenging yourself, and burning lots of weight, then we have the perfect workout designed for you! Kickboxing is the new black! This might be a strange and out of the ordinary suggestion seeing that many people are still obsessed with doing cardio oriented workouts such as HIIT, gyming, skipping rope, and aerobics; however kickboxing not helps you to lose weight, promotes cardiovascular exercises but also helps you to challenge yourself to a great extent allowing you to learn and develop skills of the combat sport.
So get ready with those Muay Thai gloves and pull up those Muay Thai shorts, because in this article you will be convinced that you need kickboxing in your life as soon as possible!
The benefits of doing cardio with a kickboxing workout:
1. Cardio
Cardio is extremely important if you want to lead a healthy lifestyle; doing cardiovascular exercises will allow your heart to stay safe and prevent you from getting heart diseases such as blood pressure and heart attacks. Cardio also makes you super active and energetic while keeping cholesterol and sugars in your body low.
Kickboxing is a high-intensity sport that will help you achieve all the cardio benefits you expect from any other workout or set of exercises. You will have to remain extremely determined and focused when doing kickboxing because it’s a sport that requires all your undivided attention.
2. Toned Muscles
If there is any exercise or workout other than yoga that will help to tone your muscles then you will find that kickboxing is a valid option. Kickboxing will help you train your entire body beginning from your upper body, to developing core strength and to your lower leg muscles. You will find yourself continuously moving and staying active as you punch and kick your way to the end of a workout!
3. Improved Blood Circulation
Kickboxing also promotes and encourages an efficient blood circulation system in the body so you will begin to think clearly, stay focused, remain alert, and also feel a lot more energetic than before.
4. Flexible Muscles
Kickboxing will also help make your muscles stronger and hence more flexible. The more you will build muscle mass and stretch your muscles the stronger they will become.
5. High Endurance and Pain threshold
Yes, kickboxing is a painstakingly vigorous sport so get ready to get hurt and injured a few times while you are training; however, do not let that discourage you from trying out this cool workout because you will come out stronger as you build endurance and high threshold against pain.
6. Improved Stamina
If you’re looking to improve your stamina then kickboxing will help you achieve that goal! Since you will constantly be on your feet and will be expected to perform at your best possible level, you are bound to increase the capacity of your lungs which will ultimately improve your stamina.
7. Hand and Mind Coordination
Kickboxing also has many positive effects on your mental health as it promotes mental growth; with kickboxing, your hand and foot coordination will improve, your reflexes will improve and you will learn to sync your mind and body, allowing you to become more alert and aware of your surroundings.
What to expect in a kickboxing cardio workout:
1. How to deliver punches
Delivering punches is not as easy as we might like to believe, they can be quite complicated. You will have to train yourself pretty seriously before learning properly how to deliver a professional punch. In kickboxing, you will be delivering quite a few punches that will help you deliver stronger arms.
Here are all the terms you need to understand about the different techniques of punching before we get into the workout:
- Jabs (straight punch from the side that is in the lead)
- Hooks (punch made in a hooking motion aimed at the head)
- Uppercuts (same as a hook but starts from below and goes up)
- Crosses (straight punch from the side that is at the back)
2. How to deliver kicks
Believe it or not, there is a variety of kicks that can be thrown around in a kickboxing cardio workout, however, don’t worry because we are here to explain to you in detail all the different varieties so we have everything covered! You will be getting a killer lower body workout that’s for sure though!
Here are all the terms you need to understand about the different techniques of kicking before we get into the workout:
- knee strikes (pulling the opponent towards the knee as you bring up the knee as well)
- sidekicks (extend your leg from the side)
- back kicks (roll knee towards the back and then extend the leg back)
- front kicks (bring the knee up and then straighten your leg)
- Roundhouse kicks (extend the knee of the leg at the back, as you straighten that leg turn into a semi-circle towards the supporting leg and do a slap kick.)
3. How to deliver punches and kicks simultaneously
Lastly, you need to train yourself to be able to deliver both punches and kicks simultaneously to be able to get the feel of kickboxing. In the beginning, it might seem intimidating and complicated but trust us, once you will get a hang of it, you will love it!
Workout
This workout includes a warm-up and a cool-down like any other workout.
Warm-Up
Do a set of arm swings, 20 times clockwise and 20 times anticlockwise
Continue to do light cardio with the following
20 times high knees
20 times jumping jacks
20 times up and down
Round 1
Left side first
Jab + Cross (10 times)
Jab + Cross + Hook (10 times)
Jab + Cross + Hook + Uppercuts (10 times)
Jab + Cross + Uppercut + Jab (10 times)
Hook + Uppercut + Uppercut + Hook (10 times)
Jab + Hook + Hook + Uppercut + Cross (10 times)
Round 2
Left side first
Shin Block + Jab + Cross + Knee (10 times)
Knee + Jab + Knee + Cross (10 times)
Knee + Front Kick (Left) + Jab + Front Kick (Right) (10 times)
High Kick + Shin Block (Front) + Shin Block + High Knee + Shin Block (Front) (10 times)
Front Kick (Left) + Cross + Jab + Front Kick (Right) (10 times)
High Kick + High Knee + Jab + Uppercut + High Kick (10 times)
Cool Down
Cooldown exercises are extremely important for any workout as they help to increase muscle recovery and also relax and rejuvenate the muscles. Cooling down exercises mostly involves stretching exercises that include similar postures we make in yoga.
