Why Kickboxing is the Best Way to Smash Your Goals

Kickstart your Weight Loss with Kickboxing Classes
By: Aren Besson

Why is kickboxing the best way to lose weight? Because you can burn upwards of 800 calories per hour all while improving your balance, speed, coordination, strength, mobility, and cardio! Unlike other forms of exercise that only focus on one aspect of your body, kickboxing utilizes dynamic movements which teach you how to maximize power throughout the entire body, making it one of the best exercises for someone interested in weight loss or interested in maximizing their potential. 

Cardio that Kills Calories  

It’s no secret that regular exercise is essential to weight loss, but not all exercise is created equal. An hour of kickboxing can burn as many calories as an hour jogging 6 miles per hour while also improving your strength. Studies have shown that an hour of kickboxing can increase and maintain your heart rate to 75-85 percent of your maximum, which is the perfect range to burn away excess weight.  It’s no wonder why kickboxing classes are an increasingly popular way to exercise.

Full Body Toning 

Beyond weight loss, wearing 16oz gloves and punching a 100lb heavy bag for an hour is a sure-fire way to increase upper body strength. A 2014 study published in the Muscle, Ligaments and Tendons Journal showed that just 5 weeks of kickboxing can deliver major increases to upper-body muscle power, aerobic power, anaerobic fitness, flexibility, speed, and agility. 

Stress Relief 

Most importantly, kickboxing is FUN. Exercise in general has been a well documented way to decrease anxiety and bring positive mood changes, but nothing quite matches the feeling of learning how to punch.  Punching a heavy bag can be a safe and effective way to relieve stress, especially after a long day of work. 

The Top 4 Reasons Kickboxing Makes Summer Bodies

4 Reasons Why Training Like A Fighter Will Give You The Best Summer Body

Some of the best bodies in the world belong to kickboxers, but you don’t have to plan on stepping into the cage just to own that fighter physique. Almost everyone can train like a fighter, all you need are a pair of boxing gloves and a place to train. It is never too late to pick up a new activity, and kickboxing classes are one of the easiest ways to get a head start on a summer figure because it is a fun, high-intensity, full-body workout that will tone almost every muscle in the body, all while teaching you a useful skill.   

So how does fight training help you get toned?

1). High Intensity Training Will Lower Body Fat

One hour of kickboxing can burn up to 1000 calories, which means that consistent training can help you lose a pound of fat each week. What makes kickboxing such an effective workout is that it is FUN. You stop noticing how hard you are working when you get to focus on hitting the bag and learning a new skill. Additionally, kickboxing classes offer high energy environments that will help push your workout.  

2). Constant Punching Will Tone Your Shoulders and Arms

Your shoulders and triceps are the most active muscle groups when you throw a punch because you are constantly extending and retracting your arm explosively. You’ll be throwing hundreds of punches in a single kickboxing class, and when you add the weight of your boxing gloves to the end of your hands, you get a killer workout for your arms. Between straight punches, hooks, and uppercuts, you’ll never get bored.

3). Muscular Core

A strong core is a huge component of being able to throwing a punch. You twist your torso everytime you hit the bag, which means you are continually engaging the big muscles in the core like the obliques and the abdominals.

4). Glutes of Steel

Because fighters have to be quick on their feet, their legs are always in play. Kickboxers are constantly bouncing around the ring in addition to throwing strikes, which is why kickboxing training also amounts to a great leg workout. The constant dancing of your legs will lead to well defined glutes and quad muscles, which means your legs will be just as toned as your arms after a kickboxing workout.

Snow Day Cancellation

7PM Train for Life class is cancelled for the snow. We will potentially have to cancel the 9am tomorrow as well. We will keep you posted.

4 Things to Know When Starting a Diet

Good Diets Give Structure

If you have serious goals that you want to accomplish through dieting, simply saying that you will just eat less probably won’t cut it. Successful diets are ones that give a solid structure. Knowing what to eat, when to eat, and how to eat are all important factors when planning out your meals in addition to knowing how much to eat. You don’t need to be on the BEST diet to lose weight, you don’t even need to be on the third best diet to lose weight, but you do need a set of guidelines to keep yourself consistent and healthy when you head to the grocery store.

Reducing calorie intake can be a helpful start to planning a diet, but it’s no substitute for having a clear and reliable nutrition plan that keeps you disciplined. Meet with a health coach to find a plan that works for you and your body. Just because a celebrity lost twenty pounds eating eggshells doesn’t mean you will too. Take some time to research diet plans like paleo, the mediterranean diet, or whole-thirty and find a plan that you can stick to.

Health Is More Important Than Weight

What is the point of a diet that causes you to lose weight but leaves you feeling miserable all the time? Most people go on diets for the sake of being healthier, and this goal should be the priority when making food choices. It is absolutely possible to lose weight and end up less healthy than when you started. Starving yourself will cause yourself to drop a waist size, but it is important to employ diet strategies that are sustainable in the long run. A good diet is more than just ‘7 easy hacks to drop 50 pounds,’ it should involve planning that is oriented around living a healthier lifestyle.

When you lose weight, eat a variety of foods that give you the nutrients that you need to survive. Make sure you are eating nutrient rich vegetables and not just romaine lettuce drizzled with caesar dressing and make sure you are getting in sources of fat and protein. Fad diets are exciting, but be weary of any product that promises weight loss without asking you to change your eating. Consult with a fitness professional if you are unsure where to start.

Staying Motivated Is Key

For some people, being healthier means having the energy to play with their kids; for others, that means being fit enough to play a sport that they loved when they were younger. Everyone wants to be healthy, but not everyone has taken the time to discover what really motivates them. So many people lose the motivation to live a healthier lifestyle when they haven’t taken the time to find that deep drive. Discovering and maintaining this lasting motivation is the necessary first-step to a successful health-journey.

Diets are an important component to this journey. We are made of what we eat. We tend to separate our mind and our body, but to a large extent, we ARE our bodies. If our bodies are not healthy, that gets reflected in how we feel every day. Changing the quality of food and our food habits are paramount to living healthier lives.

Exercise can help maintain the motivation to be fit because it gives you a tangible measure for how capable your body is, but the important part is that you have that personal why. Having a support group can be important for sustaining that motivation, especially as your willpower drains from weeks of dieting. Finding people to share in your ‘why’ can help you stay accountable to your own health goals and lead to lasting, positive change in your body.

There Is More To Dieting Than Just Food

So much of our daily routine and social habits are built around food. We catch up with friends over lunch, we celebrate our successes with a nice dinner, we decompress after a long day with a drink. Many of the person-to-person bonds that we have are reinforced over food, and it can be a little disorientating when we decide to cut some foods out. The biggest obstacle to dieting tends to be the relationship that we have with the food. It is hard to eat healthy and go out for dinner and it can be just as hard to maintain the same social habits when we are dieting.

Committing to a healthier diet means working around a constant stream of social temptations.This can be inconvenient, but it doesn’t mean that you need to turn into a recluse to eat well. Be aware that you may need to consider your own habits and life-schedule when budgeting your food for the day. To start, pay attention to your body when you are hungry. Try to distinguish between when your body is hungry because it needs food and when your body is hungry because you are bored. Listen to your body and think about food as a way to fuel a healthy life rather than a way to entertain yourself when you are watching TV.

How Group Fitness Can Help You Meet Your Goals

By Aren Besson

Group fitness classes can be a magic bullet for those who struggle with sticking to an exercise plan.

 It’s a common story; a person becomes super motivated to get in shape and decides to join a gym. One month later, after they have begun to see some results, they reward themselves with a cheat day. That cheat day turns into a cheat week, which then turns into a cheat month. Two months later, they are in the same place that they started, all because of a lapse in accountability, no support,  and a lack of a long-term plan.  

 It is painfully easy to fall off the bandwagon when you don’t have a team to hold you to your goals. Phone apps that track food intake and tell you when to exercise can help, but one of the best ways to help with accountability is to find a solid support structure and team. This is one of the many places where group fitness can benefit you.

 Group fitness classes encompass a wide range of organized exercises, from kickboxing to yoga, and people tend to find the most success with an activity that they enjoy.

 The format of these classes provides a supportive team that helps exercisers maintain accountability. A 1992 study from the National Institute of Health showed that exercisers are much more likely to stick with their exercise plan when they were surrounded by a dependable support structure. Group fitness participants are able to interact with other exercisers on the team that are just as interested in meeting their fitness goals, and that enthusiasm helps fight off lapses in motivation.  

 Group fitness classes are also an effective way to reach health goals because they take the stress out of figuring out what to do in the gym. Plenty of people who want to get in shape don’t because they are intimidated at the idea of going into a gym and lifting weights or confused about what they should be doing.

 The fitness professional that leads the team can act as a readily accessible resource for those who may be new to exercise, and their energy can motivate participants to stay healthy outside of the class. Access to fitness instruction helps exercisers stick with a program, even when participants have never had a clear exercise strategy, according to a report from the American Council on Exercise.

 Accountability is only one of several factors that affect adherence to an exercise program, but for those who have had repeated difficulty in starting a program, finding a group fitness team may be the answer.

 Spend some time looking for classes in your area with a community that you will enjoy. A good class is one that keeps you engaged and motivated throughout the class, but more importantly encourages you to come back for more.

Five Fundamental Exercises To Improve Your Jiu-Jitsu By: Aren Besson

  There is an unusual relationship in Jiu-Jitsu where the more skilled the practitioner becomes, the less energy they use. That new white belt may run 20 miles a day and lift twice their body weight, but they will inevitably gas more quickly than the seasoned brown belt simply because of how efficient a brown belt is when passing guard. Still, when that seasoned brown belt also learns how to build bull-strength through extra conditioning, they become all the more formidable.

   Extra measures must be taken by combative athletes to build or maintain strength, speed, and cardio for a competitive edge. The athlete that has a more powerful body is able to stay on the mat for longer and move more aggressively to control pacing.  Athleticism is an advantage, especially against someone who does very little off-the-mat conditioning. You can also build strength at a more measured rate than you can develop Jiu-Jitsu skill because conditioning is much less of a cognitive process. The purpose of this blog is to provide some guidance for eager Jiu-Jitsu practitioners who wish to improve their performance through extra conditioning. Any questions regarding specific exercises should be directed towards a fitness professional. To start, here are five exercises that combative athletes should be doing to improve their game.

1). Kettlebell Swings

Swings can build strength in the hamstrings and glutes and can give explosive power in the hips, says Josh Macri, Strength and Conditioning Specialist at Train For Life.  To start, place a kettle bell on the ground and step back a little more than one foot from the weight. Grab the weight with both hands and hike the weight in between your legs, hinging from the hip and keeping your back and maintaining a slight bend in the knee. Straighten your body, propelling the weight with your hips until the weight is eye level. Repeat, ensuring that you are moving the weight with a hip hinge rather than squatting or bending your back.

Key Points

 Squeeze your glutes and abs at the top of the exercise. This should primarily

work your glutes and hamstrings, not your back or quads

 Keep your back straight throughout the entire movement

 Push through the heels

 Keep a slight bend in your arms throughout the exercise

2). Alligator Walks

The Alligator Walk is part mobility drill, part balance drill, and part body-weight strength exercise that forces yourself to work both sides of your body independently, says Tim Hufford, Strength and Conditioning Specialist at Chapel Hill Gracie Jiu-Jitsu.  To perform the exercise, find a strip of flat floor that you can walk across. Get in a push up position and then lower the torso as close to the ground as possible. With alternating limbs, walk forward with your hands and legs while maintaining a low body level. You should feel like you are working your core throughout the drill.

Key Points

 Keep your back straight

 Exhale with each ‘step’

 Only allow your hands and feet to touch the ground

 Alternate the crawl with opposing limbs

3). Deadlift

The deadlift is one of the most powerful postural exercises that recruits more than a dozen muscles, almost all of which are used when maintaining posture in guard. To begin the deadlift, place a weighted barbell on the ground and stand with the balls of your feet below the bar. Bend over and grip the bar firmly with both hands maintaining shoulder length distance. Lower your hips while maintaining a straight, neutral back. Remove the slack from the bar by pulling your shoulders back and engaging your lats. Lift the weight by extending your hips and knees. Return the weight to the ground and repeat.

Key Points

 Maintain a straight posture throughout the entire movement

 Pull the weight through your heels

 Knees should point the same direction as your feet

 Do not bend your lower back to pull the weight up; weight should be lifted

with the legs

4). Lunges

In Jiu-Jitsu, we often have to transfer our weight from one side of the body to the other when we are standing or passing guard. Lunges can be used to build balance and teach you to distribute weight in a safe manner. Being able to utilize our hips and knees when we shift weight is essential for maintaining that base, says Macri.  To perform a lunge, take a step forward with one leg and dip your opposing knee to the ground until it almost touches the ground. Your back knee, hips, and shoulder should make one line from the floor to the ceiling. Make sure that you keep your back straight and engage your glutes as you stand up to a neutral position. Repeat.

Key Points

 Maintain a straight posture and do not sway to one side

 Keep your back knee, hips, and shoulders in a straight line

 Step far enough so that your front knee does not come over your toes

 Do not slam your knee into the ground when you are lunging

5). High Intensity Interval Training

When we roll in Jiu-Jitsu, we often need to alternate between various intensities depending on whether we are in a good position or bad position. When we wish to be particularly aggressive, we must change pace to push the position. Our cardio should reflect this goal.  While more of an exercise modality than a specific exercise, high intensity interval training will build your gas tank so you can push the pace for the duration of a roll. High intensity interval training can be described as periods of high intensity exercises followed by shortened intervals of rest, usually shorter than the duration of the exercise intervals. Interval training can help raise your maximum oxygen intake, increase the amount of blood that your heart pumps per beat, and makes the body more efficient at using energy, says Hufford.

You can build your own circuit that uses a range of muscle groups to push your cardio, or you can join a group fitness class that will guide you through a circuit in a controlled environment. When designing a circuit, be careful not to use weights that are so heavy that you cannot perform multiple intervals. Consult with a fitness professional if you have any questions about program design.

Painting Underway

All of the walls are up and the painting is being completed.  We decided to stick with the Jiu Jitsu color scheme throughout the kickboxing, and fitness areas.  Keep checking here for updates on construction and upcoming launches. 

All Plumbing is Done and Walls are coming Up!

Got a ton of work done since the last post.  Walls are all going up as I am typing this.  Next is the ceilings and floors before we can start setting up equipment.  Set for a Grand Opening of March 1st as of now. 

And the walls came tumbling down

Still no snags on demolition.  Cleared the walls out for our seating and retail areas.

Demolition Continues

  Demolition is proceeding according to schedule.  Now that everything is getting pulled up we are really starting to see how HUGE this space is.  

Demolition Started at the Expansion!

  Today demolition started in the space that will be Train for Life.  Floors are coming out so that we can make room for our 2000 square feet of mats, rubber flooring for our full service gym,  and the kickboxing studio.  It's a very exciting morning for us.