Cardio Kickboxing workouts is a martial art inspired group fitness format that is both heart-pumping and exhilarating. This high-energy workout challenges the beginner and elite athlete alike. Using punches and kicks from disciplines such as karate, Muay Thai, and traditional boxing, group fitness participants worldwide have fallen in love with this class format. Cardio Kickboxing is a total body workout that involves utilizing multiple muscle groups to elevate the heart rate and train participants in speed, agility, and quickness. Build stamina, improve coordination and flexibility, and burn calories as you build lean muscle with this fun and challenging workout.
In most Cardio Kickboxing workouts in the movement prep segment, participants will be introduced to the proper technique in executing the four main punches: jabs, crosses, hooks, and uppercuts. In addition to punches, cardio kickboxing participants will also learn how to safely perform the kicks used during class. Front, side, back, and roundhouse kicks are the commonly used kicks in cardio kickboxing and will get your heart rate elevated.
You may find that some Cardio Kickboxing classes will also involve contact. These classes will integrate equipment such as boxing gloves, pads, jump ropes, and even heavy bags to enhance the in-class experience. Participants may work in pairs, simulating boxing rounds, or work on individual heavy bags performing punching and kicking drills. Incorporating these additional tools will create a kickboxing atmosphere that will psychologically engage participants and, in some instances, increase the intensity of the workout.
If you like me who do not like running but know cardiovascular exercises are necessary to burn calories and be healthy, then cardio kickboxing is for you! This type of activity is the ultimate way to shape your body, and it has many other advantages. There is a reason fighters look so perfectly.
In this post, you will find everything you need to know how to start if you are a beginner, its benefits and find the best cardio kickboxing workouts at home for you.
If you’re stuck in a workout rut or looking for a motivating fitness routine, you might consider adding a high-energy kickboxing workout to the schedule. Kickboxing workouts combine martial arts techniques with heart-pumping cardio, which means you can get a total body workout and whip yourself into shape in no time.
Whether you’re a fitness newbie or long-time gym aficionado, undertaking a kickboxing workout at least once per week can help you feel re-energized and out of a rut. Here are some more benefits of kickboxing workouts:
Kickboxing workouts are powerful reminders of how strong you are and how much fun it is to kick up your workout routine. You’ll love that kickboxing:
- Is a great cardiovascular workout of both force and speed
- Improves your strength, aerobic fitness, flexibility, coordination and balance
- Burns calories through high intensity interval training and resistance of the 100-pound bag
- A great workout to help people lose weight or tone their bodies
- A good and healthy way to relieve stress
- Is a fun and effective class for first timers
Kickboxing Workouts Moves Ultimate
Jab, Cross, Hook, Uppercut
If you’ve been practicing martial arts for a while, you’ve certainly learned basic punches – the jab, the cross, the hook, and the uppercut. Depending on how advanced of a student you are, you most likely have learned an array of other strikes to go along with these punches. If you’re not familiar with martial arts, this article will serve to teach you the four different types of punches commonly practiced.
If you are inexperienced or new to martial arts, the following will inform you on the four main types of punches typically exercised in karate, kick-boxing, western-style boxing, taekwondo, American kempo, and Muay Thai.
Throughout the Undefeated program, you’ll do different variations of this classic combo. But to help you maintain form, here are a few pro pointers: “In the jab, the punch comes straight out from the shoulder. Imagine the point of contact being someone’s nose,” Garcia says. For the cross, utilize power from your back hip to strengthen your punch, and for the hook, keep your arm at 90 degrees, Garcia adds.
How to: Get into guard position (a). Jab: Extend your left fist straight with your thumb pointed toward the floor. Pop it back to guard position (b). Cross: Turn your right foot inward and bring your right hip and shoulder forward. Keep your elbow in as you punch your right fist straight out with your thumb pointed to the floor. Pop it back up to guard position (c). Hook: Lift your left heel off the ground to shift your weight to your right side. Bring your left elbow up to shoulder height, forming a 90-degree angle, with your thumb facing up. Pop it back up to guard position (d). Uppercut: Turn your right hip and shoulder forward. Punch upward with your thumb facing you. Pop it back up to guard position (e). This is one rep.
Jab, Cross, Squat, Jump, Switch
Attack and avoid an imaginary opponent with this punch combo kickboxing workout move.
- Stand with your right foot forward, arms in ‘on guard’ position (elbows bent, hands in fists on either side of your chin).
- Throw a right jab (punch your right arm forward, rotating your fist down, without locking out your elbow), a left cross (punch your left arm forward, rotating your left hip into the punch and lifting your left heel off the floor), and then bring your arms back to on guard position.
- Quickly push your hips back and lower into a squat, jump up, and rotate 180 degrees in the air, landing with your left foot forward.
- Immediately repeat the entire sequence on the left side.
- Continue alternating sides for 1 minute.
Sweep, Squat, Kick
The sweep squat is just an upgrade of the normal squat. It engages muscles in your quads and glutes. However, if you add the kick, you fire up your core and hamstrings.
To do this combo movement, start in the guard position with your feet being shoulder-distance apart. You will then sit into a squat position with your hands by your cheekbones. As you drive your body to stand up from the squat, you will sweep your arms to your left and kick with your right leg. Do this on your left side too to complete one rep.
The sweep squat is a new take on the basic squat, engaging other muscles in your glutes and quads. But adding the kick also fires up your hamstrings, Garcia says. “The great bonus in this move is that the sweep down engages the core a bit more.”
How to: Get into guard position, feet shoulder-distance apart (a). Sit into a deep squat, while keeping your hands by your cheekbones (b). As you come up to stand from the squat, sweep your arms laterally to your left side and kick your right leg straight out (c). Repeat on the left side (d). This is one rep.
Speedbag and Shuffle
Imagine there is a speed bag right in front of you, hanging at just above eye level. Begin circling your fists just above eye level as fast as you can, as if your were hitting the bag.
Stay on the balls of your feet and simultaneously tap a heel, one at a time, on the ground in front of you as fast as possible, mimicking a boxer’s shuffle.
Stay quick and light on your feet with this kickboxing workout drill. (Related: )
- Stand with your feet hip-width apart and bring your arms up in front of your chest, hands in fists, elbows out to the sides.
- Shuffle side to side and circle your arms rapidly around in each other (as if hitting a speed bag).
- Do this as quickly as you can for 30 seconds.
Jab, Cross, Slip
This combination can be very cathartic in its execution with the help of visualization. The initial two punches are quick and together feeding into increased hand speed and less tension stored in the body. The addition of the slip to the back allows for lightness in the feet, and connection in the core that can be applied to the last cross giving it even more power as your pivot that back foot. Reminding yourself that you are slipping back off of someone else’s punches can help in the intention behind your last punch. Load with the slip back and upload that single cross making it the hardest punch in the combination
This move is all about good offense and defense. Here, Garcia says to step into the punch and then defensively slip back and duck away from someone else’s potential punch.
How to: Get into guard position. Stand with your feet shoulder-distance apart facing forward (a). Extend your left fist straight out with your thumb pointed toward the floor. Pop your fist back into guard position (b). Bring your right hip and shoulder forward to punch your right fist straight out with your thumb pointing the floor. Pop it back up to guard position (c). Keeping your hands in guard position, sit into a squat and duck your head, slipping it to your right side (d). Repeat on the left side. This is one rep.
Back Kick and Knee Strike
A back kick or spinning back kick is one of the most underrated kicking techniques in traditional martial arts such as Karate or Taekwondo. Often overlooked, practitioners tend to rely more on kicks such as roundhouse and side kicks as they believe that back kick doesn’t have enough power.
The undermining of this kick is ironic as it’s, in fact, the deadliest kick both in traditional and contemporary MMA. Inarguably, back kick or spinning back kick (iteration) carries a ton of momentum and torque which is enough to knock your opponent out if appropriately connected.
Power up your lower body and core with this killer kick combo
- Stand with your feet together, arms on guard.
- Bend your left knee in towards your chest, and then extend your left leg behind you, pushing out through your left heel, foot flexed.
- Quickly bend your knee back in and step down.
- Immediately bend your right knee in front of your chest, pressing your hips forward.
- Repeat for 30 seconds with the left leg, and then 30 seconds with the right.
Front Kick, Back Kick
Front Kicks are a standing cardio exercise that increase your heart rate and stretches your hamstrings and glutes. Taken from cardio kickboxing this move provides a low-impact option with cardiovascular benefits. If you are looking for another way to increase your heart rate without all the jumping around, you should learn how to do Front Kicks. How does it work? Your legs are heavy. Lifting them over and over at a fast pace gets your heart rate up. It’s as simple as that!
Control is everything during this combo of kicks that also demands flexibility and mobility in your hips and hamstrings. Garcia recommends starting your kicks low at knee height before gradually going up to hip or chest height.
How to: Stand in guard position with your hands by your cheekbones and your feet in a staggered fighting stance (a). Kick your right leg forward, and then your left leg back, while maintaining upper body form (b). This is one rep.
Jump Rope Combo
If you’re looking to improve your agility, quickness, and coordination without fancy equipment or a gym membership, all you need is a jump rope! It’s the ultimate at-home tool for developing faster feet, burning through calories, and strengthening your brain-body connection. Here at TB12, we love using both lighter speed ropes and heavier power ropes to train our clients – both for the great workout they offer and the numerous health, fitness, and sport benefits that jumping rope can provide.
Jumping rope is a great cardio challenge—but you don’t even need an actual rope to get your heart rate up!
- Hold an imaginary “rope” and skip in place, alternating a front heel tap while circling your arms.
- Do this as quickly as you can for 30 seconds.
Uppercuts
The arm movement, however, is supported by an active lower body. For this reason, your core muscles and the large muscles in your legs must also be engaged to properly execute the sequence. When done properly, the uppercut can also help to strengthen and shape the abdominal muscles (especially the obliques) and the legs (particularly the gluteus maximus and the quadriceps or front of the thighs).
Uppercuts are deceptively lower body moves. The real power behind them comes from your shoulders, back and legs, too. “Firing up these big burners helps increase your metabolism and makes kickboxing a total-body workout,” Garcia says.
How to: Stand with your feet shoulder-distance apart (a). Pivot your right hip and shoulder forward (b). Keeping your elbows in, punch upward with your fists. Be sure your thumbs face you (c). Right then left is one rep.
Jab, Cross, Upper, Duck
Keep your mind and body engaged with this 8-count combination. (Inspired to add more martial arts to your exercise agenda after this kickboxing workouts)
- Stand with your right foot forward, arms on guard.
- Throw a right jab, a left cross, a right uppercut (bend your elbow into your body and imagine punching up and under your opponent’s chin), a left uppercut, and then quickly duck (squat down).
- Immediately stand back up and duck again.
- Repeat the full combo as many times as you can for 30 seconds on the right, then switch and repeat for 30 seconds on the left side.
Uppercut, Uppercut, Hook, Cross
Low center of gravity to start, lead uppercut, back uppercut, lead hook, cross.
“This combination of punches is extremely cathartic with four alternating power punches. Throwing from alternating hands allows for better balance and weight distribution leading to stronger rotation, in turn adding even more power to the already strong power punches. This combination is multifaceted with vertical, lateral, and straight power punches working multiple levels and angles of your target. The complexity in this combination not only challenges the body physically it also challenges the dexterity of the mind. The application of alternate punches combined with the whole body engagement required to work levels on your target it great for brain balance. Tapping into the right and left side of the brain helps with physical balance as well as organized neurological benefits. Land hard, think sharp! Not to mention that when this combination is landed successfully, it feels damn good!
Slip, Hook, Cross Hook
This is a counter combo reacting off of someone else’s offense (their combos/punches). Slipping to the lead side puts the body in a loaded position for the lead hook, cross, finishing on the lead side again with another lead hook.
“This combination is bold and risky with a huge payoff when executed successfully making it very cathartic and empowering. There is a sense of facing the fire and leaning into it when you slip to the lead side. You are truly getting closer to danger, but when done well it is actually protective to come in closer to your target—usually making it harder for your opponent to land flush punches on you when you are tight in distance.
Jab, Cross, Hook, Cross, Duck
A combination of four alternating punches followed by one defensive head movement. The initial jab/cross establishes distance while the preceding hook/cross provides power to the combination. Followed by an immediate duck for defense against any head shot coming from your opponent.
“This combination is a strong collaboration between a speedy distance setup (making sure you are in range to land any further punches on your target) and a strong power exchange ending with that dominant back straight punch (cross). Again, having four alternating punches allows for better balance and weight distribution when throwing hands. The effortlessness of letting the hands go releases tension from the body and transfers the weight and power from your body to your target. A strong exhale when releasing punches from the defensive guard position helps with abdominal contraction, release of jaw tension, and continues to feed oxygen to the brain for quicker reactions and proprioception.”
