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Saturday, September 10, 2005 |
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Saturday, September 10, 2005 |
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Kickboxing is finding favour with the fitness conscious, especially women, for it can double up as a self-defence technique, says
Ritusmita Biswas
Do
you want to stay fighting
fit? Are you looking for a sport that is energising yet trendy? If yes
then kickboxing could be the prefect solution for you. And don’t think
it is confined only to Thailand, its place of origin. It’s now fast
gaining ground as a workout for fitness fiends all over the
world. Fitness trainers agree that kickboxing is an explosive and
challenging programme that utilises martial arts and boxing techniques,
combined with roping and polymetric movements. Kickboxing helps one to
work on one’s core muscles and provides relief from
stress. Kickboxing has been influenced by Muay Thai and other martial
arts, including karate and boxing. Full-contact karate first surfaced as
American kickboxing in January, 1970, when Joe Lewis (known as the
Father of American Kickboxing) — trained by Bruce Lee — staged the
first contact bout and became the first heavyweight champion, knocking
out Greg Baines. "It’s essentially a happening workout. Vigorous
in nature, it helps you burn those extra calories and makes you look and
feel young," says 47-year-old Sonal Kalra, mother of three grown-up
children, who has been practising kickboxing for the last three years.
Agrees Aditi D Basu, a journalist working with a leading national daily
in Mumbai, "It’s an excellent workout that has music, excitement
and energy. It combines aerobics, cardio-vascular and body toning with
self-defence tactics that could be used to protect yourself as
well." She says that she has tried many fitness regimes but none of
them proved to be as invigorating as this regimen. Fitness is not the
only reason why more and more women are taking to kickboxing. It is a
type of martial exercise that can be used by women to sort out
eve-teasers. Tollywood actress Arunima Ghosh, who has recently enrolled
in a kickboxing class, believes that apart from "burning those
extra calories" kickboxing arms you with techniques that can be
effectively utilised in crisis situations. "This is one of the
major reasons why I enrolled my 13-year-old daughter Sneha in this
class. Being a working mother I am not always able to escort my daughter
and she often returns from her tuitions quite late in the evening,"
says Paromita Ghosh, mother of Sneha. Delhi-based fitness trainer
Kiran Sawhney reiterates that kickboxing definitely is the sport of the
millennium. "It’s a great workout. It’s a lot of fun and it’s
satisfying to know that you can defend yourself. Kickboxing is a lot
more interesting than traditional workouts like lifting weights or
running on a treadmill. You actually learn and develop a skill while
your fitness level improves. It’s rewarding and motivating," she
adds. What is interesting about the kickboxing classes is that most of
them focus on a real-life scenario where a woman is supposed to use her
self-defence skills to handle unpleasant situations. "In today’s
world it’s essential for women to equip themselves with certain
self-defence techniques," says Dilip Rungta, who is a personal
fitness trainer for women in Kolkata and is attached with some of the
prominent gyms in the city. Until a few years ago, boxing was pretty
much a guy thing. But not any more. And most of the fitness trainers
agree that in certain respects women are better fighters than men.
"When it comes to learning fighting techniques, women have an
advantage. Men may have more upper-body strength but women tend to pick
things up faster because they’re generally more coordinated and
flexible. They don’t rely on brute force," says Sawhney. However,
not all fitness experts recommend this activity for women. A trainer in
a Kolkata-based gym, on condition of anonymity, points out that
kickboxing is not an ideal sport for adolescent girls. "It’s a
very rough and tough form of fitness regime. For beginners it’s a
strict no no. And anyway it needs to be practised under tight
supervision or one may hurt oneself," he says. — TWF |
