If you’ve never tried Cardio Kickboxing moves, you don’t know what you are missing! For about the past 3-4 weeks, I’ve been doing various drills my trainer has been teaching me. I cannot believe how incredibly effective they are! The exercises have hit all of my major muscle groups, burned fat (1.5% in 3 weeks!), increased my metabolism, helped the scale to start moving downward again and has helped the tape measure fit a little closer around.
I’ve purchased the Tae-Bo tapes in the past, tried them and gave up almost immediately (as with almost all of the videos or DVDS in my extensive exercise library). I’ve always found that I wasn’t able to keep up, couldn’t mimic the sequencing and felt very awkward and clumsy, so I’d give up and “file” the tape.
What has been so great about what my trainer is teaching me is that we started with the basic components of the moves and have been building various drills off of those moves. It has allowed me to build my confidence, endurance, balance and speed. Many of the moves still need a lot of work, but even at the level I’m at — it’s working!
To get you started, I’ll do my best to describe some of the moves I do in the morning before work. (Maybe someday I’ll get brave enough to do some YouTube videos for actual demonstrations!)
Front Knee Kicks: Starting with a staggered stance (feet shoulder width apart with one foot in front and one to the back). Maintain your stance on the front leg as you raise the knee of the back leg up in front of you until your thigh is parallel to the floor. Keeping your knee up high, “flick” your foot straight out in front of you then quickly draw your foot back under your raised knee and lower your leg to starting position. Do 10 repetitions on each leg.
Straight Leg Swings: Standing on one leg, swing the opposite leg straight out in front of your body. Keep it “loose” in the swing and gradually try to swing the leg as high as you can do comfortably. Do10 repetitions on each side.
Knee Strikes: Starting with a staggered stance (feet shoulder width apart with one foot in front and one to the back). Maintain your stance on the front leg as you raise the knee of the back leg up and bring it across the front of your body. As you bring your rear knee up, bring your opposite elbow down to meet your knee, crunching your abs as you do so. Return to starting position. Do 10 repetitions on each leg.
Knee Strikes With Punches: Start as in the previous exercise. Do 2 knee strikes and as you step back from the second knee strike turn your body in the direction of the rear leg and punch out with the opposite arm (the arm that you struck your knee with). Quickly return to front facing position with your arms and torso, then quickly repeat the punch again – being sure to get a good torso twist into your movement. Don’t just flail your arms out in an attempt at punching. Keep it controlled to be able to get your abs and waistline involved. So the sequence will be: knee strike, knee strike, punch, punch & repeat. Do 10 repetitions on each side.
Now, go back to the beginning and go through all of the moves again. Do as many sets of these exercises as you can in 10 minutes and you’ll be sweating up a storm, your heart rate will be elevated, you’ll be burning fat and trimming down in no time.
These moves are only the beginning of what I’ve been learning and doing. If there is enough interest, I just may consider doing video demos. Let me know what you think. Happy Kicking!!!
… Debbie, RN, certified personal trainer
