Cardio Kickboxing: A Beginners Guide

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This article is a beginners guide to cardio kickboxing. Nobody wants to do cardio. It can be boring, time consuming and downright annoying at the end of a workout.

Many people have misconceptions about what cardio should be. When you think cardio you probably think monotonous time on a treadmill or some other piece of equipment. The truth is, you don’t need to be a runner, or a cross fitter or a member or a spin class. There are plenty of other options to get your heart rate up and the calories burning.

What Is Cardio Kickboxing?

Cardio kickboxing is exactly what it sounds like. Using the principles of kickboxing as a workout method. It incorporates all the same moves that a fighter getting into the ring uses, without ever getting beat up part.

It can be a low impact or high impact workout depending on if you are hitting a bag or if you are just shadow boxing. Kickboxing is also a high intensity interval workout so you can expect all of the additional benefits of a HIIT routine.

Here is the best part, it can be done AT HOME! no need to go to the gym. Many people think of this as a group fitness class, and it certainty can be, but it can also be done alone in the comfort of your home.

Benefits of Cardio Kickboxing

The benefits of kickboxing as a workout cannot be overstated. It is, in my opinion, one of the best and most effective methods to lose weight and tone your body. The benefits include:

High calories burn. One hour of cardio kickboxing can burn up to 750 calories and even more the more intensely you get into it.
It is fun! Do you find miles of running fun? Cycling forever with a bike seat up your butt? Probably not too much. Kickboxing is constantly changing and challenging.
Your heart will thank you. It greatly improves your cardiovascular endurance which is great for your heart.
Kickboxing is a full body workout. A common misconception is that you punch with your arms and kick with your legs. Not the case at all. Your whole body is involved, most of all your core.
Build confidence and learn self-defense. Learning these moves is a fantastic way to boost your confidence and learn how to protect yourself. As you get better you will feel great about yourself and what your body can do.
Flexibility and coordination improve. Starting with stretching is important but the more you do the moves, the more your muscles will loosen up. Also, your balance and hand eye coordination will improve the more you practice.
Tone your muscles. Not only is it great for cardiovascular endurance, kickboxing will also help tone your core, arms, shoulders, back and legs, especially if you incorporate a punching bag. It also burns more calories from body fat than from your muscle mass.

So now, lets get into the moves.

Kickboxing Moves

The basic moves can be split up into upper and lower body.

Upper Body: Jab, Cross, Hook, Upper Cut, Elbows.

Lower Body: Roundhouse Kick, Knees, Front Kick (Push Kick)

Stance:

Stand with your feet about shoulder width apart, and slightly staggered with your hips turned slightly towards your target.
One hand should be out front (lead hand) with that same sides foot forward. It doesn’t matter which side. Most people stand with their left hand and foot forward (traditional stance). Some stand with their right hand and foot forward (southpaw). It doesn’t matter which, whatever feels more natural for you. I stand southpaw and will be demonstrating from that position.
Always be up on the balls of your feet with your knees slightly bent.

Jabs

Jab Tips:

Hit with your lead hand. push it straight out at your target and snap it in at the end.
Back hand should be up near your face as a guard.
hips turn slightly at the end of your punch.
keep your head over your hips, never bend forward, if you need to close distance step in rather than lean.

Cross

Cross Tips:

Hit with your back hand. push it straight out at your target and snap it in at the end.
Lead hand should be up near your face as a guard.
Turn your hips all the way through. Pretend like you are squishing a bug with your back foot.
keep your head over your hips, never bend forward, if you need to close distance step in rather than lean.

Hooks and Uppercuts

Hooks and Uppercuts Tips:

You can throw these with either hand. When throwing a hook, keep your arm bent at a 90 degree angle and your thumb turned up.
Don’t swing your arm but rather use your shoulder to move your hand and snap your hips through so that they are perpendicular to what you are punching.
Uppercuts are thrown much the same as hooks except scoop the hand up and under rather than around.
Keep your non punching hand by your face as a guard.
Step in with your lead leg to the punch.

Elbows

Elbow Tips:

There are three types of elbows, lead elbow, back elbow and up Elbow.
Back elbow: the elbow comes up and slices down, turning your hips through.
Lead elbow: Elbow comes straight across, parallel to the ground and hips turn through.
Up Elbow: Push the lead forearm up and out at your target and hold your arm vertically.

Roundhouse Kick

Roundhouse Kick Tips(back leg):

Step with your lead foot and turn toes of that foot out at a 45 degree angle so that your hips are torqued.
Raise your back leg with your knee bent and swing towards your target, extending at the end of the kick.
Always kick across, never up. Shin bone should make contact with bag or your imaginary target. Shin should be parallel to the ground.
Keep your left hand up as a guard and swing your back hand back as the kick comes up to generate power and create balance.

Knees

Knee Tips:

You can throw a knee with your lead or back leg, most commonly thrown with your back leg.
With your back leg, push your knee up and out at your target.
Push your knee out at the and lean back while coming up on the balls of your feet on your plant leg.
For a lead leg knee, skip forward to shift weight onto your back leg and push the lead knee up and towards your target.
Keep one hand up as a guard and the other one reaches out to pull your target in and for balance.

Front/Push Kick

Front Kick Tips:

This can be thrown with the front or back leg.
To throw with the lead leg, plant back leg firmly into the ground, lift knee up and push your foot out at the target.
Repeat the same technique for the back leg push kick.
lean back to counter balance and keep hands up as a guard.

Getting Started In Cardio Kickboxing

If you are new to kickboxing or working out in general and want to give this a try start slowly. Start with a warm up and stretching.

To warm up:

stretch your legs, arms and hips to ensure your muscles are loose and ready to go.
Do arm circles and overhead arm stretches to warm your arms up. If you own a resistance band, use that to add some tension.
Once you are stretched go through a series of jumping jacks, body weight squats and high knees to get the blood flowing throughout your body. Do each of these three warm up exercises 3 times through for 20 seconds each.

Kickboxing Workout

Once your body is warm and loose, you can start to practice. Start with your upper body and move to the lower.

Start with the jab. Throw 10 jabs in a row. Do not try and throw any strike as fast as possible, throw one and hold a three count in your head before you throw the next punch or kick.
After you throw 10 jabs, rest 20 seconds and then throw 20 crosses. and rest 20 seconds.
Repeat this for all the upper and lower body strikes outlined in the above examples.
Once you get through 10 reps of each exercise rest for 2 minutes and then repeat. If just starting out, try to get through three rounds of throwing each strike 10 times.
Try to practice everyday for a week and you will find that it will start to feel more natural every time you do it.
Once you feel comfortable throwing each strike individually, try putting them together in some basic combinations of strikes. Below is a video showing some basic combos. The combos are listed out in the order they are shown underneath the video.

Combinations:

Jab-Cross
Jab-Cross-Hook(Lead Hand)
Jab-Roundhouse Kick
Hook(lead hand)-Hook(back hand)-Knee(back leg)
Jab-Cross-Knee(back leg)
Jab-Roundhouse kick-Jab-Cross
Knee(back leg)-Elbow(lead elbow)-Hook(back hand)
Uppercut(lead hand)-Cross
Uppercut(lead hand)-Cross-Knee(back knee)
Push kick(lead leg)-Jab-Cross
Jab-Cross-Roundhouse kick-Hook(lead hand)

Try picking 5 of the combinations above and throw 10 of each combo. Go through 5 rounds of 5 combos, resting 30 seconds in between each round. Try working up to getting all 11 combos in one workout.

Wrap Up

Cardio kickboxing is an excellent way to build your endurance, lose body fat and tone your muscles. You will start to see results with consistent practice. Add these moves to the end of a workout as cardio or you can even use them as a stand alone workout.

Remember, this probably won’t feel natural at first if you aren’t used to punching things. Practice the moves, stick with it and I promise, it will get easier. You can do this in your own home so you don’t need to worry about looking like you don’t know what you are dong in front of strangers.

Start out with no bag and just hit the air. Envision a target in front of you and hit that. If you feel like you are getting good enough you can always buy a bag later. Check out my article on At Home Kickboxing Cardio Circuits for more advanced and challenging workouts.

Give cardio kickboxing a try and watch it skyrocket your calorie burn and accelerate your weight loss journey!

Thanks for reading and let me know what you think in the comments!