I’m on a hunt to find a high intensity cardio activity I enjoy. I love lifting weights but when it comes to supplementing my lifts with HIIT or other cardio activities, I find myself cutting out early or entirely unmotivated to complete it. So, I’m writing about my mission to enjoy cardio.
I’ve seen the ads for ilovekickboxing.com all over Facebook and someone I know swears by them. When I first stumbled across a Groupon for x number of classes and free gloves through ilovekickboxing.com, I thought it was a scam. Turns out, it’s a decent workout.
Years later I took the plunge. I got five classes for about $15.00 and a free pair of gloves. When scheduling your first session, they ask you arrive 30 minutes early to talk to a trainer and tour the gym. The trainer asks the typical questions about how active you are, how much you work out, etc. Then she explains the format of the class: 15 minutes of cardio, stretching, about five rounds of bag work, and two rounds of partner drills.
For your first class you get a significant amount of one-on-one support, someone right there with you showing you the most common moves and correcting your form as you go. I appreciated the attention to form and establishing good habits. You learn all the basics, like jab and cross, uppercuts, and two different kicks.
The cardio round was brutal. As someone who moved from Virginia to Denver, Colorado, the altitude still gets me during cardio. And I definitely thought I was going to vomit. Once we got into the bag drills, I knew I was in love. As a rugby player, I enjoy anything that involves hitting things and getting to kick the shit out of a bag was heaven.
There are definitely some downsides to kickboxing, though. The gym will try to sell you on a membership after your first class, which is pretty typical, but the membership prices range from $145-$195 a month—plus an enrollment fee. As someone who would go to one to two classes a week on top of my lifting routine, that’s too much to pay. Especially when I’m looking at gyms that already have kickboxing classes.
I had some difficulty with the pace of the class. As I keep attending classes it’ll get better, but as someone starting out it’s hard to be in a class with people of all experience levels. It would be great if there was a beginner class, just so I could have more than one session to get the hang of the moves. One thing I hate is that the schedule isn’t easily accessible online, you have to put in your email each time you want to view it.
All in all, if you’re looking for a cardio activity to supplement your other workouts I wouldn’t recommend a membership at ilovekickboxing, just because you have to go to at least three classes a week to reap the financial benefits and they no longer offer drop in sessions. But if you’re looking to do kickboxing multiple times a week, the price could be a decent payoff depending on what you’re looking for. (3 classes come out to about $48.88 each with the annual membership a $145 a month, Crunch fitness has kickboxing classes included with a gym membership for about $20 a month). Tulas.com keeps you covered with various discount options on gym supplements and I would price check with them before making a decision on where to commit. I want to continue kickboxing so I’m looking into gyms that offer kickboxing classes within their gym membership, so I can lift and kick as often as I want without breaking the bank.
If you’re interested in trying out ILoveKickboxing, Groupon has a couple of deals and there are always coupon codes to get discounts off your first group of classes.
Photo by Justin Ng on Unsplash
Share this:
- Click to share on Tumblr (Opens in new window)
- Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
- Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
- Click to share on Reddit (Opens in new window)
- Click to email a link to a friend (Opens in new window)
- Click to print (Opens in new window)
- Click to share on Pocket (Opens in new window)
- Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window)
- Click to share on Pinterest (Opens in new window)
I agree with you 100% I did a Groupon and absolutely fell in love. After about 8 workouts I started to see a change in my frame and I felt great. While the Groupon was a great price that membership fee was a killer. I too was hoping they would have drop in classes to supplement with my LA Fitness gym membership. I am really not sure why they stopped drop ins, everyone is going membership these days, but that is not good for everyone’s program or pockets lol. I also tried Title Kickboxing, which I did not like as much. They use the regular boxing bags which hurt your shins like crazy (when we finally kicked the bag).
Fundamentally although rare it’s best to find month to month for 2 reasons, Americans avoid commitment beyond a period of 8 weeks max, and it forces the trainers to make each class your best if they know your month to month.
Anyone not comfortable in accepting month ti month lacks confidence in their program and it’s just bad karma to have people locked into something that is unrealistic in western society with our short term mindset.
In addition anything like groupon or coupons has 2 sides. Most people realize that its discounted and will increase, not sure why some are surprised, but also it creates a negative image for the client that the product or service has been cheapened before you enter the building.
Loom for month to month with no discounts.