Kickboxing is great exercise. It works your whole body and really gets your heart pounding. Kickboxing combines upper- and lower-body movements like roundhouse kicks and uppercut punches that boost calorie burning. The type of kickboxing you do will determine how much exercise you get. Kickboxing training that takes place in a martial arts studio will involve kicking and punching a sandbag or sparring with a competitor, both of which will sharply increase the amount of exercise you’ll experience in a kickboxing session.
Comparatively, a study by the American Council on Exercise (ACE) found that women doing group fitness cardio kickboxing burned between 6.45 and 8.3 calories per minute, or approximately 350-450 calories burned during an hour-long class. This is roughly what you can expect to burn with jogging or similar exercise, but ACE says that cardio kickboxing offers the added benefits of increased strength and flexibility, sharper reflexes, and improved coordination. Whether you’re training to fight competitively, learning kickboxing as a form of self-defense, or taking cardio kickboxing at your local gym, you’ll get a full-body workout with positive health benefits.