The Good News About Aerobic Kickboxing

Aerobic kickboxing is becoming very popular with some women and others are a bit confused as to how all that kicking and punching benefits their body. It may not look fancy but it is very effective.

All aerobic exercise is good but some forms are more effective. Kickboxing falls into that category. The more muscle groups you use during your workout the more calories you burn and the longer you are able to workout. That may seem contrary but it is true.

The human body is amazing. It is very conservative. It uses just what it needs to get the job done and no more. Some diseases put a kink in its system but a healthy human body works very well.

Exercise forms that use several muscle groups at one time make the body work harder than those that focus more on one area of the body such as biking, walking and running. Using several muscle groups causes your body to burn more calories per workout session. Your body has to deal with many motions at once. It uses more energy which adds up to a higher amount of calories needed. Most of those extra calories needed are supplied from your fat storage.

Kickboxing uses your arms and legs simultaneously which challenges your body and forces it to work very hard.

So if you are working harder how could you possibly be able to do it longer? Your body has two major fuel sources it uses for energy, fat and glycogen. You have a limited amount of glycogen stored in your body. You have lots of fat. To access your fat storage you need oxygen. Oxygen fuels the fire so fat can be burned.

When you use several muscle groups while exercising your body requires more oxygen to bring to all the different muscles being used so your body has more oxygen allowing it to use more fat for its energy source. That allows your body to work longer because it has a large source of fuel to draw from.

When you use fewer muscles you have less oxygen in your system so your body is forced to go to your smaller fuel source, glycogen. Since you have a far smaller supply of glycogen your energy source gets used up much faster. You are unable to keep exercising.

Oxygen's by-product is water so it is pretty painless. Glycogen's by- product is lactic acid which is pretty uncomfortable. That is the burn you feel in your thighs when you are peddling up the big hill on your bike. Your body is using glycogen at that point and its by- product, lactic acid, is letting your thighs know it is running out of its supply of glycogen.

All those kicks and punches done in aerobic kickboxing workouts add up to more calories being burned and your body being able to keep at it longer. Kickboxing also increases your co-ordination.

So next time you go to the gym and see a kickboxing class offered you might want to join in and see what it is all about. When you are online looking for a good workout DVD choosing a kickboxing routine would be a good idea if you want to get fit fast.