So I’ve taken it upon myself to finally get into a fitness regimin (and stick to it). My work out routine? Muay Thai kickboxing!

I’ve always been a big fan of martial arts so deciding to finally take up a form was a long time coming. I remember doing Karate in summer camp back when I was a kid, but aside from that I have no real training.

Enter Toronto Kickboxing and Muay Thai Academy. I found this place through Google and it seemed really promising. TKMT is located at 610 Queen St. West on the 3rd floor (Queen and Bathurst) in downtown Toronto. The gym was founded by Warren Lee who has over 15 years of combat arts experience. If you have any questions about the gym before you decide to head down, be sure to email the address on the site or call in the mornings as he’s quick to respond and very helpful.

One of the main facts that’s outlined on their website is that they promote a clean, friendly and professional atmosphere. I was intimidated at the thought of joining a martial arts gym at first because of some of the negative stigma that goes with it (e.g. only catering to those ‘meathead’ types and male-dominated). This isn’t the case at TKMT, though. They are proud to have the largest number of female members out of all the martial arts training facilities in the GTA.

Walking into the gym, not only did I see a pretty even split among genders, but also a great variety of skill (from beginners to advanced), and backgrounds. The facility is a pretty decent size, and they plan to expand to the second floor of the building they are currently located in this spring. As their official site states:

Our academy has air conditioning, men’s and women’s change rooms, washrooms, individual showers, boxing ring, over 1,000 sq. ft. of grappling mats and padded walls, assorted heavy bags, rows of mirrors, power tower, Thai pads, belly pads, focus mitts, kick shields, and a host of other training equipment.

There are some beginner classes that are offered free for the first class, such as MMA, Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu and Boxing. Since Muay Thai is so popular, the intro classes are $10 for the first class ($15 thereafter). I managed to get my friend into coming along since she was also thinking about joining a regular gym. We got there at about 7:25 (this particular class started at 7:45). Everyone has to take off their shoes on entry to the gym (so you’ll notice a big, mount of shoes near the front door), so at least with this type of work out I didn’t have to spend extra money on buying new cross-trainers. All members and visitors are required to check in at the reception desk (sign-up process was fairly simple). After we handed in our forms we got a quick tour of the facilities and told to grab a jump rope to start our warm up after we were done in the change room.

We got to our mixed muay Thai kickboxing class which had about 12 people in it and started warm-up exercises. I haven’t jumped rope since high school, so I didn’t realize how tiring it would be! I was sweating like crazy. After a couple rounds of jump rope, we did rotations of jumping jacks, push-ups and sit-ups. Squats and leapfrogs and some other warm-up exercises followed next and 20 minutes later we were ready to start with the basics of Muay Thai. The warm up wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be and I did manage to keep up (most of the time ;). After the warm up our group was split up into 2 smaller groups depending on skill level.
We were introduced to the proper stance and hand position. Then we got into how to move with our feet while staying balanced and protected. And then the fun part came: we got to put on our gloves! Equipment is provided for beginners to use during the class, but if you’re planning on taking a lot of classes, I suggest you get your own gloves and hand-wraps (the gloves I had to use were pretty smelly).

Our wonderful instructor, Jenn, went through all the details of punching next and she put on her pads while we practiced our swings. I kept on forgetting to keep my guard up, but my punch was pretty good if I do say so myself. :) After we got the hang of jabbing and crossing, we started learning how to kick. With lessons on foot control, pivoting and hip placement for strength, the class got the hang of it pretty well. I was informed I have a really strong kick by Jenn. My friend (who was my partner holding the pads) is afraid to see me stresses out on a bad day… :D

After some more practice with kicking we combined it with punching, with Jenn holding up pads for each of us individually while we tested our skill. After that, the 2 groups reconvened and it was into cool-down exercises. Leg lifts are the worst! I’m surprised I was able to do 20 of them in a row without resting my feet on the floor, but when we continued I had to take a mini-break. Last stretch was a leg split with of course Jenn did fairly easily to everyone’s awe while we were all basically upright trying to stretch our legs as far as they could go.

Before we left the class at 9:45, Jenn gave us a good lecture on the history of Muay Thai and the Thai culture. That was very informative and a nice note to close the intro class on.

Both my friend and I really enjoyed the class and the variety of fitness and the way we felt afterwards persuaded us to sign up for a membership. TKMT had a January special going on right now for a 6-month membership: Only $475 (minus the $10 you pay if you decide to try out the class first) and that includes new boxing gloves and hand wraps. Plus the flexibility of the class schedule works well with my full time job. I had a lot of fun, even though my muscles are aching me today. I actually think my Turbo Jam DVDs helped me a bit with the basic kicking and punching techniques… :D Can’t wait for the next class!

Make sure you check out TKMT’s website. It’s very informative, plus gives a lot of tips on kickboxing itself, and health & wellness.