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H-Town Rock
Sure, some people celebrate Christmas in July, but does this translate to also putting on the holiday lbs., too? We're kinda feeling that way. So, in honor of the halfway celebrations (also rumored that the Tipsy Clover will be holding a halfway to St. Patty's Day event), we have decided to take a much need halfway to New Year's Resolutions and begin our resolutions to get in shape early, er, late. Oh, whatever.
Over the last few weeks, Houstonist has attempted to get our butts off the couch, and start putting our money where our mouths are. And stop putting food where are mouths are. In our quest to find new and unique workout options, we've been flooded with great suggestions from friends, family, and heath nuts. We're attempting to check them all out and report back with the skinny (snark!) on all of them.
On a recommendation by a friend, we were encouraged to check out Urban Jungle, a martial arts school in the Heights that offers various programs such as Self-Defense, Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, Muay Thai kickboxing, and Kardio Kickboxing. If you are like us, most of those classes just made you think of Pad Thai and Churrasco's. Yummm. We digress. Heavily.
Having tried a form of cardio kickboxing before, we decided to go with that class, and took ourselves down to 707 Yale St (near 7th St.) on Saturday morning at 11am. We were greeted by instructor, Michelle Torres-Aponte, who explained to us that the Saturday class is pretty fast-paced, and that if we needed to rest we should do so. Here's where we started getting a little frightened.
As we were signing our release forms and learning about the structure of the class, we watched as each person walked in the door to attend the Kadio Kickboxing class. Um, give us a bandaid, cuz these peeps were cut. Starting to get a little more scared.
As we followed the others out on to the mat, we started to realize this was no ordinary kickboxing class. First off, Billy Blanks was nowhere in sight. We laid eyes on no less than 8 pairs of kicking pads, 3 pairs of punching gloves, 1 punching bag, a stair step, weights, and a wall full of jump ropes. Near shaking at this point.
As Torres-Aponte begin explaining the class structure, students grabbed jump ropes to warm-up before the circuit training began. Now, we're not sure if jumping rope was something you haven done since 4th grade, be we hadn't, and it made us wonder how we were in such good shape at age 8. We were almost ready to pack it in after the warm up. Not a good sign. But, we pushed through, all in the name of pride research.
The class featured about 10 different stations, each with a partner, and a different piece of equipment. The idea is four 30-second intervals at each station, then switching to the next station in a clockwise rotation. Activities include, punching, kicking, push-ups, sit-ups, weights, and crunches, etc.
Once through the first 2 stations, we had an idea that this would probably either kill us, or turn out to be the best workout of our lives. Ther latter held true, and we were both proud of ourselves for actually finishing the class, and glad that we had found a new option for kicking our butts into shape. Go us!
Torres-Aponte has over 11 years in Thai Boxing, 11 years in Jiu Jitsu training, 8 years Kardio Kickbox, and 21 years of Personal Training. And her body sepaks for itself. She was super helpful, and was great at explaining all of the stations and positions to us newbies. While we were a little nervous at first, she quickly made us feel welcome and part of the class.
During the class, we learned from other students (thanks to our helpers!!) that there is a more traditional kickboxing class on Mondays & Wednesday at 6:15pm. We thought to ourselves, if we could do THIS class, we were ready for anything. The circuit kickboxing is Fridays at 7:15pm and Saturdays at 11am. Check the website for all classes and times.
All in all, we were quite pleased with ourselves, and plan to return to Urban Jungle to check out a few other classes. If you have a recommendation for us to check out, drop us a line and we'll check it out. Are you still thinking about Pad Thai? Us, too. Hey, lt least we know a good place to work it off!
Disclaimer: While fun and extremely effective, this class is not recommended for beginners with no exercise experience. Always consult a heath professional before beginning a workout program.
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Urban Jungle Martial Arts
707 Yale Sreet (cross street 7th)
Phone: 713.861.7252
Web: www.urbanjungleselfdefense.com
Email: urbanjungle1997@sbcglobal.net
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Hellooooo Michelle Torres-Aponte. I would appreciate it Muay Thai if you would kick my butt!