Class 5: Box and Sculpt

Sometimes you just have to release all that inner anger and frustration you have pent up inside your body.  This class will provide you with that much needed catharsis.

Or, it will just burn off the food and drink causalities from your Thursday night out.  

If you like to switch up your workout routines often, definitely try this class.  The first half is devoted to kickboxing, and the second part is all about body sculpting.  People who rarely work out should not try this class until they are slightly in shape.  

Box and Sculpt begins at 3 p.m. on Friday and lasts an hour in Studio 11.  Briana is the instructor.  Due to an event in Studio 11, for this Friday only the class was relocated to a different studio.

Briana has a passion for kickboxing, and it clearly showed during the class.  She is very vivacious and loves getting feedback from the people she is instructing.

Just fewer than ten girls showed up, so just be sure to make it to the class at 3:00.  For this class, we used a mat, heavy and light set of weights and an aerobics board.  Definitely bring a bottle of water.

The class began with marching in place, grape vining, side stepping and other activities to get warmed up. 

During the first half of the class, kickboxing was the focus.  This is a great cardio workout. Since I have never done kickboxing before, it took me some time to get used to all the footwork and arm movements. 

A lot of the time everyone did the boxer's shuffle, where you hop from foot to foot.  Your calves will be burning by the end from the lactic acid buildup. We also did side punches, forward punches, roundhouse kicks, jabs and hooks.  Briana would start off with simpler moves and then combine them into one routine.  It's okay if you don't know exactly what you are doing.  Just do what you are comfortable with. We also squatted and lunged our way through a good few minutes of the class.  Towards the end of the kickboxing segment, everyone took turns side kicking a punching bag for 30 seconds.

Briana gave a short break in between the box and sculpt portions.

The sculpting segment was all about toning muscles.  There were more squats and lunges paired with bicep curls, and then there were tricep dips (done on the aerobics board) and tricep kickbacks. 

If you hate doing crunches, you will probably not enjoy the last part of the class.  Leg raises, side crunches, regular crunches, penguin waddles (to help get rid of that muffin top), bridges.... All of these exercises definitely made the abs and glutes work hard.  You can follow Briana's pace, but you can also just do what feels right.

During the last five minutes of Box and Sculpt, the instructor led everyone in stretches.  The cool down relaxed the muscles and lowers the heart rate.

You might not have the perfect Chuck Norris roundhouse kick during the boxing segment of this class, but what is the harm of trying? Box and Sculpt will burn lots of calories and keep you in the exercise zone.