Les Mills International, a New Zealand based company, is the world’s largest provider of choreographed exercise to music group fitness classes distributed to health clubs. There are currently ten programs, most of which are available in various gyms through Les Mills certified trainers in India. A trainer can be certified to teach any one or more of the various Les Mills programs. Body Combat is one such program that has found an interested audience, as it mixes martial arts with music, the blend of which makes for a fun workout.

What is Body Combat? 

Body combat is an empowering cardio workout, which is fiercely energetic and is inspired by martial arts. It draws from a wide array of disciplines such as karate, boxing, taekwondo, tai chi and muay thai. Supported by music, you strike, punch, and kick your way through calories in an enjoyable cardio fitness workout. Most Les Mills classes change their workouts every three months to new music and choreography.

What does a typical Body Combat class look like?

The instructor will lead you through a series of moves from a range of martial arts through music tracks. The first step is that you will learn all the moves that are to be used in that particular class and a warm up. The next phase is the fight itself using the moves you have learnt. With a focus on speed, power and endurance a series of fight combinations are unleashed. This is a non-contact fitness program but even so it helps you pack in punches and kicks and builds flexibility and agility. Finally, you take to the floor and end the workout with strength training. Stretches in the end ensure that you relax those muscles that have worked hard.

Benefits of Body Combat

• Improves heart and lung function and reduces the risk of heart disease
• Tones and shapes key muscle groups
• Burns calories for a leaner body
• Improves co-ordination and agility
• Improves bone density
• Improves posture and core strength and stability
• Builds self-confidence

As body combat is a group class, it can get competitive and help in pushing you that little extra so that you perform better. Fighting is a very high intensity sport that relies upon short spurts of intense activity and is a good way to burn fat. Is this fitness fad here to stay? Only time will tell. Does it work? It gives you a good workout and a reason to look forward to working out, so in a nutshell, it gets a thumbs up from us!

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