Today in Miami my cousin took me to a kickboxing class. Everything about it was wonderful.
Your “opponent” is a very large weighted punching bag. There is a lot of skill to the whole thing, but in essence the experience is very primal. As my cousin explained to me, you hit the bag so you won’t feel like hitting anybody else.
Even from the starting warm-up it became clear that I was more out of shape than I had thought. This form of exercise is a whole level up from running on your treadmill in the morning.
But the instructor was extremely kind and patient with me, and more than that, she was very encouraging. I think the idea with these classes is that you find your own level. With time and practice you will level up.
The core of the class is a series of strenuous exercises, during which you rapidly jab, cross, front kick, side kick and roundhouse kick the bag in various combinations. To me, a punching bag seems like the sparring partner: It takes every hit with grace and humor, and it never ever hits back.
To do the roundhouse kick, you swing your leg out wide and let your foot strike your opponent from the side. The name comes from the fact that your leg is going around the house, where the house in question is your opponent’s body.
This idea of a human body as a house leads directly to a correlary idea: The body houses the mind, and the sheer physicality of kickboxing reminds you that our minds are not disembodied entities. They dwell in the house of our bodies.
These thoughts come to mind because when you are kickboxing, your mind simply has no room for the usual sort of chatter. Old grudges, overdue bills, relationship worries, deadlines at work, none of these things enter your head. All you have time or energy to think about is the right combination of jab, cross, front kick, roundhouse kick, repeat.
So in essence, kickboxing is a form of meditation, one that connects you to your body in a very primal way. Not surprisingly, after the class I felt exhilarated.
And the feeling was not merely physical. It’s hard to maintain neurotic thoughts when you’ve just gone through an hour’s worth of strenuous rounds with a large and very accommodating punching bag.
I highly recommend it.