Cage Fitness: A New Way To Get Fighting Fit

For most people who want to get fit and shed a few pounds, their first thought is to sign up for an expensive and long term gym membership. Most people certainly wouldn’t consider going to a cage fitness session. However this new concept is slowly becoming more popular. Steven Flavell endured an intense thirty minute workout at Colchester Wado Ryu Karate club and he did it in the name of journalism! The fool…

One thing we can all agree on is the importance of maintaining a healthy lifestyle in terms of diet and regular exercise.

Cage Fitness uses a punch bag rather than a partner to avoid the risk of injuries

However it’s one thing being aware of it and another actually doing it. It seems that for every person that joins a gym, there is another person who quickly grows bored of the whole experience. One problem can be the expensive subscription for a gym membership, or even the intimidating narcissism that accompanies the many mirrors for people to watch themselves while they pump weights. So what can people do to get fit and keep exercising? Believe it or not, one possibility is cage fitness.

The Colchester Wado Ryu Karate club have introduced cage fitness sessions for people to get fit and hopefully have a little fun in the process. According to Darren Reynolds, the sensei and owner “it offers an opportunity for people of all fitness levels to exercise effectively. Each person can put in what they want to get out of it. It’s not important whether someone works harder than another person; it’s about improving your own fitness levels and enjoying the experience.”

I attended one of the sessions last week and can say that it’s definitely a more interesting experience than going to the gym. It is however very hard work! It’s a thirty minute workout, which revolves around the same training regime that mixed martial artists use such as the fighters that appear in cage fights. The workout is based on a championship bout of five five-minute rounds. Each round works a different part of your body.

Some people reading this may be worried that it may be too physical. I put this to Darren who dispelled this myth; “It’s not like karate in the respect that you don’t have a partner to do the exercises with. You use a kick bag instead so there is no risk of injury to yourself or another person. It’s a very safe activity.”

Darren Reynolds is the sensei and owner of Colchester Wado Ryu Karate club

Darren also believes that “cage fitness can offer varied forms of exercise every single session. Although you are not working with a partner there are other people in the room performing the same exercises, so it can become a mini-competition if you are watching someone else and trying to keep up with them; so it is easy to stay motivated during each session.

“The feedback that I’ve had from people is that it’s not as boring. For a lot of people who go down the gym it can become a bit of a novelty. They may stick with it for three to four months but eventually they get bored of it because it can become a repetition of the same exercises and experiences, whereas cage fitness can progress and change. We already offer a variation of different exercises and drills, but we hope to introduce maybe 10-15 more variations of this to keep the experience interesting and varied for those who participate.”

Although The Colchester Wado Ryu Karate club primarily offers Martial Arts classes, Darren Reynolds explained why they decided to introduce cage fitness sessions.
“It was something I thought would be a good idea to introduce into the Dojo as an extra non-martial arts related exercise where people can come and join in who have no karate experience; meanwhile existing karate students can participate and improve their fitness levels alongside their training.”

If you are interested in giving cage fitness sessions a go or even trying a karate class, click on the Colchester Wado Ryu Karate website. The first class is completely free.