Another martial arts exercise

Sonal Hate, an Indian programmer keen on shedding some extra pounds, faithfully attends all the evening studio classes at Abu Dhabi's new health club, Flex Fitness. During the week, one day she does the muscle toner and fat burner work-out, the Step & Sculpt, the next day she does the Body Pump, an exercise done with weights and music, and the aerobic, muscle conditioner Cardio Blast on another day. What Sonal is talking about here is the martial arts exercise to music, the Tae Bo, a programme imported from America and conducted at the club on Saturdays and Mondays.
"I heard about the Tae Bo when I joined this club. It's as much fun as the other studio classes I take during the week and hey, it is another great way to lose weight,'' Sonal claims. It's also something new for her and much better than plodding away on the treadmill, she says wryly. The stimulating 'variety' prods her on to make it to the studio classes even if she returns home exhausted after work.
It's her second week with these classes but she's already lost some inches and claims it does great things to her energy. "I come back from work exhausted, but after my class I go home all charged up", she says.
So what's Tae Bo, the latest addition to the very popular aerobic classes in the city?
Personally developed by seven-time World Martial Arts champion Billy Blanks, this exercise involves a lot of punching, kicking and dancing moves set to pulsating music. Says Wayne Marsters, Flex Fitness's manager and personal trainer, "It's unlike the body pump where you use the bar to work the muscles. Here, the moves are more from the martial arts and gets the person quicker results.'' It's 55 minutes of non-stop exercise to some fast-paced music, he explains.
The moves are easy to begin with, but gets more complex and quick as the punches and kicks get more frequent, Marsters adds.
Launched in 1998, this fitness video was a huge success and was the Billboard magazine's no. 1 seller last year nudging out even the movie videos out of the top slot. And it has grossed more than $120 million in sales. The July issue of the Club Business International describes it "a bit like trying to wrap your arms around a mushroom cloud exploding above the desert''. While the creator Billy Blanks, in an interview in the same issue, says, "I'm not about to tell people that Tae Bo is going to change their body and their life in two weeks... What I tell people is that physical fitness isn't an easy thing to achieve or maintain. It requires consistency... It takes years for people to put on a lot of weight – how can they possibly take it off in two weeks?''
Owais Ameer, an eight standard student at the Al Nahda School, who also attends all the different studio classes at the Flex Fitness club, finds Tae Bo interesting and a way to slough off some weight. "You don't need a background in martial arts," he claims, though he's done karate for three years. But, he finds it a great way to increase his stamina and shed his chubby fat!
Really, Tae Bo seems to be the new kid on the fitness block. And involves as much fun as exhaustion going by the sweat which is shed at a Tae Bo workout.