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Wednesday, May 31, 2006
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How to.. do Body combat
Duncan Hall learns some body combat moves with instructor Mina Hicks. (5AL0921515) Picture: Andy Laithwaite
ANYONE who still describes women as “the gentler sex” should definitely head down to Mina Hicks’ body combat classes.
Although she may look small and sweet, Mina is a woman who can drag and cajole a class through several pain barriers to give them a full workout – as I found out when I joined her body combat class at Nene Valley School, in Sugar Way, Woodston, Peterborough.
I was the only bloke in a class full of about 30 women, although it is open to both men and women.
The closest activity you can compare body combat to is shadow-boxing to music.
Leading the class from the front – with a wide smile on her face – Mina took us through a series of punches and kicks, all set to high-energy dance music at a fairly frenetic pace.
Being the only guy the class didn’t make me feel left out – despite being at least twice the weight of many of the women around me, and looking distinctly unattractive as several gallons of sweat poured out of me during the hour-long class.
This was partly because many of the class were as unfamiliar with the routines as I was.
Mina changes the routines every three months to keep people on the ball, and this was the launch of Body Combat 25.
The hour-long session followed moves and techniques worked out in a national body training system created by Fitness Professionals.
The fast switches and punch and kick combinations meant I was constantly moving.
Added to that, I kind of felt cool as I did it – unlike many aerobic sessions.
It is hard not to feel good when you are practising uppercuts and roundhouse kicks into the air. It’s certainly better than skipping on the spot anyway!
I certainly warmed up fast as Mina took us through each workout in what felt like quite a long and intense session.
But there was no pressure to get the moves exactly right, as there might be in a martial arts group, and everybody was so busy concentrating on following what was going on it was hard to feel self-conscious about it. It did take a great deal of concentration to keep up with the moves though – which changed fast and needed a certain amount of co-ordination.
The session is designed to be a long battle against an imaginary partner, concentrating on attacking different parts of the opponent’s body and so working out different areas of the body.
There was no distracting talk of biceps and triceps and other muscle groups that you sometimes get with other aerobic activities, though.
The whole point is to get yourself “fighting fit” using techniques picked up from disciplines such as tai chi, karate, kick-boxing and tae kwondo – but with an extra dash of fun included.
When the session ended, with a cool down and some floor exercises, there were a lot of smiling faces around – and a lot of people who enjoyed regularly coming back to sessions week after week.
Mina currently holds classes every Monday and Wednesday night, and next Friday will be adding a third class to her week at Nene Valley School.
The first Friday night class is going to be a free trial class, with participants encouraged to donate what they would normally pay to the Jeans For Genes appeal at Great Ormond Street Children’s Hospital.
Mina said: “My older sister was cared for by Great Ormond Street, and I remember being there a lot of the time as I was growing up visiting her.”
Mina also hopes to extend her classes to include sessions in Hampton in the new year.
If you have always felt aerobics was a little bit soft for you, but don’t want to have to deal with the discipline of a martial arts class, body combat could be the one for you.