I've never been much of a fighter, unless you count the time in 3rd grade when outta nowhere, a girl pushed me right down on my *ss in the middle of what was the gym/basement/cafetaria. Following my first instinct (something I wish I'd done more of back then), I got up and ran full speed right into her. She ended up on her *ss and that was the end of my life as a brawler.

Recently, however, Brianna and Nicole have been obsessed with kickboxing, going to ILoveKickboxing.com as much as 5 times a week. Nicole even discovered this new energy drink there. It's called  Bai 5 and in my humble opinion, it is the holy grail of energy drinks because the sugar content is shocking low - only 1 gram - and so are the calories. (We have my mom, who is recovering from cancer and needs to up her daily fluid intake, drinking it. She's usually extremely picky and as a rule, will only drink coffee or  ginger ale. But she loves this!)

So guess who has started taking kickboxing classes now? That would be me. 

Are you curious about kickboxing? Maybe you've thought about taking a class? If you answered yeah to either of those, here's what you need to know before you go:

• Make sure you have some cute socks (See photo above.) because you don't wear sneakers for kickboxing. 
• You will hurt after your 1st class. I did. Nicole did. Brianna did. Just about everyone does. It usually means you're using muscles you don't normally use.
• "They" will come around and correct your form. I need lots of correcting, so I welcome it. (Funniest line, after class #2, came from Brianna - 'I can't believe you like punk music and you don't know how to punch.' WTH!?! For the record, any time I spent at live shows in Providence back in the day involved reapplying Toast Of New York lipstick from Revlon and flipping my hair around, not punching people.)
• The music is loud, but that's how I like it. #TrueStory
• When I was hitting the bag during my last class, 1 or 2 people did come to mind. In other words, punching and kicking that heavy bag can be extremely therapeutic. No joke.
• That being said, there's more to these classes than just hitting the bag. Both the warm-up (Hello cardio!) and the wrap-up (Think core and cool down.) are intense.
• Also, Mike, the owner and instructor, gives a pretty inspiring talk at the end of class about how important it is to eat and eat healthy if you're taking classes there (or anywhere really). Brianna told him he should be a motivational speaker. 

Related links:

Find ILoveKickboxing.com-Cranston  at 1400 Oaklawn Ave. It's in the Marshall's Plaza.

PattyJ