Get a Total Workout With a Real Kick

Tuesday, August 28, 2007

By Jane Monreal

EL SEGUNDO, Aug. 28, 2007 (KABC-TV) (KABC) -- Are you tired of the same old workout?

Maybe you want to try kicking things up a notch to make things a little more interesting.

"It was great," says Milena Cho, who attended a disco dojo class. "And it had a great variety with kickboxing and also with the dance moves. And I do dancing and kickboxing."

You don't have to be a dancer or practice martial arts to take a disco dojo class.

"But you can train like one," says Scott Cole, creator of disco dojo. "And that's part of thing to, I look at the bodies that we all want to emulate. You see the graceful dancer, the ballerina. You also see the intense martial artist. I'm a disco survivor."

What is this class exactly?

"Fun, F-U-N," Cole says. "It's a combination of martial arts and dance. I had a dance aerobic background, and then I started taking martial arts in my early 30s and then started combining kickboxing, Tai-chi, Tae Kwon Do, all into the mix of Latin salsa, some of the kicks, punches, and some of the disco moves too."

"Great cardio workout," says Theresa Lang. "It seemed effortless, but definitely worked hard."

"Martial arts and dance done professionally are both very explosive art forms," says Cole. "You know, martial arts obviously from the power, self defense base. Dance from an aesthetic power base as well. We've all seen some of the shows on TV and how you really have to power the moves. So I love to combine the two and bring in both elements of the discipline of martial arts and dance, and when you break it down, they're really not that different, you know."

There's something for everyone in this fitness fusion class.

"He did a great cardio, a great kickboxing with salsa dancing, it was just so energizing," says Rosa Ahumada. "I loved it."

"Someone who comes in and says, 'I've never had martial arts before, and I have two left feet,'" says Cole. "Well, you saw a few of those people in here stick it out the whole hour and really have a good time."

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