Kickboxing

I went to a kickboxing class last night with a friend of a coworker. I was a little intimidated because:
a) I don't speak Romanian
b) I had no idea of the difficulty level
c) I've never done kickboxing before

We ended up at this shabby, dark building. In another ode to 1989, the walls were covered with pictures of muscle women. You know the posters I mean. The ones of girls with big hair, big breasts and muscles. The class was women-only, but it didn't stop the management from putting those posters up in the workout room.

Which reminds me: ever wonder what happened to those women? Seriously. Are they grandmothers now? Prostitutes? Fitness trainers? Same with all those nameless people on cassette covers that I see in the market. Who are they? Are they people who won talent competitions in their towns and then recorded albums that no one will hear?

I'm surprised at the amount of women wearing thongs. When I exercise, I dress for comfort. Sports top, cotton shorts, sneakers, etc etc. A lot of the girls in the changing room were putting on thongs so they wouldn't show underneath their outfits. We were all females! One woman wore a unitard with a blue thong overtop, like in those old Jane Fonda exercise videos. I'm surprised she wasn't wearing a sweat band or leg warmers too.

The class was run by a guy whose neck was as big as my legs. A big beafy East German-like man who barked commands while a woman in lycra led the class. Everything was done by a timer to the beat of the music. Good, because it kept our energy up. Bad, because people were trying to keep up to the music and doing the moved wrong/

I'm sure the woman I was following was an ex-Romanian Olympic gymnast. She was about 40 without a trace of fat on her. Everyone else tried to keep up with her while doing wrong moves and hurting themselves. I'm sure no one has had any experience with actual martial arts or boxing. I saw arms and legs flailing, backs arching and improper bending. I did exercises my own way and managed fine.

I guess in Romania, kickboxing = 60% jumping jacks, 20% situps, 15% kicking and boxing and 5% floor work. We did jumping jacks, then situps, then jumping jacks, then a few minutes of kicking and punching, then more jumping jacks and situps and a bit of floor work. And no cool down.

Is it worth $20+ to do jumping jacks and situps three times a week?