Kickboxing at Evoke Martial Arts, Toronto.
Kickboxing is acombat sport and fitness discipline that combines punching techniques from boxing with kicking techniques from martial arts. Unlike boxing, where only the hands are used, kickboxing allows strikes with both the fists and the legs — giving it a fuller, more dynamic range of movement.
Today, kickboxing exists in two main forms: as a competitive combat sport with rules, weight classes, and matches, and as a fitness discipline practiced in gyms around the world purely for exercise, stress relief, and skill-building — with no fighting or sparring involved at all.
Where Did Kickboxing Come From?
Kickboxing developed in the mid-20th century as a blend of Western boxing and Eastern martial arts. Japan is generally credited with formalizing the sport in the 1960s, combining karate’s kicking techniques with boxing’s punching fundamentals. Around the same time, similar hybrid striking styles were developing independently, most notably Muay Thai in Thailand – often called “the art of eight limbs” for its use of punches, kicks, elbows, and knees.
Over the following decades, kickboxing spread globally and evolved into several regional styles, each with slightly different rules about what strikes are allowed.
How Is Kickboxing Different From Other Combat Sports?
It’s easy to lump all striking sports together, but there are real differences:
- Boxing uses punches only – no kicks, no knees, no elbows.
- Kickboxing adds kicks to the boxing toolkit – typically punches and kicks above the waist, depending on the specific ruleset.
- Muay Thai goes further still, adding elbow strikes and knee strikes, plus clinch work – which is why it’s often considered a more advanced or comprehensive striking art.
- Hapkido, unlike the striking arts above, focuses on joint locks, throws, and grappling self-defense in addition to stand-up striking. It teaches a very different skill set worth understanding if you’re weighing your options.
- Karate (especially traditional/point-sparring styles) focuses on single, precise strikes scored in short bursts, rather than the continuous, flowing combinations used in kickboxing.
Understanding these distinctions helps explain why Evoke offers more than one striking and self-defense discipline. Each one teaches different skills and suits different goals.
Fitness Kickboxing vs. Sport Kickboxing
This is one of the most common points of confusion for beginners:
- Fitness (or “cardio”) kickboxing is designed purely as a workout. It borrows kickboxing’s movements – punches, kicks, combos on a bag or pads – but strips out any sparring or fighting. The goal is calorie burn, strength, and stress relief, not competition. This is closest to what you’ll find in our Cardio Kickboxing classes.
- Sport kickboxing is the competitive version, involving structured training toward actual matches, with rules, protective gear, and an opponent.
Most people who try kickboxing for the first time – especially adults looking for a new workout – are looking for the fitness version, not the competitive one.
What Does Kickboxing Actually Train?
Kickboxing works the body in a way few other workouts do, because it combines several types of movement at once:
- Cardiovascular endurance: from the sustained, high-intensity pace of a class.
- Full-body strength: punches and kicks engage the core, hips, shoulders, and legs simultaneously.
- Coordination and balance: especially when throwing kicks, which require single-leg stability.
- Mental focus: following combinations and reacting to pad work builds concentration in a way steady-state cardio doesn’t.
Curious what a real kickboxing class looks like in practice?
See our Kickboxing Classes in Toronto for schedules and how to try your first session.
Exciting, Innovative, and Empowering Kickboxing Workout That Gets You Results You Can Count On.
I’ve been with Evoke a little over 4 months now doing the kickboxing program! Best decision I ever made to go to their trial class! Ever since then I’ve been hooked! Love the environment, the coaches and instructors are amazing and go above and beyond to help us achieve our goals! Highly recommend this place over and over again!
Alenoush Espinosa Kickboxer