The DJ dropped the beat and 70 women started throwing punches. By the time the first kickboxing combination was called out, Moon Bar, a Visakhapatnam club had shed its weekend persona to turn into a makeshift fitness floor, with women punching, kicking, squatting and burpee-ing their way through an hour of high-energy cardio.

There were no opponents, no rings and no gloves to take a hit. Instead, four trainers led the women through combinations designed to raise the heart rate and work the whole body, while the music kept the tempo going. It was a part workout, part social gathering and a glimpse of how women are increasingly choosing to exercise with more intensity, more variety and with strength in mind.

Hosted by The Social Wave, a women-centric community in the city, Club Cardio brought kickboxing into a club setting, combining martial arts-inspired movements with high-intensity cardio drills. The one-hour session was conducted in collaboration with Altcrew and led by four trainers.

For Komal Bagrodia Saraf, who founded The Social Wave with Preksha Dugar, the format was designed to make exercise feel less like a scheduled obligation and more like something women would actively seek out. “The idea was to turn a bar into a fitness bar,” she says. “There is a trend of Gen Z turning a bar into a Pilates bar. We wanted to bring something more intense than Zumba.”

The response also reinforced the value of a shared workout, she says. “There was some initial reluctance among a few participants, but once we made a circle and started, the music and community spirit helped. It became a community workout.”

The format was deliberately social. The 65-minute session at Moon Bar was structured to keep the pace building. After a 10-minute warm-up, the women spent the next 40 minutes learning kickboxing combinations and working dance moves into the routines. Participants worked through combinations of punches and kicks before the final 15 minutes turned into what Komal calls the “monster challenge”, featuring squats, bicep curls and burpees.

According to Komal, a sense of community may be as important to the emerging fitness format as the workout itself. The growing interest among women in strength training, boxing, running and other high-intensity forms of exercise points to a broader change in how fitness is being understood.

Fitness coach Martina Fernandes, who attended the session, sees that change in her own experience. “I have never really believed exercise has to feel like punishment,” she says. Having played sport for much of her life, Martina associates movement with “fun, competition, music, adrenaline and people”.

She usually trains alone and considers herself self-motivated, but says community workouts offer something different. “When you are laughing, sweating, listening to good music and pushing yourself alongside other people, it stops feeling like ‘I have to work out’ and starts feeling like ‘I want to be here’.”

Participants take part in a kickboxing Club Cardio session organised by The Social Wave at Moon Bar in Visakhapatnam.
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SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT

For Martina, physical strength has little to do with a number on the weighing scale. “It means being capable,” she says. “It is being able to pick up something heavy, run, jump, play sport, carry my kids, travel, climb stairs and generally trust my body to do what I ask it to do.”

That focus on capability becomes particularly significant as women age, she adds. “I do not want to just look strong. I want to actually be strong. I am all about longevity.”

Participants take part in a kickboxing Club Cardio session organised by The Social Wave at Moon Bar in Visakhapatnam.
| Photo Credit:
SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT

Kickboxing, she believes, also brings a psychological dimension. Learning combinations requires concentration and coordination, leaving little room for distraction. “There is something incredibly empowering about learning that your body can hit, move, react and defend itself,” she says. “You feel more confident, more alert and more connected to your body.”

For women in their 30s and 40s, she says, preserving muscle, supporting bone health, maintaining metabolic health and remaining independent become increasingly relevant. “The scale is one very small piece of the picture. Your strength, energy, performance and capability tell you much more about your fitness.”

Participant Tanya Dhawan, who had never tried kickboxing apart from some martial arts as a child, signed up because she was looking for something new to do in Vizag. The addition of a DJ was an added attraction. “Music is always part of my workouts, so combining it with a high-energy workout sounded like a lot of fun,” she says.

She had expected a conventional kickboxing class centred on technique. Instead, she found a high-intensity cardio workout driven by music and group energy. “The music, the energy of the girls and the entire crew kept the momentum going, especially when the workout got tough.”

The appeal of women-only fitness spaces, Martina says, lies partly in removing the apprehension that can accompany entering a gym or combat-sports environment. “A lot of women walk into a gym or a boxing environment worrying that everyone is watching them or judging how much they can lift,” she says. An all-women setting can make it easier to be a beginner and gradually take on greater challenges.

Community can also make consistency easier. “Motivation gets you started, but community is often what keeps you going,” Fernandes says. For women balancing careers, children and family responsibilities, she believes the expectation of seeing familiar faces can make fitness less likely to be the first commitment sacrificed.

Komal, too, sees wellness as a larger focus for The Social Wave. The group is looking at more experiences that combine activity and social interaction, including an upcoming pickleball coaching session.

(For details, contact Instagram handle @thesocialwave.vizag).