From the outside, the Body Worx martial arts dojo looks like any one of the businesses lining Broadway in Seaside—the laundromats, Mexican restaurants and thrift stores. But inside, certificates of young black belts and photos of intimidating looking tattooed instructors doing flying kicks line the wall, while people stream in the door with gym bags over their shoulders, kicking off their shoes and bowing to the front of the room before stepping onto the mat.

Heavy black bags hang like slabs of meat from chains attached to the ceiling rafters. Men and women kickboxers line up in rows next to the bags, looking more confident, somehow more purposeful than the typical aerobicizers.

Head instructor Nick Napoli, wearing a black gi, turns the music up so loud that it drowns out the sounds of another class practicing at the back corner of the dojo.

Napoli warms up his evening kickboxing class with fast laps around the bags, sprinting while throwing punches, skipping up to touch the ceiling beams. After ten minutes, he has the class pull on red-and-black boxing gloves.

Meanwhile, the members of the class in the corner practice something called escrima, which involves a delicate dance with short, polished sticks twisting and slipping in patterns over their heads. Their gaze stays fixed on instructor Pete Melanson. In the class is Mary Ann Kleine, a partner in Body Worx who says she used to work out on machines and in aerobics classes, then got really bored.

The escrima class (which, Kleine explains, is based on an ancient martial art developed by Filipino farmers defending themselves with rakes and hoes) offers a dimension beyond simply exercising.

“Not only are you using your whole body and your whole spirit, but behind that you are learning how to defend yourself and to be powerful,” she says. “It fills you full of fire from within.”

The kickboxing class is throwing punches and kicks against the thick bags while Napoli counts out their sequences. The adrenaline is tangible, and the synergy of the group exertion seems to pulse in time with the pumped up music blasting through the speakers.

A loud buzzer sounds when its time to change sequences on the bags.

Tracey Hairston, a tall woman, is doing squats for what seems like hours. With the class, she calls out, “Yes sir!” to Napoli when asked a question. Hairston, in this class for the past year, used to do kickboxing aerobics, which she says lacked the authenticity of Napoli’s class—a class he advertises as “real” kickboxing.

“It’s a serious thing, and I take it as so,” Hairston says. “It requires a lot of respect and discipline.”

Now the escrima class members have training knives tucked into the back of their waistbands, and have set the sticks aside to spar with partners barehanded. At the back of the class, two women who normally do tang soo do karate are trying to copy the fast movements of the class regulars.

“It’s kind of poetic in a way,” Kleine says. “It’s very intimidating at first because it’s so awkward, but it doesn’t take long to learn.

“Women actually fare better because they have the coordination and it helps to have a softer touch rather than a hard touch. A lot of women are afraid of it because it seems really fast. I’d really like more women to try it.”

Martie Berkeheimer is finishing up the hour-long kickboxing class, standing in front of the steamed-up mirrors, hammering a bag with muscular, tanned arms, sweating, but not stopping to wipe it from her face. Three years ago, Berkeheimer lost 120 pounds on a diet, then realized that she didn’t want to count calories for the rest of her life. A friend at work dared her to go to kickboxing. It was a dare that stuck.

“Oh my God, it was the hardest thing to do,” she remembers. “It really did kick my butt and it made me work harder than ever before. No matter how hard you’re trying, they tell you to do it harder. They’re screaming and yelling at you; it’s very motivational.”

For Berkeheimer, hitting and kicking punching bags lets her eat “whatever she wants” while wiping out work stress.

“I have a pretty high stress job,” she says. “I run an artichoke company in Castroville and I have five bosses pulling and tugging at me all day long, and I sit all day and build up a certain amount of mental stress from being confined. If I have a bad day, I get rid of it at kickboxing. There’s that bag and I just visualize a little face on it while the good endorphins build up.”

The class is now on all fours, doing exhausting “dirty dogs,” where they cock one leg to the side and kick it out over their neighbor’s head, fire-hydrant style. Tattoos peek out from the back of hiked-up tank tops. The class’ pace has slowed down considerably; some people can barely keep their legs off the ground, but they’re still hanging on.

Berkeheimer, who says she didn’t used to be able to finish a class, and got called the “cheerleader” for her tendency to just bounce around on the mat, now says that she has the self-confidence and matching physical strength to take care of herself.

“When I walk into 7-11 in the middle of the night, I’m not afraid now,” she says. “It’s not that I’m not conscious of whether it’s a safe environment, but I feel really capable now of defending myself.”

GETTING ON THE BALL
Today’s aerobicizers want strength, balance and flexibility training all in one innovative class. Brett Wilbur

It’s 9:15am on a grey Tuesday morning, but inside Lauri Ataide’s aerobics studio at the Monterey Sports Center the mood is, well, bouncy.

About a dozen people, mostly women, are lined up in front of the long mirrors and poised to jump on blue rubber hemispheres in front of them. Known as Bosu, the equipment is basically a thick inflated rubber ball, about 18 inches in diameter, cut in half and mounted on a plastic frame. Used in place of the traditional platform in the ubiquitous step class, the ball offers cushioning from impact and a challenging surface on which to balance.

It can be damn hard, actually, but also allows people a freedom of motion they don’t get on solid ground.

“You are using little tiny muscles that you don’t usually get to use on a stable surface,” says Ataide. “I’ve got 50-year-old women doing jumping again because of the soft surface.”

After the first half hour of doing jumps, hamstring curls, lunges, and the basic step movements, everybody in the class is dripping sweat. Ataide switches to weight training, and the class sways and wiggles on top of the Bosus while tossing four-pound weighted rubber balls in the air. Next, everyone is balancing on the top of the ball with legs in the air, using deep stomach muscles. Again, this is not exactly easy. But it’s surprisingly fun.

Which is just what Ataide has in mind for her aerobics classes.

“People are really looking to incorporate everything into one workout now,” she says. “They want strength training, core conditioning of the abdominals and back, and flexibility.”

Sports Center director Bill Rothschild concurs: “A lot of the new trends in fitness are occurring in the aerobics world,” he says. “A lot of Lauri’s classes tend to follow those trends.”

And following another fitness trend, many of the classes that Ataide designs take the best components out of various disciplines and blend them together, such as yoga with Pilates, in a class known as core fusion. She’s the first to admit that true yogis prefer a regular yoga class, but says that many of the movements in Pilates came from yoga originally.

“Anytime you blend something, you are compromising,” Ataide says. “If you are looking for a full-on yoga class, I wouldn’t tell you to go to core fusion. But they really do blend nicely and they complement each other.”

Rothschild explains that the range of movements utilized in many of the classes are intended to strengthen people for their normal routines, in a trend called functional fitness. The exercises help with day-to-day activities, whether it’s a 70-year-old woman who can’t cross the street during a green light, or a mom who gets injured trying to lift her child out of their car seat.

“Functional fitness refers to those activities we tend to do in our daily lives, that strengthen multiple joints and multiple muscles,” he explains. “It’s not simply sitting down and doing a bicep curl—that doesn’t really duplicate what you are doing in real life.”

Rothschild says that functional fitness promotes independence, such as building up the strength of an 80-year-old so that they can get out of a chair without assistance. He also says that the exercise equipment at the Sports Center is designed to be used by all fitness levels: kids, average exercisers, elite athletes, people with disabilities, and seniors.

“Facilities that have equipment for [everyone] are very much in vogue now,” he says. “We focus on equipment that is very accessible, whether it’s for a 24-year-old athlete, someone with physical disabilities, or an 80-year-old senior who can adjust the equipment to their level and get some value out of it.”

Okay, so kickboxing aerobics isn’t bona-fide martial arts kickboxing. But for most of us, it’s still a mighty good workout. The following is a partial list of gyms and studios around town that offer some type of martial arts fitness classes. Many of the gyms offer up a nice assortment of trendy-blendy aerobics classes as well.

AAA Action Self Defense and Seibukan Jujutsu

636 Lighthouse Ave., Monterey. 375-6797.

Aikido of Monterey

1251 10th St, Monterey. 375-8106.

American Karate

623 Lighthouse Ave., Monterey. 372-5425.

Blue Pacific Tae Kwon Do

1780-A Fremont Blvd., Seaside. 899-1700.

Body Worx Academy of Martial Arts

1173 Broadway Ave., Seaside. 899-9679.

Carmel Valley Racquet and Health Club

27300 Rancho San Carlos Blvd., Carmel. 624-2737.

Chamisal Tennis and Fitness Club

185 Robley Rd., Highway 68. 649-1135.

Energia Body Centre

760 Del Monte Center, Monterey. 642-0222.

Garden Health and Fitness and Longevity for Women

2000 Garden Rd., Monterey, and 26536 Carmel Rancho Blvd., Carmel. 646-0550 and 626-0550.

Greg Dow’s Ultimate Training Center

1169 Forest Ave., Pacific Grove. 372-3656.

Monterey Sports Center

301 E. Franklin St., Monterey.

646-3730.

Salinas Athletic Club

1502 N. Main St., Salinas. 757-0143.

Salinas Tae Kwon Do Academy

502 Pajaro St., Salinas. 753-6408.

24 Hour Fitness

1035 N. Main St., Salinas. 751-7444.