How One Man Rediscovered His Passion for Fitness Through Kickboxing

SANDY, Utah - Jan. 13, 2016 - PRLog -- Meet Mike Fugal, a 39 year old voice actor, father of two children, martial artist, and kickboxer. Mike has an incredible story of willpower and determination in the face of what many people would consider to be a debilitating and limiting injury.

Mike started Kickboxing in August of 2015. He was determined to regain the level of fitness that he had when he was an actively training martial artist some years before. After sustaining a serious knee injury in 2001 at a martial arts tournament, Mike found his fitness level and confidence on a downward spiral. As Mike recovered from his knee injury he found that it was difficult to do some of the things that he loved, such as martial arts which he had trained in for 9 years and taught for 6 years. As his knee injury started to cause additional problems with his hips, Mike stopped training. He eventually found himself out of shape and at his highest weight ever – close to 300 lbs.

Mike knew that in order for him to be able to do the things he loved again he would have to find ways to help his knee recover – this meant losing the weight that he had gained from the inactive period following his injury. He decided that a change in diet was necessary and cut sugar and fried foods completely out of his diet. He also started eating vegetables whenever he could. Even though this was difficult with his job that required him to travel often, he made it work. In just a few short weeks he saw a dramatic improvement.

As the weight started to come off and his knee finally started healing, Mike tried working out at home but struggled with motivation and was easily distracted by household activities with his wife and children. He started wearing a knee brace to exercise and tried to jump back into TaeKwonDo classes, and he loved it, but it was not giving him the workout that he needed. Although the changes in his diet had made some definite improvements for him, Mike knew that he needed to find a good workout program to supplement it.

So in August, he walked through the doors at iLoveKickboxing in Sandy, UT. He had already lost weight from his almost 300 lbs, but he still wanted to lose more. He also had a goal to have more energy and do something he loved as much as martial arts, but that would also help him quickly burn away fat and build muscle. He was thrilled when he discovered that he had finally found his fitness “home” in the Kickboxing program.

Mike told us, “I love that I can modify things if I need to. I have been able to build myself up that way. When I first came in there was no way on earth I was going to do any kind of squat with my bad knee, but the instructors helped me modify things and build up to more challenging exercises. Now I even feel comfortable doing jump squats!”

Here are a few of the successes that Mike has seen since starting Kickboxing just 5 months ago:

-          Lost 2 ½ inches in his waistline

-          Is down from almost 300 lbs to 220 lbs (10 lbs of which he lost with Kickboxing) – the lowest weight he has been in decades

-          Went from a size XL to a size Medium

-          Has had to replace his wardrobe because his “small” clothes from before are too big now, he even had to make new notches in his belt and is now going to buy a whole new belt

-          Seen a huge increase in confidence and motivation; he says that this reminded him that he can do hard things

-          Sleeps better at night

In addition, Mike says that he has a lot more energy than he used to. “I used to think along the ‘spoons theory’ of energy. Every day I felt like I only had so much energy that I could use, like a handful of spoons, and I didn’t want to use too many of my spoons. Now, I don’t feel that way anymore. I feel more like a furnace. I can just keep burning and churning!

To learn more about Kickboxing in Sandy, visit www.ilovekickboxingsandy.com