The samurai work-out is a cut above

Penny Hughes leads a samurai-sword workout class called Forza at Inlet Fitness South in Virginia Beach. Hughes promises no muscle gets a bye in these sessions. (Genevieve Ross/The Virginian-Pilot)

By Lorraine Eaton
The Virginian-Pilot

Forza - The Samurai Sword Workout is attracting standing-room only crowds in swank New York City gyms. Now it's made it's way to Inlet Fitness South in Virginia Beach.

Here, in an expansive mirrored room, instructor Penny Hughes twice a week leads these hour-long, total body, no-impact workout classes that combine the basic elements of two Japanese sword fighting techniques - Kendo and Aikijujitsu.

Hughes promises no muscle gets a bye in these sessions. And that the average participant burns up to 500 calories. From martial arts? I just had to try it.

The uniqueness of Forza is immediately apparent as students head for a pile of wooden "bokken," the proper term for the slightly curved, hip-high swords. Hughes earned certification to teach classes from Forza creator Ilaria Montagnani. She limits the class to 12 participants. Today, we are seven saumurais strong, as a family that takes the class together is on vacation. That leaves plenty of space for sword slinging.

Which is not what we're supposed to do.

Hughes reminds us that our movements should be controlled, precise, with discernible beginnings and endings.

"You want to make sure you cut your opponent's head off honorably," explains Debbie Ross, a soft-spoken 49-year-old... with a first-degree black belt in sword.

For a cut, the most basic of moves, we are to lift our bokken toward the heavens, while keeping our elbows in sight, and then plunge the blade downward, halting precisely at the Adam's apple.

Sounds easy. Hughes, who has taught boxing and kickboxking classes for a decade, makes it look easy. But it's not easy.

During the class, Hughes builds routines by layering moves, a bit like the structure of aerobics classes. We start with a series of half-cuts - taking the bokken from overhead to neck level - while stepping forward with one foot and then the other. Then we're on to full cuts, where the sword stops at the belly button, but this time while we're squatting side-to-side.

Four minutes later, we add twirls, an especially satisfying move where we flourish the bokken from hip-level, over the shoulder and behind the back while lunging forward with a full cut, then lunging once again with a thrust to the abdomen to finish.

I wish I could watch in the mirror - in my mind's eye I look like one of those sword-wielding video characters hacking my way to a higher level. But each time I attempt an admiring glance, I mess up. Like any martial art, this class demands full concentration.

Plus, only when I stop do I realize how hard I'm working. Everyone is huffing and sporting an honorable stain of sweat. By the close of class, we've lunged, cut and slashed across the room countless times to Hughes' staccato commands of, "Again. Again. Again."

We finish with a series of "kendos." Facing a partner, we execute a sort of detached sword fight, bokken turned diagonally this way and then that. I imagine that the sound of the bokken clacking together would be a fitting end to the class, but Hughes reminds us that this is a no-contact discipline.

The class accommodates all fitness levels. Ours includes a couple of beginners, plus a couple with martial arts experience.

Richard Ray, 55, took up Forza to get in shape after a kidney transplant.

"I like this," he says. "It's aggressive, but it satisfies my 'no contact' law."

Ross, the black belt, is drawn to the cardio component.

"In martial arts, it's all about technique," she says. "Here, you work on your technique and have the fun of aerobics, and you get to listen to great music."