[Rev28K]

Hi Pundit.

I'd stick a foot in both camps until you decide what pays off for you. A good PT can really pay off, I'm happy with mine. He's become a good mate. He's helped with running, pointed me to pilates and bikram yoga. And even helped out with the class hottie in Pilates when he himself was single, which is above & beyond what was required.

The self defence stuff is insanely good fun. Even something as stylised as boxing pays off for fitness. The SD stuff will knock any ego out of you and there is SO much in it (holds, baits, counter strikes, joint destruction, etc). Even something as stylised as boxing will help your fitness, if your PT does boxing as warm ups I'm sure you know how much it knocks the crap out of you.

Body Combat classes are fluff with no practical application, I'd avoid it. Nice for meeting the opposite sex but if you want to do that, well there is always Zumba.

I'm sure that everyone is going to jump in with their style being the best or most applicable so here is mine. The tiny amount of SD stuff I did was Pencak Silat based and way too enjoyable (some of the instructors were just artists with knives & sticks. I've never felt as vulnerable as when they used me to show the nasty stuff that just a practice kerambit could do). Krav Maga looks like fun. Once again like PT's a good instructor & class can make or break your enthusiasm about SD.