Cardio Kickboxing is a sport specific equipment based fitness program created by Frank Thiboutot at The Bay Club in Portland, Maine in 1992. Having trained in boxing, Karate and Tae Kwon Do since the mid-sixties, Thiboutot switched to Full-Contact Karate, now known as kickboxing, in the late seventies. He trained, managed and promoted amateur and professional boxers and kickboxers throughout the eighties and nineties in affiliation with the major sanctioning bodies for the sport, i.e. the PKA, WKA, ISKA and IKF. In order to create interest in the sport and enlarge the fan base as a promoter throughout New England, he developed Cardio Kickboxing to mainstream kickboxing workouts to the general public.

The original circuit training format was developed to promote the sport of kickboxing through kickboxing for fitness. The techniques used during the one-hour classes using conventional heavy bags and training pads are based on authentic kickboxing techniques which provide both resistance and cardio vascular benefits to its participants.