If your goal is to improve your fitness or lose weight but you need to do something more exciting than jogging on a treadmill to keep you motivated, perhaps you should consider doing a martial art like boxing, kickboxing, karate, or judo.
Doing martial arts for weight loss It’s no coincidence that gyms, personal trainers and producers of exercise videos and DVD’s are now heavily incorporating training techniques and exercises from a wide variety of martial arts in their workouts.
Boxercise, Tae Bo, Cardio-Kickboxing, Kung Fu Aerobics, and personal trainers using punching bags, focus mitts and kicking pads in their sessions are just a couple of examples of how martial arts training is being used in cardio workouts for fitness and weight loss.
Because martial art training is typically high intensity and usually lasts for at least an hour in most cases, it burns a maximum number of kilojoules or calories per workout and is therefore great for anyone who wants to lose weight and lose it fast.
Doing martial arts for fitness Most martial arts incorporate exercises and drills that improve cardiovascular fitness and endurance, help build muscle strength and improve muscle flexibility so they are perfect for anyone wanting to improve their overall fitness.
Cardiovascular fitness improvements require us to regularly elevate our heart rate for extended periods and most martial arts training can help us do that.
Improved flexibility is a natural byproduct of martial arts training because most, if not all styles of martial art incorporate stretching exercises in their workouts.
Doing martial arts and self-defense One of the most obvious benefits of doing a martial art is that it provides us with the fitness, strength, skill and techniques necessary to protect ourselves from being attacked by others who are out to harm us if the need should ever arise.
Unless they’ve had many years of martial arts training themselves, most personal trainers and gym instructors will not be able to offer advice about your punching and kicking technique, they are only really qualified to hold the focus mitts or kick-pad for you while you punch or kick them.
Remember, while probably great at what they do, these trainers are more like aerobics instructors than specifically qualified martial arts instructors.
Doing martial arts and self-confidence In addition to providing us with the ability to defend ourselves, one of the greatest personal benefits that martial art training provides is a high degree of self-confidence.
Doing martial arts to improve body balance and coordination As well as helping us to become fitter and stronger, martial art training typically involves the mastery of a range of techniques that requires us to be well-balanced and have superior body coordination.
Doing martial arts for variety Martial art training provides great variety in two ways.
Firstly, martial arts training sessions themselves have great variety built into them by including warm-ups and cool-downs, stretching exercises, strength building exercises, cardio exercises and exercises designed to improve and teach us a wide variety of techniques.
Doing martial arts teaches discipline and provides motivation Everybody knows that studying a martial art requires and teaches discipline.
Doing martial arts for spirituality One definition of spirituality is “Activities which renew, lift up, comfort, heal and inspire both ourselves and those with whom we interact.” Martial art training has been practiced by millions of people over many centuries because among other things, it has a great ability to spiritually uplift us.
Doing martial arts training is relatively inexpensive Compared to joining some gyms and hiring some personal trainers, training at a martial arts school or dojo is relatively inexpensive.
Doing martial arts has a social aspect Many people who start doing martial arts training for weight loss, improved fitness or self-defense end up enjoying it most for its social aspects.
As well as training and learning with others with similar goals, many martial arts trainees help encourage and motivate each other and end up becoming very good friends.
Many martial arts instructors too have very friendly dispositions and foster a fun and friendly environment in which to train which endears them to their students who typically also become close friends.
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