Fighting Fit – Martial Arts and Weight Loss
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 stay motivated, perhaps you should consider practicing a martial art such as boxing, kickboxing, karate, or judo.
In this article, we’ve listed the top 10 reasons why you should consider doing a martial art for fitness and weight loss to help you decide if doing one is right for you.
1. Do martial arts to lose weight
It is no coincidence that gyms, personal trainers, and DVD and exercise video producers are now largely incorporating training techniques and exercises from a wide variety of martial arts into their workouts.
Boxercise, Tae Bo, Cardio-Kickboxing, Kung Fu Aerobics, and personal trainers who use punching bags, focus gloves, and kicking pads in their sessions are just a couple of examples of how martial arts training is being used in workouts. cardiovascular for fitness and weight loss. .
Because martial arts training is typically high intensity and generally lasts at least an hour in most cases, it burns a maximum number of kilojoules or calories per workout and is therefore ideal for anyone who wants to lose weight and lose it quickly.
2. Do martial arts to stay in shape
Most martial arts incorporate exercises and drills that improve fitness and cardiovascular endurance, help build muscle strength, and improve muscle flexibility, making them perfect for anyone looking to improve their overall fitness.
Improvements in cardiovascular fitness require that we regularly raise our heart rate for prolonged periods, and most martial arts workouts can help us achieve this.
Improving the strength, size and shape of our muscles requires that we regularly put them through some form of resistance training. Martial arts training helps provide this training by requiring us to perform exercises such as push-ups and squats using our own body weight for resistance.
Improved flexibility is a natural byproduct of martial arts training because most, if not all styles of martial arts incorporate stretching exercises into their workouts.
As a result of providing all these fitness benefits, martial artists such as boxers and kickboxers are considered among the fittest athletes in the world and practitioners of karate, judo, etc. are considered among the strongest pound for pound and more. flexible. athletes of the world.
3. Practice martial arts and self defense
One of the most obvious benefits of practicing a martial art is that it provides us with the aptitude, strength, skill, and techniques necessary to protect ourselves from being attacked by others who are willing to harm us should the need ever arise.
As an insurance policy, we hope you’re never in a position to have to use your martial arts training to defend yourself, but it’s great to know that this skill is there just in case.
Because they are primarily concerned with raising our heart rate to burn energy and improve our fitness, many of the workouts listed above, such as Tae Bo, Boxercise, etc., don’t really provide this benefit to the same extent as arts training. martial arts with a dedicated teacher in a martial arts school who only provides one service: teaching him a specific martial art.
Many people mistakenly believe that because they hit a focus glove 50 times during a session with their personal trainer, they know how to hit correctly and can therefore defend themselves if necessary. This is a huge mistake and we hope that these people will never find themselves in a situation where this belief is put to the test.
Unless they have had many years of martial arts training themselves, most personal trainers and gym instructors will not be able to offer advice on their punching and kicking technique, they are only really qualified to hold the focus gloves or pad. kicking for you while hitting or kicking them.
Remember, while they are probably excellent at what they do, these trainers are more like aerobics instructors than specifically qualified martial arts instructors.
4. Do martial arts and have confidence in yourself
In addition to giving us the ability to defend ourselves, one of the greatest personal benefits that martial arts training provides is a high degree of self-confidence.
This self-confidence results in part from the knowledge that we are much better equipped to defend ourselves since we have done some martial arts training, but it also comes from a sense of accomplishment once we begin to master the techniques that we have been taught and new techniques. Confidence that results from feeling fitter and stronger and looking fitter and stronger.
Since one of the first things we suffer, and one of the hardest to restore later, when we are overweight is self-confidence, this benefit is especially valuable for those of us with a weight problem.
5. Practice martial arts to improve balance and body coordination
In addition to helping us get fitter and stronger, martial arts training generally involves mastering a variety of techniques that require us to be well balanced and have superior body coordination.
By learning to master these techniques, we naturally improve our balance and coordination, which helps us with other aspects of our daily lives.
6. Do martial arts for variety
Martial arts training offers a great variety in two ways.
First of all, the martial arts training sessions themselves have a great variety built in by including warm-ups and cool-ups, stretching exercises, strengthening exercises, cardiovascular exercises, and exercises designed to improve and teach us a wide variety of techniques.
This variety is ideal for our mind and our body.
Second, there is such a wide variety of martial arts to study that we should be able to easily find one that suits our particular goals and interests.
If we prefer to do a martial art that revolves mainly around hitting or grabbing techniques or a perfect combination of both, or if we want to study a very technical or very simple style, the choice is excellent.
7. Doing martial arts teaches discipline and provides motivation.
Everyone knows that studying a martial art requires and teaches discipline.
Because it is also goal-oriented, training in one of the many martial arts also provides great motivation.
Lack of discipline and motivation are the most cited reasons for weight loss failures and for this reason doing a martial art to lose weight and stay in shape can help many of us who lack the discipline and motivation to achieve our weight loss goals to overcome them. common barriers to success.
8. Do martial arts for spirituality
One definition of spirituality is “Activities that renew, uplift, comfort, heal, and inspire both ourselves and those with whom we interact.”
Martial arts training has been practiced by millions of people for many centuries because, among other things, it has a great ability to elevate us spiritually.
In addition to forging a better connection between our mind and body, it also has the ability to forge a better connection between ourselves and our world and between ourselves and others.
9. Doing martial arts training is relatively inexpensive
Compared to joining a few gyms and hiring a few personal trainers, training in a martial arts school or dojo is relatively inexpensive.
Many martial arts schools charge a very modest monthly fee for training and the beauty of this is that you can train when and as often as it suits you.
In addition to the low costs of ongoing training, purchasing a uniform and any equipment you may need to train in most cases will also be relatively inexpensive.
10. Doing martial arts has a social aspect
Many people who start martial arts training to lose weight, improve their fitness, or defend themselves end up enjoying it more for its social aspects.
In addition to training and learning with other people with similar goals, many martial arts trainees help to encourage and motivate each other and end up becoming very good friends.
Many martial arts instructors also have very friendly dispositions and foster a fun and friendly environment in which to train, which makes them love their students, who generally become close friends as well.
conclusion
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 stay motivated, perhaps you should consider practicing a martial art such as boxing, kickboxing, karate, or judo.
In this article, we’ve listed the top 10 reasons why you should consider doing a martial art for fitness and weight loss to help you decide if doing one is right for you.