Top 7 Health Benefits of Martial Arts

Although many people think of martial arts as a combat sport that is only meant for a select type of person, it is actually a fantastic form of exercise that can be enjoyed by many.

Martial arts training includes strength training, cardiovascular training, mental focus training, and concentration practice.

Martial Arts Training Benefits

If you do martial arts training, you will experience positive changes in their body, improvements in your mental concentration, and learn concepts of stress management.

From body combat classes at your local gym to the rise of online boxing classes, it has never been easier to give martial arts a go. In most cases, you don’t need any equipment. Additionally, if your main concern is that you don’t want to get hit, don’t worry; many martial arts classes today don’t include any element of fighting in this way.

Keep reading below to check out the top health benefits of martial arts!

Martial Arts Will Help You Get the Body You Deserve

If you want to improve your endurance, flexibility, and cardiovascular fitness, martial arts is a very effective exercise option for you.

Unlike other forms of training, results come fast from martial arts training. Due to the improved dexterity of your legs and entire body, you will see the difference in the mirror right away.

Martial arts training burns a ton of calories because of the pace and intensity of the class, and you will sculpt your body because of the unique movements you will practice.

Overall, martial arts is a great way to get rid of excess pounds and decrease your body fat, while maintaining a strong body

After a few training sessions and noticing the improvements in your body, you will reach a point that you cannot wait to return to the next class! Your brain and body will appreciate your new lifestyle.

Develop Self Defense Skills

Learning self-defense skills is one of the main reasons some people practice martial arts, but it is a bonus of using martial arts training as a form of fitness. Understanding basic fighting principles and having the ability to protect yourself will help you feel more secure on a dark road at night or any other precarious situation.

Certain martial arts are even better for self-defense than others. For example, Krav Maga is a military self-defense and fighting system that was developed for the Israel Defense Forces and Israeli security forces. It is derived from a combination of techniques including boxing, wrestling, aikido, judo, and karate- along with realistic fight training.

Krav Maga is especially useful to learn for women or smaller individuals who are looking to learn how to defend themselves. You can find you find a great Krav Maga class in Toronto, New York, London, or anywhere in between which will improve your ability to defend yourself!

Martial Arts Training Improves Your Confidence

Improving your self-esteem and self-confidence is one of the most important health benefits of training a martial art. Simply looking in the morning in the mirror will no longer make you nervous if you are trying to lose weight.

Want to know how to lose weight fast? Practice martial arts!

Your build will quickly develop how you want it, and think about how you will feel walking around, looking in the mirror and seeing a strong and toned core!

You will feel very good about yourself because you will have earned the body you have!

Not only will you have a better-looking body, but you will be in more control of your body as well. Martial art also helps improve your confidence by helping you feel in control and in power of your body and life!

Improve Your Mental Concentration

As well as learning physical skills and techniques, you will learn to focus on ways to clean your mind and focus on current tasks through practicing martial arts.

According to a study published in the Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology,

“After a 3-month intervention, results indicated that the martial arts group demonstrated greater improvements than the comparison group in areas of cognitive self-regulation, affective self-regulation, prosocial behavior, classroom conduct, and performance on a mental math test.”

Improving your ability to concentrate will help you in all areas of your life. As your body becomes more in tune with itself, your ability to concentrate will further improve.

Stress Relief

Martial arts is a great way to get rid of the frustration and stress of everyday life. Not only that, but it will also help you become better at handling stress as it enters your life.

According to a study published in the European Journal of Human Movement,

“regular exercise has multifarious benefits for health, especially activities that strongly integrate both psychological and physiological training. Such is the case for martial arts (MA), the whole of which could be classified as mindful movements. Given that MA requires expenditure of energy done with a high level of concentration, engagement in this form of exercise may provide an interesting and novel strategy for enhancing physical and mental benefits. The regular practice of MA could elevate mindfulness (MF) levels of practitioners and thus influence positively on stress management and therefore quality of life and well-being.”

When you are practicing martial arts, you can forget about ugly situations or other stresses in your life. Practices or sparring matches pump the heart and remove the negative thoughts from your mind.

Improved Self-Control

Students learn to develop control over their bodies through martial arts classes; and once they learn to control their body, the mind follows.

When they are nervous and want to react, improved self-control will stop them. Students must work hard to develop speed, strength, time, flexibility and coordination in martial arts classes, and these skills are important for many facets of life.

Substantially Increase Balance of Your Body

After practicing martial arts and improving your martial arts capabilities, you will see that you have the best balance skills of your entire life. You will learn to understand the importance of balancing on one leg, and how it can improve the health of your body overall.

Martial arts are particularly beneficial for growing children and the elderly.

According to a study published in Pediatric Exercise Science,

“The results showed the karate group made significant gains on quadriceps flexibility and balance with eyes closed. By improving flexibility, balance, and strength, karate improves three of the basic fitness components that are very important for preventing sport injuries in the growing years.”

Likewise, as stated by a study published in the Journal of Physical Therapy Science,

“Ving Tsun training might be a potential fall-prevention exercise that can be used to maintain general physique, balance, and confidence in the elderly population.”

What Do You Need to Start Practicing Martial Arts?

If you want to take advantage of the benefits of martial arts training, the first and most obvious piece of equipment you will need is a martial arts uniform and shoes. The next piece of equipment you must consider purchasing is protective gear like a groin protector and mouthguard.

If you want to learn MMA, then it’s pretty easy. Look for an MMA gym and find time with an available class at your ability level.

Typically, most gyms that provide MMA training declare their proposed course “mixed martial arts.” Some of these systems are the leading hybrid styles of Jeet Kune Do, founded by the legendary Bruce Lee.

Jeet Kune Do can be seen as a “mixed martial art” because Bruce Lee received this style from six genres of the East and the West. Some of these styles include Muay Thai, White Crane, Wing Chun, Fencing, and Boxing.

Another mixed martial art style that you can practice is the Zee Quan Doe, a martial art whose roots date back to Jitu Kun Do. The choice between teaching one specific martial arts disciple and learning MMA is a difficult choice. It’s like choosing between flexibility and concentrated power.

The more you allocate your time to MMA practice, the less time you spend improving specific skills in other styles.

If you focus on MMA training, you become a more flexible martial artist, but your specific technique may not be as strong as others. On the contrary, the more time you devote to the practice of any particular technique, the less you improve in other areas of martial arts.

Regardless, you can clearly see that martial arts training is an excellent way to improve your overall health!