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, you might want to consider taking up a martial art like boxing, kickboxing, karate, or judo.

In this article, we list the top 10 reasons to 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’s no accident that gyms, personal trainers, and exercise video and DVD producers are now heavily 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 using punching bags, focus gloves, and kick pads in their sessions are just a few examples of how martial arts training is used in cardio to stay fit. shape and lose weight. .

Because martial arts training is usually high intensity and typically 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 looking to lose weight. weight and lose it fast.

2. Do martial arts to stay fit

Most martial arts incorporate drills and exercises that improve cardiovascular fitness and endurance, help build muscular strength, and improve muscle flexibility, making them perfect for anyone looking to improve their overall fitness.

Cardiovascular fitness improvements require us to 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 like push-ups and squats using our own body weight as 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 of these fitness benefits, martial arts practitioners such as boxers and kickboxers are widely considered to be the fittest athletes in the world and karate, judo, etc. practitioners are considered to be among the strongest and flexible pound for pound. world athletes.

3. Practice martial arts and self defense

One of the most obvious benefits of practicing a martial art is that it gives us the fitness, strength, skill, and techniques necessary to protect ourselves from being attacked by others who mean to harm us if the need ever arises.

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 ability is there just in case.

Because they are primarily concerned with getting our heart rate up to burn energy and improve our fitness, many of the exercises listed above, like Tae Bo, Boxercise, etc., don’t really provide this benefit to the same extent as weight training. martial arts with a dedicated teacher at a martial arts school who only provides one service: to teach you 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 properly and therefore can fight back if need be. This is a huge mistake and we hope that these people never find themselves in a situation where this belief is put to the test.

Unless they have had many years of martial arts training, most personal trainers and gym instructors will not be able to offer you advice on your punching and kicking technique, they are only really qualified to hold the focus mitts or pad 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. Practice martial arts and self-confidence

In addition to providing us with 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 given that we have had some martial arts training, but it also comes from a sense of accomplishment once we begin to master the techniques we were taught and the new ones. confidence that comes from feeling fitter and stronger and looking fitter and stronger.

Since one of the first things you suffer, and one of the hardest things to recover from, when you gain weight is self-confidence, this benefit is especially valuable for those of us with a weight problem.

5. Practice martial arts to improve body balance and coordination.

In addition to helping us become 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 a change

Martial arts training provides great variety in two ways.

First of all, martial arts training sessions have a lot of variety built in by including warm-ups and cool-downs, stretching exercises, strengthening exercises, cardio exercises, and exercises designed to improve and teach us a wide variety of techniques.

This variety is excellent for both 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.

Whether we prefer to do a martial art that revolves mainly around striking or grappling techniques or a perfect combination of both, or we want to study a very technical or very simple style, the choice is excellent.

7. Practicing 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 frequently cited reasons for weight loss failures, and for this reason, doing a martial art for weight loss and fitness can help many of us who lack the discipline and the motivation necessary to achieve our weight loss goals to overcome these common barriers to success.

8. Practice 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 capacity 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 us and our world and between us and others.

9. Doing martial arts training is relatively cheap

Compared to joining some gyms and hiring personal trainers, training at 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 how often it suits you.

In addition to the low cost of ongoing training, purchasing a uniform and any equipment you may need to train will also in most cases be relatively inexpensive.

10. Practicing martial arts has a social aspect

Many people who start martial arts training for weight loss, fitness, or self-defense end up enjoying it more for its social aspects.

In addition to training and learning with others with similar goals, many martial artists help 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, endearing them to their students, who often 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, you might want to consider taking up a martial art like boxing, kickboxing, karate, or judo.

In this article, we list the top 10 reasons to consider doing a martial art for fitness and weight loss to help you decide if doing one is right for you.