4 Health Benefits Martial Arts Holds for Adults and Kids
Martial arts is an incredible sport that offers a wide range of benefits. Beyond the obvious reason of learning to protect and defend yourself, it provides a broad advantage when it comes to improving your overall health. Whether you are a child or an adult, you will find that training in the martial arts will have a positive affect on your health. Here are four ways that martial arts will inadvertently provide benefits for your physical body.
1. Strength & Cardio Exercise. Martial arts offers an excellent outlet for physical exercise. Because you will typically find the approach to learning your chosen discipline to be quite fun and engaging, it will quickly become your favorite way to get a great workout. After all, who doesn’t love a fun workout?
Most martial arts classes will provide you with a variety of movements that happen to target your entire body. Whether you are doing a warm up, striking, or even forms, you will find yourself moving, sweating, and building muscle through each class. Movements found in martial arts incorporate the core, alongside the legs and upper body, to complete tasks. Add in the resistance that comes from striking, and the cardio aspect from repeating challenging tasks, and you’ll have an incredible workout for your whole body.
2. Stretching & Flexibility. Due to the nature of martial arts, stretching is typically a staple in most programs. While you may come into your first class only able to throw a very low kick, you will find yourself progressing as you practice intentional stretching throughout your classes. The increased time spent stretching will yield more flexibility. You will be able to kick higher, move more freely, and find daily tasks requiring flexibility to be more easily attainable.
3. Stability. Movement in martial arts provides for more stability in your body. This is ideal, as stability helps us to avoid injuries as we move throughout our daily lives.
In martial arts, you will find yourself learning to find balance and stability as you throw kicks, move throughout a pre-set form, and punch on the bags. Without stability, all of these movements are quite difficult. As you continue to practice them, you’ll find that your balance will rapidly improve and you will feel more stable on your feet completing your daily tasks.
4. Stress Relief. Stress plagues most of us, adults and children, with some regularity in our lives. Stress can lead to physical and mental challenges, making it something that we should aim to minimize in our lives. Martial arts tends to be a great stress reliever. Striking on a heavy bag, focussing all of your attention of a form, or connecting with people who are on a similar path as you will allow you to relieve some of the stress from your day.
Relieving stress is a key benefit in the martial arts world, and one that will allow your mind and body to relax and become a bit more healthy overall.
Health Benefits of Martial Arts
Whatever your health and fitness goals are, martial arts is often one of the best solutions. You will find growth in the areas of strength, cardio, flexibility, stability, and even stress relief as you jump into a great program and begin training. All of these benefits, alongside the fact that you will be able to better protect and defend yourself, make martial arts one of the best additions for your life.