5 Health Benefits of Martial Arts

Reasons Why You Should Take Advantage of Ann Arbor Martial Arts Programs

(For a more detailed version, visit this website article.)

(Ann Arbor) Martial arts. You’ve seen it in movies, on your friend’s Facebook newsfeed, and in those “Things to do before you die” lists. Whether you have yet to cross ‘martial arts’ off your bucket list or keep a rack of black belts in your closet, here is a list of reasons why doing martial arts can benefit you today!

You Get Stronger and Lose Weight

One acronym: HIIT. High intensity interval training means doing periods of short, intense anaerobic exercise. It’s good for:

·      Athletic conditioning

·      Improving the metabolism

·      Fat-burning

Depending on your weight and the martial art, you can singe anywhere from 500-1500 calories in an hour.

Compare that to having to run 7 miles at a 10 mph pace or doing three Insanity workouts. Not only will you feel that burning calories is effortless, but doing martial arts targets your entire body, not just certain parts. It’s also fun.

Not only that, but building muscle promotes a calorie burn after you’ve stopped working out. Because martial arts involve a combination of slow and fast twitch muscle conditioning, you promote muscle development.

You Stay Younger

In a study that compared 40-60 year olds who were either martial artists or sedentary, the researchers found that training reduced aging.

This means that compared to their sedentary counterparts, middle-aged martial artists:

·      Were more flexible

·      Had better muscular strength and endurance

·      Could balance with more agility

·      Had a lower body fat percentage

Fewer of the martial artists had heart diseases. The illnesses that normally hit middle-aged people, such as hypertension, diabetes, and cardiovascular diseases, showed up in much higher percentages for the sedentary group.

You Become More Intelligent

In an article from BotBot, studies showed:

·      Improvement in memory

·      Enhanced problem-solving skills

·      Reduced risk of Parkinson’s or Alzeimer’s

The most effective types of exercises were aerobic and resistance-training methods, both of which can be found in the martial arts. What’s more, it doesn’t matter when you start. Exercise benefits your brain immediately.

Martial arts are different from other forms of exercise, because a lot of it requires tactical thinking. This means an increase the brain’s ability to learn, or plasticity. Resistance training, flexibility or coordination, and aerobic movements all add up to enhanced brain plasticity.

You Become Happy

It’s no secret that doing exercise makes you feel emotionally better. In an article released on WebMD, researchers stated that regular exercise releases chemicals called endorphins. The endorphins affect the way your brain perceives pain and act as sedatives.

Some of the benefits included:

·      Reduced stress

·      Alleviated anxiety and depression

·      Improved self-esteem

·      Better sleep

Also, in Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi’s Flow, he describes how there is a state where an “optimal experience” or state of flow can happen. He cites martial arts as being a particular type of flow where a martial artist can act with lightening speed without having to think about it. 

You Meet Awesome People

As the saying goes, “Birds of a feather flock together.” In a study that looked at how people stay happy, it was found that happy people tend to spend time with other happy people.

You’re also in an environment that often requires trusting a partner. In a study by Desteno, he found that being put under high levels of stress requires one of two responses: trust or distrust. If a group of people can trust one another, the stress augmented the working relationships that martial artists had with each other.

This is anecdotal, but anywhere you go in Ann Arbor, martial arts programs seem to attract well-balanced, like-minded people. The environment at the Japanese Martial Arts Center encourages growth, challenges the individual, and cultivates a rich working environment among its martial artists.

If you’re interested in trying traditional Japanese martial arts, consider visiting our site at http://japanesemartialartscenter.com/, OR email us at info@japanesemartialartscenter.com for more information.