Martial Arts to Lose Weight

Being overweight can take a serious toll on your health and quality of life. Weight loss is critical for improving cardiovascular health, general fitness, and resistance to or control of deadly diseases and conditions. The challenge for most people is finding a sport or exercise form that they can and will keep up. Unlike running or walking which can be rather solitary, martial arts are a fun way to lose weight. You have the support of your fellow students and your coaches to keep you going. So you don’t have to go it alone!

Burn fat and calories

A typical martial arts workout will burn between 300 and 900 calories an hour, depending on your body weight. Whether your sport of choice is Karate, Taekwondo, Kickboxing, Muay Thai, Judo, Jiu-jitsu or Krav Maga, you can count on burning off more than you would with a walk. Most people burn about 500 calories in an hour long session. To lose weight, you must burn more calories every day than you take in. Losing a few pounds can be a game changer.

Tone up

Martial arts are excellent for toning muscles. Most forms are highly aerobic activities that utilize almost every muscle group in the body. Sessions usually begin with a warm-up, followed by
a routine of moves that work on your upper body, lower body, or core. Besides burning up calories, your training will help improve muscle tone so your body gets more efficient at burning fat. And that will make each minute of your workout count for more.

Get disciplined

A side-effect of learning a highly disciplined martial art, is that it brings that discipline to your weight loss too. You will think twice before you binge once you’re following a regimen. Being active and following the martial arts routine will also slowly make your cravings go away. With more to focus on, food will seem like a distraction you can manage to avoid.

Not all martial arts have the same focus and effects on fitness

Some forms of martial arts help you burn calories faster. Whether you’re looking to lighten the scales or tone up in general, choose something that’s more intense.

Muay Thai involves a lot of kicks and movement. Workouts while training are tough and sparring is even more demanding on the body.

Like wrestling, Judo and Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu blend aerobic exercise with strength building. Taekwondo requires a balance of speed, power, and flexibility and gives you a good leg and cardio workout. Karate is a good core workout but doesn’t do so much for your lower body. Kung Fu is highly aerobic and requires jumps, kicks and general agility. Fitness kickboxing can help you quickly drop pounds.


Martial arts at the gym

Many schools and gyms offer MMA, kickboxing, or Krav Maga in addition to a traditional martial arts training program for different ranks and age groups. Professional martial arts schools that focus on a single or combination of styles will always put safety first. Most gyms and schools will welcome a visit or offer a trial class (or several) for free or at low cost.

Martial Arts Give Your Body a Dynamic Workout Every Time

Martial arts consist of a set of vigorous physical training methods and combative sports that were originally practiced in countries of the Far East and Middle East centuries ago primarily for self-defense. They include some similar and some unique styles such as Karate, Tae Kwon Do, Judo, Kendo, Ninjitsu, Aikido, and many more. Martial arts are practiced by all ages across the world for self-defense, physical fitness, mental health, entertainment, leadership training, and competitive sports – even as a series of Olympic games. They help to build your mental, physical, and spiritual health for a longer life and better quality of life.

Martial arts and dynamic workouts

A dynamic workout includes all exercise forms like cardio, physical strength, flexibility, endurance, mental acuity (focus, reaction, stamina, etc.), and spiritual well-being in a single workout routine. Martial arts training is a great way for adults to have a dynamic workout several times a week. Various styles like Karate, Judo, Kickboxing, and Boxing enhance your stamina and build up strength in the upper and lower body as a regular practitioner. Martial arts also require a lot of focus as you need to be able to concentrate on your opponent’s moves and plot and execute a counter attack. Training sessions of martial art athletes are planned in such manner that their focus increases on improving strength and conditioning of the body.

Dynamic workouts help to focus body energy towards completion of rigorous exercises on a consistent basis to improve proficiency and endurance. This helps martial artists execute fast, accurate, and powerful strikes and kicks to targets, sparring partners (with self-control), and to bad guys in case of a self-defense situation.

Most martial art styles also focus on developing upper and lower body muscles as practitioners frequently hold, balance, shift weight, and move in fast, low, and guarded stances – at the ready for explosive action. Martial arts develop core strength too, as it is required for proper execution of many techniques with maximum force. This core training that helps practitioners maintain or regain their centers of balance in a fight.

Other benefits of martial arts

Martial arts provide overall health benefits to practitioners besides the great physical fitness achieved through regular workouts. Training is a tremendous help in building an individual’s self-confidence and mental power. Martial arts help to maintain a disciplined way of life in order to reach personal, motivating, achievable, and trackable goals. You can also learn how to defend yourself and others from violent attack at a moment’s notice. They are great for burning body
fat and achieving a well-toned body. Martial arts also help to increase productivity and lengthen attention spans in most students.

Practicing martial arts is a great way to have a healthy workout for your body and mind. Training does not get monotonous or boring because there is so much to learn, and so many ways to practice and compete. The knowledge and abilities stack up on each other as you advance in rank and belt color, making your self-confidence, your skills, and your potential a force to be reckoned with in all segments of your life! Now that’s what I call a dynamic workout!

Lose Those Extra Pounds with Martial Arts

Most martial arts consist of both armed and unarmed combat skills that originated, flourished, and evolved in the Middle East and Far East starting centuries ago. These include various styles like Karate, Tae Kwon Do, Muay Thai, and Jiu-Jitsu to name just a few. Martial arts are now practiced all over the world for self-defense, health, fitness, and sport.

Fat burning with martial arts

Studies show that you need to burn 3,500 calories in order to lose one pound of body weight. For example, if you want lose one pound of body weight in a week then you need to burn 500 calories a day more than you take in for seven straight days. Learning martial arts is a fun way to lose that weight because intensive training typically burns more than 600 calories in an hour. Kickboxing is said to burn more than 750 calories per hour. Depending on the type of style you choose, you will be able to shed of a lot of excess body weight and mass. Boxing is said to be one of the best forms of martial arts to shed body fat. It involves rigorous sessions that focus on cardio. Intensive training is possible in any discipline, and most styles train both sides of the body equally while strengthening muscles throughout, including the arms, legs, torso, abdomen, and more.

Other styles of martial arts like Karate, Tae Kwon Do, and Judo are a fun way to shed those calories while learning and practicing self-defense techniques. They can help you form a tone, shapely body, a sharper mind, and a renewed sense of self-confidence.

Other benefits of martial arts

Martial arts have a lot of benefits other than just losing weight. They are of tremendous help in building your overall self-confidence. Martial arts help to maintain a disciplined way of life as practicing them must be done consistently for steady progression through the ranks and belt colors of most styles. Martial arts are dynamic workouts for the body that improve cardio, mental strength, physical strength, and spiritual well-being of individuals who train together. Martial arts also increases focus, productivity, and stamina in most practitioners.

Learning martial arts is a great way to lose weight and excess fat from all over the body. With regular training you tend to develop a heightened awareness, quick reflexes, and strong muscles to evade or defeat opponents of even greater size than yourself.

Learn Martial Arts to Build your Self-Confidence

More and more people are discovering martial arts therapy used to treat and even cure some disorders relating to body and mind. In one research study, an Israeli Judo Champion-turned- academic taught a modified form of Judo to visually, mentally, and physically-impaired people. As a result of these rigorous practices, the people showed nominal improvement in a variety
of abilities. If martial art is powerful enough to bring raising the bar for disabled persons, the possibilities for completely healthy, fully functional persons are even greater.

Why martial art is a better confident builder than any sport

Just about any rigorous sport or activity can improve your physical and mental fitness and in turn your level of confidence. But martial arts have been proven to give great results more consistently and in a variety of aspects. Why is it so?

First, martial art is an individual endeavor (though training in a class of fellow students is the norm); individual results are based on your individual effort, unlike in team sports where reliance upon others is often paramount.

Second, martial art training is empirically structured, i.e. the level of difficulty rises as you progress, meaning the challenges increase in complexity and requirements. As you achieve each new level, you experience accomplishment that increases your self-confidence. The prestige and self-respect you earn with each belt color is very satisfying and self-motivating.

The controlled environment and structure of martial arts pave way for a better physique, posture, stance, and body language. These very visible, tangible effects reduce the instances and severity of perceptions that cause self-doubt and low self-esteem. Once you start seeing results, there is no turning back!

Gaining confidence through martial arts

It is said that every time we face fear, we gain confidence and courage. The same way, you involuntarily attain a little more courage and confidence every time you practice martial arts. Every time you free spar or compete in a tournament, you either win and boost self-image or you lose and learn a new lesson. The moment the match begins, you forget everything else in your life and focus only on giving your best.

Martial arts training entails more than learning vigorous strikes, kicks, and blocks to improve your physical self. Much training deals with sharpening the abilities of your mind. Many martial art styles feature elements of philosophical and intellectual pursuit, such as meditation, balance, breathing, listening skills, and sometimes the warrior ethos. These concepts are instrumental
in bringing clarity to your mind. It is said that the combat techniques are the most effective
only when you are able to connect your mind to your body. Many expert martial artists are so observant and quick-thinking that they can actually predict an opponent’s next move, giving them better chances of evading, countering, and ultimately winning the contest unharmed.

Practicing martial arts gives you a fit body and clear mind, which in turn leverages your confidence level. The only way to verify this claim is to experience the benefits for yourself. The life-changing effects will make you a true believer and advocate for this wholesome, healthful, enjoyable activity and lifestyle.