Tag: martial arts

Improve Your Goal-Setting Skills by Training in Martial Arts

Posted on | by Jason

Martial arts have been practiced and passed down generation after another for centuries now, though the true origins of certain disciplines remain shrouded in the mists of antiquity. Fighting styles have evolved and given birth to new ones over vast periods of time. Today we have various types of martial arts such as Karate, Kung fu, Jujitsu, Aikido, Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, Judo, and Tae Kwon Do, which focus on different aspects or styles of fighting, with both shared and unique traditions and philosophical elements.

Initially developed for prowess in personal combat and self-defense, these martial arts have now been found to improve the character, behavior, and mental conditions of students of all ages and backgrounds. Apart from physical movements, most of these martial arts also espouse intellectual concepts such as balance, meditation, proper breathing, and combat ethics. In this piece, however, you will see how it helps in improving your goal-setting skills in life.

Improving goal-setting skills

The abilities to set “smart” goals and then work and persevere to earn them on time are important for anyone in his or her everyday life. And to achieve them, you need to have a set of skills that may be developed from practicing martial arts. Focus and concentration on the job or goal at hand is important to achieve it. Martial arts develop concentration, listening skills, and reaction time, significantly helping students focus and remain loyal to their goals.

Physical fitness is an incremental process achieved by training over time, but it’s a vital pursuit for those aiming to achieve certain health goals, like significant weight loss or beating a disease. Most martial arts schools stress the importance of diet along with much repetition of the rigorous techniques of the discipline. A fit body and clear mind give you the self-confidence to go the extra mile. The belt system in martial arts keeps you engaged with one goal after the other. This in turn reflects in your goal setting skills in your professional and personal lives. Now let us see how to set goals in your life with the help of martial arts.

How to set goals

List the goals that want to achieve. Make sure these goals are not far-fetched and assign a time period for each goal. For example, you want to reduce 30 lbs by the end of the year. Measure your progress throughout the process of reaching your goal. If you manage to complete it in the specific time period, reward yourself with a something new, and if not, punish yourself with some extra practicing time per day. Keep the goal visible: look at it every day.

Picture finally reaching the stage of success to motivate yourself to reach it. For example, if your goal is to earn your 1st Degree Black Belt, picture yourself wearing it in class, and no bigger motivation may be required. Martial arts demand your pain and sweat if you want to pass each level through successive ranks and belts – and acquire the powerful abilities that come with them. This level of long-term or intermediate goal motivates you to keep trying as challenges and rewards continue occurring in your training and fitness.

People have a misconception that martial arts training is merely for children. Adults experience many more complex challenges, responsibilities, and stressors in both personal and professional lives. Hence, by improving self-confidence and self-control, rehearsing martial arts techniques is especially helpful to adults. It helps us become more efficient, and also more likely to “keep our cool” during difficult situations. Bypass the misconceptions and start learning martial arts today if you want to start converting personal dreams into life-changing realities!

High Impact Exercises for High Impact Results

Posted on | by Jason

“High impact workouts – which include exercises like jumping rope, skipping, running, and certain types of step aerobics – is the umbrella term used for workouts in which you take both feet off the ground at the same time. Exercises like walking and hiking, where you leave at least one foot in contact with the ground are termed “low impact” exercises. For advanced exercisers who would like to give their body a complete and intense workout, high impact exercises are ideal.

Such exercises put the body under immense pressure (what we refer to as impact) and trigger the expenditure of a higher amount of calories than low impact exercises. They also help develop more power, agility, endurance, and coordination. Perhaps the biggest benefit of all from high impact exercise is its reliability in helping build bone mass.

A study entitled Effects of Two Jumping Programs on Hip Bone Mineral Density in Premenopausal Women: A Randomized Controlled Trial, which was published in January 2014 in the U.S. National Library of Medicine (National Institutes of Health) found that women between ages 25 and 50 who hopped twice a day (10 hops or more at a time) developed significant bone density in their hipbones in only four months. Women who followed the same routine but hopped 20 times or more in one period, developed even more hipbone density than the first group.

More reasons why high impact exercises are just awesome

High impact exercises have also been linked directly to improved cardiovascular health, increased metabolism, and utilization of fats (not muscles). Low impact exercises do provide similar benefits but only in the longer term. For busy men and women who struggle to make time for exercise, squeezing in high impact exercise is easier and more practical than spending hours on low impact workouts. Did you know, for instance, that an average person can hop/jump in place 50 times in 40 seconds? You don’t even need any equipment for a large number of high impact exercises.

Further, look back to your childhood and you’ll see yourself doing high impact exercises as a child – running, jumping, skipping rope, hopping up and down, or practicing martial arts stunts to name a few. Then, you did these exercises without knowing how healthy they were. Then, you did the exercises because they were fun! As adults, you get to re-live those days with high impact exercises, while being fully aware that you are preparing yourself for a healthy and accident-free future. How awesome is that?

Say hello to high impact martial arts classes

Enrolling in martial arts classes is a great way to get the physical benefits of high impact exercises while enjoying social and mental benefits at the same time. With martial arts, you learn valuable life lessons that improve your outlook and reputation. Meanwhile, in time you improve focus and stamina; build muscle mass; strengthen joints, ligaments, and muscles to be more flexible; train peripheral vision; and understand how to deploy powerful strikes, blocks, and kicks for effective self-defense. Further, training with a team allows you to socialize, make friends, and learn from each other. A good idea is to intersperse high-impact martial arts training with outdoor running and rope-hopping to spice up exercise routine and get the best results.

Combine Martial Arts and Cardio for a Body That Can’t Stop Thanking You!

Posted on | by Jason

Few workouts pack in the same range of health benefits as cardio exercises. As the name suggests, cardio training, short for cardiovascular training, improves the health of the heart and reduces risk of associated heart diseases. However, what the name does not suggest is that cardio training also makes –

  1. lungs and bones stronger,
  2. reduces risk of some types of cancers,
  3. reduces stress,
  4. relieves anxiety and depression,
  5. boosts energy,
  6. improves sleep, and
  7. promotes weight loss, making you feel better about the way you look and feel.

Did you notice the stress on the word “feel”? It was emphasized on purpose. Cardio training helps you feel good instantly and feel good in the future. It is suggested to patients suffering from depression and anxiety because it provides instant, albeit temporary relief. Similarly, improved sleep adds to the feel- good feeling you have when you wake up the first thing in the morning.

Cardio training actually alters the hormonal profile of your body in beneficial ways. The feel-good hormones temporarily reduce fatigue and also curb appetite, apart from making you feel less anxious or depressed. In fact, people who train in cardio regularly have a much positive outlook on life overall and lead better quality of lives. Of course, the physical health benefits also translate into a good feeling in the future, when you grow older without the risk of diabetes, some cancers, or weak and brittle bones.

Martial arts and cardio – one power-packed combo!

While martial arts are comprehensive forms of training alone, you can increase the benefits multiple- folds by combining martial arts training with cardio training. Begin with regular cardio exercises like running, swimming, biking, jumping rope, mountain climbing, bear crawling, and rowing to give your body the extra push it needs. Mountain climbing and swimming are, in fact, great cardiovascular exercises that allow you to have fun while working out. At a more advanced level, you can try various drills and sprints to build your cardiovascular endurance.

All professional boxers, fighters, and trained martial arts experts use cardiovascular training with martial arts to improve their performance before a big match, or to speed up their recovery from intense martial arts practice. This is because cardiovascular exercises help build endurance. You’ll see that regular cardio training has a direct impact on your martial arts skills as well. A good idea is to talk to your martial arts trainer for a tailor-made cardio training routine that will work the best for your body and fitness level.

Build Your Self-Esteem By Practicing Martial Arts

Posted on | by Jason

Martial arts have been practiced and utilized since antiquity, steadfastly carried forth through many generations of mankind in diverse societies, through times of peace and war. Their venerable age is verified by a number of ancient Egyptian, Indian, and Asian murals depicting hand-to-hand combat. Though these martial arts were developed primarily for self-defense in troubled times, scientific studies and millions of personal testimonies indicate their key role in molding respectable character, confidence, positive outlook, personality, and personal success. Research has shown a range of improvements in physical health, self-image, and social skills made by adult students when surveyed eight months into training. In children and teens, some improvements were made more quickly.

Martial arts and self-esteem

Self-esteem is basically what we think of ourselves. Perception of the self – your unique self- image – greatly influences how other people perceive and label us. Building self-confidence is a natural process that occurs while training in the martial arts. Men and women join for a range of reasons, but the multitude of benefits they typically find as students multiplies their returns.

A person who has high self-esteem may be very active in society, forming bonds that get things done, because he or she believes his or her contribution is imperative to a better life for all. Self- confidence gives you the power and the motivation to affect changes when and where they’re needed!

Testing your limits – and expanding them through interesting, powerful exercise – leads you to know yourself on a deeper level. Trust in yourself and your abilities developed over time gives you a new outward appearance as well. Understanding and accepting yourself, setting goals and reaching them, are self-perpetuating – success breeds success in other areas of life. When you know your worst, but choose – and know how – to bring out your best, all the time, you often create win-win situations and bolster your reputation!

Martial arts training improves physical fitness, toning muscles, losing weight, raising energy levels, boosting immunity, and generally making you look and feel more attractive. Naturally, this is a major boost to one’s self-esteem. As you advance through ranks and belt colors, your pride and pleasure increase your commitment to reach Black Belt, to win a competition, to break those boards, and so on. The intense focus you practice to control and execute the martial arts movements removes focus you ordinarily spend on fears, complexes, hangups, and such. It alleviates stress and builds self-confidence at a steady pace in most students.

Researches and studies

In 1986, Richman and Rehberg conducted a study to measure the influence of martial arts in a person’s self esteem. The study was conducted on a sample of 60 martial artists, who participated in the 1985 Battle of Atlanta tournament. They were split into four groups according to their expertise – group 1 with people who held white through gold belts; group 2 had purple, green, and blue belts; group 3 athletes had red or brown belts; group 4 held black belts. Karate Tournament Survey, which is a self-report questionnaire, was the tool used to measure the self-esteem of subjects. In the test, the people with higher belts displayed higher scores for “internal reliability.” Also, people with higher self-confidence were seen to have performed better during the tournament.

In 1990, Finkenberg performed a study on 100 females to test the same. Of the 100, 51 were subjected to practice Tae Kwon Do and the rest had to attend general health classes, both for a period of 18 weeks. Before and after these sessions, the sample was subjected to Tennessee Self Concept test. It was found after the test that the women who participated in Tae Kwon Do showed more improvements in self-satisfaction, personal self, social self, physical self, and self identity than the subjects who attended the health classes.
Self-satisfaction is trained and earned by continually achieving success. Self-confidence grows by reinforcing itself repeatedly, as you achieve personal victories in the martial arts. Almost everyone can benefit from a higher self-esteem and better physical fitness, so consider joining a martial arts class and see the differences you can make!