You’ll often hear
people say “I want to do Martial Arts to get fit.” Or something along those
lines. This post will help to clear up where the lines of fitness and martial
Arts (MA) meet.
In the fitness
element of martial arts we take a look at how the two interact in order to help
you get the most from your training.
What is Martial Arts?
Martial Arts is the
taking part, learning and subsequent mastering of a system of fighting or self
defence which also develops your mental, physical and spiritual realms, through
a series of exercises, movements and practices.
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| Back, arms & shoulders |
What is fitness?
Fitness has to do
with the conditioning of the entire body to increase physical strength,
agility, endurance, cardio vascular capacity and in most cases, size or
definition.
So far...
Martial arts is the
name of an art, Fitness is the name of a condition.
By taking part in MA,
you are using your physical body to carry out a series of movements, some of
them quite strenuous, until you become accustomed to them. The repeated use of
your body in the pursuit of learning MA is what builds your fitness.
To achieve fitness,
you can take part in an inordinate amount of sports designed to condition the
body to be fit.
And that is where martial
arts meet’s fitness.
Solely Fitness
To solely achieve
fitness and nothing else through Martial Arts is nigh on impossible, because,
unlike running or lifting weights the repetitions in martial are fewer. But
instead you are learning and performing a complex set of movements which are
hard to forget and in effect are programmed into your mind and body so they
become you...
So in doing MA to get
fit, you actually become so much more, weather it was your intention or not.
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| fitness training |
Improving your game
Yes, a side effect of
the art is to constantly improve your skill level and being fit is generally a
by product of that purpose rather than the sole aim.
Because of this
kaizen effect (never ending improvement) your fitness level follows the same
path of constantly improving over time.
The added benefit of
MA is not, however, just in the learning
of the skills it’s in the engagement of your whole mind body and spirit in
learning, performing and mastering the art that makes it so much more
interesting than just going to the gym, even if there is a myriad of different
equipment with which to train.
Complement
Having said that, the
two work best complementing each other... By that, I mean you’ll get fit doing
Martial arts on its own, or by doing fitness on its own... But you’ll go even
further if you combine the two.
For example; don’t
just rely on throwing punches and doing tension movement’s to build your arms
and shoulder muscles. You can advance their development faster and specifically
if you do weights to build those specific muscle groups which in turn will
improve your ability to punch faster or harder depending on how you use the
weights.
Tailor to suit
You can tailor the
use of fitness choices to improve just about any area of your body you choose
and for a particular type of result like speed, strength, flexibility,
toughness... the list is endless.
But stepping out of
your martial art and isolating a body group in order to improve upon your god
given talent through fitness training can be very rewarding indeed... And
consequently speed up your progress in your martial art.
Putting it together
Like all the best
discipline’s... Gradual progression, leading to increased capacity which yields
sustained results is the way to go.
In looking at the fitness
element of martial arts. We can see how the right combination of the art and
dialing in a bit of fitness training, tailored to your development needs can
exponentially speed up your ability to perform Martial Arts better.
Please feel free to
leave a comment or ask any questions you have in the box below.
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