Many of us are looking to improve the image that we see in the mirror when we wake up every morning, some are concerned about the invasive presence of aging and to eliminate both the grey hairs and the wrinkles associated with it, or maybe even the styling of their hair and makeup. However something that everybody can relate to is the desire for a slimmer, more toned and healthier looking body that really extenuates your natural looks. This is not only for aesthetic reasons but also your overall health. After all if you don’t look after your body then who will? However the traditional method of just relentlessly hitting the gym and doing the same old cycle of exercises can be extremely boring and one under looked way of spicing up your workout regimen is to begin practicing some kind of martial art.
Remember back to the first time that you saw a Bruce Lee movie, not only did the man possess an extraordinary amount skill with various kinds of martial arts, but he also had the most toned and consistently healthy body that he could possibly create for himself and his martial arts apparently had a major influence on that. So let’s take a look at how they can help you and your personal health and fitness.
Discipline and motivation
In most forms of martial arts you are taught that you must be extremely disciplined in order to perfect your practice of the art and mastery of the attached philosophy. This is because rigorously training and keeping on task through your journey of learning the art will undoubtedly require not only your time and effort but dedication to identifying and tackling your individual flaws and improving on them to truly understand and be able to progress to higher levels of knowledge and understanding. Surprisingly this isn’t taught through merely physical training but each martial arts normally has a vast amount of wisdom and philosophy attached to it that not only teaches valuable insights on the craft itself but also lessons that you can extend into your everyday life.
Also learning a martial art teaches you too be self-motivated due to the fact that as you progress and get better at your chosen martial art that you become excited at the prospect of training harder to achieve that next level of mastery. Often times that next belt or accolade being what drives you to get into the gym to improve your body to better serve you in this process.
Coordination
When you learn a martial art the majority of the time you will also be learning different forms of strike, kick and throw, all of which will help you improve your hand to eye coordination, your reflexes and also your timing, which are all skills that are easily transferable across to different areas of sport and exercise for example, hand-to-foot-to-eye coordination is extremely important in games like soccer, and learning a martial art not only provides an opportunity to hone these skills but also to apply them in a totally different way, helping you to develop both skills faster.
The principle of good health
All martial arts without exception teach you that you have to cultivate your body into the instrument that you want it to be. A failing and unhealthy body will only serve as an inappropriate vessel for you to achieve your goals and subsequently these principles of good health are often interwoven into the disciplinary philosophy of the martial art itself. It frowns upon acts like smoking and drinking to excess, believing that you must stay in control of your body and not the other way round, and that a person can be defined by the way he treats his own body.
This also extends to your diet and other exercise believing that you must also stay pure in terms of the food that you put into your body and how it will affect you in the long run. Different kinds of exercise should too be closely adhered too with both cardio and upper body strength being valuable skills to possess when training as they will allow you to fight and practice for longer periods of time without a break. For more of an insight into how martial arts can improve your health then check out what this martial arts school in Sydney had to say on the subject.
