Get Fit: Get Fighting

Often people talk if being “fighting fit” but what does that mean? And are they really fit to fight?

Martial arts are arguably one of the best ways to get fit. They are often overlooked as they and tend to have an image problem, often being thought of as aggressive or dangerous.

Often martial arts lessons are better than going to the gym. There are several reasons why. In a martial arts class you are instructed to exercise which really does help to increase the intensity at which you exercise. The combination of an instructor telling you what to do and the peer pressure from other students results in a healthy increase in exercise intensity. If you have ever worked with a personal trainer then you will be familiar with this experience. You simply train harder when being told to do so by someone else.

But martial arts classes benefit you in many more ways than just encouraging you to train harder. For a good all round fitness there are several factors at play: strength, endurance, cardiovascular fitness, flexibility, balance, speed and timing. Martial arts will teach and develop all of these.

The actual exercises performed as part of the fitness and conditioning elements of the class are designed to improve physical fitness and strength. Many of the exercises performed are the “old school” body-weight exercises popular in physical education classes and military fitness centres - squats, push ups, burpees, mountain climbers. Simple exercises which strengthen the whole body.

One important aspect of martial arts training is the Tabata effect. Dr. Tabata is a Japanese scientist who researched the most effective ways to exercise in increase fitness. His results found that high intensity interval training was the most effective method and since then this form of training has been called Tabata Training.

Martial arts classes will often put you through an intensive interval style workout. A one hour class will have period of very high intensity interspersed with lower intensity. Many of the fitness drills are organised in a circuit training style which means sprint intervals combined with bodyweight exercises to increase muscular endurance and strength.

If you learn a style with a lot of sparring then you will train to your maximum intensity while sparring. It is hard not to, especially for beginners, as the adrenaline rush when you start fighting pushes you to work to your limits. You cannot get the same effect from sitting on an exercise bike or going for a run.

Martial arts can help keep you motivated in other ways. Whereas with going to the gym your only goal is to get fitter or stronger, with martial arts you develop additional goals, such as to spar against a higher grade student, and win, or to learn complex techniques and attain higher gradings.

Martial arts classes provide both a very competitive environment and a friendly one. Martial arts clubs tend to have much more social interaction, both during the class and outside of the class, than other class based fitness activities.

There are many different styles of martial art to chose from. If you ultimate goal is fitness with a bit of fun then the recommended styles to look for are kickboxing, taekwondo, full contact karate and kung-fu styles. MMA is also becoming very popular, a few years ago there were not many dedicated schools or even classes, now you can find MMA clubs and teachers around the UK.,

Sparring is one of the best ways to increase fitness, very few things will make you move quicker than a seasoned heavy weight bearing down on you! Everyone should give sparring a go at least once, it really is more fun and less dangerous than it looks.

If you have never tried martial arts for fitness then you really should give it a go. Find a few local clubs and go to them all. There is no such thing as a best style to learn, what makes a good club is usually the quality of the teaching and the class atmosphere.

By Justin Wheeler: Fitness fan, martial arts practitioner evengelist for BJJ Gi specialists and Martial arts supplier  Black Eagle .

This entry was posted on 16. June 2011 at 14:35 and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response or trackback from your own site.