A person’s life changes the second they place their foot onto the mat for their first training session. They get their heart pumping with striking movements and their arms and shoulders start getting sore. Grappling arts require a person to constantly use muscles they did not know existed. All of them teach a person how to remain calm and control their breathing cadences so their stamina increases, which helps with everything else they do outside of the gym.

Practicing martial arts increases their Vo2 Max levels, which is an indicator of how much a person’s body is able to absorb and use oxygen. Doing so strengthens the muscles needed for an improved cardiovascular system, which increases a person’s metabolism. It is a fun way to burn calories, a great way to lose weight, and get better sleep.

A person engages in a lot of active and passive stretching when they participate in martial arts. Properly warming up their muscles and practicing the movements of their respective discipline increases their flexibility and circulation. A few martial arts that are known to increase a person’s flexibility are jiu jitsu, kickboxing, Muay Thai, and taekwondo.

A person learns how to move their body in ways that they have never imagined previously while practicing jiu jitsu. There are many solo and partner drills to practice that keep a person loose and mobile both inside and outside of the gym.

A person has to remain loose and warm so they deliver kicks and punches harder and faster in striking sports such as boxing, kickboxing, Muay Thai, and taekwondo. People have a natural tendency to tense up while nervous or while exerting energy, but practicing one or more of these martial arts help them get rid of that nasty and counterintuitive habit.

Practicing martial arts improves circulation, which alleviates a lot of health risks that come with living a sedentary lifestyle. High blood pressure, or hypertension, is a serious issue that plagues many people. Numerous studies have concluded that there is a direct link between getting a lot of exercise and a lowering in blood pressure. The heart has to work harder to pump blood when it is weak, and exercise strengthens the heart. There have been many cases where people were able to get off of their blood pressure medication after remaining dedicated to their training.

Practicing martial arts is viewed as a form of therapy to just about everyone who does it. A person’s focus completely shifts to what is happening in class and all of life’s problems are put on hold for a couple of hours. They learn early that there is an infinite amount of knowledge to pursue, which means they never stop improving and adapting.

There have been multiple studies indicating that hard body contact in martial arts increases and prolongs cognitive functions that naturally decline over time. Jiu jitsu is colloquially known as human chess because the two grapplers are working to solve a puzzle and predict what their opponent is going to do so they take advantage of a potential vulnerability. Sparring responsibly in striking sports can be a fun way to improve reflexes and mobility. Self improvement always leads to a happier mindset, and martial arts training is all about focusing on just that.

Stress has been linked to multiple health issues and lead to depression, hypertension, strokes, weight gain, hair loss, and many more. In fact, around sixty percent of all health problems are linked to stress levels that are higher than normal. A good thing, though, is that physical exercise reduces the negative effects that stress has on the body.

The therapeutic effects of martial arts participation on people are underappreciated in the mainstream. Martial arts help reduce stress and anxiety in many ways. It is a full-body workout that releases feel-good endorphins throughout the body. A major component of martial arts training for many people is conditioning their body to properly relax, remain calm, and breathe in the face of adversity and tense situations.

Punching the heavy bag or sparring with a partner is a great way to channel frustrations. Spending time with friends in a fun and positive environment helps people forget about the real world for a little while. There is a reduction in cortisol levels which helps alleviate a lot of anxiety so they are able to enjoy life a little more. Stress lowers a person’s overall quality of life and makes it much more difficult to enjoy things that they normally would.

Practicing martial arts trains a person’s mind to remain calm and focused during tense and high-speed situations. Building these attributes play a vital role in being able to remain focused for longer periods of time and are helpful with multitasking. A person is usually able to concentrate a lot more and focus a lot better on their daily tasks and responsibilities.

A person’s body is usually exhausted after a hard training session, which helps with the overall quality of sleep that they are able to get. Getting quality sleep is essential in being able to optimize potential in anything a person does.

Training in martial arts builds a person’s self-confidence levels in ways that no other activity is able to. Continually training how to defend oneself while finding and attacking their opponent’s weaknesses makes them feel like they are able to handle almost any tense or volatile situation outside of a controlled setting.

The lowering of stress and anxiety leads to an overall increase in self confidence. A person’s mind is strengthened, which helps them to more easily deal with adversity. They learn from their mistakes and failures and realize along the way what they are capable of achieving. They are able to tell when they are better than they were the day before, and a ranking system works as an incentive for people to continue training and competing.

They remind themselves that they are doing something that many only ever dream or talk about at the end of the day.

A person’s coordination skills develop significantly once they begin training in martial arts and learning how the human body functions. The best way to do that is by practicing challenging tasks that develop coordination with repetition such as hitting stationary and moving targets. Doing so allows a person to build up to more complex movements and combinations. Their brain and body start to become synchronized and muscle memory begins to develop, which improves their spatial awareness so they are more aware of their surroundings.

Practicing those moves not only keeps a person’s reflexes sharp, but it corrects any muscle imbalances that they have. It does so by forcing them to use their weakest and uncoordinated side, such as their left hand if they are dominant with thei right hand. All of these factors ensure that their reflexes remain sharp and muscle memory is retained.

The world is, unfortunately, a very violent place. Martial arts exist so that a person learns how to properly control and defend themselves if they ever encounter an attacker. Their reaction time starts to improve immensely once they have been training for even a short amount of time. They develop toughness and a sense of fortitude and their stamina starts to increase.

While a lot of what a person learns is in a controlled setting does transfer to the streets with steady practice. Most people do not know how to fight. Someone who knows what to look for (i.e. a telegraphed overhand right) from someone who does not know what they are doing is able to properly react and defend themselves.

Training across multiple disciplines is the best way for a person to prepare themselves for real-life situations. While many fights end up going to the ground, all of them start standing. Knowing how to react if someone throws a punch is just as important as knowing how to react when someone is trying to take another person down to the ground because either happens in real life.

Martial artists learn how to keep a safe distance during verbal altercations and how to properly react to any sudden movements. They become a lot more vigilant and, in many cases, are able to see what a potential threat is thinking about doing well before they even try anything.

A person’s lifestyle choices start changing once they begin taking their martial arts training seriously, especially if they decide to take the next step and start competing. It is much easier to stay in shape than it is to get in shape, and self-discipline is required for a person to stay in shape. They begin making healthier choices with their diet and their alcohol intake decreases. It sounds like a sudden dramatic change at first, but it becomes much easier to maintain once they begin to notice some changes in their physique and improvement in their fitness levels.

Joining a martial arts gym is a great way to socialize and make new friends. Many people do not have much in common with their coworkers and traditional fitness gyms are usually filled with people listening to their headphones. Martial arts gyms are filled with like-minded individuals who share similar goals and come from all walks of life. They provide people with golden opportunities to build trustworthy relationships with people much easier than in many other social settings.

Fighters and martial arts practitioners are some of the nicest people around despite the violent nature of competition. It is largely because everyone has been humbled in the gym throughout their years of training. They have been thrown around and taken some punches that sometimes made them think twice about their career choices. They all began at the bottom with very little knowledge of the sport and worked their way up. They have never forgotten how difficult that process truly was and feel a sense of obligation to help those who are currently where they used to be.

There’s a mutual amount of respect between people in the gym even if they do not have much in common with each other. There are those who have trained with many people who shared completely different perspectives and lived different lifestyles, but they still respected each other as martial artists and shared a tacit understanding that they have each other’s back if they ever needed help.