A Martial Artist is often viewed as someone in good physical shape. When someone hears the term Martial Arts, often the first image they get is Bruce Lee from ‘Enter the Dragon’. Martial Arts not only teach you techniques to protect yourself but can also improve your physique immensely.
In general most Martial Arts improve cardiovascular health and mental health. Martial Arts will develop other aspects of fitness, as it will be required to perform the techniques of the Art.
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If you are trying to find the best Martial Art for weight loss and getting in shape luckily, you have many options. Below I’ve listed some of the most famous Martial Arts used for fitness and their benefits.
Muay Thai
Muay Thai is a very effective form of Martial Arts and an excellent way to get fit. If your goal is to lose excess fat, Muay Thai should be on the top of your list.
An average training session of Muay Thai burns nearly 1000 calories per hour for a person weighing 150lbs. Making it one of the best calorie-burning activities and a great Martial Art for weight loss. Muay Thai also develops the upper and lower body as it incorporates punches and kicks.
Brazillian Jiu-jitsu
BJJ’s popularity has been on the rise for several reasons. Apart from its effectiveness in actual fights, being a grappling art BJJ is also a great physical activity. It burns roughly 700 calories per hour, for a person weighing 150lbs. BJJ improves overall strength and also improves joint strength, which will be very helpful in the later years.
Tai Chi
Tai chi has been seeing a steady growth in the number of practitioners worldwide. This Chinese Martial Art is favored by the elderly and middle-aged because it puts less strain on the body. Improving muscle strength, flexibility, and balance, Tai Chi is a great option for many individuals.
Judo
Judo is an Olympic sport, as a full-contact sport, it has many practitioners around the world. Although Judo uses carefully executed techniques, these rely heavily on the physical strength of the practitioner. Judo requires strength in the entire body and is a great way to burn calories and build muscle.
Karate
As the world’s most practiced Martial Art, Karate has been acknowledged as a great way to burn fat as well as to learn self-defense. Karate is similar to Muay Thai in terms of training style. Normally taught as a traditional Martial Art, however, significantly less contact is involved at most Karate dojos. Karate is also a great Art in terms of improving mental health.
Taekwondo
Taekwondo is also another full-contact Olympic sport and heavily relies on kicks. With an emphasis on developing leg muscle and coordination, Taekwondo also focuses a lot on flexibility and agility. A Taekwondo practitioner’s athletic ability is evident from the high flying kicks and spinning kicks. Both of which are difficult to execute without flexibility, leg, and core strength.
All Martial Arts should develop the body, as it is not effective to learn a technique and be unable to execute it correctly.
Martial Arts will develop a person’s mind more than other sports or physical activities. Although some Martial Arts do it better than some, almost all of them give importance to mental health development. Some of the above Martial Arts use supplementary training such as weight training and running to further improve the body.
When selecting a Martial Art it is necessary to choose one that you can enjoy and continue with. Often with the more popular Martial Arts, you may have multiple schools near you teaching the same Art.
As I always say, take advantage of the free trials offered and find the right one for you. Sticking with a Martial Art or program that you enjoy is more important than finding the perfect one that you end up quitting three months later.
Here is another article you may like that will provide you with a great Martial Arts workout plan. Or perhaps you may be interested in a Martial Arts Workout Video.
Have you had success losing WEIGHT or getting into shape with a Martial Art?
It’s convenient how learning martial arts can help you defend yourself when needed while you shape your desired figure. I want to help my colleague with his plan to achieve his ideal shape before summer next year. We should look around for an academy that could help him with this!
Yes, I completely agree and that’s a great idea. Beginning a martial art is one of the best investments I believe someone can do for themselves. You can attain so much growth mentally, physically, spiritually, and it can really enhance most aspects of your life.
Thank you so much for reading and taking the time to comment.
That’s really a cool post. Once I was at the trial class for Brazillian Jiu-jitsu. In the middle I felt like I need to take a break, almost passed out, went to toilet, drunk some cold tap water and washed my face. But I’m not giving up so easily, came back and finished training. At this time I was excersising a lot on my own and was in a really good shape, but it wasn’t enough for that classes. So big respect for all the fighters there, they really push the limits. Talking about Tai Chi, it seems like it takes not so much effort, so you will not loose so many calories, however it’s very healthy for your mindset. By practising Tai Chi you may discover a power in you to start taking more concious choices, also in terms of food.
Thank you Lee for your article!
Dario
Dario,
Thanks for reading and taking the time to comment.
Yeah, BJJ and grappling cardio is on a level of it’s own.
I heard one time before that swimming is the only activity that will require more muscles then Ju-Jitsu.
Thanks for all the info, I really found it helpful and informative yet you still kept it fun and interesting as well. Credit for that and keep it up !!!
Thanks Muhammed, I’m glad you found it informative and enjoyable!
I appreciate you taking the time to read and commenting.
I agree with you that martial arts can be one of the ways to lose weight, so as well to have the technics to protect one’s self and also a means for physical fitness.
When I was younger, I learned the necessary steps of Karate though by my brother, who was having the Karate training. I did not go far for long, for I intended only to protect my self as self-defense, which I like to do during those days. I hope to do the training shortly.
Thank you for the great information.
Lyn
Thanks for reading and commenting Lyn
Karate is definitely a great martial art for weight loss
With its popularity as well, its a very accessible martial art to start training in.