There are many health benefits that come along with karate, many of which can
help you in your everyday life. First of all, when one practices karate they are able to
train and improve their physical health every week, this could include building muscle or
stamina and even can be helpful in relieving stress. Furthermore, karate has many
benefits for your mental health, such as exercising, which relieves stress and it also
helps with your memory. Also, practicing karate can teach your brain and your body
many useful habits. These benefits make training in karate even more useful.
Physical health benefits are the most obvious ones most people tend to notice
about karate, and rightfully so as there are many of them. To begin, the first physical
health benefit that comes from karate is one of the more obvious ones, this being
strength. Strength, or power, comes from doing warm-ups, which include push-ups,
sit-ups, leg raises, and other exercises. These exercises will not only help you with
karate but also in your daily life. Next, I have found that karate greatly helps one's
endurance. This can partially be attributed to the running and other cardio we do for the
warm-up, but it mainly comes from sparring. Freestyle sparring significantly improves
endurance. When you spar you get your heart rate up and have to keep it up for
relatively lengthy periods of time. Furthermore, practicing karate, particularly sparring
can strengthen the parts of your arms and legs that you use to fight with. Wolff’s law
states that “Natural healthy bones will adapt and change to adapt to the stress that it is
subjected to.” So if one is constantly putting pressure on the parts of the body needed to
fight, those areas will gradually become stronger and more resilient. All of this sparring
will also strengthen your precision and hand-eye coordination. Finally, karate benefits
you physically by keeping you safe. When you are well experienced in karate and have
been training for years, you will be able to defend yourself if you are ever mugged or
attacked. Karate will also strengthen your hand-eye coordination due to all of the
sparring we do. All of the physical benefits I have stated are important to me so that I
can stay in shape.
I personally believe that there are also some mental health benefits to karate,
although they are often overlooked. First of all, there’s the fact that exercise is proven to
release stress. Almost all karate involves some form of exercise thus karate relieves
stress. This relief of stress can help you be calmer in your everyday life which will most
likely improve your quality of life. Also, I find the breathing done in both San Chin and
Tencho is a great breathing strategy to help you calm down and relax. This breathing
can also be beneficial during karate as it can calm your nerves if doing San Chin after a
hard warm-up. Another benefit is the fact that practicing kata has been proven to
improve a person's memory. Finally, I’ve found in my training that you get to meet lots of
people who you would’ve otherwise never met or been friends with. Being put in a class
with people of different ages from several different towns and being given the chance to
interact with them is enjoyable. All of these benefits just add to the many reasons why I
enjoy training in karate and are incentives to keep training so I can keep my mental
health in shape.
I’ve stated many of the physical and mental health benefits of karate, but now I
am going to address the one drawback or negative that I’ve found karate can have on
your mental health. The negative that I have found is an increase in anxiety, particularly
related to being ready for the grading. I have found myself occasionally worrying about
the grading fairly often and having to work on my confidence. However, in most cases,
this would not be an issue as you don’t grade very often and on the plus side, if you are
preparing to grade this gives you more incentive to practice and be ready when the
grading does rolls around.
I also have come to the conclusion that karate builds good work habits.
Throughout my karate journey, I have learned many habits and lessons that I find most
useful. The first of which is being persistent, and the importance of not giving up. This is
important in karate, for example when you practice you have to be persistent and
practice regularly to improve, especially before a grading. Next, I have learned to be
confident, because if you are not confident in your katas they will not be convincing.
This is also very useful in everyday life because being confident causes others to
respect you, and it can allow you to leave your comfort zone and try new things. Finally,
I have learned to be aware, whether it be in sparring or kata. While sparring you must
always be ready for your opponent’s next move and be ready to counter, or better yet hit
them before they can hurt you. This will benefit you in the real world as it will help you
understand what's happening around you and know what to do in difficult situations. All
of these habits will help you both in and out of the dojo and improve how you handle
tough situations.
In conclusion, karate is a great way to stay physically and mentally healthy, as it
provides many useful exercises to strengthen both your mind and body. The martial art
will keep you fit and healthy throughout your life and can introduce you to new people. It
also provides you with many great work habits that will benefit you both inside and
outside of the dojo. Karate can benefit your everyday life and will allow you to keep
yourself safe and protect those around you. All of these reasons contribute to why I train
in karate and enjoy it so much.
Jackson Dubler
Shodan-ho candidate, Elora Karate Dojo
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