It seems like everyone is trying to lose some weight nowadays, and it also seems like more and more violent crimes are going on in the world. What better way to tackle both weight loss as well as learning to protect yourself? Look no further than martial arts. Now there are many reasons why you should practice a martial art, but there are a few reasons in particular that should be discussed in-depth.

First off, martial arts gives you the opportunity to fuse a variety of workout methods that are not usually possible by conventional terms. You could get your cardio by simply running, but most people tend to dislike running in its entirety. What better way to disguise a cardio-heavy workout than by learning to defend yourself? Even the warmups for the actual training session are enough to get your heart pumping. During the training sessions themselves, you will be pitting your body against another body in simulated combat. The difference between people and iron is that people are weights that fight back. You’re not only struggling against gravity, but you’re going against a person exerting their own forces upon you. You also learn balance upon that. You definitely become more coordinated through martial arts as opposed to conventional exercise.

Furthermore, martial arts teach you self-defense. I believe that this is the main selling point. This world grows ever violent, so why not learn to defend yourself against those hostile and perilous elements? There are a variety of martial arts that can teach you different methods to employ in a defense situation. You can learn to strike with boxing, Muay Thai, Tae Kwon Do, Karate, Kung Fu, Krav Maga, and many more. These arts focus on learning how to strike an opponent using hands, feet, elbows, and even knees. There are also martial arts that focus more on grappling such as wrestling, judo, jujutsu, Brazilian jiu jitsu, Bokh, and even sumo. These martial arts teach you to fight using throws, chokes, armbars(hyperextending an elbow), kneebars(hyperextending a knee), and pinning people to the ground. There are even arts that teach you to fight with weapons such as fencing(as well as other historic European martial arts such as swordsmanship), kendo, and eskrima/kali. There is a plethora of ways to learn to defend yourself as your options are vast.

Personally, this last point is the most important of the three. Martial arts teach you discipline. It teaches you to respect others, as well as yourself. It teaches you that practice is what makes you into a master of something. It engrains that fact into you, especially when you spend more time in it. Another thing that it teaches people is to be tough. You will get bruised a lot when participating. People nowadays freak out if someone so much as stands too close to them. I think people definitely need a reality check, and this is a perfect method of conveying that message. Life won’t always be peachy. You might have to fight someone to save yourself and your loved ones. It hardens you both mentally and physically.