May is Mental Health Awareness Month so we’re taking a minute to showcase how martial arts can help. For several years, Mental Health America has acknowledged and advocated for fitness as a tool to help those who live with mental illness find pathways to wellness and ultimately thrive in life.
It is well-known that people who live with mental health issues can benefit from physical exercise like martial arts.
In fact, recent scientific publications in the American Journal Of Men’s Health and BMC Psychology support these claims. Experts agree that training in the martial arts can be a transformative experience offering many benefits to those who live with mental illness including mentorship, a sense of achievement, and increased confidence.
Here are three ways we improve mental health with martial arts…
Manage And Reduce Stress
It is well known that training in martial arts is a great way to get in shape, raise your metabolism, build muscle strength, increases flexibility, and improve immune system responses. But did you know that all of these aspects also play a role in reducing areas of potential stress?
As you train your body to become stronger, physically, you are also training it to better handle future stressors.
Of course, practicing martial arts also naturally releases endorphins, the “feel-good” hormone, into your body. These endorphins can help relieve pain and reduce emotional stress. In fact, the neuron receptors that endorphins bind to are the same ones that bind to some common prescription pain medications. That means you can experience the same relief from martial arts training without the possibility of addiction or dependency. Research out of Harvard Health has also shown that exercise, like martial arts, is an effective but often underutilized all-natural treatment for mild to moderate depression.
Develop Self-Control
Being able to manage and regulate our emotions is something we practice every day, but for those who live with mental illness, this can be a significant challenge. A common strategy used for regulating emotions is attentional deployment, or redirecting attention. For people who struggle with managing anger or anxiety, martial arts can be a positive channel to redirect their energy. Training in the martial arts can also help redirect feelings of powerlessness and encourage feelings of self-confidence. Specifically, learning self-protection skills helps shift feelings of victimization to feelings of self-control. Sparring under adrenaline stress helps develop skills to manage adrenaline and learn to control fight or flight responses. Ultimately, martial arts training helps people develop improved self-control, form healthier habits, and reduce impulsivity.
Increase Self-Esteem
Because strong social support is important for those with depression, participating in a small group martial arts class may be beneficial. In fact, martial arts group classes can improve self-esteem through consistent positive verbal reinforcement from peers, instructors, and coaches. Additionally, when a person masters a new skill or earns a higher belt rank, their sense of achievement automatically boosts their self-confidence and they learn to feel good about themselves and their accomplishments.
So, when you’re ready to experience how martial arts can transform your life, SCHEDULE YOUR FREE SESSION with us today! We love helping REAL people like you get REAL results for the REAL world.
May is National Physical Fitness and Sports Month. In fact, experts at Harvard Medical agree that “regular exercise is one of the pillars of healthy living.” But what real benefit is there? And how can you cram exercise into your already packed daily routine?
Mayo Clinic suggests that in as little as 30 minutes per day, you can easily start to reap benefits that have fantastic results. But what kind of results? Harvard Medical tells us that daily, moderate exercise “improves cardiovascular health, lowers blood pressure, helps control body weight, and protects against a variety of diseases.” Additionally, “just like a healthy diet, exercise can contribute to general good health and therefore to a healthy immune system.”
This is great news! Because that means you have 32 chances during your waking hours to get moving and get healthier. So, when you decide to make exercise a regular part of your daily activity, you will get improvement in your quality of life AND a healthy immune system.
But it gets better!
The National Institute of Health goes even further to suggest that “the practice of physical exercises acts as a modulator of the immune system. Such practice has an effect on the lower incidence, intensity of symptoms, and mortality in viral infections observed in people who practice physical activity regularly.”
So, how do you put this into practice? Here are three ways we’re helping you do just that:
LIVE-Stream Sessions
Thankfully you can join your training sessions at Invictus Martial Arts from the comfort of your own living room or from the beach! As long as you have an internet connection, you can log in and train from wherever you are in the world and start getting healthy today. And as a bonus, you can also practice with our LIVE-Replay of recorded training sessions. This means if you happen to miss your session you can easily participate whenever you’re available!
Private Coaching
Looking for something a bit more personal? Our Private Coaching (1:1) or Semi-Private (1:4) Coaching sessions are what you’re looking for. Available In-Person or LIVE-Streaming, we can tailor your training to help you accomplish your goals with personalized feedback and customized weekly practice.
Small-Group Training
Big on fun and yet small enough to feel right at home, our Small-Group Training sessions are a great way to get out of the house and into one of the best training facilities in the NW Austin and Cedar Park area. Everyone knows that our state-of-the-art design and wellness-driven amenities make training at Invictus an experience that you’ll absolutely love! You’ll create a sense of camaraderie with your peers while getting in a good sweat and learn new skills. In fact, you’ll leave smiling knowing you learned how to protect yourself and your well-being.
Now, what are you waiting for? It’s FREE TO TRY and clearly great for you! We’ll see you on the training mats soon!
To maximize their performance and build overall endurance and stamina, serious martial artists know that they need to add conditioning exercises to their training regime. Experience shows that there are five basic martial arts exercises that are best for targeting the specific muscle groups martial artists use most.
Here Are Our Top 5 Martial Arts Exercises:
Squats
Martial artists rely heavily on their legs for stable stances and powerful kicks. Squats target the quadriceps and hamstrings which are used for common martial arts techniques such as evasions from punches, body and leg kicks, takedowns, and ground control. It is well understood that a powerful punch starts with a push-off from the ground by a leg. Want to have stronger punches? Develop stronger legs.
Sit-ups
Sit-ups are a fantastic martial arts exercise. The abdominal muscles are critical for stability and balance. Stable stances and good balance are critical for maintaining body control during a fight. In fact, much of the force in your kicks, punches, and submission are powered through the obliques. While it is true that a powerful punch starts with a push-off from the ground by a leg, the force generated from that push then travels through the legs to the abdominals, shoulder, arm, and finally fist. Training the abdominal muscles with sit-up variations (such as bicycle sit-ups or butterfly sit-ups) will ensure that the force generated from the push-off from the ground is fortified as it travels through the body.
Push-ups
Designed to target the pectorals, deltoids, and triceps, push-ups are the go-to exercise martial artists use to strengthen their upper body. While it’s true that punches are generated from the ground up, developing strong arms and shoulders is critical to maximizing power. Additionally, a strong upper body is required for the push-pull movement used in grappling and clinching in MMA training.
Running
Developing a strong cardiovascular system is key for maximizing endurance. When it comes to sparring during a training session or having to protect yourself in everyday life, cardio is key. A typical street fight or sparring match lasts about two minutes while a professional fight can last five minutes. The best martial artists understand that during a fight, someone will get tired first, giving the other person the clear advantage. The ultimate goal is to be able to sustain a high-level of performance for a prolonged period of time.
Incorporating running into your training is a great place to start. In addition to improving cardiovascular health, running has also been linked to lowering rates of stroke, cancer, and diabetes. Even better, a 2014 study conducted by Iowa State University, determined that running is actually linked to a 45% drop in risk of death due to cardiovascular disease. Incorporating running into your martial arts training regime can actually make you harder to kill.
Burpees
This full-body workout mixes cardio with strength training and agility. This exercise targets it all…quads, hip flexors, glutes, delts, and shoulders just to name a few muscle groups. Incorporating burpees into some high intensity interval training is a great way to maximize your cardio and build stronger muscles.
Everyone knows someone who’s made a New Year’s resolution to get healthy, right? Of course! We all have. In fact, everyone could always use to feel better, wouldn’t you agree? Luckily, martial arts fitness could extend your life… and just might save it!
At Invictus, we know that you want to be healthy and strong! We also know that in order to do that, you need to feel confident that the choices you’re making today will not only support your goals now but also help you in the long term… and perhaps even extend your life!
The problem is you’re not even really sure if you’re on the right track or even where to begin to make that positive change. Sadly, this can make you feel doubtful that you’re truly making the right decision for you to accomplish your wellness goals.
We believe that self-care doesn’t have to be self-ish and that a person really can make progress on achieving their health and fitness goals with the right support from the right coaches. And best of all, you can start today. We understand that it requires more than just a simple wish to improve and that it will take dedication and consistent effort which is why we always do our best to not only educate our members on their options but also coach and support their goals every step of the way.
Here’s how we do it…
EDUCATION
The Cooper Institute in Dallas Texas & University of Texas Southwestern Medical School studied 66,000 participants and found some surprising results. People who exhibited exceptional health and fitness had the following in common:
Men aged 50 -> run a mile in 8:00 or less
Women aged 50 -> run a mile in 9:00 or less
However, when a person couldn’t break a 12-minute mile for men or a 15-minute mile for women then they were considered low fitness and high-risk for a shortened life span and other chronic diseases.
Dr. Bary, a Cardiologist at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical School in Dallas says, “If you are fit in mid-life, you double your chance of living to 85.”
Furthermore, a 10-year Harvard study of 1,000 healthy firefighters reveals that a person 40 years old who can perform 40 push-ups is 96% less likely to develop a cardiovascular problem than one who can’t do 10.
Fortunately for members of Invictus, we regularly practice push-ups at all ages and at all ranks and levels giving you the support you need to strengthen your cardiovascular health. You can be confident knowing that Invictus coaches and instructors always make sure to invest time and effort into your durability and strength to help you live your best life now.
HEALTH & WELLNESS
We get it. This may be an uncomfortable conversation right now and we’ve had to deal with it too. But the way we see it, we can ignore the truth, deny the truth, or accept the truth. At Invictus, we have decided to deal with reality but refuse to be defined by it. We also understand that data is simply information. So, let’s take a look at the information impacting our health and wellness today.
From the CDC…
71.6% of adults aged 20 and over are overweight (this includes obesity)
20.6% of adolescents aged 12-19 years are obese
18.4% of children aged 6-11 years are obese
13.9% of children aged 2-5 years are obese
Sadly, more than 2/3 of the American population is overweight or obese with almost half of all Americans falling into the obese range. Yes, it’s shocking and sobering. That means about 1 in 2 (or almost 150 million) of us are in this category. Did you know a person who is 5’9″ and weighs more than 170 lbs is considered overweight? Furthermore, a person 5’9″ and weighing more than 205 lbs is considered obese (see chart below).
Unsurprisingly, obesity is also linked to impaired immune function. Based on a meta-analysis study of 399,000 patients, “people with obesity who contracted SARS-CoV-2 were 113% more likely than people of healthy weight to land in the hospital, 74% more likely to be admitted to an ICU, and 48% more likely to die.”
In fact, most of us regularly hear these days how someone seemed perfectly healthy but then got severely sick and then struggled to recover from their illness. We’re not going to say that they weren’t seemingly healthy because perhaps they did appear to be doing okay but what we will say is that the most common health problems that develop due to obesity are: heart disease, type 2 diabetes, hypertension, some cancers, dyslipidemia, and stroke. Most of which have also been proven to contribute to a weakened immune system and a higher likelihood of mortality due to certain viral infections.
Thankfully, experts agree that regular fitness activity, like the martial arts training members at Invictus receive, has been shown to reduce- and in some instances, reverse- the comorbid effects of obesity. This is why we believe that martial arts fitness could extend your life… and just might save it! One member shared with us, “I’ve lost over 20 pounds and at least a couple of inches on my waistline. I have more energy and focus…” With results like that, why wait?
SUPPORT
This all sounds great, right? But how can you guarantee you’ll actually see results and improvement? Commitment. At Invictus, we only work with people who commit to their results. Why? Because we’ll give our best to encourage and champion you but it is up to you to do the work. Yes, we’ll be there to help and assist you but…
We can’t do the push-ups for you.
We can’t make healthy food choices for you.
We can’t force you to do anything you’re not ready to do for yourself.
We CAN support you. Whether it’s through our Small Group In-Person sessions (under 18 per session), LIVE-Stream training (from wherever you are), Invictus Online program (on-demand and on-the-go), Private Coaching (1:1), or Semi-Private Coaching (1:4), we have options to meet you right where you are and help you get to where you want to go.
So, when you’re ready to commit to discovering how martial arts fitness could extend your life… and just might save it, schedule a FREEPrivate Consultation with us to see how we can help you transform your goals into results. In the meantime, do yourself a favor and check out our Invictus Conditioning: Garage Gym Athlete program to begin accelerating your health and wellness today.
When you decide to train with Invictus, you will finally begin to get the results you truly deserve. So, join our MMA training now so you can stop wishing that “one-day” life will get better and instead make your “one day” today and become harder to kill.
