Martial Arts Fitness in Ann Arbor | Fitness for People Over 50
What if you could live the life you’ve always wanted?
Picture it. What does it look like? Are you living that life right now?
In a Huffington Post article on the “Top 5 Regrets of the Dying”, a nurse found that the most common regret was; “I wish I’d had the courage to live a life true to myself, not the life others expected of me.”
When you’re over 50, you’re not dying. However, the demands of your daily lives can make it more difficult to achieve personal goals. You probably know the biggest personal goal most middle-aged people have: fitness.
How to Achieve Fitness Through Martial Arts
It’s never too late to create and execute martial arts fitness goals.
But let’s be honest. Some martial arts are hard on the joints. Training too quickly and incorrectly can lead to injuries. It’s not worth training for a better body if you are too injured to train!
However, there are martial arts, such as swordsmanship and tai chi, which increase strength and coordination without beating the body up. Here’s how and what martial arts do to help you achieve your fitness goals:
You are held accountable for your goals.
Researchers found that being held accountable for your goals, or working in a group, means having a 76% higher chance of achieving them. This is compared to having lower than a 50% chance of succeeding when not being held accountable.
In martial arts, this means working with a group of people who are supportive and have a common interest in bettering their health.
You aren’t left wondering what kind of techniques or exercises to do.
According to research, you are more likely to achieve your fitness goals if you have a coach.
This means that you aren’t stuck staring at a pair of dumbbells and wondering what kind of movement would be best for you. Without instruction, that can be dangerous and result in injury. Instead, a highly qualified instructor ensures that the technique you are learning is safe and correct .
You halt and reverse that “Middle-age spread”!
There’s the myth that getting older means getting fatter. That’s wrong. Research has shown that if you aren’t engaged in regular exercise, your muscles atrophy (medically termed “sarcopenia”).You can reverse this phenomenon simply by exercising! The added muscle burns the calories, which means that even when you aren’t training, you’re burning fat.
Martial arts practitioners usually have a whopping 10% lower average body fat percentage than people who don’t exercise.
You don’t have to spend hours on the treadmill.
In fact, spending hours on the treadmill is one of the worst ways to lose weight.
One of the top tips of achieving fitness goals is changing your routine up! Having a wide range of techniques to learn from is one of the benefits of martial arts. Fitness doesn’t have to be dreaded.
Your mental and physical capacities are strengthened… which makes martial arts easier the more you do them!
One important aspect as people get older is maintaining brain plasticity. That means that the brain needs to be able to learn things quickly. Learning a new skill set in martial arts promotes plasticity, which leads to better mental health.
The JMAC Difference
The Japanese Martial Arts Center is not your typical dojo. It is not a gym full of young meatheads who are looking to take their personal issues out on you.
The people at JMAC understand that studying martial arts is the marathon of a lifetime, not a three-month sprint. The conditioning that our martial artists go through ensures proper form and safety. They aren’t looking for a quick fix; they’re looking for a lifestyle change.