Benefits of Taekwondo – Improved Flexibility
Beyond self-defence, Taekwondo offers many other benefits to your health and fitness. These include improved balance, coordination, strength, and flexibility. Not only that but learning how to spar in Taekwondo can be fun!
There are several reasons why Taekwondo is an excellent choice for anyone looking to improve their overall wellness. It’s perfect for beginners who want to learn fundamental skills, advanced students seeking more advanced techniques, and professionals wanting to sharpen their skill set.
While most of these benefits have nothing directly to self-defence, they all contribute significantly to overall well-being. This article will discuss some of them.
Health benefits
Taekwondo improves overall health by lowering blood pressure, cholesterol, and glucose levels. All of these contribute to healthier heart function and weight loss.
A recent study found that individuals who practised Taekwondo for one year experienced improvements in body composition (organs such as muscles and bone), insulin sensitivity (ability to process sugar), and cardiovascular fitness (capacity for regular exercise).
While no definitive studies are looking at the effects of Taekwondo on cancer risk, research does suggest that martial arts may help prevent certain types of tumours.
Martial artists are trained in self-defence, which means they know how to protect themselves, so it only makes sense that this would carry over into everyday life.
Improves focus
As mentioned before, one of the essential benefits of Taekwondo is improved concentration. When you’re in the middle of a bout, many things are happening around you- the music, your opponent, and the crowd.
By training in a controlled environment under strict rules, it becomes more focused only on you and what you need to do to win. This helps you eliminate distractions and better manage your emotions to remain calm and control yourself and the situation.
Taekwondo also teaches you about respect for others, self-respect, and how to deal with conflict. All three of these qualities help improve someone’s overall quality of life.
Improvement in attention span and memory is another significant benefit of Taekwondo. Because fights in this sport are two minutes long, you will have to recall all the moves and strategies you learned quickly.
This is especially helpful if you want to advance or compete at the highest levels.
Helps with anger management
As mentioned before, Taekwondo is known for helping students learn how to control their anger. This is an essential skill that many people lack today. When you’re in a situation where your patience is running thin or someone is acting aggressively towards you, you can use this technique to contain yourself.
Taekwondo teaches techniques and strategies to help you gain self-control. These skills could be applied directly towards avoiding arguments or conflicts, or they could be used as a second step if you get into a fight.
There are several ways Taekwondo helps with anger management. Some of these include:
Practising relaxation exercises
Thinking about past experiences where you lost your temper
Visualizing situations so that you are aware of potential triggers
Drilling complex moves until you have them down cold
For example, when you walk up the stairs, instead of rushing up them quickly, take your time – this way, you will not lose your composure. Or, if you must walk fast, ensure it is because there is no other option.
Increases your life skills
Having a martial art practice is excellent for your mental health. Not only do most arts offer several different styles to choose from, but they also teach you about self-confidence, discipline and fitness.
Many of these practices teach you how to defend yourself so that you are ready in case of attack or need to get into severe fighting.
They can help you develop patience, confidence and strength – all essential qualities. These strengths can be applied to other areas of your life, such as work, school and home.
Martial artists spend lots of time training so their body learns how to respond to stressors efficiently. This helps them de-stress and re-calibrate after bad days at work or family issues.
Overall, practising any form of Martial Art has many benefits. They’re not just good for your physical well-being, but mentally too.
Enhances your leadership skills
As mentioned before, self-confidence is essential to overall happiness in life. In Taekwondo, you will learn how to lead others by teaching them specific concepts and practices.
Taekwondo teaches you to be commanding but not abusive or domineering. They teach you how to motivate people by giving them goals and helping them achieve those goals.
At the same time, it educates students about other cultures and philosophies, which helps promote understanding and respect for different beliefs.
All of these help develop leadership qualities that are needed in professionals and business leaders. You can even apply this to non-profit organizations and charities!
This article would not make sense without including a little about teamwork. Because of this, Taekwondo teaches students how to create team settings and supports that group well.
Overall, with all these leadership qualities, you will know what to do when faced with a challenge as a leader.
It’ll help you lose weight.
Along with improving your fitness level, you can expect to tone your body down in Taekwondo. Weight loss is one of the main benefits of training in this martial art style. Because it works on muscle tissue and fat, there are no limits to what kind of shapes you can achieve.
You’ll also find that practising Taekwondo helps keep you healthy by increasing your overall cardio health. More frequent bouts of exercise boost heart rate and circulatory system functioning, which aid in lowering blood pressure and cholesterol.
A recent study conducted at the University of New South Wales showed that people who trained in Taekwondo were less likely to develop obesity than individuals who did not. This means that even if you never take off your shirt, your waist might still get smaller!
It’s also easy to make taekwondo part of your lifestyle. There are many ways to learn this sport, so you don’t have to go through expensive formal lessons to get its benefits.
It’s an excellent sport for kids.
While some may consider Taekwondo a “hard” martial art, that isn’t necessarily the case. Because it is designed as a self-defence system, most styles include a variety of kicking techniques and other striking moves.
Taekwondo is also a viral sports activity; there are organized tournaments almost every weekend across the country!
There are even international competitions occurring every few years. Not only does this promote a healthy spirit, but it also raises money for worthy charities.
Children can learn how to defend themselves in the event of an attack and improve their footwork, balance, and agility skills.
And much more!
Even if you’ve never picked up a pair of white belts, there are many benefits to learning this art form. These include improved self-confidence, stress relief, self-esteem, and overall health and wellness.
Many experts agree that Taekwondo is an excellent activity for your body and mind. It can help reduce the risk of chronic diseases such as diabetes or heart disease by improving blood glucose control and cardiovascular fitness.
It also helps promote strong self-confidence and teamwork while teaching students how to defend themselves in a non-violent way. This is particularly important given most martial arts focus on striking and kicking rather than grappling and joint manipulation.
Martial artists learn several different kicks and punches but few moves that leverage our joints for better movement.
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