Health Benefits of Karate

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