Doing karate consistently—will lead to many benefits. These outcomes of your hard work and dedication vary in different areas of life. For example, many trainees report feeling fulfilled and happier. However, there are plenty more results. So, is doing karate worth it?
Doing karate is worth it because it provides the trainee with many physical and mental results, while teaching effective fighting techniques. The trainees can use said fighting movements to cause massive damage quickly and thus defend themselves from dangerous situations.
It’s not uncommon to see karate trainees defeating their opponent in less than a couple of seconds. That’s possible because they were trained to perfection.
They learned how to punch and kick—both offensively and defensively. As a result, they can combine many variations of what they learned to create a complete skill set.
However, that’s not all.
Karate also provides its trainees with many benefits, ranging from physical to mental ones. For example, one of the more common consequence of martial arts training is a better physical shape. Now, people these days would do anything to better their physical shape.
As such, if you can do so while learning to fight fiercely; you can’t lose.
Following this, let’s dive into the benefits of consistent karate training. I wanted to emphasize the consistent part because these are long-term results from training. However, if you leave the learning process without having finished it, you’re less likely to experience them.
The benefits of karate training
Karate, and most martial arts, provide their trainees with many benefits. These make them more valuable and popular. Therefore, the number of people training in martial arts is on a constant rise.
Knowing self-defense
The first, and most obvious, results is: knowing how to fight.
Essentially, karate exists for a reason. People didn’t just construct a new fighting style because they wanted. No, they had a reason, a purpose. This purpose drove them to design an entirely new martial art. So, what was it?
Karate was constructed on the island of Okinawa, Japan. The Okinawan people were in a time of war. They wanted to teach everyone how to use their bodies for self-defense. If that prophecy completed itself, Okinawa would be bound to be safe.
As you can see, karate was created for a reason. Its purpose is to teach others self-defense.
Nonetheless, as time passed, karate became a sport rather than a martial art. While that gave it most of its popularity, it’s not its purpose. As such, if you truly desire to learn self-defense, learning the more traditional styles—is more suitable.
Increased confidence and self-esteem
The second benefit, a by-product of dedicating yourself to training, is increased confidence and self-esteem.
Before I go over why that is, I want to cite a study pointing toward this outcome. Eventually, we can talk all we want—but, when studies are involved, the accuracy rises.
Visual inspection showed that four participants improved their global self-esteem. Self-efficacy was improved in three participants, whereas the other two had high self-efficacy before participation in the karate program.
Source
I encourage you to read the above study in its fullest. Still, let’s briefly summarize it.
The study examined young adults with impaired vision and found karate training to be beneficial to their self-esteem and self-efficacy. As a result, we can understand that there’s something in training that makes the trainees feel that way.
Karate training is a platform to overcome obstacles. As a result, the trainees will begin to feel themselves more capable the more they train. That’s because in every training session, they overcome new and more obstacles.
So, eventually, they think more of themselves, the definition of self-esteem.
If you’re interested in reading the full list of benefits you can expect from martial arts training, follow the link to an article of mine.
Better physical shape
The third result is a better physical shape.
These days, people would do anything to drastically improve their physical health. While that’s true, few go as far as actually doing it. As a result, many are left with a sense of nonfullfilment, since they’re not following-through.
Karate betters your physical shape by being an intense aerobic exercise. As a result, dedicated and consistent martial arts training will lead to better endurance, better aerobic shape, lowered heart rate when resting, and many other consequences.
But, you know what’s really exciting? You do that while learning to fight. You better your physical shape while working on your self-esteem. I’ll touch that point again in the summary section. But, have that in mind.
Also, you’ll burn plenty of calories. In fact, some people can burn 720 calories, a high number, indeed. If you’re a bit familiar with how calories work, 720 of them—is plenty. Moreover, it can be the difference between losing and gaining weight.
When you see all martial artists being in an incredible shape, that’s for a reason. People don’t just get in shape immediately. Instead, hard work and dedication will allow you to reach that milestone.
Karate can be that platform to better yourself. What’s required from you is consistency; that’s it.
Reduced stress and violence levels
The last benefit we’ll discuss is reduced stress and violence levels. As much as I fancy all the other benefits, this is one worth your time.
These days, we’re always distracted; always on the run. We never seem to stop, although taking breaks from the race of life—is extremely healthy, physically and mentally. Therefore, we need to initiate these breaks or else we would end up burnt out and wishing to be in another place.
Karate reduces your stress by being a source for calmness and culture. Regardless of what you’ll learn, which also has plenty of value, you’ll be practicing your mind and soul. For example, many karate dojos include meditation and calmness exercises.
Yes, karate is all about calmness of the mind and the connection of the body and soul. As a result, it’ll include many drills which are specifically designed to deliver these initiative breaks from life. This is all it takes to reduce stress and violence levels.
However, you don’t have to believe me; here’s a fantastic study that has my back.
“Martial arts apprentices turned out to present a statistically significantly lower level of hostility and of the general aggression index than combat sports athletes.”
Source
The fact is—karate trains your mind and body to connect with your soul. As a result, you’ll eventually be calmer and more eager to continue working on yourself. To add to this section, here’s why karate training reduces your stress:
- puts you under plenty of stress in training
- provide the trainees with a nonjudgmental outlet
- it balances anger management
- it’s a form of meditation
- endorse you to release built tension
Should I learn karate?
Karate is one of the most popular martial arts worldwide. That happened for a reason. People didn’t start training it for no reason. Instead, it provides many physical and mental benefits. But, most importantly, it has a purpose.
Learning karate is a fantastic choice because it teaches you to fight while being a platform for self-development. As a result, its trainees will be able to develop their physical and mental selves. For example, many karate trainees report feeling more fulfilled and with better mental health.
Honestly, that’s only the tip of the iceberg. If you do decide to start doing karate, you’ll experience many other positive symptoms; hence, results.
Eventually, the primary benefit is knowing to use your physical force to fight. That itself will bring other benefits, such as confidence, self-esteem, and the ability to defend yourself.
If you want to read more about which martial arts you should learn, I wrote an article that dives deeply into the deadliest martial arts from around the world. I highly recommend reading it if you’re unsure of which fighting style to learn.
Is karate suitable for self-defense?
Throughout the years, karate has changed from being a martial art, specifically designed for self-defense, to a sport. As a result, it becomes more popular. But, many of its traditional fighting styles are starting to disappear.
Karate is suitable for self-defense because it teaches practical and highly effective fighting techniques, primarily focusing on punching and kicking. However, it uses more complex variations of the two movements. As a result, a solid and suitable fighting style for self-defense is created.
That said, many of the modern karate styles—aren’t as suitable for self-defense. Rather, they became a sport, something people do to go outdoors.
Don’t get me wrong, that’s fantastic; people should go outdoors as much as possible. Nonetheless, it changed from being specifically designed for self-defense to a full-on sport.
As such, if your goal is to learn self-defense and self-defense only, you ought to consider the traditional styles of karate. I wrote an article on many of them, and I encourage you to read them—if you’re interested in learning more.
Here’s a list of some of them. Follow the links to read more about them!
Final words
Martial arts, and karate specifically, are something I’m passionate about. They’re a platform for millions of people for self-development.
Today, we can’t help but look around and feel somewhat lost. Everyone is on their phones, and few are the people who seem as if they’re on the self-improvement path. Consequently, I looked for ways to spread the word further and make more people join martial arts dojos.
Because of that, I wanted to emphasize how much karate can benefit its trainees. The style plays a minor rule in our playbook. Instead, the bigger picture is the big deal. If you do karate, you’ll feel more fulfilled, have better mental health, and improve yourself in any way you desire.
As a result, doing karate is worth it, and I encourage you to start as soon as possible. If you don’t, you may never begin your training process. Thus, you won’t experience the many positive outcomes it attracts.
If you enjoyed reading this article, I encourage you to read about Karate’s belt order. Such information is vital if you want to start doing karate.