Learning karate is one of the best actions you can take, today, to improve yourself. The number of benefits and positive outcomes it can have on your life—is truly remarkable.
Myself, reaping many benefits, has remained to this day. Therefore, I have no words to describe how fulfilling it feels to experience your previous labor. Indeed, that’s the definition of delayed-gratification. Hence, working now to feel the results later in life.
Unlike most delayed-gratification activities, however, karate can be enjoyable now. As a result, regardless of your position in your martial arts journey, you’ll be reaping plenty of results while enjoying yourself.
As you can see, I’m a big fan of karate and all other martial arts. The number of people martial arts positively impacted—is enormous. Of course, then, I’ll recommend everyone and their entire family to start doing it.
The list of karate’s benefits is, indeed, a non-ending one. Because of that, this article will discuss the seven leading ones. Moreover, they’re all proved by previous research; I’ll cite some of them to give you a sense of science in a bro-science world.
While some benefits are regarded as mental ones, others are physical. You’ll experience both by training in it. So, don’t worry if you don’t notice them all immediately. It’ll take plenty of time and effort until you can claim to have improved yourself.
If you want to learn about protective and essential martial arts gear, I highly recommend following the link to another article of mine on the best karate gloves for sparring and training.
So, without further ado, let’s dive into the benefits you’ll experience from consistent and dedicated karate training.
#7- Better social life
Human beings are social creatures. We seek to be a part of a group, a part of something. Some of us, however, don’t find that special group to help us feel more fulfilled. As a result, those who don’t find their place, won’t feel a sense of relatability with other people.
Karate is a platform for people to meet others with the same interests. Consequently, its trainees will be able to improve their social life while learning to fight. Moreover, you’ll do so while enjoying all the other benefits, which we’ll discuss next.
It all boils down to how dedicated you are. If, for instance, you don’t show up to training at all, your social life won’t improve.
Nonetheless, that’s obvious; so, I’ll move on.
Because consistent karate training will better your social life, you’ll also feel more fulfilled in your personal and work-life. That’s because you’ll have a sense of purpose in life. This purpose is a fantastic drive in everything you do in life.
There are entire books dedicated to finding your why, your purpose. Such a topic is highly relevant for those wanting to positively improve their lives. If you’re one of these individuals, consider learning karate.
#6- Improved dedication in life
One of the values karate is best at preaching, is dedication. When I say preaching, I don’t mean it in a bad way. Simply, the more often you’ll attend training, the more dedicated you’ll feel to your other doings in life.
Karate improves dedication by being one of the values it most believes in. As a result, when you attend fighting training, you’ll improve your dedication and consistency throughout your entire life, both personal and work-life.
Unfortunately, most individuals today aren’t as motivated to show up and positively change themselves. In fact, the opposite is true. Obesity is at its all-time high, and nobody seems to care.
However, there’s a way out. Although I’m unfamiliar with your current state, I’ll assume you can improve yourself. Of course, everyone can, including myself; nobody’s perfect. However, some may think they’ve reached the pinnacle of themselves, which is what karate preaches against.
Here’s a study reinforcing my point:
A better understanding of the cultivation of morality in martial arts makes it possible to identify and nurture those moral strategies and practices that make the martial arts a suitable and rich means of moral development and moral education.
SOURCE
The values you’ll gain from martial arts training—are, truly, valuable. Your mindset toward life will change according to how dedicated you are to training. Funny enough, the more dedicated you are to training right now, the more dedication you’ll gain for your future self.
Yes, your future self will benefit from your current efforts; doesn’t that sound like something you want to ensure your future self feels?
#5- Overall better well-being
The third benefit we’ll discuss is overall better well-being. Overall, this is the one I find to be most influential because it affects your entire life. But, it also is the most general one; so, you won’t feel it specifically, like all the other benefits.
Karate betters your well-being by allowing you to improve yourself in all dimensions. For example, it’s not uncommon for trainees to improve their personal life by doing karate. That’s because their confidence and self-esteem will increase in correlation with how dedicated they are.
Again, it all comes back to consistency and dedication. Without these two, you will never feel the rest of the benefits. Consequently, if there’s a single advice I want to emphasize—is to keep up with training, especially whenever motivation hits an all-time-low.
Soon, I’ll also explain why karate improves your physical shape. Such an improvement is highly desirable in today’s world. So, of course, trainees will feel magnificent when they notice their physical condition has improved.
Now, fulfillment is a major part as well. Today, many people will never find their true purpose because of numerous reasons we won’t go over. Karate doesn’t have to be your true purpose, of course. Instead, you can leverage what it gives you in your personal and work life.
Bettering your well-being is highly challenging. Therefore, I highly encourage you to start doing martial arts, and specifically karate—to better it.
#4- Lower aggression levels
Aggressiveness. Frustration. Anger. These are all emotions we all feel throughout our everyday. While they’re completely natural and feeling them is fine, it’ll be best if we manage to minimize them.
Karate lowers your aggression by allowing you to release built tension and aggressiveness with specific, intense exercises. As a result, karate trainees who allow themselves to release every inch of physical power they have, will also feel more fulfilled and calm the day after.
But, you don’t have to believe me, here’s a medical study proving my previous point:
Combat sports and martial arts training gives the possibility to diffuse emotions and relieve tension, which may result in decreasing the level of aggressiveness.
SOURCE
As you can see, combat sports, hence martial arts, are a suitable platform to diffuse emotions and relive tension. Such a change is difficult to attain, and many would potentially want to decrease their aggression levels as well.
So, don’t hesitate to start training. As you can see, the changes karate trainees go through—are incredible. Most of them are highly desirable in today’s world, which only reinforces the fact that you need to begin training as soon as possible.
#3- Reduced stress
This benefit is highly related to the previous one. And still, I decided to grant it its own section because of its importance. Regardless of your calm state throughout your life, you’ll most likely benefit from being in a calmer state.
If your stress during your everyday living could decrease, you would benefit in many ways. For example, I can testify that after a solid karate session, I’ll be exhausted. I would prefer not to talk to anyone and simply go to bed.
The day after, I’ll feel as if I’m much calmer. Throughout the session itself, I’ll use the intense nature of the training to nurture my calmness the day after. And again, the more dedicated you are, the less stress you’ll feel.
Today’s society embraces being stressed and chasing results, all the time. Nonetheless, taking a step back from what society preaches and doing what’s good for you and your self-development—is a must.
Karate is a suitable platform for stepping back and releasing some built tension. That’ll help you in the long haul by forcing you to better your mental health, an incredibly crucial aspect in everyone’s daily lives.
The regular practice of martial arts could elevate mindfulness levels of practitioners and thus influence positively on stress management and therefore quality of life and well-being.
SOURCE
Reducing the base levels of your stress will positively impact your life. Many medical studies have proven the link between mental and physical health. Hence, the more active you’ll be, the better your mental health will be as well. So, karate does all that; doesn’t that sound good?
#2- Better physical shape
On our second place, we have better physical shape. Overall, this is the one, I believe, most people would want to achieve. Luckily, it is also the one that’s easiest to attain, since all you need to do to achieve it—is to show up to training.
The minute you step foot into your karate dojo, you’ve done most of the work. Now, all that’s left is to follow the sensei’s instructions. With time, your body will begin to adapt to your new training routine. As a result, it’ll build itself to be stronger and healthier, resulting in a better physical condition.
Karate is a suitable platform to improve physical shape since it’s an intense exercise. Its trainees will use most of their muscle groups, including, legs, chest, back, arms, and shoulders. Of course, then, they’ll burn plenty of calories and build muscle.
If you’re a beginner, hold up. I encourage you to follow the link to an article of mine to read more about karate training and what it includes. It’ll help you once you begin your training. And, if you want to know how to progress faster in karate, follow the second link.
Truly, this is the most desirable change most people want to go through. Bettering your physical shape has plenty of long-term consequences. For example, people with better physical shape will be less likely to experience cardiovascular issues.
The long-term positive effects of better physical shape have been proven by studies time after time. You can experience these benefits by doing karate consistently. Also, you’ll experience all the other benefits as well, which will drastically improve your well-being and health. Of course, while learning to fight!
Of course, while learning to fight!
#1- Improved mental health
And, in the #1 spot, improved mental health took the trophy. I’ve decided to list it in this spot because it’s one of the most desirable issues people want to solve.
We live in a world where infinite distractions surround us. As a result, we constantly compare ourselves to other people. As a result, we’re not as mentally solid as people were before the era of social media.
Karate improves your mental health by doing two primary things:
- Improves physical shape
- It’s a platform to overcome obstacles
Trainees are able to use karate to overcome obstacles. In fact, you’ll witness for yourself how many difficulties all martial arts grant their trainees. Because of that, once they overcome them, the practitioners will inevitably feel more confident and with better self-esteem. That, of course, will cause an increase in mental health.
Secondly, we already understood the link between physical and mental health. The more active you are, the more fulfilled and better you’ll feel. Well, as we previously discussed, karate is a fantastic platform to improve your physical health. Hence, once that happens, your mental health will immediately increase.
Here’s a medical study proving my point:
Training in martial arts has been shown to alter experiences of control and vulnerability, self-esteem, self-concept, fitness, confidence, and relaxation. As a result, some researchers characterize martial arts practice as a form of self-help.
SOURCE
As you can see, the benefits of karate are many. However, I’ve decided not to list learning to fight, as a benefit. So, let’s discuss it further in the following section.
Bonus Reason – Karate will teach you self-defense
The most obvious benefit, which is also why I didn’t bother mentioning it—is that karate teaches you self-defense. After all, that’s its purpose, and, as a result, it is what it does best.
If you ever have walked alone at night, you know how it feels to feel defenseless. Well, you can counter this feeling by knowing how to fight with your body parts. That’s what martial arts are all about.
The people of Okinawa, an island in Japan, constructed a new martial art because they need to learn self-defense. Times were times of war, and therefore, they needed to learn self-defense. That is its purpose; to teach others how to fight fiercely.
Knowing how to fight is more than just knowing to fight. Rather, it’ll also boost your self-confidence and self-esteem.
So, what will you exactly learn in karate classes?
In short, you’ll learn how to punch and kick to cause massive damage to the opponent. Moreover, you’ll learn how to use the techniques to form combinations both for offense and defense. These are all fantastic ways to defend yourself if the situation call for action.
Should you learn karate?
All martial arts will add value to your tool-box. Regardless of your age, gender, or any other external factor, you will benefit from consistent fighting training. So, should you learn karate?
Learning karate provides many physical and mental benefits, and therefore, everyone should learn it. Some benefits include: better mental health, improved physical shape, reduced stress and aggression levels, better well-being, and learning to fight.
Karate’s purpose is to teach people how to fight. Ever since it was created, people have used it to study self-defense. Only lately, in our era of social media and procrastination, people want to stay active. Hence, they choose martial arts for that purpose.
Moreover, karate became a worldwide sport by being in the Olympic Games. As a result, we understand the amount of people eager to watch the next match—is on a constant rise. From that, we know that karate is a growing sport, which should incentivize you even more to learn it.
Final words
Learning karate—is wise because it provides numerous mental and physical benefits. Moreover, it teaches its trainees how to fight, essentially, it’s karate’s purpose. So, if never want to feel defenseless again, learning any martial art—is a smart choice.
Throughout my years of experience in martial arts, I’ve witnessed all these benefits come to life. That’s because I dedicated myself to training while remaining consistent. That ensured my progression while maintaining a steady line of results naturally flowing into my life.
If you enjoyed reading this article, I highly recommend going ahead and reading about Karate’s belt order. If you want to study karate, knowing this information—is a must.