Martial arts provide an excellent way to keep your heart healthy and strong. As the American Heart Association celebrates Heart Month to raise awareness about heart health, it’s a great time to explore the cardiovascular benefits of martial arts. Here’s how martial arts can help protect and strengthen your heart:
1. Martial Arts Raise the Heart Rate: Elevating your heart rate during a martial arts workout helps oxygenate the blood, promoting calorie burning even after the session is over. This workout is suitable for people of all ages and is a great way to maintain a healthy heart.
2. Martial Arts Lower Blood Pressure: A high-intensity martial arts workout assists in reducing blood pressure, decreasing the risk of heart disease. Regular exercise increases the heart’s strength, making it more efficient in pumping blood, which, in turn, lowers blood pressure.
3. Martial Arts Lower Cholesterol: LDL cholesterol (bad cholesterol) contributes to heart disease. Regular participation in martial arts helps lose weight, which decreases the amount of LDL cholesterol in the blood. Workouts also shrink the proteins that carry cholesterol through the bloodstream, reducing the risk of heart-related problems.
4. Martial Arts Reduces Stress: Martial arts combines physical exertion with mental stillness, contributing to mindfulness practice, significantly reducing stress and anxiety in both children and adults. Stress contributes to high blood pressure and related issues, and any activity that reduces stress is beneficial to heart health.
Martial arts training also helps improve discipline, build muscle coordination and increase self-confidence in addition to its numerous heart benefits.
So this Heart Month and beyond, consider adding martial arts to your workout routine for a healthy heart.