How Martial Arts Improves Your Immune System
In our
busy life and day-to-day stress, we sometimes fail to take care of ourselves
properly. Hence, we end up compromising our health and as a result, our
immunity suffers and we fall sick easily.
Just improving your diet alone would not boost
your immune system. It is important to strengthening it by training martial
arts?
5 Ways Martial Arts Improves Your Immune System:
1) It reduces Stress
Feeling stressed from work, or life in
general? Well, instead of hitting your usual bar for some drinks, why not head
to a martial arts gym! Trust us, your stress would vanish quicker than your
hangover will. So put on those boxing gloves or gi and spend that hour
experiencing an endorphin rush like no other.
If you don’t already know, your body produces
cortisol, which is a hormone that is released from the adrenal gland whenever
you’re stressed out. Unfortunately, when your body has high levels of cortisol,
you’re more vulnerable to infection and illness. However, before you let
this piece of information stress you out, you should know that training martial
arts can help reduce cortisol levels in your body.
Every time you train, your body goes through a
low-level form of stress due to the fact that you get your heart racing and
trigger hormonal changes. Over time, your body would become immune to this kind
of stress, and as a result, become stronger and help you cope with other forms
of stress better.
2) It boosts detoxification by sweating
You can burn up to 1,000 calories in a 60 minute training session.
As much as we hate to admit it, we sometimes
don’t treat our bodies with enough care. Hence, we indulge in unhealthy junk
food or alcoholic drinks – without thinking about the toxins that we introduce
to our organs. In order to boost the detoxification process, it’s crucial to
get moving! This is to ensure that your body can effectively stretch, circulate,
breathe and sweat. By increasing your breathing and heart rate, as well as
drinking more water, you would enable your body to flush out those toxins,
waste and fats.
Moving your body encourages the circulation of
blood and lymph, which plays a role in purifying and cleansing your organs.
Besides that, your heart muscles get strengthened and your lungs increase in
capacity as they produce and expel carbon dioxide as a waste product. Your skin
also helps to get rid of toxins whenever you perspire.
3) It improves the Sleeping
quality
How much sleep do you get every night? A study has
shown that you are 4 times more prone to falling sick if you sleep for 6 hours
or less. So if you struggle to fall (or stay) asleep at night, then perhaps you
should start training martial arts! This is because training consistently at a
regular time would encourage your body to re-align its internal clock so you
can get those much needed quality sleep every night. What’s more, you would be
tired from training and as a result, be able to sleep better. Hence, your body
would have the chance to repair itself effectively.
4)
It improves your body’s healing ability
You don’t have to be Wolverine to recover
quickly. All you have to do is start training martial arts! This is because
when you engage in regular physical activity, you can recover more quickly, and
heal more easily, while keeping diseases and injuries at bay.
“There is no medication or nutritional
supplement that even comes close to having all of the effects exercise does,”
shares David C. Nieman, PhD, author of The Exercise-Health Connection: How to Reduce Your Risk
of Disease and Other Illnesses by Making Exercise Your Medicine (Human Kinetics, 1998). “It’s truly the best
medicine we know of.”
5)
It encourages healthy lifestyle choices
Ever notice that you tend to make healthier
choices – be it choosing nutritious food or having an early night – after a
workout? Research has shown that regular exercise and maintaining a
healthy diet both ultimately lead to better health – so people can switch
between the two easily. What’s more, when you reach a point where exercise
becomes a habit, you no longer need as much mental effort, which gives your
brain the chance to think of new ways to feel better. By leading a healthy
lifestyle on top of consistent training, you would definitely be taking care of
your body the way it needs to be taken care of.
There’s
no doubt that martial arts can benefit your body greatly, that’s why we believe
that it would help you to get into the best shape ever – inside out. Now that
you know what you can do to give your immune system that much needed boost, go
forth and punch your way to great health!
Train Well, Exercise Everyday, Be Healthy
