How Will Martial Arts Affect My Child Physically?

Let's face it mom and dad it's 2011. We live in an age where the outdoors and interactive activities have been totally replaced by toys and electronics. Children now days have video games, cell phones, and Ipods which keeps them from staying in shape. According to "Stop-Childhood-Obesity.com," 16 to 33 percent of children are obese. This is simply because kids just don't get enough exercises at home or at school. Now this can be hard because some kids are just turned off by the fact of going to a gym, or having to deal with soreness.

The trick to keeping your children in shape is to give them workouts without them knowing that they are actually working their muscles and cardio. I recommend placing your child in a sport, but not just any sport. Some sports your child might not get playing time, or he/she is simply not good at it. That is why I recommend placing your child into martial arts. When practicing martial arts no student is considered "bad." No one student participates more then another. The reason why martial arts overcomes every other sport is simply because other sports only help you physically. Martial arts shapes you physically, but also mentally so you are able to work out on your own in the future.

I personally believe that the best way to get yourself or your child in shape is by having them use their own bodies versus heavy weights. Imagine if I was to place a 5 year old in karate starting at white belt. Everyday out of distinct muscle memory that child does push ups, sit ups, punches, kicks, squats, explosive techniques, etc. Slowly through the progression of belt levels the child's repetitions increase, for example, at white belt you might do 10 push ups where at gold belt you might do 20 push ups. As you see through the years your child would slowly develop muscle strength, and muscle endurance without even knowing it because that is all he/she has been taught to do therefore he/she doesn't know any better.

Imagine when your child would reach about 10 or 12 years of age. They would have a black belt, be able to do over 100 push ups/200 sit ups, and more importantly because they had used their own body weight to train they would be in shape. Martial arts requires more then just a strong core. It requires a strong mind, and because of this students will learn the values of discipline and pushing themselves to the limit. I'm sure you have all heard the saying teach a man how to fish he will eat for life? The same principle applies here. If I teach a student the values of discipline then that student can discipline himself to workout, and reach his potential in all aspects of life.

In the Richmond, Virginia area their are many facilities that offer that guidance such as Total Victory MMA & Crossfit, where you can join ongoing classes or even get one-on-one personalized training, to achieve a better fitness level and better quality of life.