Which Martial Arts Are The Best For Your Cardio?

People learn and train martial arts for two reasons. Either they want to learn self-defense to be able to defend themselves against street crimes, or they want to get physically stronger. The majority of people train martial arts for these benefits, and they think that you can have only these benefits and nothing else. But they don't realize that the most important benefit that they can get from martial arts is their cardiovascular strength. So you can do your cardio by training them instead of going to a gym for a workout.

• Cardio is a form of physical exercise that is done with the purpose of improving the cardiovascular system. It is a short name for cardiovascular. It is not a single exercise but a group of exercises all with a purpose to improve the function of your heart. The exercises include swimming, running, cycling, jogging, etc.

• In cardio, you are forcing your heart to beat fast and pump more blood and oxygen to your entire body. Because you need high levels of oxygen for doing cardiovascular exercises. Continuous pumping of the blood by your heart improves the pumping efficiency of your heart.

• Improved pumping efficiency means that your heart will more effectively and efficiently pump blood and oxygen to all of your body parts. This is necessary for their normal functioning and growth because the blood contains the nutrients and oxygen. So, doing cardio improves your cardiovascular system.

The following are some of the reasons why martial arts are best for your cardio:

• Martial arts are the perfect solution for all of your cardiovascular problems. The reason is that the martial arts are not a single exercise. It is a blend or mixture which combines many different elements of physical exercise, which, when you implement in your daily routine, provides your body with multiple benefits, from your brain to your heart. Marital arts have it all.

• Another reason why martial arts are perfect for cardio is that your heart or any other organ cannot function properly alone. It depends on other organs and their normal and smooth functioning, at least to some extent. That is the reason that when one organ deteriorates in your body in terms of its functioning, then other organs are also impacted by it. You might have often observed that a person who is diagnosed with one disease starts suffering from another disease after some time. This is the reason that organs do not work alone in your body.

• So with this being said, your heart also needs other organs for maintaining the normal function of your body. What if you are doing three exercises that are impacting only your cardio but not other organs? So you should pick some exercise or any other form of physical activity that involves multiple organs in its benefits and impacts. Martial arts are the perfect answer for such a form of exercise. It not only impacts your heart but also focuses on other organs. So you should switch your normal cardio exercise to martial arts.

• Martial arts also contributes to the increased stamina of your body. The training does not involve slight or easy training, and that too for a short time in a day. You will be exposed to the harsh and intense training routines that you have to do daily. Sometimes, you have to perform the training in harsh environments, such as on hills in an open environment, just like what Qazak people do.

• Moreover, you are doing such highly challenging and tough exercises for many hours in your day. So this form of exercise rapidly improves your stamina. And if you are doing this regularly and implementing it daily in your life, then you will have many more benefits from it. Your stamina will be increased multi-fold. The maximum time duration for which you can continuously do some sort of physical activity will keep increasing.

• Another thing that you get from martial arts, if you do it for your cardio, is muscular endurance. It is the ability to do physical activity without getting fatigued. Normally, if you are not doing physical activity in your daily life routine, then your muscular endurance levels will be very low. But you can increase it by doing exercises. The best improvement can be seen by doing martial arts training. Prolonged hours of training adjust your body to a prolonged form of physical activity. So you will notice a considerable difference in your fatigue time after some weeks of training.

• Another thing you get from martial arts training for your cardio is an increase in your lung capacity. It is the total amount or volume of air that the lungs can take in when a person does a deep inhalation. This lung capacity, although it does not seem a very significant concept, is a very important aspect of your breathing. The lungs control your breathing. So if the lung capacity is small, your lungs can inhale a small amount of air. Small air means small oxygen. This small amount of oxygen is pumped and forwarded to all of your organs by your heart or cardiovascular system. So with less lung capacity, you are getting lower levels of oxygen.

• As we already discussed, your body needs more oxygen when you are doing any physical activity. The smaller the lung capacity, the more difficult it is for you to continue your activity for a considerable period. On the other hand, if your lung capacity is increased, then you can inhale a large volume of air into your lungs with one deep and forced inhalation. This means you have more oxygen now for your body during activity. So, more oxygen means it will be easy for you to perform any intense physical activity. So the larger the lung capacity, the more oxygen will be available for you to supply to your organs and charge them for continuing your physical activity.

• There are a lot of other benefits that martial arts provide you, such as helping you relieve your stress. The training involves releasing many hormones, such as endorphins, which are also known as happy hormones. These stabilize your mood, and you suddenly change from being sad to being happy.

• You can use them as your fat loss therapy. Because in martial arts training, your body will be provided with the energy from the mixture of both aerobic and anaerobic processes. You are doing the training for a long duration, and this means that your fat will burn to provide you with energy. So, ultimately, you will experience fat loss.

The following are the top three martial arts for your cardio exercises:

Brazilian Jiu Jitsu is an old martial art that was developed by the Gracie brothers, Helio Gracie and Carlos Gracie. They created this martial art after deep research and studying many different martial arts. They focused mainly on the Japanese Jiu Jitsu. They made some modifications, removed some techniques that they thought were not worth learning, and added some techniques and moves that they thought everyone should learn in martial arts. So they created this martial art with the hope of being the best among all martial arts in the world, and they have proved it. People appreciated the BJJ so much that it is now the most popular art in the world, and this popularity they gained in only a few years. It is the fastest-growing martial art, and more and more people are joining the art each year.

• BJJ is considered the perfect martial art for improving your cardiovascular health and strength. This is because it is not focused on one technique like many other martial arts, which focus only on certain aspects. BJJ, on the other hand, is a complete martial art.

• You learn all sorts of things, and when there are a variety of training patterns and drills involved, then your heart health can easily improve. In a normal workout, you are not getting your calories burned as much as you are during BJJ training. If you do drills, some other techniques, and moves, then the calorie range you will be burning per hour is 500 - 800, but if you do rolling in BJJ, then you are burning up to 1000 calories per hour. That is a lot of calories as compared to a typical workout.

• BJJ is often referred to as a human chess. In chess, you are exchanging positions. In the same way, in BJJ, you are exchanging positions with each other and trying to dominate over each other. In chess, the role of strategic techniques is very important. You have to be very strategic and have flexible plans to win the match, and the same goes with BJJ.

Muay Thai, which is an art of eight limbs, is very popular across the world, next to BJJ. Although it is very famous across the world, it is played mostly in Thailand, where it enjoys the status of national and most played sport. In Muay Thai, you are involving not only one or two organs, like many other martial arts. Instead, you include your eight limbs to effectively and efficiently execute techniques and moves against your opponents. These can include your elbows, knees, punches, and throws. You are basically using a combination of them to keep your opponent confused and also to be more effective and efficient in your strikes.

• Muay Thai is considered a striking martial art. As discussed before, many martial arts in the world focus only on one or two aspects. The same goes with Muay Thai. In Muay Thai training, you will learn as much striking as possible. If you want to learn the best striking and want to be perfect, then there is no other martial art better than Muay Thai.

• Similar to BJJ, in Muay Thai, the calories you burn are not the same for all of your exercises. The exercises can be of low intensity, such as heavy bag drills or pad work, or they can be of high intensity, such as training just like you are fighting with your opponent in a high-intensity match. So it depends on the intensity of the exercise. If you are doing low-intensity exercise, then the calories burned will range from 400 to 700 per hour, and if you are training Muay Thai like a very intense fighting match, then the calories burned will range from 800 to up to 1000 per hour. So you can burn 1000 calories if you continue Muay Thai training for one hour.

• Wrestling is probably the most common martial art in the current generation, and it is more popular among the younger generation. Wrestling is of many types, and how much they are beneficial for your cardio also depends on the type of wrestling. The two most common types include Greco-Roman wrestling and freestyle wrestling. Both of these are famous and are played in the Olympic Games. Out of all games, these two are approved for playing everywhere. Both these types are different from each other. In Greco-Roman wrestling, you cannot use your opponent’s legs to make them fall.

• Also, you cannot hold them below their waist to execute any of your techniques or moves, and if you do, you are going to be disqualified. In contrast to Greco-Roman wrestling, you are allowed to do whatever you want. No matter what the way is, you want to execute your techniques, you can easily do that, and you are allowed. You can hold them below their waist, and you can also use their legs to throw them. As the name indicates, freestyle wrestling is free style, which means that you are free to use any style to dominate your opponent and knock them out of the match.

• Wrestling is a martial art in which you engage your whole body in executing the techniques and moves against your opponent. Unlike many other martial arts, in which you are focusing on only specific parts of your body for executing main techniques. When you do wrestling training, particularly if you are going into the freestyle type of wrestling, you are allowed to do whatever you want.

• It means that you can execute any technique you want on your opponent. This lifts the restriction on you for applying the techniques. On the other hand, it means that you are able to engage all your body in the training. So it is better for your cardio. Your cardiovascular system improves, and this improvement comes with a lot of other benefits.

• Another common and famous martial art of today is boxing. Unlike wrestling, which mostly attracts youngsters itself, boxing has an adult population as its majority following. Boxing is a game that is impacted a lot by punches. You can throw the best punches, and the chances of you leading the match increase many times. So you are involving your arms in this art to execute the powerful punches.

• But the punches are not the only thing you are training in boxing. You are focusing a lot on your footwork. Footwork is the base of your punches. The power you exert in throwing the punches at your opponent lies in how much better your boxing footwork is.

• So your footwork is very crucial for your better boxing. Another thing that is necessary is your movement. You have to keep moving around your opponent throughout the match. Sometimes, you need to come closer to your opponent, and at other times, you have to go far from your opponent. This benefits you in multiple aspects. You enjoy the defense from their punches due to the movement. At the same time, you are able to better attack your opponent.

In boxing, you are continuously trying to improve your footwork. You try to keep yourself in motion so that your opponent cannot attack you and remain confused. So this movement continuously helps your cardio, and it improves a lot.

You can start with any martial art you are interested in for your cardiovascular health improvement. Almost all martial arts provide benefits to the heart. But some of the most common and best martial arts are discussed in the article. So you can continue your journey with any martial art. If you are still confused, you should start your martial arts journey with Brazilian Jiu Jitsu. Join any BJJ dojo and start training to improve your cardio.