Declining physical and mental abilities are inevitable as you age, but some people significantly slow down the process. They’re called Super Agers, and these people exhibit the physical and mental abilities of someone 20 to 30 years younger. Super Agers live longer than their peers while enjoying high levels of mobility and mental sharpness in their latter years.
The textbook definition of a Super Ager is a person over 80 who displays the physical and mental capabilities of a person as much as 30 years younger. Super Agers aren’t just some fitness myth; the phenomenon has been studied and proven genuine. Research shows that Super Agers perform equally to young adults during memory tests.
Exploring How Martial Arts Training Helps To Turn You Into A Super Ager
Studies done on Super Agers show that one of the most effective things you can do to slow aging is constantly challenging yourself physically and mentally. It’s a ‘lose it or use it” situation. The best time to start working on becoming a Super Ager is today.
Of course, that’s easier said than done since our behavior tends to become more risk-averse as we age. Younger people are often more willing to take risks and try new things.
Signing up for martial arts training is one of the things you can do to ensure you’re constantly physically and mentally challenging yourself.
Learning a martial art like Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, Muay Thai, or Boxing gives you a thorough workout that forces you to use every muscle in your body. Your brain also gets a good workout as you constantly learn new techniques and problem-solve on the fly whenever you spar with your training partners. Styles like BJJ are often compared to chess matches because of how much problem-solving you must do when you roll.
How Martial Arts Training Preserves Your Aging Body
Some of the ways martial arts training helps to keep your body strong as you age include:
1) Improved Cardiovascular Health
Martial arts like Muay Thai enhance your cardiovascular health with dynamic drills and warmups.
Regularly training combat styles like Muay Thai, Judo, and Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu give you an intense cardiovascular workout that improves blood circulation, elevates your heart rate, and increases your cardiovascular endurance. Regular cardio decreases your risk of heart disease, strokes, and other health issues.
2) Improved Physical Strength And Flexibility
Martial arts techniques involve large movements that help you gradually control and strengthen your muscles, enhancing both your motor skills and flexibility as you progress in your training.
Martial arts training involves performing techniques that require a wide range of movement. Repeatedly drilling these techniques helps to strengthen muscles all over your body while increasing your flexibility.
Performing techniques like punches, kicks, and takedowns require coordinated muscle engagement, improving overall motor skills. Walk into any martial arts gym, and you’ll notice that most students are in excellent shape.
3) Increased Bone Density
Training in Muay Thai not only helps you achieve your weight goals, but it also boosts your confidence and makes you more energetic!
Martial arts training involves weight-bearing exercises and movements that help to improve bone density. This is highly beneficial for older adults who become more susceptible to bone fractures and osteoporosis.
Performing martial arts drills like hitting a heavy bag provides resistance training, helping to strengthen your muscles and bones.
4) Excellent Calorie Burn
Martial arts classes offer a full-body workout that can burn over 1,000 calories, making them effective for weight loss. Additionally, improving your metabolic rate and building muscle mass.
Everyone’s metabolism slows down as they age, regardless of how quick it once was. Even ectomorphs, naturally skinny people, often struggle with maintaining a healthy weight once they’re past 30.
Martial arts training provides intense physical exercise, and styles like BJJ, Wrestling, and Muay Thai can burn more than 1,000 calories per hour spent on the mat. Maintaining a healthy weight becomes a lot easier once you’ve found a fun activity that burns this many calories. Make a few changes to your diet to complement your training, and you’ll have six-pack abs regardless of age.
Martial arts training goes beyond simply giving you a calorie burn; it also builds lean muscle mass, raising your metabolic rate. Maintaining a healthy weight is crucial for older adults since being overweight makes them vulnerable to age-related diseases like hypertension, hormonal imbalances, and diabetes.
Having six-pack abs isn’t just about vanity when you’re an older adult; it’s one of the most impactful things you can do to protect your overall health.
How Martial Arts Training Preserves Your Aging Mind
Now that we’ve gone over how martial arts training helps to preserve your physical health, let’s take a look at some of the ways it helps to prevent the cognitive decline associated with aging:
1) Stimulates Your Brain
Sparring in martial arts sharpens your mental focus by helping you anticipate your partner’s next move and improve your counterattacks, effectively stimulating your brain.
Training any martial art requires learning complex forms, movements, and strategies. Sparring requires constantly anticipating your training partners’ actions while developing solutions to counter their strategies.
The constant problem-solving involved in martial arts training improves cognitive function and promotes neuroplasticity. Studies show that activities that stimulate the brain, like learning a martial art or regularly playing board games like chess, help to delay the onset of cognitive decline associated with age.
2) Lowers Stress
Martial arts training boosts endorphins, elevating your mood and reducing stress, which helps guard against mental health issues like depression.
The focused concentration and mindfulness required during martial arts training give students tools they can use to lower stress. The physical exercise martial arts training provides leads to the release of endorphins in the brain, elevating your mood and lowering stress levels. Lowering stress helps to protect against mental health issues like depression.
3) Teaches Resilience
Even as you age, martial arts empowers you to embrace challenges and keep growing to be the best version of yourself.
Martial arts training teaches you how to face challenges with a positive mindset. Facing obstacles in the dojo is part of the learning process, and your training partners and instructors will help you to overcome each one.
4) Provides Social Support
Training in martial arts can help you connect with like-minded people, which fosters a strong sense of community and shared growth.
Many struggle with making new friends as they age, often leading to loneliness. Loneliness leads to a faster rate of cognitive decline as you age, but martial arts classes can help spice up your social life. You get to make friends with people from all walks of life who share your interest in martial arts, and you’ll probably end up spending time with some of them outside the dojo.
Martial Arts Classes Allow You To Age With Grace
Martial arts training provides a path to becoming a Super Ager, so you get to enjoy a high quality of life in your senior years. The physical, mental, and social benefits of signing up for classes will allow you to live a fun, fulfilling, and long life.
Ready to get started? Come to one of Evolve’s complimentary introductory martial arts classes to find out which style suits you best.
Book your complimentary trial class with our World Champions below!
If you have any other questions regarding Evolve MMA and the programs we offer, you can get in touch with our membership executives at the following locations:
Evolve MMA (Far East Square)
26 China Street
Far East Square #01-01
Singapore 049568
Phone: Evolve MMA (Orchard Central)
181 Orchard Road
#06-01 Orchard Central
Singapore 238896
Phone: Evolve MMA (KINEX)
11 Tanjong Katong Road
#02-52 KINEX
Singapore 437157
Phone: Evolve MMA (Star Vista)
1 Vista Exchange Green
#02-26A The Star Vista
Singapore 138617
Phone: (65) 6539 9590
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