Adult Homework: Physical Fitness

By Ace A, brown belt

Physical fitness is one of the best things you can do for yourself. Movement and exercise improve your health and help you lose weight or maintain your current weight. Often overlooked although are the benefits to your mental and phycological wellbeing. Physical exercise greatly increases levels of dopamine in your brain making you feel happier and more content.

By exercising more often we counteract the effects of modern life where all of us spend hours and hours a day sitting and not moving or only moving our fingers at a computer. Simple daily movement, even just standing up and walking around for a few minutes every hour can help maintain your positive attitude and mental acuity but more often than not can give you that small break you need to solve a difficult problem or o help you focus better on the task at hand. More vigorous exercise, even if it is only twice a week, will increase your metabolism allowing for better overall health and maintenance of your body.

Mentally, the release of adrenalin and dopamine during exercise will make you feel better and think more clearly. It will also provide a better sense of self and better opinion of yourself. All this added to the way exercise help us sleep better every night keeps us from feeling depressed, closed off or alone.  The better you feel on the inside the you want to do on the outside and the more often you want to exercise or simply just move around. The people in life that turn to drugs and alcohol or have a deep feelings of depression or anxiety are more often the people whose physical activity is minimal and are looking for something in life to help the feel better. The simplest answer is exercise and activity.

Moo Sul Kwan Taekwondo and martial arts and the variety of movement offered during a single class not only gets us asleep better but will get you out of bed in the morning excited for a new day and for the opportunities to learn, to grow, to push yourself and to feel better about life.  It is the act of repetition of movement and the drive to excel and to succeed in class that will translate into a more focused mind and a more healthy body.

Teen Homework: Physical Fitness

By Evan M, Junior Red Belt 

Exercise should be incorporated into everybody’s life. Exercise is the practice of strengthening your body which is important to maintain your health. Your muscles, your heart, your lungs, your brain rely on the blood and nutrients that is helped by maintaining a healthy body. 

The two forms of exercise are aerobic and anaerobic. Aerobic exercise is beneficial for your cardiovascular system and requires oxygen to be completed such as is required for doing jumping jacks. It strengthens your heart which pumps blood to your muscles. If you don’t do aerobic exercise then your muscles don’t get enough exercise. Anaerobic exercise makes your muscles stronger, like lifting weights or doing push-ups. 

So, exercising consistently has many benefits. And we do a lot of regular exercise in our Moo Sul Kwan Taekwondo classes! In addition to getting stronger, you will have heightened cardiovascular endurance and energy. You will feel a lot better about yourself if you exercise than if you don’t and you will likely live longer and better if you exercise routinely. Although TKD already adds exercise, you should still exercise outside of class. Exercise is very beneficial and good for you.

The Importance of Physical Fitness

By Kim W, white belt

The CDC states that adults should get at least 150 minutes of moderate exercise or 75 minutes of intense exercise every week. Many American adults struggle to meet this recommendation though.  Prioritizing time for personal exercise can feel daunting or even impossible when faced with other demands from work, family or social obligations. However, heeding the recommendation for physical activity on a consistent basis leads to significantly improved physical and mental well-being, even helping you avoid injury as you age!

The physical benefits of regular exercise are well-documented. These benefits include weight loss, increased muscle tone and cardiovascular health and lower risk of serious illness. We can all feel the impact that exercise has on our bodies when we look fitter or can last longer with aerobic exercise without huffing and puffing, but exercise has a long list of lesser-known physical benefits that aren't always easily seen. Two of these additional benefits are increased brain health and strengthening of bones. The most immediate of these benefits relates to how exercise impacts your brain. When you exercise, your body releases chemicals such as dopamines and endorphins that are shown to increase happiness and lower feelings of stress and anxiety. Physical activity is also shown to have a positive effect on cognitive abilities, so exercise can help you think, learn and problem solve! Scientists are even studying the impact exercise can have on preventing certain cognitive diseases, such as Alzheimers or dementia. Another "hidden" benefit of physical activity relates to bone and joint health. Regular exercise has been shown to reduce the rate of bone loss and conserve bone tissue. Your bones react to exercise in a similar way to your muscles. As you continue to exercise, your bones become thicker and denser, which reduces the risk of bone fractures. Exercise also leads to increased balance, which can assist with preventing falls and also reduce risk of fractures. This is especially important for older adults as a bone fracture can be severely debilitating or even fatal. 

Aside from the physical benefits, regular exercise also has significant mental health benefits. We've already learned that the body is producing chemicals as we exercise that improve our immediate feelings of well-being, but exercise is shown to have multiple long-term mental benefits such as improved mood, increased self-esteem and self-confidence, lower levels of stress and depression and improved sleep cycles. Group exercises are also shown to increase sense of community and belonging, also leading to lower levels of depression and isolation. The positive mental feelings associated with exercise have been shown to motivate individuals to continue exercising, leading to even more benefits, both physical and emotional.

As you can see, the physical fitness from classes at the Colorado Taekwondo Institute have many great, lifetime lasting benefits!

Fitness

By Tom Hurst, yellow belt

Benefits of five different aerobic exercises:

1. Endurance.  Developed by long interval exercise, such as running, involving the use of major muscle groups and requiring copious amounts of oxygen.
2. Efficient gas exchange.  Expanding the lungs and developing the alveoli to pass oxygen into the blood stream and pulling CO2 from the blood stream during long interval exercise such as running.
3. Muscle strength and flexibility.  Developed by strenuous exercise at a medium level holding the heart rate at a medium level for an extended time period.  An example is primary techniques such as punches and blocks but not at the same level of activity as Jumping jacks or running.
4. Muscle efficiency. Developing the ability to clear waste products from the muscle such as lactic acid, both to the long muscle and to the cardiac muscle as well as building red blood cells. Poomse is an example of both types of exercise and utilizes both aspects of aerobic and anaerobic exercise depending on the length of the poomse.
5. Reduce body fat.  Aerobic activity burns fuel, first glycogen then when the ready stores are depleted the body converts fat to glycogen and ketones.  The ketones are excreted, hydration, hydration, hydration, and the glycogen is burned for energy.  Long periods of extended effort well below maximum effort, such as marathon running.
   

Benefits of five different anaerobic exercises:

1. Muscle recovery.  Interval training is most commonly associated with this exercise.
2. Muscle bulk.  Weight lifting is generally associated with anaerobic exercise.  Some bulk is desired for strength but excessive bulk decreases mobility and flexibility.
3. Muscle strength can be increased when aerobic exercise is interspersed with anaerobic exercises.  Quickly moving from jumping jacks to push-ups or basic moves to sit-ups are a couple of examples.
4. Flexibility. Stretches are a form of anaerobic exercises, remember to burn off the lactic acid by moving the lactic acid laden blood up to the lungs and blow it off as CO2.
5. Develops more efficient transfer of blood products and oxygen by the growth of more red blood cells. Interval training and short period, high intensity exercise.

A benefit of both types of exercise is the increased blood flow through the brain carrying more oxygen and more nutrients to the brain leading to enhance concentration and focus. This can lead to an overall feeling of wellness, self-esteem and self-image.  This is a huge benefit for the developing child and cannot be underestimated in its value to the older adult.

Martial Arts Lessons for You: Westminster Edition

Colorado has become synonymous with health and fitness. Mountain biking & hiking in the summer, and skiing/snowboarding & snowshoeing in the winter, Colorado is filled with calorie burning activities. But, maybe you're looking for something new. Taekwondo is one calorie burning activity that you might not think of in the mountains.

Taekwondo in Westminster is rapidly growing activity at the campus of the Colorado Taekwondo Institute. The classes are led by highly qualified instructors and provide high intensity, calorie burning fun. The classes contain students of all different experience levels. The levels are distinguished by belts from white all the way up to degrees of black belts. The classes are tailored to be challenging for the beginners and advanced at the same time. Almost all of the exercises are done just by stretching and moving your own body without any extra equipment or weights. Imagine getting a tremendous workout that builds muscle, cardiovascular endurance, flexibility and agility using nothing but your own body. The workout can be experienced and shared by all the members of your family.

The Westminster school of the Colorado Taekwondo Institute is located off of W. 88th Avenue and Garrison Street, in the Lake Plaza shopping center. It's easily accessible for everyone in Westminster, Arvada and Broomfield.

The workouts in the Westminster Taekwondo location are performed in a clean and spacious workout room. The carpeted custom suspension floors provide a support and cushion for joints while working out. It's hard to explain how much fun jumping and exercising can be with that little extra bounce in your step. That little extra cushion gives the younger students more confidence and gives the older adult student a little bit of a fountain of youth.

Even if you aren't in the class, there are many large windows that allow parents or children to view from the lobby. The lobby area provides a comfortable area to watch all the fun happening behind the glass. The school is also located next the Liks Ice Cream shop so you can enjoy some ice cream before or after class. The Westminster school is also near Sideways, I Love Sushi and Amadeo's Italian restaurants for some good food after a great workout.

The Westminster campus of the Colorado Taekwondo Institute is lead by Master Erik Albrechtson, a 5th degree black belt in Moo Sul Kwan Taekwondo. Master Albrechtson has help from several other “home grown” assistant instructors. All instructors of the Colorado Taekwondo Institute started out as white belt students in the school. Each instructor has been developed and educated in the best methods of instruction in martial arts. Quality instruction provides the basis for getting the most out each class.

The experiences at Westminster school aren't limited to classes. The Colorado Taekwondo Institute provides events year round to meet with the other 5 campuses around Colorado and the Denver metro area. The events include tournaments where we compete with other equally aged and experienced students. Other events include weekend getaways in the mountains where students can focus on having fun and learning while enjoying the beautiful mountain scenery.

So, when your looking to try something out of the normal mountain routine, the Westminster campus of the Colorado Taekwondo Institute can provide martial arts classes in westminster, which is a great way to cross-train for any of the other normal activities. The increase in core strength, flexibility, and endurance can be a benefit for mountain biking, rock climbing and skiing. Try it out! Give us a call at 303-428-5377 to learn more.

Bored Kids This Summer? What About Karate Classes?!

The same thing happens every year at this time. Summer break from school starts; soccer season ends; they play the last of their baseball games. It's time for some nice peace and quiet and for the kids to rest up. But after a week or so, the same thing happens. Kids come to their parents, "I'm bored!". One great solution for families is karate classes for children.

The benefits of kids participating in structured activities are numerous. Three big benefits the children participating in karate classes include: 1) encouraging healthy behaviors to prevent childhood obesity, 2) developing motor skills, coordination, and movement, and 3) structured activities improve mood and self-esteem.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, childhood obesity has more than doubled in children and quadrupled in adolescents in the past 30 years. In addition, in 2012 more than one third of children and adolescents were overweight or obese. This "obesity epidemic" is going to cause many problems for many children in the near and far future. Obesity has been linked to cardiovascular disease, such as high cholesterol or high blood pressure, pre-diabetes and type 2 diabetes, heart disease, stroke, several types of cancer, and osteoarthritis. With this in mind, it's more important than ever to teach our children the importance of getting a healthy amount of exercise and to keep fit bodies. Beginner martial arts classes at the Colorado Taekwondo Institute are great for just that. Each class is sixty action-packed minutes of cardio and strength training. While learning to kick in punch, they are also getting their bodies into good, healthy shape.

The children's classes at the Colorado Taekwondo Institute are great for developing motor skills, coordination and movement. Students learn to kick, punch and block from various stances, utilizing nearly every muscle in the body. They are also put into complex patterns known as forms or poomse (patterned movement), which increase with difficulty as a student progresses through the belts. This develops the motor coordination for students, which will in turn help them with other aspects of their lives.

The benefits of karate classes for kids, however, don't just stop with the physical ones. There are many, many mental benefits too. Our classes teach students to be more respectful and courteous, but they also help students improve their mood and become more confident. According to a paper at the University of Connecticut, students who practiced martial arts felt to be more outgoing, comfortable, stronger and controlled. This will stay with children their whole lives, and will affect them throughout school, college and into their professional careers and adulthood.

So the next time one of your children comes to you bored, or expresses interest in learning martial arts, give us a call at the Colorado Taekwondo Institute. We offer beginner martial arts classes for toddlers, children, teens and adults at each of our Colorado locations: Lakewood, Littleton, Westminster, Golden and Conifer. Give us a call or you can request more information right here on our website. We look forward to serving you!

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Sources:
http://www.sparkpe.org/blog/the-benefits-of-structured-physical-activity-for-early-childhood-programs/

http://www.cdc.gov/healthyyouth/obesity/facts.htm

http://digitalcommons.uconn.edu/dissertations/AAI3340459

Fitness in Training

By Lydia Lincke, red belt

As a Moo Sul Kwan student at the Colorado Taekwondo Institute, it can be easy to think that you are healthy enough because you have a couple of workouts every week. However, there is a lot more to being in shape. In order to be healthy, one must learn how to take care of their body, and, almost more importantly, their mind.

One of the most important things is eating healthy. With a healthy diet, a person will have increased energy levels, higher motivation, and better performance levels in anything they do. Eating a large, nutritious breakfast will wake a person up better than any amount of coffee will. If you have a large workout at the end of the day, it becomes even more important to make sure you are getting the right nutrients so you can make the most out of the exercises that are coming. The food we eat becomes energy, and if we want to get better at a workout we must first build up our body so that it can handle improving at something like pushups or situps.

Another very important thing in taking care of your body is keeping your mind healthy. After a large workout, it’s very easy to turn to the tv or computer and just tune out for a while. However, this is not healthy for your mind. After just one tv show it becomes extremely hard to get up to do productive things, and motivation for anything else is lost. Instead of immediately getting out the video games after a tough workout, it would be much better for a your health if you checked out an interesting looking book at the library, or made a healthy snack and sat down to draw a picture. After maybe an hour of this, it becomes much easier to get motivated for things like homework or cleaning your room because your mind is energized rather than lethargic and tired.

Additional exercises would be helpful in increasing your performance in Moo Sul Kwan classes. There are two general types: aerobic and anaerobic. Aerobic exercises help build your endurance and the strength of your heart. In MSK classes at the CTI, jumping jacks and extended sparring matches could be aerobic exercises because they increase your heart-rate and help you learn how to breath through long workouts. Aerobic workouts outside of MSK classes at the CTI are running around the block, riding your bike, or going for a swim. Anaerobic exercises build up specific muscle groups. In CTI classes, this includes things like pushups and situps. These types of exercises are very easy to do at home with the correct motivation. Things that would help in everything surrounding MSK martial arts would be planks (regular and side) to strengthen your core, pushups in different ways (knuckles parallel and perpendicular to each other, wider arms, narrower arms, palms, fingerprints, etc.) to strengthen your arms, and squats or running stairs to strengthen your legs.

Keeping your body healthy is not only important for Moo Sul Kwan Martial Arts, but it is important for your spirit. Taking care of your body shows that you have a respect for it and that you want to take care of the most important object in your life that is sometimes taken for granted.

New Years Resolutions

New Years is right around the corner and chances are adults, you're going to be using it as a reason to make some changes in your life. Lose some weight, get organized, learn something exciting, etc. According to statisticbrain.com, nearly 50% of American's make New Years resolutions each year. And, from the same study, nearly half will have given up after by the end of January and nearly two thirds will have quit within six months.

An article by Time Magazine says that, "only 8% of people who make New Year’s resolutions stick to them, and those who don’t usually abandon them after just one week." The reason, the article goes on to say, is that most people set unrealistic goals and don't have a good plan to reach their goals.

Fortunately, here at the Colorado Taekwondo Institute, we have a solution that will assists for many of your potential goals for this year. In each of our adult martial arts classes, including classes at our Golden location, we have goal driven instruction for each of our students.

When a person sees a class in action, they will see students with various colored belts, ranging from white to black belts, around their waist. This is an example of one of our goal systems. Students start at white belt and will have the goal of earning their yellow belt. Each class the black belt instructor will work with that student and help them learn and progress until they are ready to test for their yellow belt. The goals are reasonable and achievable for anyone. Student grow, learn and progress at their own rate and as they earn each belt they build self-esteem and confidence which makes each belt easier and easier to achieve.

Also, fitness goals are a no-brainier when it comes to classes at the Colorado Taekwondo Institute. All of our classes structured and action-packed; full of both aerobic and anaerobic exercises to burn fat, build muscle and will also develop flexibility. Countless adults have came into the program with New Years Resolutions in mind and ended up achieving their goals and going beyond what they ever thought they could possibly do.

No matter what has stopped you in the past, now might be the time to try it. For your physical health and mental health, joining the Colorado Taekwondo Institute, at any of our five locations, including the Golden location, could be the best thing you do for yourself this New Year!

Sources:
1- http://www.statisticbrain.com/new-years-resolution-statistics/
2- http://ideas.time.com/2013/12/30/new-years-resolutions-are-bad-for-you/
3- http://www.coloradotaekwondo.com/martial-arts-self-defense

My New Life as a CTI Taekwondo Student

"I feel stronger mentally, physically and emotionally."

By Jayne Bognar, yellow belt

As a testing white belt in the Colorado Taekwondo Institute, martial arts has impacted my life in several, positive ways.  The most pervasive being the profound impact on my over-all well-being.  In addition to being twelve pounds lighter, I feel as though my “life’s’ load” no longer weighs me down as much.  I feel stronger mentally, physically, and emotionally.  The intense exercise provides me with the much needed cathartic release of stress from my career and external events.

Prior to CTI Taekwondo, I was experiencing, on average, four Migraine headaches per month as well as frequent tension headaches accompanied by neck and shoulder pain.  All aspects of this training have dramatically diminished the latter.  Now that I am engaging in a positive outlet to lower my stress, I am more able to manage my eating rather than use food to combat stress.

It is quite validating to have others recognize the changes in me since the inception of Taekwondo in my life. The most common theme is my calmer disposition as well as an increase in my self-confidence.  When others begin to notice, you must be doing something right!   I just feel as though I walk “taller” and have a greater sense of peace and awareness in my life.  Of course, there have been classes where I have just wanted to crawl in a hole due to that “stinking thinking” which can range from, “I hate being the fattest person in class,” to “Will I ever be able to get all the way through these jumping jacks?”  These moments are fewer and farther between as I tell myself that positive thoughts breed positive results!

Finally, being a new student Colorado Taekwondo Institute has provided me with a greater sense of empathy than before, for my students. Feeling like they will “never get it” is often a common theme that my special education students communicate to me.  I now can relate to them on a deeper level, as we often have conversations about these feelings that their teacher can truly identify with.  I believe I am a more effective teacher because of it.

In conclusion, I have found something that I feel committed to and offers me more than just great exercise.  It offers another group of people to whom I can feel connected, has increased my focus, decreased my stress, and just has made me a better person all around.  A person, whom I hope, people will see an “indomitable spirit.”

Why I Started

By Mike Pierce, yellow belt

My sole purpose for starting at the Colorado Taekwondo Institute at 55 is still now a mystery to me but one of the benefits has been weight loss.  Before CTI Taekwondo, cardiovascular exercise only took place  when I marched up the stairs and now it comes in the form of jumping jacks; a lot of jumping jacks.  The first time the warm ups started I thought that doing over 50 jumping jacks was sadistic but the number reached over 300 and I did not see a defibrillator nearby.  After about a month and a half I started to get the hang of it and noticed the benefits of increased stamina and a slimmer waist line.  I have now lost a total of 10 lbs. after 3 months of CTI Taekwondo and I am surprised at all the extra weight I had been concealing.

Going to CTI Taekwondo has been educational, humbling and exhausting but the benefits of getting to know some outstanding young and middle aged adults working in a disciplined environment has made the journey rewarding on many different levels.

9 Ways Taekwondo Classes can Improve Your Health

As people sit around their houses after work watching television their bodies are deteriorating. They gain weight, their arteries are clogging and their joints are getting stiffer. They begin to lose flexibility and over time their body loses strength.

It’s even worse if they are eating junk foods or smoking cigarettes. We all know that junk food is making us fat as a society and we also know that smoking is causing lung cancer. The impact on our bodies is tremendously bad and can shorten or even end our lives if these practices are done over years.

So what is a fun effective way to improve our life styles and our health?

Taekwondo classes!

Taekwondo classes, also known as Korean Karate, are an effective way to increase flexibility, improve cardiovascular health, and build muscle!

Let’s talk about a couple of different ways that Taekwondo can help improve your health.

1) Taekwondo classes can help control weight

At Colorado Taekwondo Institute you will learn a number of different ways to get your body moving. You will be practicing board breaks, forms and sparring. The various fighting patterns and sparing will increase help you maintain your weight by helping you burn calories. The nice thing is you can do a form or two whenever you want throughout the day.

The more intensely that you perform your forms the more calories you are going to burn and the more weight you can lose.

Even if you aren’t someone who needs to lose a few extra pounds Taekwondo will help you maintain your weight as you get older.

2) Taekwondo classes helps prevent diseases and health conditions

In Colorado Taekwondo Institute we workout hard. When you do a workout your body produces more “good Cholesterol” and it will help lower your bad triglycerides. This keeps your blood flowing smoothly and will decrease your chances of having cardiovascular problems later in life.

According to mayoclinic.com working out will help your body prevent several different problems such as stroke, metabolic syndrome, type 2 diabetes and even some types of cancer. Make sure to get off of the couch!

3) Taekwondo classes can help improve your mood

After a bad day at work a Taekwondo class could be just the thing to get you feeling better. When you exercise you get several benefits to your mood through the release of various chemicals in your brain. These chemicals make you feel good. They are a sort of natural high.

In addition to the chemicals it always feels good after a bad day to punch a bag or break a board.

4) Lakewood Taekwondo practice boosts energy

Sometimes people get so out of shape that they get winded by everyday things. Things like carrying in the groceries or even just getting the mail can become chores that leave you out of breath. Taekwondo will help you to build muscles and you’ll see your endurance improving as well. 

The exercise will help more oxygen and nutrients get into your tissues and your cardiovascular system will begin to work better. When your cardiovascular system works better your energy levels will increase naturally and you won’t need the energy drinks or the coffee as often!

5) Taekwondo classes will help you get more sleep

When you are exercising regularly in your Taekwondo class your body will get to sleep more easily and you will find that your sleep is much better than it was before. Don’t practice your Taekwondo to close to your bedtime or you will find that you are unable to get to sleep because you have too much energy!

6) Taekwondo classes are fun

When you are in Taekwondo it isn’t like being at the gym. When you go to the gym you lift weights and get on tread mills. If you are like me you find those things tedious and boring. When you go to Taekwondo you are learning skills to keep yourself safe, you’re learning martial arts forms and sparring. I personally love to spar and I love to learn the forms.

For me Taekwondo is a lot more fun that moving my arm up and down over and over to inflict pain in my bicep to build muscle. Of course I am referring to lifting weights.

7) Taekwondo makes you look good too!

When you come to every class you will notice that your body really starts to get into shape. You will start to feel confident about the way you look and about the new things you’ll be able to do.

Taekwondo classes improve flexibility. If you are someone who has no chance of touching your toes then you might think that it is going to be impossible to throw a kick above your head. This is not true at all!

Through proper stretching exercises daily and through throwing kicks in your forms you too can be throwing kicks above your head in no time flat!

So the bottom line is that Taekwondo can really improve your life and the way you feel.

What Kind of Workout are Your Getting?

By: Rob Sarche, red belt, M.D.

As Colorado Taekwondo Institute participants we have all had the opportunity to enjoy vigorous and spirited workouts, but just how good of a workout are you getting?  How does Moo Sul Kwan Taekwondo, that we practice at the CTI, compare to other forms of exercise?  With this kind of a workout, how can we keep well-hydrated?  These are some of the questions that the Littleton and Westminster CTI Campuses sought to answer this fall.  Willing participants were studied to determine fluid losses, hydration status and caloric expenditures during a typical MSK workout that included sparring.

Participants were weighed after voiding and prior to the workout.  Weights of the two types of MSK uniforms were pre-measured dry.  Those participants who bought their own water had their water weighed before and after the workout, and they did not drink from the water fountain. 

Those who hydrated using the water fountain were timed, and the water consumption was estimated from a formula that was determined by measuring the output of the water fountain, as compared to the average amount of water that users let spill into the basin of the fountain while drinking.  Participants were blinded to this arm of the study so as to decrease the chances that they hydrated differently because they knew the were being observed.  Heart rates were measured at rest and frequently during all phases of the workout.  Caloric expenditures were estimated using a formula that considers participants exertional heart rate, resting heart rate, age, and sex.  Patients were weighed after participation to determine fluid loss, and that value was off-set by the weight of the fluid that each participant consumed in the form of drinking water, and the weight of the post-workout uniforms for black belt uniforms and lower belt uniforms, as measured in select participants and then extrapolated to the average participant. There were 26 participants in the study, with 16 males and 10 females that ranged in age from 12 to 54 years old. 

In typical CTI fashion, we worked out hard.  We sweated...lots.  No fluid was lost in the form of blood or tears.  No participants went into the bathroom during the workout.  The average fluid loss per participant was almost 4 pounds of water.  The sixteen participants that drank water from the water fountain ended the workout with a fluid deficit of 55 ounces each, and drank, on average, a total of only three ounces of water per participant.  The ten participants that brought their own water ended the work out with an average fluid deficit of 11 ounces, and drank an average of 19 ounces of water. 

The formal work out lasted for 105 minutes.  We indirectly measured caloric expenditures and looked at those results as a function of the participant’s skill level and age.  The participant’s gender was considered in calculating the calories burned. 

The white, yellow, orange belts burned an average of 813 calories each.  

The green and blue belts burned an average of 909 calories each.  

The purple, brown and red belts burned an average of 916 calories each.

Adult black belts burned an average of 1,185 calories each.

Adolescent black belts burned an average of 671 calories, where as the adolescent lower belts burned an average of 611 calories per participant. 

The combined classes burned the energy equivalent of 7.1 pounds of fat.

The 26 participants lost a total of 102 pounds of water in the form of sweat and evaporative losses.

The black belts were 32% more effective at burning calories than lower belts, and as the skill level of the participant increased, so did the caloric expenditures.  

The fact that we burned so much fat and lost so much fluid was not as surprising as the finding that participants who brought their own water were 84% better hydrated at the end of the workout, than those of us that relied upon hydrating from the drinking fountain.  Efficiency in burning calories, performance and recovery is expected to be better in well-hydrated participants.

Many interesting observations were made during our study, such as that the participants skill increases, so does the efficiency of the work-out.  The more experienced students were not necessarily better at hydrating than the less experienced participants, even though they had higher fluid losses. CTI instructors are very good at reminding students to hydrate well, but we should all consider the serious need to keep well hydrated when we participate in all day events such as expositions, camp and symposiums. Most participants did not drink enough water. Mr. Murphy was an exception to this, as he was the only participant who replaced all of his considerable fluid losses. He also taught us that hydrating with room temperature water allows for quicker and more comfortable hydration, as compared to drinking ice water.  

The Colorado Taekwondo Institute provides a safe, sustainable and increasingly beneficial exercise regimen.  Though other forms of exercise can allow opportunities to burn as many calories as MSK Taekwondo, such as running and swimming, few of these forms of exercise offer the additional benefits of MSK Taekwondo.  Moo Sul Kwan practitioners have progressive increases in their fitness level while learning practical self-defense, increasing strength, flexibility, speed, and coordination.  Mental benefits include building confidence, cognitive skills, perseverance, discipline, respect, expanding ones horizons and building community. 

Burning calories helps us to maintain healthy body weights and increase our fitness levels, but this is only one of the many benefits of Moo Sul KwanTaekwondo, most of which can not be quantified.

Retired Doctor Uses Martial Arts to Stay in Shape

Fernando Dominguez, an 88-year-old Mexican immigrant, is an accomplished physician and surgeon, who retired eight years ago but did not want to stop doing activities. He described colon cancer and a knee injury like speed bumps toward his pursuit of a fourth-degree black belt in taekwondo.

Dominguez stared practicing martial arts at the age of 75. He said taekwondo keeps him in shape and gives him a strong mind.

"Living should not be stationary," he said. "We should have a goal, 'What am I going to accomplish? What am I going to do five or 10 years from today?' Have a goal and go after that."

So far, when measured by that standard, Dominguez gives himself a passing grade.

His pursuit started around the mid-1920s in the Gulf Coast port city of Coatzacoalcos, located in southern Mexico. He saw doctors, noticed their care for patients and decided he would follow in their footsteps.

Dominguez turned out to be a medical doctor at a university in Mexico City. He practiced general medicine in the city for some time, before eventually moving to America and becoming a surgeon.

Dominguez went to the University of Houston in 1959 and studied internal medicine. He then moved on to the Cabell Huntington Hospital a year later for further training in Huntington. He became an American citizen in April 1963 and received certificates from both facilities.

The aspiring surgeon practiced full time at Huntington's VA Medical Center, while he completed the necessary training. He then joined with his trainer in opening a private practice downtown, eventually stepped into his own practice and finally returned to the VA Medical Center where he retired in 2005.

Dominguez had developed a passion for taekwondo a few years earlier. It was born out of a conversation with local grandmaster Chong Kim as Dominguez enjoyed an evening of tennis, another passion of his.

"It was difficult for me," he said. "In taekwondo, 90 percent of it is kicking. You know, at the age 75 or 76 kicking is difficult."

But Dominguez kept at it and received his third-degree black belt in May 2008. It was essential for him to wait four years before trying for another degree, because he had developed colon cancer in June 2009.

"To me, having a black belt second-degree, fourth-degree or fifth-degree doesn't matter," he said. "The goal is, like I said, to have good physical condition, good manners to help people and defend yourself if you have to."

Taekwondo as a Weight Loss Aid

Taekwondo is a type of martial art that can assist you in attaining the healthy looking body that you want through learning discipline and fighting techniques.

Practicing Taekwondo on an ordinary basis is absolutely necessary to lose weight from doing it. But just practicing will not be all that you have to do to achieve weight loss, you also need to eat smart and healthfully, counting the right number of calories for your body type and size.

Taekwondo training has a plethora of other benefits such as learning self-defense skills, having an increased positive mental outlook on life due to the increase
of endorphins, and the joy of competition in a healthy environment.

Here are some steps that are needed to use Taekwondo as a weight loss aid:

1. Regularly practice Taekwondo. Ideally you should practice three to six times per week for 60-minute sessions. Joining Taekwondo classes is the best way to achieve this. A class environment with others will help you improve your lifestyle and lose weight due to the social support.
2. Depending on your weight loss goals, body frame type, and present weight, eat a healthy diet that is made up of about 1,500 to 2,500 calories. Choose healthy foods such as low-fat dairy, whole grains, lean protein sources, and fruits and veggies for best possible nutrition. Drink at least eight glasses of water per. It is essential to eat or burn 500 fewer calories per day to lose roughly 1 pound per week.
3. Add on other types of exercises, like additional strength training, to your Taekwondo training. Don’t worry about getting enough aerobic exercise. If you are doing Taekwondo multiple times per week, you will be getting enough to lose weight. You can increase your metabolism and gain muscles by lifting weights a few times per week if you would like. Try to do this two to four times each week for 30 to 60 minutes per session. 

Staying Healthy

. . . you also receive the fantastic bonus of emotional strength.

Training in Moo Sul Kwan martial arts does many wonderful things to improve the physical condition of your body, but often overlooked is the many fantastic benefits that the martial arts has on your emotional state (affective domain).   It’s generally agreed that reducing stress levels makes us stronger to fight the many ailments that affects us.  Reducing your stress levels, improving your own self-concept and gaining self-confidence helps improve your overall health. Kicking, blocking, striking and performing the many other martial arts techniques sharpen our focus - our ability to concentrate, and instills the admired traits of self-discipline and respect for others. 

Each of these effective benefits help to make us happier, and being happy has numerous benefits like keeping that old blood pressure down and helping to put an end to unnecessary worrying.  Happy people tend to be more respectful and enjoy life more compared to negative, depressed individuals.  

You can see stress in peoples’ faces and you can also tell when people are happy and successful. Training at the Colorado Taekwondo Institute can begin at any age and helps you to not only become more physically fit, while learning self-defense skills, but you also receive the fantastic bonus of emotional strength.