Taekwondo for Physical Fitness

By Brian Steward, 4th dan

Have you been looking to improve your physical fitness?  If so, you may want to consider participating in CTI Taekwondo training to help improve your fitness.  Taekwondo at the Colorado Taekwondo Institute, sometimes referred to as Korean karate, utilizes kicks, punches and blocks for self defense.  While developing self defense skills Taekwondo training also develops strength, endurance and flexibility.  Taekwondo produces improvements in many aspects of physical fitness via a range of stretches, exercises and martial arts techniques.

Because kicks are central in CTI Taekwondo techniques, flexibility is emphasized in training.  Flexibility can be improved while training first by manually stretching muscles in the legs and then further refined by performing kicks.  As flexibility increases kicks become faster and are able to hit higher targets.  An increase in flexibility leads to an increase in quality of life.  Being flexible results in improved mobility and fewer injuries, not only while training, but also in daily life.

Cardiovascular health can also be improved by training in Taekwondo.  Exercises like jumping jacks are paired with dynamic activities such as sparring to keep the heart rate elevated while training.  The longer the heart stays elevated, the better the cardiovascular health is.  Taekwondo training is energetic which results in little time for rest meaning that heart rate remains elevated through a large portion of every training session.  Enhanced cardiovascular health has many well known benefits including reduction in body weight, reduction of blood pressure and reduction in total cholesterol levels.

Taekwondo techniques require muscular strength to be effective and require muscular endurance so that they can be used in any situation.  Muscular endurance and strength complement each other in martial arts; it is useless to be able to throw only one strong punch, just as it is useless to be able to throw a hundred weak punches.  Muscular strength is built in Taekwondo with body weight exercises, like pushups and situps, and also through performing martial arts techniques, like kicks.  Repetitions of both techniques and body weight exercises not only increase the strength of muscles but also increase the endurance of the same muscles.  These training techniques result in toned supple muscles.

Taekwondo training can dramatically help individuals in attaining their fitness goals.  Whether your goal is to lose weight, to develop balance, to improve flexibility, to boost cardiovascular health, to strengthen and tone muscle, to enhance body control or to augment agility training in Taekwondo will be a great workout program for you.  General health will be positively affected by training in Taekwondo because of the balanced approach to physical fitness that is required for successful Taekwondo techniques and required for general self defense skill.

Taekwondo and Developing Physical Fitness

By Nathaniel McKernan, 1st dan

The five components of health related physical fitness are improved through martial arts training at the Colorado Taekwondo Institute. However, we might as well ask the question, “What are the five components of health related physical fitness?”
They are:

• muscular endurance-- the ability to use your muscles for a long time; 
• muscular strength-- the ability to perform feats that requires strength; 
• flexibility-- the maximum range of motion that your joints can reach;  
• body composition-- the optimum body fat ratio;
• cardio-respiratory endurance-- ability to perform feats of either physical endurance or strength and be able to bring oxygen into the lung at the same time.  

All of these components of physical fitness are part of the Taekwondo training.

Now, just in case you didn't know, Taekwondo is a martial art which demands physical fitness and abilities in order to get good at the martial art.  You have to work hard and improve the body.  And, when you work hard at something like Taekwondo, you get a good workout.  And, to become even better at Taekwondo, you will begin the whole cycle again.  So as you work hard in Taekwondo classes at our Westminster location, you will improve the five components of health related physical fitness.

But how?  Well, let’s start with muscular strength.  In Taekwondo, we always do our exercises-- jumping jacks; push ups, etc. and these exercises help build up muscular strength over time.  But it is not just exercises that gives you muscular strength;  doing classes over a long period of time builds muscles.  Think about it, if you were to do kicks over and over again, or push-ups over and over again, you would build up muscular strength.  I myself can vouch for this.  When I first started, I could not do a single push-up (actually, for the first three years, I was doing a bad imitation of a push-up for building arm strength) and doing multiple amount of kicks made my leg muscles sore.  Now,  it’s a different story.  I can do push-ups and also do many kicks without my muscles being sore.  However, it took effort to get that strength.  Working hard in each class helped build muscular strength.

Now, what about muscular endurance?  What about the ability to keep your muscles going even when you are tired?  This is probably the easiest physical benefit you would achieve.   At first, it is difficult to keep one's muscles going during class because you have not developed very good muscular endurance yet.  Even really fit athletes sometimes have trouble because, odds are, they don't practice muscular endurance for all body muscles and Taekwondo uses all the body muscles.  However, over time, you will develop strong muscular endurance.  On that same note, you accomplish the same for cardio respiratory endurance.  For breathing, it would be very similar to muscular endurance; you would be able to breath better during long workouts then when you first started.  I am a living testimony.  When I first started, my muscles were aching and I was breathing hard after only 75 jumping jacks.  However, through years of continued participation, I am now able to do many more jumping jacks without breathing hard or getting sore muscles.  However, getting good at both does require you to try hard.  Just like muscular strength, the more effort you put in, the better you will get.

Next up is flexibility.  I am pretty sure you might have seen those gymnast be able to do those splits in mid-air and other feats and you probably thought “Could I ever be that flexible?”  Well, it is possible, and you can get it from continued participation in Taekwondo.  On your first day, you probably could not kick very high.  However, after continued participation, your kicks start to get higher, and higher, and higher.  Eventually, you would be able to kick so high that you would be considered “flexible.”  How?  Simple.  Stretching.  Every time we do class, we stretch to make ourselves more flexible.  And every time we stretch, our muscles extend a bit.  After a while, you would begin to realize that you are kicking a bit higher.  And, after more stretching, you would eventually be able to kick higher than you thought possible. This increased flexibility will also carry into other aspects of your life!

Last of all, there is body composition.  It is pretty much common knowledge that working out helps you get the best lean  body weight to fat ratio.  Well, Taekwondo demands physical exertion!  Or, in simpler terms, when you practice Taekwondo, you sweat.  That’s called a workout.  And when you workout, you get less fat.

So as you can see, classes at the Colorado Taekwondo Institute, including the Westminster location, does address all the five components of health-related physical fitness.  By doing Taekwondo, you can improve in all these areas.

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.