This is something very good topic that I keep on explaining to many people.
One simple reason people go to fitness experts is they wants to remain healthy. To be more specific, people wants to remain disease and pain free and so they opts for any specific fitness regime.
Most of the fitness experts, if not all, specially of western world knows only about physical portion of fitness. But healthy body do not means only being fit physically. A healthy body means one has to be fit in all the below fours aspects, otherwise no one can save them from getting unhealthy or getting ill.
Physically fit
Internally fit
Mentally fit
Spiritually fit
"A healthy body means healthy mind and soul & Healthy mind and soul means healthy Body"
Above statement can be explained in a very scientific way. But I will cover this in some other blogposts. Let me restricts myself to physical portion of fitness which many people are interested.
To explain this topic I will take four types of arts for comparison which I personally know. And then you choose what kind of fitness is best for you.
1. GYM workouts.
2. Yoga workouts.
3. Muay Thai workouts.
4. Kalaripayattu Workouts.
1. GYM Workouts...
People who goes to a Gym wants big muscles and a good show off body. They wants to show their big muscles to their friends, family, public, etc. However there are some serious guys too who wants to build some strength and really do serious weight lifting routines and then aims for good shape of body too. Point to note is weight lifting gives overall strength development but do not strengthen minor muscles of body and do not focus much on tendons and ligaments strength. I am too a fan of weight lifting for strength development but not a very fig fan of big muscles. Doing rounds and rounds of repetitions without any strength or endurance development don't looks attractive to me. Because as one grows older, big muscles eventually go away and what is left is loose loose muscles which at last looks so ugly. Moreover big muscles like big biceps or big thighs tends to make one slower for any activity in daily life like stair climbing, running, clearing obstacles etc.
I am in no way against muscle development. I love developing muscles, six or eight packs abs, but I favor those muscles which will remain with me for long time and muscles which are strong and not just any fake muscles.
Also some people go to Gym and thinks that by developing big muscles they will be able to defend themselves too and I like to laugh on them. It's like one who can climb can swim too. But this is not possible. Everyone knows this.
2. Yoga Workouts...
Yoga is one of the very very best way to remain fit for lifetime. But in terms of physical fitness, Yoga is a bit slow process especially for fatty people. One who has decent fitness or are not too much fatty can easily opt for Yoga. In terms of strength development, Yoga is good but not upto the mark of weight lifting. However Yoga do offers a flexible and medium strength fit body. Through Yoga those portions of the body gains strength which cannot be achieved by weight lifting. But yes do not think of muscles/cuts or six packs in Yoga workouts.
3. Muay Thai (Thailand Martial arts) workouts:
Muay Thai practitioners do lot of Calisthenics workout, Lifts weight. Punches, Kicks, Knees and Elbows continuous practice builds one Cardiovascular strength and endurance to a great level. In addition, if you are participating in competitions, though not necessary, prepares you for self defense close to street situations. There are very rare arts including Muay Thai which can prepare you for bare hand combat in such a short time as Muay Thai do. Muay Thai practitioners have decent flexibility too.
In case of Muay Thai one has to spend few days or a month or two to learn basic techniques. For example learning simple punches like Jab, Cross, Hook will take little time but as soon as one learns then Bag work, Pad work or just a shadow boxing can make one loose weight a lot and in being physically fit (Please do note being physically fit and being fatty or slim are two different things. One can be slim but not fit or one can be fat but can be fit.) Neither a Gym workout nor Yoga can make one loose weight as fast as Muay Thai can do. Fitness that is achieved through Muay Thai practice for long time can never be matched by Gym or just calisthenics and Yoga.
Muscles that Muay Thai practitioners develops are long lasting and are not just for show off. They are as tough as rock and can bear external forces/beating easily. Also bones are hard enough to break any muscles/bones developed through just Gym. And any means any. You will say i am getting egoistic but I mean it.
In addition to fitness one learns Self defense aspects too. So it is totally a win win situation. People of all age groups can opt for Muay Thai as Muay Thai has all kinds of techniques for all age groups.
4. Kalaripayattu workouts...
As I have covered in my previous posts about Kalaripayattu, it covers following things.
Extreme flexibility routines, Calisthenics workout, Weight Lifting, Bare hand combat, Weapons training, Breathing practices, Mantras for overall development of body.
So in addition to fitness, Kalaripayattu offers a lot of things including self defense. So it is win win situation too.
After a lot of research I find Martial arts as a best way to develop physically. However it's benefit is just not limited to physical portion. Martial arts offers Internal, Mental and spiritual benefit too.
Namaste
Note: None of the pictures shown above are my copyright and has been used from google for explaining this article as much as possible.
Ranjit Mishra
Martial Warriors Academy
www.martialart-warriors.in
Email- ranjitmishramartialarts@gmail.com
