Martial Arts. Is It A Good Workout On Its Own?

StalkingPaige

Being someone who has lost 33lbs on diet alone since March, I thought I'd include physical activity. Expecially since I can experience mild depression during the fall/winter months. I have NEVER stuck to a workout routine at home or at a gym. I even had a personal trainer once I hated it.

I thought I'd incorporate a goal to my workouts. Something I could really learn from each time I went. I decided to go into Krav Maga and I love it. It never FEELS like a workout. I started off with 1 hour a day, 3 days a week. Once I got over being sore every time, I now do a total of 6 hours a week.

Would krav maga, striking, muay thai or any other form of martial arts be enough on its own to be an effective workout? I want to add cardio between the days I go to class but I don't want to overdo it

Thoughts?

SnifterPug

Well, I do boxing and wear a chest strap heart rate monitor. I can assure you that every session (pad work, heavy bag, shadow boxing with or without light hand weights) is a cardio workout, so I'm not 100% sure why you would want to add much in the way of cardio. I'm only vaguely familiar with the martial arts you mention but since they involve much more leg work than boxing I would have thought they would be a pretty good all round workout. Unless I am misunderstanding the intensity of krav maga, my feeling would be that you may be better served by adding some strength/resistance training rather than adding what may amount to more cardio. Perhaps the best thing to do is discuss with your krav instructor.

tlpina82

Yes. Martial Arts are fantastic.

Brazilian Jiu Jitsu is by far the toughest exercise.
I wore a Heart Rate Monitor through a roll session and a 2h session showed a little over 1300 cals with avg heart rate at 152 and 1 crazy peak of 189 which made me nauseous.
It is also extremely effective as a self defense tool, especially for women, since BJJ takes over when someone grabs you.

Together with JiuJitsu, i've done Muay Thay, Kickboxing, Boxing and Judo in MMA Classes and all of them are incredible. But Jiu Jitsu was by far the most calories burned with boxing coming in as a close second.

What you need to be aware of is that they all leave marks.

In Muay Thay and Kickboxing, for example, you kick with your shins, NOT with your foot. (That's true for most martial arts BTW.) So kicks, checks and full on blocks may leave you with lots of marks in your legs.
My right leg looks like I have small marbles under the skin because the bone is calloused and uneven.
There are shin guards, which prevent scuffing, but it still hurts and it still bruises.

Jiu Jitsu on the other hand, leaves you with bruises from grapling. That's usually a pinch or twist, which can somewhat be prevented by using a rash guard, but, at times, I would have bruises that would cover large areas on my chest and back.

Hope this helps.

J72FIT

Quite simply, yes.
Generally what one does is add some strength and conditioning in order to get better at their art form.

ninerbuff

As a kickboxing instructor, YES. And I kickbox just 30 minutes at a time with a little rest between sets. 9Round fitness has a good gym plan. But keep up the Krav Maga.

A.C.E. Certified Personal and Group Fitness Trainer
IDEA Fitness member
Kickboxing Certified Instructor
Been in fitness for 30 years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition

HoneyBadger302

My lowest weight, while eating everything in sight, was while I was going through black belt testing (four months of tests/training with the art I was studying).

Not all instructors/schools are equal, but done properly, it is a fantastic workout that covers most bases.

cwolfman13

StalkingPaige wrote: »

Being someone who has lost 33lbs on diet alone since March, I thought I'd include physical activity. Expecially since I can experience mild depression during the fall/winter months. I have NEVER stuck to a workout routine at home or at a gym. I even had a personal trainer once I hated it.

I thought I'd incorporate a goal to my workouts. Something I could really learn from each time I went. I decided to go into Krav Maga and I love it. It never FEELS like a workout. I started off with 1 hour a day, 3 days a week. Once I got over being sore every time, I now do a total of 6 hours a week.

Would krav maga, striking, muay thai or any other form of martial arts be enough on its own to be an effective workout? I want to add cardio between the days I go to class but I don't want to overdo it

Thoughts?

What does a "workout" feel like? I think there's a great misconception that a beneficial "workout" has to be some grueling thing that leaves you feeling like you're almost dead, puking, or whatever...not everything has to be or should be some kind of sufferfest.

Also, the more we do something/practice something, the better we get at it and as fitness improves things just get easier. When I first started doing spin classes, I found them to be very demanding even though I road ride or trail ride regularly....initially I could only do 1 or 2 per week without issues...after about 6 weeks, I was able to spin 4 to 5 days per week without issue...it wasn't any less of a workout, my fitness had just adapted to what I was doing.

AnnPT77

Speaking as a former Chinese MA practioner (my late husband was a teacher), Krav Maga, in a very active class/club setting, should be a good exercise . . . but I'd hesitate to believe a fitness tracker/HRM when it comes to either calorie estimates or exact cardiovascular training impact (especially if the tracker doesn't know specifically what type of exercise you're doing).

Martial arts (MA) training tend to be interval-ish by nature, alternating higher and lower HRs. HRMs aren't very good at estimating calories accurately for that. Many MA involve a mix of cardio-like elements (kick drills or blocking drills, say) and strength-y things (such as some of the grappling). HRM are notoriously bad at handling strength work, because HR increases for reasons having nothing to do with oxygen demand (and oxygen demand is the thing that really correlates with CV system benefits and calorie burn; HR is just a measurable but very approximate proxy for oxygen demand). On top of that, in a MA setting, there are other things that can raise HR (emotional reactions, physical pressure in pinning situations, etc.), and those don't necessarily have CV benefits or calorie demand scaled to HR, either.

Any exercise you enjoy (so want to do, often) is better than a theoretically better exercise that you dislike (so put off and skip with the slightest excuse). You're fortunate to have found an activity you like that's actually a good and fairly well-rounded exercise. If you feel like you want to do something more, for variety and cross-training, that's great. What I'd suggest is that you bring it in slowly, and increase gradually (frequency/duration/intensity). That way, you'll find out where the "too much" line is, in terms of both current fitness levels (to avoid excess fatigue, among other things) and good overall life balance (enough time/energy for other non-exercise stuff that's important to you). What's "too much" is very person-specific, and changes over time (with increasing fitness), as well.

Once I found an activity I loved (for me, it's rowing, nowadays), that made me want to do other things as cross-training, to get better at my sport, as well as just to be fitter in general. It's potentially a sort of virtuous cycle (virtuous vortex? 😉 I did find myself being sucked into it . . . !). You may find cardio useful, you may find some explicit strength exercise useful, or you can consider a mix.

And +1 to that comment about MA and marks: I later learned some of my co-workers thought my husband was abusing me because I was periodically pretty bruised-up (and they knew he was one of those scary MA guys 🙄 . . . yeah, no 🤣). Doctors/nurses frequently asked, during office visits, too.

kshama2001

When you say "workout" - do you mean lifting weights? What did you hate about it? I didn't care for it when I thought as a woman I was supposed to do high reps with low weights, and now that I've reversed that I like it a lot more. (An awesome playlist helps as well, or working out to a binge worthy series.)

I also like lifting as it helps me with yoga and swimming, which I enjoy very much. Like Ann said about, you may find some cross training useful for martial arts.