3.5 Benefits You Might Not See

What benefits have you received from your martial arts training?

Have you lost some body fat? Gained some muscle? Maybe discovered a few muscles you didn't even know existed until they started screaming at you the morning after class? Has your balance improved? Your coordination? Are you stronger? Faster? Is your stamina better than it was when you first walked through the door? I'll bet the answer is yes to quite a few of those questions.

Those are some of the obvious benefits of training in Martial Arts, Kickboxing, Boxing, Grappling or just about any other physically demanding combat sport. They're also relatively easy to recognize. You can see the weight you've lost. You can feel yourself getting stronger. You notice that you don't become winded as quickly. You remember when you couldn't kick above your waist and suddenly you're kicking someone in the head—hopefully with their permission.

But some of the greatest benefits of martial arts training aren't nearly as easy to see.

You can't stand in front of a mirror and see improved emotional control. You can't step on a scale and measure confidence. You can't wrap a tape measure around your brain and determine that your ability to concentrate has improved. And there isn't a belt test for learning how to remain calm when life seems to be falling apart around you.

Yet these may eventually become some of the most valuable things martial arts gives us.

That's one of the reasons martial arts has influenced so much of what I teach through Black Belt Living. The physical training is important, but what happens to the person because of the training can be even more important. We're developing the body, absolutely, but we're also developing habits, attitudes, confidence, resilience, discipline and ways of thinking that can follow us far beyond the training floor.

So let's look at my 3.5 Benefits You Might Not See.

1. Improved Emotional Balance

There's an old misconception that teaching someone how to punch, kick or choke another human being is somehow going to turn them into an aggressive lunatic roaming the streets looking for someone to practice on. And in a professionally run martial arts school, the opposite is always accomplished.

The more capable students become physically, the more we should also be teaching them control, discipline, judgment and responsibility. Knowing that you can fight should never mean that you're constantly looking for an opportunity to prove it. Training can also provide something most of us desperately need: a healthy place to put our energy.

Think about the amount of stress the average person carries around every day. Work deadlines, traffic, financial pressures, family responsibilities, health concerns, relationship problems, emails, text messages, social media, bills and that coworker who somehow manages to schedule a meeting that could have been handled in a three-sentence email.

Stress accumulates.

And if you don't have healthy ways to manage it, eventually it tends to come out somewhere. Maybe you become impatient with your spouse. Maybe you snap at your kids. Maybe you can't sleep because your mind won't shut down. Maybe you eat too much, drink too much or sit on the couch staring at a television while simultaneously scrolling through your phone because apparently one screen isn't enough anymore. Then you walk into a martial arts school.

For the next hour, somebody is telling you to move, punch, kick, breathe, focus, defend, react and keep going. Suddenly you don't have much mental bandwidth left for worrying about the argument you had at work three hours earlier. Sometimes hitting a heavy bag really does make the world seem like a nicer place!

But the benefit goes deeper than simply “blowing off steam.”

Regular exercise can improve mood and reduce symptoms of stress and anxiety for many people. Martial arts adds another layer because you're not simply moving your body, you're learning skills, solving physical problems, responding to pressure, interacting with other people and gradually becoming more competent at something difficult. And that growing competence matters.

Think about what happens when a new student first walks into a martial arts school. They may feel awkward. They don't know where to stand. Their hands and feet refuse to cooperate with one another. Everybody else seems to know what they're doing. Then, slowly, things begin changing.

They learn the stance, then the punch, then the kick. They survive their first difficult class and they pass their first belt test. They do something they couldn't do three months earlier. Little by little, they begin accumulating evidence that says: “I can do difficult things.”

That's confidence built through experience rather than simply positive thinking. And that lesson doesn't necessarily stay inside the school. When life presents another difficult situation, the student has already practiced being uncomfortable, frustrated, tired and uncertain—and continuing anyway.

That's emotional training.

Children experience many of these same pressures in different forms. Academic expectations, friendships, family changes, social media, bullying, fitting in, competition and the constant desire to be accepted can create tremendous stress for young people. A professionally taught martial arts program can give them a structured environment where they move their bodies, develop competence, interact with positive adults and peers and learn that mistakes aren't disasters, they're part of learning.

That is very much a Black Belt Living lesson.

Emotional balance doesn't mean never becoming angry, frustrated, afraid or overwhelmed. It means developing a greater ability to experience those emotions without allowing them to control every decision you make. Over time, martial arts training can help support greater self-confidence, improved self-image, better stress management, stronger focus and a greater sense of emotional control.

You may never see any of those things in the mirror, but you'll certainly notice them in your life.

2. Better Brain Function

I know what some of you are thinking; “How can getting punched and kicked possibly be good for my brain?” Fair question.

Let's make one important distinction. Getting hit in the head isn't the part I'm recommending for brain health. Repeated blows to the head can be harmful, which is exactly why responsible coaching, appropriate contact levels and intelligent training practices matter. And honestly, if you’re not a top amateur or professional fighter, you don’t have much to worry about.

The potential brain benefits we're talking about come primarily from exercise, movement, coordination, learning and skill development. And this is where martial arts gets really interesting! Your brain isn't sitting on the sidelines watching your body train. It's participating in almost everything you're doing.

Think about something as simple as learning a new combination. Your instructor tells you to jab, cross, hook, back leg round kick, then move to the side and counter. At first your brain essentially responds with, “You want me to do WHAT?”

You have to remember the sequence. Coordinate your hands and feet. Maintain your balance. Judge distance. Control your power. Watch your partner. Process what's happening in front of you. Make adjustments. And if you're sparring or doing a reaction drill, you have to accomplish much of that while another human being is moving unpredictably and trying to do something back to you.

That's a lot of information being processed all at once.

Physical exercise also increases blood flow throughout the body, including the brain. Aerobic activity is associated with changes that support brain health, including processes involved in memory, learning and attention. Exercise is also associated with neuroplasticity, the brain's ability to adapt and reorganize itself as we learn and experience new things.

One of the substances researchers often discuss in connection with exercise is brain-derived neurotrophic factor, or BDNF. Think of it, in very simplified terms, as one of the factors that helps support the health and adaptability of neurons and the connections between them. Exercise has been associated with increased BDNF activity, which is one reason scientists continue studying physical activity as an important part of maintaining cognitive health throughout life.

Martial arts can add complexity beyond basic aerobic exercise because we're combining physical exertion with learning. You're not just running on a treadmill staring at the television. You're remembering patterns, responding to visual cues, coordinating both sides of your body, making decisions under pressure, developing timing, judging distance and constantly adjusting movement.

Your body is working and your brain is working. And occasionally your instructor is yelling, “OTHER LEFT!” while you're trying to figure out why you suddenly seem to have two right feet. That's part of the fun though!

Over time, regular physical activity can support attention, memory, learning, mood and healthy cognitive aging. Martial arts also continually asks students to learn new material, which gives the brain another reason to stay engaged.

That's particularly important as we get older. We shouldn't simply continue challenging our muscles as we age. We should continue challenging our minds. Learn another form or learn a new weapon. Try Boxing or try Grappling. Work on a complicated combination. Train the opposite side of your body and maybe become a beginner at something again.

One of the principles of Intellectual Expansion within Black Belt Living is that we should never allow ourselves to stop learning simply because formal education ended years ago. Martial arts gives us an opportunity to exercise that principle physically and mentally at the same time.

3. Having an Edge

If you've practiced a jab-cross-hook combination thousands of times, you don't need to mentally explain every part of the technique to yourself before throwing it. You don't think, “OK John, first extend the left arm. Now begin to rotate the right side. Now bring the left hand back...”

If you're still doing that after ten years, we may need to talk.

Repetition creates familiarity and increasingly automatic skill. That's one of the reasons we practice fundamentals over and over and over again. I learned this firsthand during my first fight, when the bell rang for the first round, my opponent came charging across the ring at me like he had somewhere else to be and wanted to finish early.

I remember watching him come toward me and then watching my own left leg come up almost automatically. I drove a side kick directly into his chest and sent him backward across the ring and underneath the ropes in his own corner.

I didn't stand there and calculate the proper response. I didn't think, “Hmm...based on his velocity and angle of approach, perhaps a left side kick would be appropriate.” The technique simply came out.

Why?

Because I had practiced it over and over and over again until my body knew what to do. That's what I call having an edge. But the physical edge is only part of it. Martial arts training can begin giving you an edge in situations that have absolutely nothing to do with fighting.

Think about the person who has stood in front of a room and performed under pressure during belt tests dozens of times. A job interview may still make them nervous, but nervousness is no longer completely unfamiliar.

Think about the student who struggled with a technique for months before finally mastering it. When they encounter something difficult at school or work, they've already learned that not being good at something today doesn't mean they can't become good at it tomorrow.

Think about someone who has spent years learning to remain composed while another person is punching and kicking toward them. A difficult conversation at work may suddenly seem a little less terrifying. Martial arts gives us repeated opportunities to experience discomfort in a controlled environment.

We get tired and keep working. We become frustrated and try again. We make mistakes in front of other people and discover that the world doesn't end. We get knocked down and stand back up. We set goals that take months or years to accomplish. We receive correction. We learn patience. We learn that improvement usually comes from doing relatively boring fundamentals far more often than we'd prefer.

Does any of that sound useful outside the martial arts school?

And that's the edge. It's not believing you're better than everybody else, it's knowing you're more prepared than you used to be. That edge can show up in a self-defense situation, competition, job interview, business meeting, new social environment, difficult conversation, leadership opportunity or just about any situation where confidence, composure and preparation matter.

And perhaps the greatest edge martial arts gives you is the knowledge that when something is difficult, your first response doesn't have to be to quit.

3.5 “Life” Defense

When we first begin martial arts, self-defense usually means something physical.

Someone grabs you. Someone punches you, pushes you or attacks you. We learn how to block, move, escape, strike and protect ourselves. But as we get older, most of us discover that the things we're defending ourselves against on a daily basis rarely throw punches. I haven't had to defend myself in a street fight in many years, and I certainly hope that continues.

But I've had to defend myself against plenty of other things: negative thinking, stress, self-doubt, laziness, fear, bad decisions, poor habits, other people's negativity, the temptation to quit, to become comfortable and the temptation to stop growing because life is “good enough.”

Those opponents don't wear boxing gloves.

And sometimes they're much harder to defeat. That's what I call Life Defense. Life Defense is learning how to protect yourself against the things that slowly pull you away from the person you want to become. Sometimes that means defending your health against years of inactivity and poor nutrition.

Sometimes it means defending your goals against procrastination. Sometimes it means defending your confidence against your own negative self-talk. Sometimes it means establishing boundaries with people whose behavior continually creates chaos in your life. Sometimes it means protecting your financial future by saying no to something you can afford today but shouldn't buy because tomorrow matters too.

And sometimes Life Defense simply means recognizing that you're beginning to Drift.

That's where this connects so strongly with Black Belt Living. The greatest threats to the quality of our lives usually aren't dramatic, they're gradual. We don't wake up one morning completely out of shape. We Drift there. We don't suddenly lose confidence, it erodes. Relationships rarely fall apart because of one missed conversation, it's usually hundreds of small moments where connection was neglected.

Financial problems often develop one poor decision at a time. Goals disappear one postponed action at a time. That's why the habits we develop through martial arts can become so valuable.

Train consistently. Pay attention. Stay disciplined. Control your emotions. Learn from mistakes.  Adjust when something isn't working. Keep developing yourself. Ask for help when you need it. Get back up.

Those aren't simply martial arts skills, they're life skills. And that's ultimately why I believe the greatest benefits of martial arts may be the ones nobody can see. Yes, becoming stronger is great and losing body fat is great. Improving your flexibility, endurance, coordination and physical ability is great. Earn the belts. Learn the techniques. Hit the pads. Roll on the mat. Kick the heavy bag. Enjoy every bit of it.

But pay attention to what's happening inside you while all of that physical training is taking place. Are you becoming more confident? More disciplined? More emotionally controlled? More willing to face difficult things? More capable of remaining calm under pressure? More willing to keep learning? More resilient when life doesn't go according to plan?

Because eventually you begin to realize something: the punches, kicks, takedowns, forms, drills and belt tests were teaching you far more than you thought they were. You thought you were learning how to defend yourself against another person. Maybe you were also learning how to defend the life you're trying to build.

And that may be one of the greatest benefits martial arts has to offer.

You just can't see it in the mirror.

POWER QUESTION:

As a Martial Arts School Owner, are you doing everything you can to make sure that all of this above, everything you just read, is being taught to your students? And that your students are gaining these benefits too? If so, your retention will be some of the best in the nat