Martial arts good alternative to gym for boosting fitness in middle age

Martial arts are excellent for boosting all round fitness in middle age, and could provide an alternative to the gym, say researchers in the British Journal of Sports Medicine.

The authors base their findings on a small study assessing the physical fitness of nine practitioners of soo bahk do, a Korean martial art similar to karate, and nine largely sedentary people. The martial arts practitioners had practiced soo bahk do for one hour at a time at least twice a week for three years.

All the participants were aged between 40 and 60, with an average age of 46. They were assessed for levels of body fat, balance flexibility, muscle and grip strength, endurance and aerobic capacity.

The assessment revealed significant differences between the two groups on all the indicators measured except grip strength, which was more or less the same. The sedentary group had 12 percent more body fat than the martial arts group and could not notch up even half the number of sit-ups and press-ups performed by the martial arts group in one minute. The average time for holding balance among the sedentary group was 26 seconds compared with almost 62 seconds for the martial arts group. The difference in flexibility between the two groups amounted to 114 percent.

Regular exercise has long been known to delay or prevent the dwindling of physical strength. flexibility and susceptibility to fractures/falls associated with aging, as well as warding off serious disease such as heart disease and diabetes.

The researchers say that martial arts are particularly good as they burn up a lot of calories, while at the same time improving all round fitness as a "complete form of exercise."