Alive and Kicking #18 – Martial Artist vs Couch Potato

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Alive and Kicking – Martial Arts Over 40

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Monday 30 January 2012: Issue #18

Alive and Kicking is published once a week for opted-in subscribers only. If a friend has forwarded this to you, please opt-in at https://martialartsover40.com/subscribe/

Published by Brett Kraiger. Your comments are always welcome.

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Hi there!

Welcome to this week’s Alive and Kicking, the newsletter for martial artists over 40.

This is going to be a shorter than usual newsletter today. I spent quite a bit of time getting the “Amazing Benefits of Martial Arts” article up on to the site yesterday. If you didn’t see that article I’m going to talk about it a little bit below, and it’s definitely worth checking out the whole thing if you’ve got the time.

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As I just mentioned, I have just added a really interesting (well I hope it is!) article to the Martial Arts over 40 website. It talks about a study that was done, which looked at a bunch of middle-aged martial artists and compared their fitness levels to a similar bunch of middle-aged couch potatos. Well, OK, it didn’t say “couch potatos” in the original study – they talked about being sedentary.

Anyway the results of the study was pretty comprehensive. In all areas they covered, the martial artists outdid the sedentary folk. This included strength, balance, cardiovascular fitness and flexibility. Actually there was one area where the martial artists got a lower score than the sedentary group… and that was their body fat measurement.

In all tests bar one, the difference between the groups was statistically signficant. In a nutshell that means that the results were not just a statistical fluke.. the results are pretty conclusive.

The results below show the percentage that the martial artists outdid the sedentary group by
Balance: 136% better. That’s more than twice as good!
Cardio: 32% better.
Quad strength: 20% better
Grip strength: 15.3% better (This is the one that was not statistically significant)
Flexibility: 114% better
Sit-ups: 77% better
Push-ups: 152% better
Body fat: Martial artists had 1/3 less body fat.

So there you go. I find this not only really interesting, but also very motivational. I’ve noticed as I get older that things start to hurt a bit more, and it can take days to recover from a training sometimes!

But the knowledge that I am definitely doing myself the world of good, and potentially extending my lifespan, makes it all worthwhile!

You can see the full article here: Over 40s – Amazing Benefits From Doing Martial Arts

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In the last newsletter I mentioned the movie Ip Man. My wife and I happened to just stumble upon this movie one night. Actually it was our anniversary and it was our first night out of the house in a long time. (We have young children so we don’t get out as much as we used to!)

Anyway we were delaying going home by taking a bit of a walk around the city, and we noticed that this movie was playing.

I really like this movie – it’s worth checking out. The movie is subtitled which takes a bit of getting used to, but once you get past that then it’s good to watch. And of course you don’t need subtitles for the fight scenes!

I expected that this movie might be a bit over the top like many martial arts movies I’ve seen. Some of the fight scenes seemed a bit unbelievable, as is often the case in these sorts of movies, but knowing that this was based on a true story, and that Ip Man was Bruce Lee’s teacher led it a lot of credence. It sort of allowed you to suspend your disbelief and just sit back and enjoy it.

Probably the most memorable scene is where Ip Man defeats 10 Karateka at once. Again, knowing that this is based on a true story means you are riveted to the screen, rather than shaking your head in disbelief.

I just took a look at IMDB.com and I can see on there that it’s been given an 8.1 average rating from over 30,000 users! So it seems I’m not the only one who enjoyed it.

One thing… don’t wait for Ip Man’s most famous student, Bruce Lee, to appear. This is set well before that time. Bruce does appear in the sequel though.

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That’s all for this week. Make sure you check out that full article on the benefits of the martial arts. Then… make sure to share it with other people. I’m sure you know someone who has been saying that they’ll get into the martial arts “one day”. Send them to that article to show them the real benefits!

Here’s that link again: Over 40s – Amazing Benefits From Doing Martial Arts

If you have anything you would like to see on the website or in a future newsletter then you can get hold of me by replying directly to this email, commenting on Facebook , or leave your comments on the website. (scroll down)

Thank you for subscribing (and reading!). Back in a week.

All the best!
Brett

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Quote of the Day

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Cry in the dojo. Laugh on the battlefield.
– Author unknown