Martial Arts & Heart Health

Most people think Martial Arts is blocking and punching. That is only one small part of larger puzzle of overall wellness. Martial Arts, such as Taekwondo, has many other benefits including improving heart health.

Hears Disease is the leading cause of death

Heart disease refers to conditions that narrow or block blood vessels due to the accumulation of choleseterol and plaque. In the worst cases, this can lead to strokes or heart attacks.

Heart disease is the leading cause of death for both men and women, killing nearly 600,000 people ever year in the Uninted States.

Martial Arts and Improving Heart Health

There are numerous studies that show how martial arts can improve cardiovascular health. I was able to find studies for people as young as adolescents (Cardiovascular effects of 16 weeks of martial arts training in adolescents) and as old as elderly women (Effects of Regular Taekwondo Intervention on Health-Related Physical Fitness, Cardiovascular Disease Risk Factors and Epicardial Adipose Tissue in Elderly Women with Hypertension) and everyone in between. 

It makes sense that martial arts training subjects you to regular exercise and would lead to improvements in overall health.

A Year of Taekwondo Training

You can read all sorts of studies and they don’t really resonate until it directly affects you.

In 2020, I had a close relative suffer a major heart attack. He was slightly younger than me at the time. This led my family to encourage me to seek out proactive screening for potential heart problems. While I wasn’t in any grave or immediate danger, I definitely had room for significant improvement.

In October 2023, I restarted training at 153 Taekwondo.

7 months later, I had a follow up appointment with a cardiologist where he asked me what I’ve been doing differently. Since the last checkup the previous year:

    • My EKG was different in a way that indicated I had lost a bit of weight
    • I did lose ~20 pounds
    • LDL cholestorol (bad cholesterol) was down
    • HDL cholestorol (good cholesterol) was up
    • Blood Pressure went from elevated to normal

Basically, all metrics related to heart health saw some sort of improvement just like all the studies.