Explore the Flavors of Combat
“It is better to be a warrior in a garden than a gardener in a war.” — Miyamoto Musashi
Nutrition and exercise are an unbeatable duo. Like steak and eggs, they’re amazing individually, but together, they create a synergy that transcends anything I could describe with words. If you’re reading this, it’s clear that you have some sort of interest in cooking and nutrition. And that’s awesome. The ability to cook nourishing food is one of the most impactful and convenient ways we can lead a healthy life.
Cooking isn’t just a great life skill — it gives you control over your ingredients. For example, say you want to avoid those inflammatory seed oils. Cooking your own food gives you ultimate control. You get to use your cooking fat of choice, whether it’s grass-fed butter/ghee/tallow or maybe some good quality extra virgin olive oil. By feeding your body homemade, delicious, nutrient-dense foods, you’re providing yourself adequate fuel for the daily grind. Maintaining control of what we eat is essential for optimal health.
COOKING AND MARTIAL ARTS
Martial arts (aka combat sports) training and cooking share many similarities. Both are skills that require focus, time, and consistent effort to master — just with different toolsets. As chefs and as martial artists, we learn and experiment with various techniques. We adjust specific details to fit our style. We adapt to challenges on the fly. We express ourselves through our work in the gym and through the food on our plate. In both realms, we are in control and the goal is always to improve.
YOU NEED TO BE MOVING
The human body was designed to move. When we are active, we thrive. However today, it’s no secret that many people struggle to properly maintain their health. Sedentary lifestyles, chronic disease/pain, and consumption of ultra-processed foods are all too common in today’s society. Recently, the mainstream news cycle is even trying to claim that ultra-processed foods “aren’t that bad”.
Just as quality nutrition benefits everyone, the same goes for quality exercise. Yes, both are great on their own. But they complement each other, so incorporating both into your life will give you greater benefits compared to focusing on just one.
Traditional strength training and cardio have undoubtedly transformed millions of lives. However, fitness isn’t a one-size-fits-all approach. What works well for one person may not work for another. There are alternative forms of fitness for those looking to get in great shape without conventional strength training, and practicing martial arts is a comprehensive alternative. Even if you’re someone who enjoys conventional gym training, you may want to consider incorporating martial arts training into your schedule, as each discipline can enhance the other! Martial arts is one of the best ways to keep fit, with functional workout sessions that naturally combine strength with conditioning, while also teaching some of the most valuable skills one can learn.
COMBAT SPORTS TRAINING
Training in martial arts can provide invaluable benefits for practitioners of all levels, both mentally and physically. Let’s look at five key skills people gain, then examine the efficient disciplines that anyone can start training in!
1. The Art of Self Defense
The world can be a dangerous place. In our current age, it’s not uncommon for dangerous criminals to receive little to no punishment for their atrocious behavior. Even when they do receive punishment, it’s often a slap on the wrist and these individuals continue wreaking havoc on society. These guys are often impulsive and unpredictable, which makes them even more dangerous. Attacks can come at any time and at any place, so it is crucial for you to be prepared.
Would you know how to defend yourself if someone started trouble for no reason? What if you can’t escape? What if they became more aggressive and started throwing punches? Or if they tackled you and a bigger adversary pins you down? Do you have the capabilities to defend yourself and your loved ones?
Training in effective disciplines (listed later on) will give you these skills. You’ll be training with other martial artists who know and train the same art as you. If you can successfully execute offensive and defensive techniques on those who are aware of them, doing the same on attackers who very likely don’t know them will be much, much easier. If these techniques work at the highest levels of professional fighting, they will more than likely work on those with less experience (should you ever need to use them).
Note: Attackers are rarely trained martial artists. While they might know how to throw a punch, it’s unlikely they’ve studied these ancient disciplines. Martial arts training instills a deep sense of respect and responsibility for the power one acquires. Practitioners understand that their techniques can cause serious harm, which is why trained fighters often try to avoid confrontations outside of competitive settings. They recognize the potential for damage — both to themselves and others — and typically resort to fighting only when absolutely necessary.
Over time, you will naturally become familiar with many different positions, and the offensive and defensive techniques available from them. Training consistently and accumulating experience in the gym will help you develop your muscle memory, to the point where your body knows exactly how to react to any situation you’re in.
It will become second nature. You’ve done it so much that you can do it when/where you need, without giving much thought – essential for self defense, as every second counts and can mean the difference between safety and harm!
2. Developing self-discipline, self-confidence, and self-control
Martial arts can help you develop and improve your mental and physical discipline, leading to higher self-confidence (backed by your actual abilities). In training, you will inevitably face difficult situations, just as you will in real life. Your mind and body will want to give up. You’ll want to quit, you’ll want to rest, and you’ll try to justify all of the reasons for doing so – but you won’t.
You’ll develop the mental discipline to force yourself to persevere when things are difficult. You’ll learn to endure through pain, exhaustion, and fatigue, while simultaneously finding a solution to the problem you’re in.
Your mental discipline will translate to physical discipline. When your mind won’t allow your body to quit, your body won’t quit. As humans, our bodies are incredibly resilient to outside stress, which makes us capable of so much more than we can imagine.
We can only figure out what we’re capable of by facing harder and harder challenges, as these obstacles help us unlock and hone our potential. But why would anyone ever willingly go through these experiences of adversity, especially if pain may be involved?
You control your mind, you control your body, you control your actions. Everything depends on your level of discipline and focus.
3. Building mental and physical strength
Martial arts will challenge you. You’ll be pushed to mental and physical exhaustion, but you’ll surpass these limits and immediately restart the never-ending cycle of self-improvement.
In a combat sport like wrestling, success is especially crucial. A win or a loss could be the difference between making the Olympic team and having to wait another couple of years, training for the chance to compete for the same opportunity again. In professional mixed martial arts (MMA), a win or loss could be the difference between a championship fight and having to win 3 more fights against top competition to even be reconsidered as a contender.
Whereas in a sport like Major League Baseball (which spans 160+ games), a win or a loss might only mean the difference between a light-hearted post game talk and a more serious one. The stakes are different. In other words, in other sports outside of combat, there’s usually a chance to bounce back the very next day, or the very next week, whereas combat athletes usually wait months or even years to compete again after a loss (recovery, injuries, general wear and tear on the body from training).
For this reason, combat sports competitors have no choice but to go all in when they train. Everything is on the line. Their next performance is all. Nothing is ever guaranteed. This type of training mindset is applied to all levels of martial arts, and it forces practitioners to maintain a strong work ethic and sharp physical fitness.
Mentally, those who practice martial arts will force themselves to not give up or give in (an ability they’ve honed through consistent adversity). They will adapt. Because if they don’t? They’ll plateau. However, failure is inevitable. And when failure comes, they will learn from their mistakes and come back even stronger. Mental strength and resilience is the name of the game.
When the mind becomes stronger, so too will the body. The mind will be able to endure more, which results in the body becoming more durable. Physically, you will build great functional strength as effective martial arts often require you to train with another person, who is actively resisting. In addition to your training partners’ body weight, they are using force, momentum, and pressure against you.
Constantly adapting to resistance and repositioning yourself through constant movement requires continuous use of different muscles that conventional exercise (weight lifting, running, etc) may miss. Combat sports require a different type of strength and a different type of endurance when it comes to quality AND quantity, something you have to experience to understand. Every time you train in your combat sport discipline, you will be improving these aspects of physical fitness, as well as your flexibility, agility, and mobility — a great full body workout, while developing sport-specific skills!
4. Improved ability to manage difficult situations and overcome obstacles
Along with improved mental fortitude and physical attributes, training will subject you to extremely stressful situations. It is in these moments that you really find out what you’re made of.
Have you ever been choked by another person, to the point where you think you’re going to lose consciousness? Have you ever been hit so hard that you’ve questioned everything in your life up to that moment?
If you’ve never trained, the answer to both questions is most likely a firm NO. That makes sense, as they’re not exactly the most common occurrences outside of a gym.
These were extreme examples, but the concept stands. Many of the situations you’ll encounter will put your body into fight-or-flight mode. If you don’t have the knowledge or training experience on how to react in high-stress situations, you may find yourself vulnerable if ever faced with one.
Practicing a combat sport will allow you to gain extensive experience in these types of high stress situations. Since training is conducted in a controlled environment (the gym), you’ll have:
Opportunities to experience what real danger can be like, without actual real-world consequences
Chances to learn and apply different techniques to work your way through obstacles
Supervision from a qualified instructor and controlled power/force from your training partners, to mitigate the chance of actual harm/injury (injuries can occur in training, which is why #3 is an important factor when you decide where exactly you train).
Constantly working your way out of these situations in training will help desensitize you to outside stressors. Essentially, you’ll become comfortable in uncomfortable situations.
You won’t panic or focus on outside factors beyond your control. You’ll stay composed, analyze the situation, figure out how you can overcome the obstacle in front of you, and ultimately take the proper action to do so. Whether it’s de-escalating a confrontation, actually dealing with a violent altercation, or simply being more patient with your loved ones (parents, kids, friends, etc), your martial arts training has prepared you to manage stressful events and deal with them properly!
5. Finding a deeper sense of community with teammates and others in the gym
“If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.” This adage applies to both general life and martial arts. Our support systems are one of the most important things we have. At one point or another in their careers, athletes at the highest level of every sport have all credited their teams for the success they’ve achieved. The importance of a strong support system cannot be understated — it’s essential.
When you have a bunch of people training together in a combat sport discipline, everyone in the gym has an opportunity to bond. You’re all willingly putting yourself through adversity and difficult training sessions. A deeper connection between everyone is formed, as you all realize you’re not alone when things get tough and that you’re all there for each other during those hard times.
You bond over the common goal of self-improvement, then eventually discover other shared interests. You’ll meet new people and find out that you have more in common than you first thought. That stranger you weren’t sure of at first? They won’t just be a training partner to you anymore. They’ll be a close friend and eventually someone you may consider family.
THE INCREDIBLE VERSATILITY OF MARTIAL ARTS
Training martial arts is a valuable skill. It equips you with a tool that you may call upon whenever you need it. It’s something you don’t want to be forced to use, but if you HAVE to? You’ll be glad that you’re equipped. In this world, while we must hope for the best, we need to prepare for the worst. We have to train as if nobody is coming to help us, because in some situations, help may not always be available when we need it. Our safety is our responsibility, so we must take action and do everything we can to be prepared.
EFFECTIVE MARTIAL ARTS: RECOMMENDATIONS
Starting something new can be intimidating, no matter what it is. If you’ve never trained before, there are a lot of disciplines out there, so where do you even start? Which should you learn and why? When it comes to fighting, there are two general categories: striking and grappling.
Striking disciplines involve the use of forceful impact blows (aka strikes) to hit your target. Grappling disciplines involve the use of non-violent maneuvers to exert physical control over another person who is actively resisting. In both types of disciplines, there are many techniques to learn from a lot of different positions, but they’re all mainly geared toward the following purposes:
Offense
Defense
Escaping vulnerable positions and transitioning into dominant ones
Most people start out with one type of martial art, to build a solid base of fundamental skills before trying out the other category. Others start training both at the same time. Experiment: figure out what works for you!
It’s highly recommended that you have basic knowledge, training, and experience in both striking and grappling arts. This will cover all areas that a potential fight can go, giving you the best possible chances to walk away unharmed no matter where the situation goes.
Striking recommendation: Muay Thai
Reasoning: Muay Thai was developed by the Thai army hundreds of years ago in the 13th century to defend their kingdom of Siam from invaders. In this age, battles were fought with hand held weapons like swords, axes, and hammers. The Thais quickly realized that they would be defenseless if/when they were disarmed from their weapon, so they developed a combat system to use if they were ever separated. It was extremely effective on the battlefield. Later on, Nai Tom Khanom, one of many Thais captured as a prisoner of war, fought 10 Burmese champions in front of the Burmese king, who wanted to test the Art of 8 Limbs. The king immediately granted the Muay Thai fighter and all Thai prisoners of war their freedom. News spread in Thailand and Muay Thai grew extremely fast. Many began training and fighting, contributing to the art’s evolution ever since.
Muay Thai is one of (if not) the most effective striking disciplines in all of martial arts. You will learn to fight with your arms (through punches and elbows) and your legs (through kicks and knees). Muay Thai is one of the only striking disciplines that has a grappling aspect to it: the clinch. In the clinch, you become experienced with positioning battles, proper weight distribution, and balance/leverage. You create opportunities and find openings to throw strikes or sweep/trip/dump your opponent to the ground.
Grappling recommendation: Brazilian Jiu Jitsu (BJJ)
Reasoning: Jiu Jitsu gives practitioners the ability to succeed with what they have, as it was designed to be effective for all types of people who train it, against people of all sizes. In a situation between someone who is trained and someone who is untrained, Jiu Jitsu almost always nullifies any size/strength advantage that an untrained person may have.
If you are smaller or not as strong as others, your technique will naturally have to be sharper because you can’t rely on your size/strength to achieve superior positions or get out of bad ones. Helio Gracie once said the following:
“Always assume that your opponent is going to be bigger, stronger and faster than you; so that you learn to rely on technique, timing and leverage rather than brute strength.”
“Jiu Jitsu is for the protection of the individual, the older man, the weak, the child, the lady, the young woman – anyone who lacks the physical attributes to defend themselves.”
As one of the most common grappling disciplines today, a Jiu Jitsu academy shouldn’t be too difficult to find. In these gyms, you will learn offensive and defensive techniques in many different positions. In addition to securing control through physical manipulation of the body, you will learn many different ways to escape from vulnerable positions and transition into dominant ones (in a real world-scenario, you can opt to strike if the situation calls for it). You’ll learn the important principles of weight distribution, positional battles, and efficiency.
Since grappling disciplines are all pretty similar, many Jiu Jitsu gyms offer great experience in other extremely effective ground-fighting arts such as wrestling (takedowns, pins) and Judo (throws, sweeps, trips), while remaining true to the nature of BJJ and still incorporating submissions (chokes, joint locks, general limb manipulation).
WHY YOU SHOULD BE TRAINING ASAP
Martial arts offers invaluable, life changing benefits for everyone. It is among the best skills that you can acquire and the principles you learn from training apply to all aspects of life.
We all notice how society is getting more unpredictable and dangerous. The best defense against this is having a solid foundation of self-defense skills against the evil that we face. No matter what is thrown at us, at least we can find some sense of comfort in knowing that we have trained and prepared to prevail against these threats in combat. Read through the “Versatility of Martial Arts” section again.
This article was written by EC and will be part of Issue 28 which goes out tonight (Sunday, the 1st). If you have any questions, you may reach him at cenutrfit@gmail.com.
Nicely written! Nicely done!