Exercise is an important part of staying healthy. However, there are different kinds of exercises and doing all of them is the best way to gain maximum benefit. Generally, there are 4 categories of exercise that a karate school will focus on.
These include:
- Strength
- Balance
- Flexibility
- Endurance
Unfortunately, a lot of people, especially men, tend to focus on only strength, balance, and flexibility training, while leaving out endurance exercises.
Endurance training in Karate involves raising the body’s heart and respiration rate. This helps in boosting overall fitness and also improves the health of organs such as the heart and lungs. The general misconception is that, endurance training doesn’t build strength. This is untrue, as there are plenty of endurance training exercises that can also contribute to building strength. Endurance training also reduces chances of lifestyle diseases and makes it easier to carry out day-to-day tasks.
How to start endurance training
There are many ways to start with endurance training. Indulging in activities such as swimming, biking, dancing or playing sports such as soccer, basketball and tennis can be a good way to begin. However, if you are a completely new to exercise in general, a good way to begin your endurance training would be through walking. Karate has a uniqueness to its training, its free of boredom and is always challenging thereby not appearing to be the typical gym workout.
Walking is a simple activity and can help you build up endurance gradually and steadily. Ideally, a ten minute walk in the initial stages would suffice. The key is to increase the duration slowly. At a minimum, health experts advice- that 2.5 hours of medium intensity endurance training per week is a good way to go.
The ability to do intensive endurance training may vary from person to person, but the secret lies in doing your best and never quitting. Once a particular level of endurance training has been achieved, move up the ladder and try to include more complex and challenging training methods. By visiting your local Karate school you can learn more about how they can assist you with your goals.