Fitness training is often started with good intentions but with time the initial drive wears off as everyday demands compete for interest and time. The theme of this article is how to get help in maintaining the training discipline when your own will power is not enough to see you through an extended exercise regime. Many people find themselves in the position of wishing to carry out more exercise and get fit but are not able to maintain the required level of discipline long enough to truly make a difference. However this fact is well understood by most people and rather than feeling bad about it many essentially outsource the willpower to someone else namely a fitness instructor , personal trainer or gym coach. These one-on-one sessions allow the psychological side of maintaining a fitness regime to be helped through booking (and paying for !) pre-arranged fitness sessions that give an incentive to put in the time to see results materialize. This is a good method, so much so that the terms personal trainer and personal training are now common knowledge.
Another method of maintaining the training discipline is to take up a martial art and join a local club. In terms of fitness training many martial arts offer the advantage of the use of the whole body with improvements in flexibility, stamina and physical condition. A group martial art lesson benefits from the advice of a coach or instructor in the martial arts overseeing your training and maintaining the pace of the session with set exercises and light sparring sessions. The added advantage of a peer group for maintaining discipline is that with time you make friends and acquaintances that increase the likelihood that you will turn up next time. The longer you go the more you get to know people and hence the less likely you are to drop out.
A martial art also has two other psychological aspects that help you stay on the fitness regime treadmill. A martial art itself consists of a number of exercises, techniques and forms that you must learn and perfect to climb the ranks to the next grade. Hence the progressive sense of achievement as you go from one grade to the next, learning new techniques and forms in doing so, helps you to stay motivated via positive reinforcements from completed goals. Further interest is maintained either through the desire to perfect existing techniques or, depending on your personality, by the prospect of attaining higher grades and learning new forms and techniques. Hence you a provided with a ready made goal to focus in on and sustain motivation with.
The second psychological aspect is that a martial art itself is much more than just an exercise regime and hence the way of life and philosophy that many martial arts entail become in themselves a source of motivational inspiration. This added depth can make personal fitness training much more enticing and easier to stick to as well as broadening the benefits of the whole endeavour.
The downside to fitness training through the martial arts is ensuring that you find a good club with the right atmosphere. Finding an experienced instructor with the right attitudes is probably the most important aspect to get right. Try experimenting with a few local clubs before settling on one to attend regularly.
John Gibbs is a personal trainer and martial arts fitness instructor with over 15 years martial arts experience and fitness training, based in Woodford Green , London.
