I'm currently taking Karate due to a required PE credit. It's pretty slow paced, which is probably good, but it's pretty fun. I've thought about getting into it for real, but I don't think distance running and marshal arts go together very well, mainly due to the flexibility issue. I think if I were to give it a serious go I'd have to stretch like a mad man for at least a year just to properly execute many of the kicks.
Anyone do both?
I did take martial arts.
I think he was referring to Marshal Art Dillon.
haha, I guess it's been a long day.
MARTIAL ARTS
My entire family is involved in American Freestyle Karate. My 13 year old competes and has some international titles. I've been taking 3 years this December. My flexibility has improved so much, full split to the left and almost towards the front and right. I think it really compliments my running. My legs and glutts have gotten much more muscular. I take a class with a lot of teenagers so I am the "old lady" of the group. I have noticed that I am also in a lot better shape than most of them due to my running. It really shows up when we are sparring. After a few rounds, most of them are winded and I am just getting warmed up. I also like the idea of all of the self defense that I am learning. Since I do most of my running by myself I hope that what I am learning would help me if the a situation arose. I highly recommend any type of martial arts.
In self-defense, you don't want to chamber punches from your waist or you'll get punched in the face. Karate is silly for self-defense because in the real world, you can elbow, knee, punch to the face, kick to the legs, clinch and fight on the ground. And a woman probably wouldn't be able to finish a male attacker standing. The male would outmuscle her and toss her around. If a woman wanted to learn a more beneficial self-defense, she would take brazillian jiu-jitsu! And the best thing about taking it is that you don't have to yell "KI-YA!"
My instructor teaches us a mixed form of self defense. It is not karate. We do a lot of grappling and jiu-jitsu and several other common sense moves to help us in different situations. I can guarantee you that what he is teaching us will help us. He teaches an MMA class and also brings some of that material into my class. We are a mixed martial arts school so we do a lot more than your typical karate katas and I have never yelled "KI-YA!" doing my self defense.
Diet fads come and go. Exercise fads come and go. Martial arts fads come and go. But running remains the same.
Karate, MMA, etc. are variations of the ancient art of ju-jitsu practiced by the Samurai of Japan starting over 2500 years ago.
MMA isn's a fighting style, it's a combination of all styles, so it can't come from just one. For the most part, it's a blend of Muay Thai, Wrestling and Brazillian Jiu-Jistu. None of these came from Jap Jiu-Jistu.
My kids all do karate. Their teacher is excellent and is very committed to karate as an art form and for self-defense and not any form of sport karate.
My eldest (15) is grading for her black belt in the next month or so.
Having watched them for some time, I took the plunge and joined in. I was running twice daily and so a little concerned as to how it would affect my running.
Negatively, I could definitely feel it my legs the next day and I found the warm ups at karate hard as I'd already run twice - calf muscles especially didn't want to do much more.
Positively, within a few weeks I could notice the increased strength and flexibility. I felt a definite positive impact in my running.
Hope it works out for you.
Oh, I've done Marshal Arts.
Marshal Arts is like the village bike...everyone has had a ride on that! Still some good, wild times, as she is in to some FREAKY stuff.
I had the opposite effect from taking martial arts. I was taking about 10-12 hours a week of Brazillian Jiu-Jitsu and Muay Thai classes but my running cardio went down the drain. MMA classes are really, really intense to the point where at least one person will throw up each class. Each class was probably harder than any workout I ever ran in college, and I was an All-American a couple times. I wasn't running much at the time, but was curious to see what my all-out mile would be like. I went to the track and went 100% all-out and was a little over a minute slower than my pr set a couple years back. However, my sprint speed was a lot faster than it was in college. Eventually I got to the point where my cardio was better than most people's which would give me a strong advantage in sparring and rolling. However, I've always had the belief that if you want to be the best runner you can be, do all your cardio by running. You don't see Kenyans dabbing in swimming, biking, martial arts, etc.
If you are going to take that route, Marshal (and Marshall) is a men's name.
Go tell that to the dumb breeder biotch who put up the thread about naming a daughter Jamesyn (Jameson).
hold on a minute wrote:
If you are going to take that route, Marshal (and Marshall) is a men's name.
My bad, her name was spelled Marchalle
More like Marshawn u homo.
Those are all Jiu-Jitsu based. MMA is just another fad in the 2000 years since the Samurai started Jiu-Jitsu. Every fad markets bullshit claims of no heritage of the past. There have been many offshoots that have lasted for periods of time. We'll see how long MMA lasts.
I took Kung Fu for a while. I don't think it interfered with my running at all. The flexibility and strength training were very beneficial. The only way it can hurt your running is if you run less because you're worn out from your martial arts classes. Which, of course, could be a legitimate concern. But if you have the time and energy to do both, they will compliment one another.
In Brazil, early 1900's, Gracie's master was Maeda, a Jiu-Jitsu and Judo champion, from Japan which had organized Jiu-Jitsu and Sumo tournaments 3000 years ago.