How To Cultivate a Fighter’s Body

Fighting is a popular spectator sport, and for good reason. As with many sports, competitive fighting is naturally thrilling. Competition in many forms is compelling, and fighting is particularly visceral, appealing to the same part of the brain that loves a good action movie. However, you may feel the desire to compete for yourself. Naturally, fighters need to be at the pinnacle of physical fitness, and that means that becoming a professional fighter will take some hard work. Here’s what you need to know.

Taking Care of Yourself

Increasing your level of fitness is difficult for many reasons. However, one of the most important is that it takes a toll on the body. While they improve the body in the long run, effective workouts will leave the body tired and often in pain. Managing these side effects is often just as important as the exercise itself. For example, bodybuilding requires you to damage your muscles deliberately and strategically, because that encourages muscular growth.

However, this is often at odds with athletic performance. Along the same lines, proper rest between workouts is an important part of maintaining a lithe frame while increasing your strength. It’s also important to consider that even a proper rest may leave you feeling tired and sore, discouraging further exercise even when it’s perfectly acceptable to engage in it. Consider using a natural CBD serum for pain relief in these cases, because it can keep you from putting off your training when you’re just not feeling it, but without the use of traditional pain relievers that can have harmful side effects if overused.

Dieting For Your Needs

Another important part of getting into shape is your diet. While the average person associates the term “diet” with weight loss in particular, dieting is an important part of living a healthy lifestyle in general. The most important part of a healthy diet is making sure that you are ingesting the appropriate amounts of important vitamins and nutrients. However, those amounts are subject to change based on your level of activity and other lifestyle factors. Simply put, an athlete has different dietary needs than those of the average person.

The most important nutrients for an athletic body will be protein and carbohydrates that maintain muscles and provide energy, respectively. The same is true for humans in general for the same reasons, but athletes in particular will have greater need for both muscular repair and energy consumption due to a much higher than average level of physical activity. Not all carbs are created equal, however, and simple carbs can do more harm than good, hence their bad rap when it comes to weight. Simple carbs break down too quickly during digestion, and the energy they provide is often wasted and converted into fat stores, contributing to weight gain in the process. Complex carbs, on the other hand, break down more slowly, giving you more time with which to burn off that energy. As a general rule of thumb, simple carbs are often those that have been processed in some way, so wheat is a complex carb, but bread is a simple carb. On the other hand, potatoes contain simple carbs, despite being a whole, natural food item.

Training For Martial Arts

Exercise is necessary for all people, and there is, therefore, a universal list of needs that your workout routine needs to meet. However, athletes of all kinds have different needs from the average person and from competitors in different sports. For example, a boxer will need more upper body strength than a soccer player, but a kickboxer will need a balance of upper body and lower body strength. Athletics of all kinds require great core strength, as well. Finding the right combination of exercises that meets the needs of your chosen style of martial arts is essential for cultivating the ideal body for that sport. Generally, addressing the specific needs of your sport without gaining too much muscle mass will make you a worthy opponent.

Mikkie Mills

Mikkie is a freelance writer from Chicago. She is also a mother of two who loves sharing her ideas on interior design, budgeting hacks, and DIY. When she’s not writing, she’s chasing the little ones or rock climbing at the local climbing gym.