Looking for a summer exercise activity for you or your kid? Try martial arts training!

By Dr. Thomas Polucki 

Martial arts training is excellent exercise for kids of any age this summer. The physical exercise combined with mental discipline can help focus energy and develop healthy life habits that go far beyond self-defense.

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Here are the top five reasons you and your child should learn a martial art this summer: 

• Mental focus: In our instant-message culture, it’s amazing anyone can focus on anything longer than 140 characters. Martial Arts training teaches us to pay attention, focus on the task at hand and be flexible in our responses to unexpected situations.

Memorizing and retaining learned information and skills also translates into better grades and behavior at school and home. 

• Self-esteem: Martial Arts training emphasizes respect for self and others. Positive reinforcement and rewards for measureable improvement and behavior help people feel better about themselves.

Winning is not the goal. To the martial artist, becoming a better person is the way to win. 

RELATED: Read more Dr. Polucki Family Health Hour news articles on KHTS’s website 

• Confidence: People who study martial arts tend to have a lower level of anxiety, an increased sense of responsibility and are more socially tolerant. 

• Stress Reduction: Physical activity, mental focus, self-esteem and confidence are powerful medicine in stress reduction.

Martial arts training creates a positive atmosphere for social interaction, sharing and conflict resolution and flexibility. Through the exercises and self-discipline, we learn tools we can use to resolve stressful situations, and better yet, head them off.

• Pre-hab: Martial arts exercise helps us avoid obesity and injury by learning balance, posture and breathing while using all body parts simultaneously in a real-world exercise program.

How Martial Arts Training and Functional Medicine Interact

Are you worried about getting hurt if you practice martial arts training for exercise? 

Actually, if you practice your training properly (i.e., safely, and as often as instructed), the exercise can help reduce your pain from body aches. 

But if you don’t get your martial arts training program quite right at first, I’ve still got your back. And the rest of you. Read on!

Functional medicine finds the hidden injuries that hold you back from pain-free progress in your martial arts training. 

We repair and restore function naturally, without drugs, surgery, needles, twisting and cracking, or multi-level-market schemes. 

I design each of my patients’ programs individually, with these goals: 

• Discover your personal nutritional requirements, finding the best food to fuel your martial arts practice;
• Clear the detoxification pathways, flushing out the poisons that keep you from explosive energy;
• Re-establish the disrupted hormonal pathways, helping you feel more focused in your martial arts practice and improving recovery time;
• Support the repair of connective tissues, getting you moving as pain-free, fluidly, fast and strong as possible.

Achieving these goals can make your martial arts practice a lot easier and more effective for you.

Anyone can learn and eventually master martial arts. Elementary school kids do it; moms and dads do it; octogenarians like Willie Nelson do it. 

My suggestion to you is to try some sort of martial arts training as one of your family’s summer activities this year. Follow the path and see how you feel by September. 

If a martial arts program works for you as it has for millions of others around the world, just stay on the path, and see how the quality of your life can improve both physically and mentally over a longer time. If it doesn’t, there may be other martial arts programs or disciplines that would work better for you.

Do you have a news tip? Call us at (661) 298-1220, or drop us a line at community@hometownstation.com.

Take Dr. Polucki’s Free Online Survey
I’d like to show you just how easy it can be to get started with a martial arts training regimen, and how I can help you along the way as you achieve your goals. Take my free, fast and confidential online survey at http://www.drpolucki.com/consultation/ and you may qualify for a free 15-minute phone consultation.

About Santa Clarita Five Star Chiropractor Dr. Thomas Polucki

Dr. Thomas Polucki is a Board-Certified Doctor of Chiropractic, Certified Functional Medicine Practitioner, Certified Functional Diagnostic Nutrition Practitioner, Certified Metabolic Typing Advisor and Certified Upper Cervical Chiropractor. 

Dr. Polucki provides Functional Medicine services in most cities via remote labs and Internet consultations. He sees patients by appointment at 25050 Peachland Ave., Suite 105, Newhall, Calif., 91321. Visit http://www.drpolucki.com for more information or call 661-753-9340 to schedule an appointment. 

Dr. Polucki also hosts the “Dr. Polucki Family Health Hour” on AM 1220 KHTS radio in Santa Clarita Mondays from 11 a.m. to noon. Click here to listen to the podcasts. 

The information in this article is not intended to diagnose or treat any disease.

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