Guest post by Evolve MMA, Asia’s premier championship brand for martial arts. It has the most number of World Champions on the planet. Named as the #1 ranked martial arts organization in Asia by CNN, Yahoo! Sports, FOX Sports, Evolve MMA is the top rated BJJ gym in Singapore.

Signing your child up for kids martial arts classes is one of the most rewarding decisions you can make. It’s a fun hobby that provides many physical and mental health benefits. It teaches them practical self-defense skills and is also a great way to socialize and meet new people.

From children to seniors, anyone can reap the benefits of martial arts. Children are likely to get the most from their training since martial arts teaches them important attributes such as discipline, perseverance, confidence, and mental resilience. These are attributes that would see them through any tough times that lie ahead.

Improving Your Child’s Immune System With Martial Arts

The physical benefits of learning martial arts include improved flexibility, a leaner physique, improved cardiovascular endurance, and a stronger immune system. Let’s take a look at how signing up your child for martial art classes can help to strengthen their immune system:

1) Lowers The Child’s Stress Levels

Stress can impact all aspects of a child’s life. It weakens the immune system, making the child more vulnerable to various illnesses. A study that concluded in 1992 showed that medical students had weakened immune systems heading into their three-day exam each year.

Martial arts classes help to lower stress in multiple ways. For starters, the child gets an intense physical exercise that leads to the release of dopamine in their brain. This improves the child’s mood and reduces their stress levels.

Martial arts classes also serve as a form of destructive therapy. Students get to punch and kick all their frustration away during classes. That goes a long way for children who might not have developed the communication skills needed to express things that are bothering them. Destructive therapy gives these children a positive way to release their pent-up frustration instead of keeping it bottled in until it boils over.

2) Keeps The Child At A Healthy Weight 

Martial art classes provide children with a fun activity that can burn up to 1,000 calories for every hour spent training. Getting your children to break a sweat is even more critical these days, given how many electronic distractions they are exposed to.

Regular exercise improves the child’s cardiovascular endurance, strengthening their heart and lungs. It also helps to keep your child at a healthy body weight.

Research shows that people who are overweight often have weakened immune systems. It restricts the immune response at a cellular level and alters leucocyte counts. Obesity is also linked to chronic health issues like diabetes and heart disease.

Martial art classes significantly reduce your child’s risk of becoming overweight. It teaches the child the importance of making physical exercise a regular part of their lives.

3) Improved Sleep Quality

Children sometimes seem to have an endless supply of energy, and that can make bedtime a challenge. Children who do not have a way to channel their restless energy are more likely to develop sleep disorders. They often have a more challenging time falling and staying asleep, leaving them tired during the day.

Martial art classes are an excellent way to channel all that energy. Classes give your child all the physical exercises they can handle, and it leads to the release of relaxing, feel-good hormones in their brain. When it’s time to go to bed, the child will have an easier time falling asleep since their body is already exhausted from all the physical activity.

Improved sleep quality helps to strengthen the immune system as the body does most of its repairs during sleep.

4) It Promotes Detoxification

Children love unhealthy junk foods that can be harmful to their bodies and immune systems. Martial art classes provide a great mix of anaerobic and aerobic exercise that gets a child’s heart pumping, blood flowing, and sweat pouring.

Drinking lots of water and sweating the fluids out helps to flush toxins, waste, and fats trapped in the body.

Regular exercise promotes the circulation of lymph and blood. Lymph helps with the removal of toxins and waste from the body.

5) Promotes A Healthy Lifestyle

Martial arts classes can lead to a child making their personal fitness and health a priority for the rest of their lives. Martial arts classes get most children into the best shape of their lives, which carries over into other aspects of their lives.

For example, martial arts classes improve a child’s balance, flexibility, and coordination, which can lead to them having more success with team sports at school. The newfound success in physical activity from their martial arts training has now opened new doors, making them want to stick to it.

The child would notice how attributes they have learned from their training – like discipline, mental toughness, and perseverance – have made them a better version of themselves in all aspects of their lives. It gives the child purpose and makes them happier, which, in turn, gives their immune system a boost.

6) Leads To Improved Social Skills

One of the most significant advantages of signing up your child for martial art classes is the opportunity to socialize with children of all ages. Some children figure out social cues at a very young age, while others need more practice to be sociable.

Martial arts classes provide a positive, safe environment that promotes communication between training partners. There’s no bullying or mean teasing allowed in any respectable martial arts gym. Children are expected to be respectful to their peers and instructors at all times, creating an ideal environment for making friends.

Your child’s improved social skills will carry over to all aspects of their life. It reduces the odds of the child feeling isolated by their peers, which can lead to mental health disorders like anxiety and depression. Happy children have stronger immune systems than unhappy ones.